Mormon Prop 8 Documentary Opens Today
Mormon Prop 8 documentary opens today
Before researching a documentary on something else entirely, Reed Cowan had no idea how influential the Mormon Church was in the Prop 8 elections
But while speaking to homeless teens in Salt Lake City, he learned that most of them had been kicked out of their homes for being gay because the Church of Latter Day Saints preached to their families that homosexuality was wrong.
And when Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, was voted into law, Cowan realized that the church was not only affecting the lives of thethousands of homeless youth in Utah, but also millions of voters in California.
He decided to shift his focus and concentrate on Prop 8, which according to Cowan was a symptom of the same “hatred spilling out from the pulpit” that was leading to gay youth homelessness in Utah. In an interview with 365gay.com last week, he made it clear that his film was a comment on the organization and leadership of the Mormon Church, not necessarily the individuals who are a part of it.
Cowan and his team uncovered hundreds of documents from the leadership of the church, exposing its influence on the proposition debate. Letters from Mormon leaders explained that because the national public had a very negative impression of the Mormon Church, they would have to run their campaign through front groups, such asThe National Organization for Marriage.
The Church flooded these front groups with funding and volunteers, sending mailings and canvassers all over California to persuade voters to vote for Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would amend the California constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Prop 8 passed in the November 2008 election – in large part, says Cowan, because of the behind-the-scenes contributions from the Mormon Church.
“Only 3 percent of Californians are Mormon, yet three-quarters of the money put into Prop 8 came from Mormons,” said Cowan. “Proposition 8 was the most expensive ballot measure in the history of the United States. Voters have a right to know who is behind a measure when it picks up uncommon speed and heat and money three months before they cast that sacred, sacred vote, not three months after.”
In the film, Cowan interviews ex-Mormons who explain how the church pressured them and their families to donate to the campaign for Prop 8. He found that gathering Mormons and ex-Mormons for interviews was easy.
“They came out of the woodwork. They lined up around the corner, people coming in crying telling their stories. They wanted to go on the record that they were hurt and they were hurting,” Cowan said.
Getting them to leave was the hard part.
“About halfway through the day, people wouldn’t leave after their interview. They wanted to pull up a chair and listen to the other interviews. It was like a family was born that day. There was a commonality that was quite remarkable.”
Cowan was guided in making the film by his own personal story.
“I knew what it was like to be that 14-year-old kid sitting in the pews and hearing homosexuality being compared to the sin of murder, and I knew what it’s like to go home and think, ‘How can I commit suicide in a way that won’t hurt and how can I do it in a way that will look like an accident so it won’t hurt my mom and dad,’ and I know that there are a lot of other kids who are like that.”
“Look, there’s a body count to the bigotry,” said Cowan, referring to the high rates of gay teen suicide within the Mormon community, “and we’re heartbroken over it.”
While this group of Mormon-affiliated individuals who opposed the Latter Day Saints’ views on homosexuality gathered to testify in Cowan’s film, few stood up to the church directly. A small group of Mormons organized to send petitions to Church leadership demanding that the church stop intervening in Proposition 8.
Cowan’s family did not join these petition organizers.
“I have one sister who said to me, ‘It was the prophet who did Proposition 8 because the prophet speaks for God and if he told me to paint myself orange and cut my arm off, I would,’” said Cowan.
While Cowan’s mother accepted his homosexuality to some extent, she could not accept his film criticizing her religion, especially after the repeated harassment she and Cowan’s other relatives faced from the Mormon Church and members of the community.
“This film dropped a nuclear bomb on my family relationships. I felt like they got us, and then the minute we got critical of their religion, they completely saw us as the enemy and that’s heartbreaking,” he said, “but they’ll come around. I hope.”
Other Mormon responses to the film referred to the personal tragedy Cowan faced when his son died in a deadly accident four years ago at a relative’s house.
“I have heard from Mormons who have shocked me by going for the jugular and saying your son was taken from you because you chose to be a faggot. You will never see him again, burn in hell.”
But Cowan said responses to the film haven’t been all negative.
“We have also had Mormons stand up in the audience, enlightened, saying, ‘I didn’t know the extent to which my church was involved and I am going to join the chorus of Mormons who are going to call for change.’ I am thankful for that, those are victories.”
8: The Mormon Proposition opens in New York City today.
Celeste Lavin is a 365gay intern and a student at Smith College.
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