LA Times: The roots of '8: The Mormon Proposition'

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-621-mormon-20100621,0,2081068.story

Co-director Reed Cowan and other participants have a lot invested — financially and emotionally — in the documentary on the church's efforts to pass California's ban on same-sex marriage.


Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones in the documentary "8: The Mormon Proposition." (Red Flag Releasing / June 16, 2008)


By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times

June 21, 2010

Linda Stay, a fifth-generation Mormon who has since left the church, loves her son. He's gay and married his husband two years ago in San Francisco during the brief period when same-sex marriage was legal.

So when an e-mail popped up in Stay's inbox last year from a filmmaker looking to interview those who had been affected by Proposition 8 — the same-sex marriage ban voted into California law in fall 2008 — she raised her hand. She supported her son and wanted to share the story of how her family had been torn apart over his sexual orientation. But she didn't think the decision to participate in a documentary would fray her relationships in the Mormon community — and with her own straight children — further.

"I don't think we realized, honestly, what the film would mean and what it would do — the consequences of it," said Stay, trying to stifle tears during a recent visit to Los Angeles from her home in St. George, Utah. "Would I go back? We've certainly sacrificed a lot for this film, a lot of relationships."

Her husband, Steve, took her hand and smiled.

"We kind of figured if they were sacrificed, they weren't much of a relationship in the first place."

The controversial film the Stays are a part of is "8: The Mormon Proposition," a documentary that argues that the Mormon Church, as a nonprofit religious organization, breached the barrier between church and state in its successful campaign to pass Prop. 8. The movie, released in theaters Friday, is also available on demand and through digital download channels. (Its release is especially timely, because last week a federal judge heard closing arguments in a lawsuit questioning the proposition's constitutionality.)

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