Reed Cowan's 8: The Mormon Proposition received two "sustained standing ovations" at its Sundance Film Festival screening on Sunday, reports Sean P. Means in The Salt Lake Tribune. A rumored protest against the film failed to materialize.
Narrated by Milk's Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black — who happens to be gay and to have been raised Mormon — 8: The Mormon Proposition accuses the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of offering insidious support to California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages in the state.
According to Means' article, "some in the audience cried when hearing stories of gay men and lesbians recounting discrimination they have suffered. Others hissed when Utah Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka appeared on-screen, or when State Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, appeared to declare homosexuality 'the greatest threat to America going down.'"
Means adds that in his documentary, Cowan presents "evidence of the LDS Church's work to persuade its members to donate money to the campaign for California's anti-gay Proposition 8 — and to hide the church's involvement, knowledge of which would have dissuaded voters, through front organizations."
Calling the film "obviously biased," Mormon officials have refused to comment on it.
Curiously, the Mormon Church has recently declared its support for the end of discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing and at the workplace in Utah. That stance has been accused by some as a public relations stunt following the passage of Proposition 8; others have said that gays should accept what they can get for the time being while continuing to demand full equal rights.