Hey all,
I was talking to mom the other day and the conversation made me think of this documentary I saw last year that was just excellent and I want to share it with the family. It is a struggle for me sometimes to live where laws and culture combine to treat me as less that a full citizen in this society. It can bear negatively on my self image, my personal safety and can just get plain tiring to fight for common civil rights that should be available to all. So, I want to express how gratified and blessed I am to have always been treated just perfect by each of you (and all your spouses). I have never had a single moment with any of my siblings where I was ever left feeling anything weird and I just wanted to tell how that I appreciate you all so much.
Anyway, why I want to share this film is because although you all treat me great I think that this really gives a voice to why you do. It gives a vocabulary and context that maybe as your kids get older, or you are in a position to counsel others - might serve to help to explain the important step beyond the "love the sinner hate the sin" mentality that is just not really good enough. Thank you all for always seeing me as more than that.
love,
Jenny
I'll be sending out DVD's in the next few weeks.
"Anyone and Everyone" tells the stories of families from Utah to North Carolina and Wyoming to New York, all connected by a common thread — a gay child. This poignant and often heartbreaking documentary by first-time filmmaker Susan Polis Schutz (also the parent of a gay son) reveals a family’s struggle and desire to accept a child’s sexual orientation.
The film features parents from a wide range of religions, ethnicities, and political leanings, all of whom discuss their initial reactions to their child's coming out. While some showed unconditional support, others struggled with their child’s sexual orientation, fearing alienation from their extended family, their church, or their community. Some simply did not understand the universal nature of homosexuality, and that it can affect anyone and everyone.
Whether Japanese, Cherokee, Mormon, Catholic, or Hindu, these families all share a deep love for their children, along with a struggle for acceptance, both in their own home and within society as a whole.
6 comments:
This is so great because just the other day I was telling Jack about it and our conversation at Chipotle (oh how I long for fresh beans and rice and pico) and I couldn't remember the name of the film. Are you really sending it out, or was that more figurative?
yes, I'll be burning copies and will drop one in the mail to you soon. Thanks!
I look forward to watching it. Thank you for making it so easy to by sending it. I miss you!
I've seen it and it is very well done. Sad to see the suffering in the faces of the young people who grew up in a time of misconception. The medical world put a false twist to being gay and many of them and lay people tried to "cure" the situation. I grew up in a home filled with love and never once at Church did I hear the word sin mentioned with the word gay. That didn't happen everywhere and for everyone. I am so greatful that while I had sadness I never once had anything but love and lots of hope for all things possible.
Sadly I did not have the same experience at church and BYU.
Mom, thank you for making home always a loving place!
Mom if you ever come back and visit...here is the church experience I grew up with:
Church statements and positions on homosexuality (2000 to now):
bullet 2000: In advance of the annual General Conference in Salt Lake City, UT, some Mormon parents asked the LDS Church to review a group of 20 to 30 year-old pamphlets which they feel condemn their children as "latter-day lepers." Four brochures mentioned are: "To Young Men Only," "To The One," "Letter to a Friend," and "For the Strength of Youth."
According David Hardy, a Salt Lake City attorney and former LDS bishop, the pamphlets "engenders fear and loathing" toward gays and lesbians. They also convince "parents to condemn and turn against their gay children, destroying real families, and drive our gay children to self-loathing, despair and suicide." He noted that the "To Young Men Only" pamphlet described, without condemnation, a gay bashing incident. Hardy commented that it is "inflammatory, insensitive and troubling."
Gary and Milie Watts of Provo, UT said that "these pamphlets... characterize our children and other gay and lesbian youth as selfish, perverted, abominable and under the control of Lucifer." Former LDS Church President Spencer Kimball has written that "it were better that such a man [a homosexual] were never born." Another tract places homosexuality as a perversion on par with the crimes of rape and incest. The "To The One" pamphlet describes it as "unnatural," "abnormal" and "an affliction."
The parents told reporters,
"We ask the church leadership to specifically address these pamphlets...and either endorse them and everything they say as current, correct and official, or cease their publication and distribution and instruct local church leaders to throw them away." 1
The LDS church issued a statement saying:
"These are individuals who are children of God. We love them; we respect them. This church is a church of inclusion, not exclusion, and we welcome them and want them to be a part of the church." 2
bullet 2001: A new revision to pamphlet sponsored by the First Presidency and titled "For the Strength of Youth: Fulfilling Our Duty to God" says
"Homosexual activity is a serious sin. If you find your-self struggling with same-gender attraction, seek counsel from your parents and bishop. They will help you."
bullet 2002: An article in the FEB-25 edition "The Nation" by Katherine Rosman titled "Mormon Family Values" described a two LDS pamphlets and one speech on homosexuality by a Mormon leader:
bullet One pamphlet allegedly says that "Homosexuality Is Sin: Next to the crime of murder comes the sin of sexual impurity."
bullet Another pamphlet, available only to church leaders, states: "God has promised to help those who earnestly strive to live his commandments." It mentions that if homosexuals repent enough, "heterosexual feelings emerge."
bullet A former (unidentified) LDS president and prophet has stated: "Satan tells his victims that it is a natural way of life; that it is normal; that perverts are a different kind of people born 'that way' and that they cannot change. This is a base lie...it were better that such a man were never born."
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