 here in the San Antonio community. I'm an activist and author and we would like to welcome this evening the SA4 and we thank you for being here. We please want you to spread the word. If you have a place where you can screen this film and invite the women, please do that. Please reach out to them this evening right now and after this and just continue to do your activism. If you see something again that's unjust, let's change this. If you guys are friends, by the way, with Nico Le Hood, you also need to call him. If you know somebody who knows Nico Le Hood, you can push this thing, call him. Get him going. If you want to donate some money to the SA4 and their legal fees, there's also a donation basket. If you want to call your politician, you know, do all of those things. Sign the petition. There's a petition on this event page. Share that petition with everybody. In like one month, we have 25,000 signatures approximately and we could take another 25,000 more if you're ready to pass that on to everyone. So let's invite, I don't want to waste any more of your time, let's invite the SA4 here to this evening. Either they've introduced themselves on the film, they will introduce themselves again. I would like to please give them a welcome round of applause and thankful to them for surviving this and being here to be a voice for our community. Thank you so much. But to our LGBTQ community, you know, it's something that we need to bring together and can be changed. Just like I now said, when we get together, we can be a strong, powerful force and also important for us to take a stand so that, you know, it might be a little late for us, but for our children, you know, because they're going to have to go through this. As a matter of fact, I was just approached in the bathroom by a young woman and she said that, you know, because of people like us, she is able to live her life, you know, and that makes us feel so good that we were actually able to give back and help means a lot to us. But thank you all guys for coming out. And if there is anything that you all want to ask us, we do ask that you refrain from asking any kind of legal questions, because this is a ongoing case. And we just cannot jeopardize anything at this point. Also concerning the alleged victims and their family, we will not answer any questions about them. Thank you. The petition going around. So if you go on the Southwest Salem website, you will see the petition and there's also a donation fund for us to continue to travel, help us with our expenses. But, you know, bottom line, guys, that petition is very important. And also these act now cards, they'll be at the exit of the patio. And it does describe everything that you can do to help. I mean, a tweet, a Facebook, phone calls, an equal hood, that would be greatly appreciated for us too. So thank you. Yes. Anything else? I'll be shy, guys. As a mommy, I'm a mommy of two girls. As mothers, I mean, you know, how is it, how do you scare me right now? My son's fixing to leave in general. Together it's limited. So with him working and trying to do his PT, he has to kind of, he told me the other day that he's trying to get on top of his class as far as PT, because he wants to be able to wear a certain uniform when he graduates on basic training. He's working really hard for that. And so I just tried to encourage him with that. And at the same time, of course, I don't want to be able to leave, but you know, I have just to encourage him and, you know, stand by his side. As he's done the movie, Michael and Ashley were about seven and eight when I left. They were little, but they were old enough to understand what was happening with us that we were going to have to go away. So there was a lot of damage that was done while I was gone. You know, in the movie, when we were sitting down, I was just telling Denise and we were talking about it out there while y'all were watching it. There's a scene where I'm talking to them and I'm just talking about how I use a phone or whatever now I would learn. My son and my daughter are smiling a lot. And you know, it's crazy because my mom tells me all the time before you came home, they never smiled like that, you know. So it feels good to know that I brought this happiness back into their lives. I mean, because for many years they were in a dark shadow is what they say, where they felt like just a cloud was thrown because they had no sense of hope or happiness, you know. And so life finally came home. So it feels good to be a mother again. I'll get to speak to Stephanie more for, you know, signing that letter saying that you all get to speak to her. When she signed the affidavit, that was while we were still in prison, we had no idea that that was happening. We didn't find that out until after the fact. Right, right. One thing that I want to say is I want to continue to be an activist and I want to be big in our community. The love that everybody has shown us has been amazing. And it's something that, I mean, I know that there's other issues that we need to fight for, you know, other than just this. And I like that when everybody comes together, it feels very positive. This is a great atmosphere. I look like we were talking about the vibe earlier, you know, and it's just something that I want to continue to do. I think for me with all the screenings and things, I've met a whole lot of people throughout the way that have been in contact. So I hope to continue with that. Yesterday, Irene and Alex had a gay Thanksgiving and it was my first time there. It was wonderful. I met a whole lot of people and, you know, a lot of people that are activists and that are people that want to be. And so I think for me, I want to continue in that community and help out. I can't even imagine what y'all have gone through. I just, you know, guess you're out, what you're having to do, what's going on. How do you, how do you cope with it every day? No, not knowing. I just, I can't even begin to imagine. