had interim interns in place. The job was that of a cable tow, a kind of assistant to the cameraman. I asked my medical advisor if this was okay to try as a kind of reintegration, to try to just be able to work on the labor market. He approved it and I was allowed to start it, as rehabilitation!
It would be a downright bad experience. The crew did not like the fact that a different student did not show up every day. A different person every day, a different conversation every day. With me there as a permanent employee it was a completely different story. From a few days after I started I was treated re-ally unfriendly by some of the crew members. When I was asked if I was married, I told them straight and bluntly that I was gay. Whatever the consequences would be.
The whole situation turned into outright bullying and no one intervened. One particular cameraman kept bullying me. For example, he was busy with a recording and then jerked the camera - then he blamed me, explaining that I wanted to bully him. No one believed me and everything I said was ridiculed. This took three months and I fought that battle alone.
After I complained to the union, she suggested that I do a similar job on another set of the VRT. They couldn't solve the situation itself, they could only imagine me
place to change... The damage was done. I felt so empty, so bad, so disappointed.
My medical advisor decided to stop the rehabilitation. It wasn't healthy for me. I couldn't handle it. Around this time I also developed chronic tension headaches – better known as migraines.
I remained active in handball as a volunteer - that did me so much good. From field representative in Hechtel, I eventually progressed to the board of the Flemish Handball Association. That's where mine fell
tasks under “Public Relations” and I was actually responsible for setting up new hand clubs throughout Flanders. I met a lot of people that way and my network grew bigger and bigger - the self-confidence this gave me really strengthened me. One evening a regular customer of Café Suzan came to complain to her. He claimed I molested him during a
car stop ride. I was told this afterwards by Suzan and her husband, Mathieu. I knew perfectly who they meant. They asked me to leave it like that and not say anything else - they told the guy that
they did not believe him and many others from the handball board also spoke up for me.
“Luc doesn't do something like that!” they had said.
They didn't want to cause further trouble in the club and in the café, so I let it go
Rest. A few years later I bumped into that particular guy – nowhere else than in the gay nightclub Les Amis. I did not know what I saw. “I feel like punching you in the snout! What were you with before? To tell Suzan such nonsense?” I shouted in his face. He was gay himself. So that's how it was. And just talk me down mutual friends and acquaintances – like with Suzan. Pure and only because he was at odds with his own feelings. Scumbag, I thought.
“Don't you want to say anything to Suzan and Mathieu?” he begged me almost.
“You can explain it yourself! I'm not a coward like you!
Go tell them the truth, or I'll do it myself.”, I barked.
A week later I heard from Suzan that he had arrived in stocking feet to explain how the fork really worked.
“That's really bad,” Suzan sighed.
"What? That he turns out to be gay, or that he lied like that?" I asked.
“That he lied like that! You don't do that," she said. That's how I thought about it too.
____
Even though my rehabilitation attempt at the VRT had failed, I was whole attracted to the film world. I still thought it was such a shame that my “Stolen Necklace” stage should never have been completed
become! One morning I read an advertisement in the newspaper about a special course called “How do I write a screenplay?” was called. It would take place in Alden Biezen and there would be American screen-writers
and already coming to teach… I was already starting to dream. That course was very expensive. I would never be able to pay that registration fee myself, especially not with my disability benefit. I took my cour-age and sent a letter to the then governor of Limburg. I explained everything to him, asked for
help and – believe it or not, I received subsidies from the province of Limburg to take that course. Awe-some! The course taught me a lot and I delved into screenwriting. A film club in Hasselt was looking for a project to commit to and I presented my screenplay! “Love versus Hate,” it was called
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