My Me Too Story: From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented

6 min readNov 14, 2017

My ex-husband, and abuser, Erik Bergquist’s screenwriting credits on ‘The Fast and the Furious’ (2001.)

Divorce Papers of 1994 (Finalized on August 4) of 1992 Marriage to Erik Bergquist, one of the screenwriters of the first “Fast and Furious” film. (Forced Marriage of 1992, Almost Immediately Upon My Arrival in Los Angeles, at Age 19 in 1992.)

Passport of The Netherlands with 5-Year F-1 Student Visa, 1992. (Ironically My Student Visa Expired and I Became “Out-Of-Status” the Exact Same Day Ellen DeGeneres Came Out On Her TV Sitcom on April 30, 1997.)

Downtown Los Angeles, 1992, (Age 19.) Weeks before my forced marriage to a straight guy, (who later became the co-writer of the original ‘Fast and Furious,’) and wearing men’s clothes since I was 6 years old, due to being a trans-masculine, gender nonconforming lesbian, (without any need to transition.)

My name is Gabriella Bregman, I’m a Los Angeles-based writer and documentary filmmaker, from the Netherlands, and this is my Me Too story.

I’ve been out with my Me Too story since 2015, and most of my work as a writer and documentary filmmaker has centered around this. I’ve been writing about it since 1997.

In short, I moved to the US, legally on a 5-year Student Visa, from the Netherlands in 1992, at age 19, by myself and with no family here, through enrolling in the Film Program at LACC in Los Angeles, (a 2 year process of tests and paying out-of-state tuition up front, done through the American Embassy in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,) and was coerced into a marriage by a fellow film student that same year, after he sexually assaulted me. He incessantly stalked me, even followed me back to the Netherlands, and took a lot of my out-of-state school tuition when consolidating our finances for immigration purposes during the brief time we lived together, and in 1994 we divorced.

He later on became one of the screenwriters of the first ‘Fast and Furious’ films, (Erik Bergquist, from Palos Verdes.)

I didn’t know him at all, there was no proposal, no ring, no real wedding and no family nor friends in attendance at the quick ceremony at the City Hall in Downtown LA. He adjusted my status from international student to spouse of a US Citizen, and through our divorce took me out-of-status, (made me undocumented that is. I never got to see the marriage certificate nor the immigration paperwork he filed as a US sponsor. I do have the divorce papers.)

I had absolutely no interest in him, as I made abundantly clear, and also identify as a (trans-masculine) gender nonconforming lesbian, and have been “out” since 1994, although was living as a gender nonconforming lesbian all throughout my life, (just didn’t have all the terminology for it in the past.)

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA,) through which I’m “legalizing” myself now, with the help of my immigration lawyer, did not yet exist at the time of our divorce, and the Defense Of Marriage Act of 1996, (DOMA,) prevented me from legalization through marriage to a woman. My Student Visa expired in 1997.

A second guy at my work, (an assistant manager at an art house movie theater,) found out about my situation and took further advantage of me. (I had all the paperwork in order to be able to legally work in the US, through my Student Visa and first marriage, and so pay income taxes.) We are currently still technically married, (got forced into it during 7 years of homelessness with him,) though lead separate lives, (romantically that is.)

He has come around on LGBTQ people and same-sex marriage rights but his family are very anti-LGBTQ and anti-women, are diehard Trump supporters, and have been making both of our lives a living hell for years now. (They are very uninformed and very religious, while I’m an atheist and a bit of an intellectual, and we’ve basically been at war since the day we all met.)

I’m currently making a documentary about my story, (‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights: From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented,’) and my husband is mostly cooperative, (and lost his family over it.)

I’ve published a long version of my story, and many articles related to it, on medium.com/@gabriellabregman

In July of 2015, just weeks after DOMA got struck down in the US, after 23 years of almost continuous abuse in Los Angeles, mostly due to my immigration “overstay” status, after having done everything legal and having paid all the hefty fees to do so, after having worked continuously, including for free at film production companies, after having paid income taxes throughout, (working at The Laemmle Theatres 6 days a week for 9 years straight throughout the 1990s, including producing a John Cassavetes Film Retrospective,) and after losing a lot of girlfriends and potential spouses during DOMA, and living in a small creative office, I came forward socially and online with my Me Too story, my story of going from legal, international film student from the Netherlands to becoming undocumented because of being a gender nonconforming lesbian in the US.

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Letter of (Legal) Admission Into The US on a 5-Year F-1 Student Visa, Los Angeles City College CINEMA Major, Dated April 1, 1992. (I Attended From 1992 -1994.)

Income Taxes, 2001. I Worked at the Art House Movie Theater Chain The Laemmle Theatres From 1993 through 2001.

2017 City of Los Angeles Business Tax Renewal for my Film Production Company.

My John Cassavetes Film Retrospective, Laemmle Theatres Los Angeles, 2001.

My John Cassavetes Film Retrospective, Laemmle Theatres Los Angeles, 2001. Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, Santa Monica, 9–30–2001.

In Production of my LGBTQ Immigration Documentary ‘THE QUEER CASE FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented’ (Los Angeles, 2016)

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My name is Gabriella Bregman, I am a Hollywood-based Writer, Filmmaker and Producer, currently in production of a Feature Documentary about LGBTQ US-Immigration Exclusion-Policy, including my personal story of US immigration discrimination during DOMA, (Defense Of Marriage Act, of 1996–2015,) titled ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights,’ through my film production company Bregman Films.

The 2001 John Cassavetes Film Retrospective ‘Gena and John: A Cassavetes Retrospective’ at the Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles is a Bregman Films Production.

I am also the Founder of a Nonprofit Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles — A Media Site & LA Film Mixers (2018.)

In 2018 I am publishing my story and essays in a book, titled ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights & Other Essays.’

I identify as a Gender Nonconforming Lesbian, “non-op” Trans-Masculine, and Bi-Racial, from the Netherlands, Los Angeles-based.

My pronouns are: they/them/theirs.

Please check out my other articles on LGBTQ- and Immigration Issues, the State of Women and LGBTQ People in Film, and Lesbian/Queer Film as well as Queer Female Sexuality and Gender Identity at medium.com/@gabriellabregman

A few titles:

Resume/FILM BIO: Gabriella Bregman (2018) (2018)

2018 Update on Documentary ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights’ (2018)

A Note on the State of Women in Film (2016)

A Few Notes On LGBTQ Filmmaking (2017)

Some Thoughts on the State of Lesbian Filmmaking in the US (part 1 of 5) (2018)

John Cassavetes Film Retrospective (2001) (2018)

On ‘Moonlight’ and the Subject of Positive Representation (2017)

My 2018 Oscar Pick for Best Picture (2018)

In Defense of Rationality (2018)

In Defense of Individual Rights (2018)

Immigration Law Explained: The Irony of a Simultaneously Capped (temporary work visas) and Uncapped (family law marriage) Visa Immigration System (2014)