CANS Can’t Stand

Documentary Short | 19 min. | 2022 | Directed by Matt Nadel & Megan Plotka

Selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick
Nominated for a 2023 GLAAD Media Award

The Story

For forty years, police and prosecutors have weaponized Louisiana's Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) law to criminalize LGBTQ+ Louisianians. Starring trailblazing activists Wendi Cooper and Milan Nicole Sherry, CANS Can't Stand follows a group of Black trans women in New Orleans who are fighting to repeal that law—and advance trans liberation across the state.

The Crew

Megan Plotka
Co-Director

Will Mayo
Editor

Darcy McKinnon
Consulting Producer

Big Freedia
Executive Producer

Matt Nadel
Co-Director, Producer

Wendi Cooper
Co-Producer

Nisa East
Director of Photography

Dr. Joseph Fischel
Historical Consultant

CANS Can’t Stand was produced in association with Operation Restoration and NOVAC.

Past Screenings

Press

 

The Movement

TRANScending Women

Wendi Cooper founded TRANScending Women to support and empower all women—transgender, gender nonconforming, LGBQ, and cis—with tools and community to become agents of change inside and outside of systems that have traditionally disempowered them.

House of Tulip

Milan Nicole Sherry and Mariah Moore lead House of Tulip, a New Orleans-based community land trust offering housing solutions and community space for trans and gender nonconforming people in Louisiana.

CANScantSTAND

Wendi Cooper leads CANScantSTAND in partnership with Operation Restoration, a nonprofit supporting women and girls impacted by incarceration. Support the movement by donating to the CANScantSTAND campaign at Operation Restoration.

 

Read More

Sodomy’s Solicitations: A Right to Queerness (Dr. Joseph Fischel, Temple University Press)

 

Contact

For more information about the CANS Can’t Stand documentary or to arrange a screening, contact producer Matt Nadel.

For more info on the CANScantSTAND movement, contact founder Wendi Cooper.