Families are Forever – The journey of a Mormon Family to Accept their Gay Son
This movie trailer brought tears to my eyes. Imagine being brought up Mormon, and 13, knowing your church rejects you – and your family might also – thoughts turn to suicide.
Families are Forever which premieres at Frameline 37: the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival on Saturday, June 22, 2013 chronicles the journey of a devout Mormon family living in a conservative community who attended Church every Sunday,
actively served in their ward, went door-to-door to stop same-sex
marriage in support of California’s Prop 8 and whose lives were turned
upside down when their 13-year-old son admitted he was gay.
On the cusp of becoming an Eagle Scout, 13-year-old Jordan hid his
sexual orientation for fear of rejection by his family and Church like
many adolescents from socially and religiously conservative families who
are told they’re “confused” or that “It’s just a phase.” Like other
LGBT Mormon children and adolescents he daily walked past yellow Prop 8
yard signs and internalized painful messages that reinforced feelings of
isolation and despair as he began to realize that his family was
rejecting people like him.
Called “riveting” by the Salt Lake Tribune, Families are Forever is a
powerhouse addition to the Family Acceptance Project’s inspiring family
education video series that is helping prevent suicide, HIV,
homelessness and other serious health risks by increasing family support
for LGBT youth – in the context of family, culture and faith
backgrounds. This new video adds to critical research-based educational
materials the Family Acceptance Project is producing for families with
LGBT children, including the first “Best Practice” resources for suicide
prevention for LGBT youth and young adults and the first for LGBT
Mormons in the Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention.
As with other family education materials and videos from the Family
Acceptance Project – an acclaimed research, education and family
intervention initiative at SF State University that helps diverse
families to support their LGBT children – Families are Forever is part
of a planned series of short documentaries that show the journey of
ethnically and religiously diverse families from struggle to support of
their LGBT children to give LGBT youth and families hope and to show how
diverse families learn to support their LGBT children. A collaboration
between Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker, Vivian Kleiman, and
award-winning clinical social worker, Caitlin Ryan, these documentaries
are changing lives and building healthy futures for LGBT children and
adolescents.
“Many LGBT youth and families have never seen acceptance and support
expressed by parents and caregivers for their LGBT children.” said Dr.
Caitlin Ryan, Director of the Family Acceptance Project. “Our videos
show individual stories of family acceptance that speak to families from
a wide range of backgrounds and help them understand that how they
respond to their LGBT children has a powerful impact on their health,
mental health and survival.”
Mitch Mayne, an openly gay Mormon religious leader in the San Francisco
Bay Ward of the Mormon Church knows this firsthand: “Religiously
conservative families have little access to accurate information and
many believe they have to choose between their child and their faith. A
cornerstone of the Family Acceptance Project’s work is to integrate
research, culture and faith to inspire and educate diverse and very
conservative families on how to love their LGBT children. This video
will literally save lives.”
Families are Forever screens at the Victoria Theatre in a documentary shorts program at 3:30 pm. More information about the film at Frameline is available at:
http://ticketing.frameline.