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's difficult. It's difficult to have this weight on our shoulders still. You know, we're grateful to be out, you know, but there's still a cloud over us, like you said, you know, it's, we have to think twice about making big decisions. You know, for example, myself and my partner, we've bought in a car together and I have to discuss things about that. Like, you know, what happens if I do go back to prison? Will you be able to take care of this? You know, and it's just, you know, it's just different. It's just different guys. I mean, we can't pick up and go. You know, we've been wanting to take vacations since we've been out of prison. We can't. There's some places that are, you know, our attorneys don't think is proper. You know, for example, Las Vegas, you know, I would love to be, you know, in Vegas, but it doesn't look proper, you know, and all eyes are on us. So we have to act accordingly. And, you know, that's, you know, you're, you're always watched. So not only by the courts, but by the public, by the media, you know, so it's, it's really difficult. I mean, but at the same time, you know, we've been through so much. Like I said, we're grateful. We take things day by day and our family, our faith in God, and now the community. That's what keeps us going. I have a comment about the story of the current. Is there any way you can comment on writing things like love or something along those lines that I would not stop? But something, I mean, is that something that y'all have to do in the future? Yeah, some of us have been approached with that. Yes. Because I mean, to be able to store my friends so far and bring them back. I mean, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, amazingly, we haven't had any negative negativity since we were released. We've been shown nothing but love and acceptance. Now it's way bigger from back in 1993 or whatever when, you know, that we have nobody there for us. But now, I mean, we haven't, I've never been approached. We've never been approached by anybody that has anything negative to say about us or whenever we meet people, they tell us they're praying for us. They'll recognize us from TV or from IE Discovery. And they're just, they're thrilled that, you know, we're telling our story and that we're doing okay. And they pray that we're exonerated also. So this whole thing, it's so much art. They lead to all of you. But after this is all over, are you going to remember? Are we wet, honey? Hope it's for anything else to come out of it. Like, like? Hope. Well, hopefully it helps open doors for other people. Maybe that might mean situations. They can use our case to fight their cases as far as the legal system goes. So we're hoping, yes, that that would open doors for other people in our situation. I think it being said that a lot of minorities are virtually targeted in the police. And essentially, we look at incarceration rates. Minorities usually don't have the same percentage of, as far as being found innocent. What are some ways that minorities come back that would be your advice to others that feel that maybe they're wrongfully accused or for being permanent? The first thing I would tell somebody if they were accused of a crime, no matter what kind of crime, lawyer up, automatically, no matter how the cops make you feel, because they use that against you, they make you see, they tell you, why do you need an attorney? You know, if you're innocent, why do you need an attorney? And really guys, it's your life, you know, and if we had more knowledge, I think, and obviously more money, you know, we probably would have ever wanted to prison. But like you said, we're minorities, we're lesbians, you know, we're Hispanic. We come from, you know, poverty backgrounds, you know, it wasn't easy. And, you know, I went through a court appointment. And when I went in there, he wanted to take a plea bargain. Didn't even give me an option. He didn't say, you know, let's discuss this. No, we're going to take a plea bargain. And that just wasn't going to happen, you know, but that's the thing that I can tell you, or anyone that has to go through this for the very first time and is not knowledgeable, it's naive to assist them and really believes just like we do, we did that innocent people don't go to prison. You know, we really believe that. And that is so far from the truth, unfortunately. So I think that there has to be a lot of changes in the judicial system. That's my personal opinion. What about the air? Are there any... I'm sorry, it's a good question. And we get that asset a lot. We just can't. We can't. I'm sorry. Thank you. How has it been getting back to smarts? You have your life and family for the employment and making the living and having to get jobs now. Well, for me, fortunately, I'm blessed. I work for Toyota and it's a good job. And I hope to continue with that. That's fortunate. No. It's a great job right now because my dedication, my motivation and my time is dedicated to traveling and, you know, telling our story and letting people know what happened to us because it's something serious to me. Me and Anna were very, very passionate about it and we just want the world to know that this could really, you know, happen to other people and we need exoneration because that's when they're finally going to be able to say that they're giving our lives back. I was taken from my two kids and I feel like they're owed so much for what was taken from them because honestly I feel like the real victims are the children and in my case. I'll speak for myself in that one because I may have been hurting but I know my children were suffering at home more than I was. And that's why I suffered every day when I was behind bars. So my whole thing is I need that exoneration for my kids and I need it for the rest of the people of the world also so don't know that there is hope because they need that as well because I know when I was in there, if I were to be reading stories like this and I was able to research and do things, it would give me something to live for, me something to have motivation for. So that's what I'm doing. I think so. I think because at first I didn't realize what we were doing here, but now that I see that we're touching so many lives, it's a good feeling to know that we can help people. I mean on Facebook through Messenger, if people come up to me and don't ask me questions and I'm able to give them some type of peace of mind. You know, if they don't know like us, we were naive, we didn't know who to talk to. We didn't know not to take a plea bargain. I mean we didn't take a plea bargain, but nobody tried to help us in that aspect. So now we're able to talk to people and let them know if they have certain issues in their families. And I have. I've had a lot of people come to me and tell me, please, will you talk to me? And if you just give them five, ten minutes of your time and let them know, hey, there's hope out there, it makes them feel better, you know, and then they know what to do.