Day 2 of deadCENTER began with the Oklahoma City Museum of Art rooftop party. Once again it was hot and humid, and once again I had a blast. Oh yeah, and more Stella. I really approved of this:
After I mingled with strangers, friends, and Two Movie Guys (Lucas says I owe him $500… I remember it the other way around), we headed on over to the Kerr Auditorium for the screening of 8: The Mormon Proposition.
The film was aptly titled. Before the film, I had not realized just how much the Latter Day Saints church had been directly involved in the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which simply added these few words to the California constitution: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” According to the film, only 2% of the population of California is Mormon, yet 71% of the monetary contributions toward the passage of Proposition 8 can be traced back to members of the LDS church and to the church’s finances directly. During the final week of the campaign to pass the Proposition, $5M in contributions came in via out-of-state sources, and specifically from Salt Lake City alone (Mormon headquarters). In order to pass a ballot issue in California, it was said, you need three things: money, volunteers, and a message. The LDS church had all three in abundance. With very minor assistance from a coalition of other (mostly religious) groups, they were successful in getting the Proposition passed.
As the film continually emphasized, the campaign for marriage equality has always been about people rather than politics and money. Laws have implications on real people who are trying to live their lives in the best way they can. The most heartbreaking part of the film were the details of numerous suicides by gay Mormons. One young gay man, feeling he had no one to turn to and was even hated by his family, even killed himself with a bullet to the head at a Mormon temple. Apparently Utah has one of the highest suicide rates in this country, and it has an even higher rate than most other countries in the world. The filmmakers used this statistic to imply that the high suicide rate is because of the alienation experienced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual Mormons due to actions by their families and the church. I would need to see more solid research rather than anecdotal evidence before I could accept that particular hypothesis, but it is definitely the case that many young gay people have killed themselves and are continuing to do so because of the hate expressed to them by the Mormon church.
One of the Mormon apostles/prophets quoted in the film stated that, “the face of sin bears the mask of tolerance” and the preservation of the traditional (i.e. 1 man, wive/wives, children) family is “a core principle upon which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is based.” Being a Christian myself, the last time I checked, the core principles upon which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is based are forgiveness and redemption. The Gospel is about Christ’s sacrificial atonement for the sins of the world because of the deep love of God… Last time I checked there was nothing in the core principles of the Gospel about the preservation of the “traditional” family, whatever that means (a “traditional” family excludes childless married straight couples as well, as a friend has very eloquently pointed out). But what do I know, anyway?
After the Proposition 8 documentary, we headed over to the Iguana Lounge for some more drinkin’ and talkin’. As is always the case with Iguana, the food and drinks were fantastic! I’m about to head over to Iguana again right now for the Friday night Oklahoma Film & Music party. After that, it’s on to see Simmons on Vinyl and later the Midnight Shorts. Cheers!
