Power trip vs. collaboration

Power trip = coming across a script on somebody's Facebook page, then deciding that you had the right to produce it, without any negotiation or consideration of the writer. Collaboration = emailing the writer, setting a meeting and discussing the next steps. - Power trip = hearing a synth demo of a new piece of music, then insisting that the composer perform the guitar part themselves, even though they didn't want to. Collaboration = realising it takes more than one person to premiere a piece, and that if they were able to write something that sounded good, they can orchestrate themselves and create the parts, while giving feedback to the soloist that wants to play it. - Power trip = using remote access to 'hint' as to how I should fix my music, despite not being enrolled at your institution or having spoken to me about doing so. Collaboration = respecting my boundaries, communicating plainly, and having the decency to actually talk to me if you think my rant was incorrect. Instead of bitching that I don't always check facts, how about emailing corrections? - Power trip = empowering Wellingtonians to snark at me for talking on the phone to attempt to resolve the Weeded Out power trip before it kills me. Collaboration = admitting that the tactics used to coerce me were illegal, and that it's patently unfair for people to use billboards to send their bigoted messages to me. Accepting that your insults were designed to trigger me - and that their 'success' is a crucial factor in my feelings of fear and suicidality - is an important step. My jokes may be a bit harsh, but they're not causing people to want to kill themselves. - Power trip = telling me that I'm not able to participate in their world because my blood isn't pure enough. Saying that I can't sing, then changing their mind after hearing that my voice is well and truly capable of karanga. Collaboration = apologising for the transphobia I've faced, rather than imitating the Pākehā uni and being exploitative opportunists. - Power trip = dismissing my legitimate request regarding getting paid when people use my IP as selfishness or showbiz bullshit. Collaboration = realising that the kawa of creative arts is simple, and acquiring the rights is one of those important steps that gives the project legitimacy. There isn't a legitimate way to make a film based on my screenplay without my express permission, or some type of value exchange. No value exchange = no contract. That's why SPADA lost their war with me. Those who tried to do that must apologise for being rude and refusing to pay me when they're the ones that a) want to produce and b) have an income, and could afford to pay the licencing fee. Not wanting to pay me doesn't absolve you from having to do so, and neither does it allow you to negotiate the boundaries implied in the option agreement. Those are the boundaries that allow me to return to Wellington's cultural life. You cannot ask me to licence Weeded Out atm. Sorry, I'm writing a book. - Power trip = telling me to act while you get paid to rewrite and direct me. Collaboration = admitting that such things constituted a conversion practice, and that you managed to nearly kill me by heightening my dysphoria. - Power trip = treating me like an object, not a person. Collaboration = treating me like a person, respecting my boundaries, allowing me to politely but firmly refuse to work with certain people (before I scream or die). Nothing that Cass, James, Salina or others can do will EVER result in Amanda returning to the cultural life of Wellington without an apology and clearly drawn boundaries that prevent exploitation of my IP. That is their punishment, and it should come with money that allows me to pay for the therapy that I need thanks to their bigotry. Focus on keeping me out of the hospital, not attempting to make a film based on a script that you don't have the legal right to produce, or songs that you didn't write. - Power trip = calling me a diaper fetishist and a sissy when you're the closet cases that get off to TG porn (ie my work), and thought that an 'apology' in a musical was the same as actually saying it to my face. That was Red Scare telling Amanda that she's not valid as a trans person, but she'd be valid if she sang male parts to make them look good in the eyes of New Yorkers. You lot didn't just insult me; you built a drag roast that told me to detransition based on the insults, based on your stalking me and based on a fundamental mistake. You wanted to punish me for the occupation of Parliament, despite there being no conclusive proof that my song was directly related to the occupation. This is because the occupation was based on something that happened in Canada. - Power trip = refusing to meet with me until I'm 'sober'. Collaboration = allowing me to drink, tolerating my anger, and realising that your inability to apologise is simply prolonging a boycott that isn't necessarily good for my health. If you want me to be alive, or to see me IRL, you need to step off about my drug use. Yes, psychedelics made my music better: take them yourselves to shed your inhibitions. - Power trip = holding a hate hui to tell me to put pants on, using the privilege of your office to bully me on behalf of your idiot friends, then defaming me on Q&A. Collaboration = replying to my emails, not deleting the email chains entirely as you're afraid that they'd constitute evidence of illegal activity. Meeting me in real life to apologise for being fed misleading garbage from so-called 'friends' that haven't even spoken to me. - I could go on forever, but this should give Wellington a very clear idea why the boycott hasn't been lifted, and what it takes to do so. Tory, this is a plain loss. Toa and his team: you need to back down.

Steve's going to lose in court and that is the reason that he has refused to back down via back channels. He knows he will lose, but he hopes that I'll take an insulting backtrack to $20,000 in order to get paid for my script at all.

He doesn't realise that I am demanding emotional damages as part of the fee because he refuses to admit fault. $70,000 is the price for SPADA producers, and that's a penalty licencing fee that includes emotional damages. Any suggestion that I 'must' write, direct or perform the script = no deal. The deal is only possible if my boundaries are respected and not altered. - Unless Steve Barr, VUW and Red Scare admit they inadvertently crossed the line into using conversion practices by telling me to take hormones or detransition - instead of paying me for my first draft and rewriting/recasting/shooting - then they can't even negotiate for any IP rights. That door is closed. If they agree, the penalty fee is non-negotiable, and they won't be able to use Tina: that character isn't part of the deal, and that's because I don't want them to build a character based on me to 'model' how I should behave in their uptown world. Comments about my private life are merely prejudice that they've weaponised.

You have no legal right to ask me to 'fail' as Tina, as that will end my film career. I haven't even gotten a legitimate chance from the Film Commission thanks to this cronyism and other bullshit. You lied to the Film Commission, SPADA and VUW, and in doing so gave them reason to treat me poorly. Still haven't forgiven Ainsley for attempting to coerce me in 2024.

It may be annoying, but words of apology are legal requirements that a lot of people are going to have to say to me if they want me to return to the cultural life of Wellington. - Words of apology, not porn memes = being real and admitting fault. I will never be given another chance based on the way you have behaved since 2022, which is that you despise me, but see dollar signs when you hear me sing.