Reed Cowan: The Mormon Proposition
Tags: prop, Reed Cowan, gay rights
Election Day 2008 was bittersweet for any Californian with a heart. It was exciting to see America elect its first African-American president, and all the hope for reasonable politics Barack Obama promised. A few hours later though, we found out that Proposition 8 had passed. Prop 8 called for legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman exclusively. This rendered invalid previous legislation permitting gay marriage. How could something as progressive as President Obama and as backward as denying civil rights happen on the same day?
The pro-Prop 8 movement got a huge boost from an aggressive campaign of misinformation. Television ads ran threatening that Prop 8 meant that gay marriage would be taught in schools (it had nothing to do with that.) Even some open-minded individuals were fooled into believing this had something to do with their children's education. The funding for these campaigns came from the Mormon Church in Utah.
What would a religion in another state have to gain by influencing a California ballot measure? A new documentary answers that question. 8: The Mormon Proposition chronicles how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bullied its congregation into financing this, and what they had to gain. The church believes that families live on in the afterlife. Gay couples who don't reproduce threaten their view of the afterlife.
Director Reed Cowan is still demonstrably emotional discussing this issue. Even on a telephone interview, one could hear his voice quivering slightly as he recalled some of the more appalling, indecent treatment of human beings that his film uncovered. He interviewed homeless gay teenagers, families of suicide victims and vicious anti-gay Utah Senator D. Chris Buttars. Ultimately, Cowan took the opportunity to offer some explanations for the events documented in the film, and possible solutions should people wish to get involved further.
Fred Topel: So the Mormons have this plan for a super powered spirit afterlife. Are they basically James Bond villains?
Reed Cowan: [Laughs] I needed a laugh today.
FT:
That’s what it sounds like.
RC:
I think to the outsider it does seem strange and I’ve had people say it seems a little Star Trek. To the person on the inside of the Mormon church, they believe in families hardcore. And they believe in the eternal chain of families. It’s something that brings a great deal of comfort to, like, families who lose children. That families are forever and that they are connected in one eternal chain through marriage and multiple marriages and multiple wives and planets and all of that. So an outsider looking in, they can see it in one way. I try to just project, I’m no longer a Mormon but I was schooled in Mormon seminary seven to 12th grade. I went to the missionary training center. I served the mission so I know what I’m talking about. The Mormon on the inside, it’s all about family and eternal family. Unfortunately, gay people don’t fit into that.
FT:
To get serious, I just cant believe they’d spend millions and millions for a belief in the afterlife. Does the church have something else to gain by ensuring everyone else follow their religious beliefs?
RC:
It’s hard to believe that unless you’ve been in the church and the secret recordings that we obtained say indeed we are compelled by doctrine to speak out. To an outsider, it’s easy to say, it can’t be just that, they’ve got to have another dog in the fight. Really I think history will prove that Mormons really do believe that gay people interrupt the Mormon plan for heaven and that the future of civilization itself, as Senator Buttars articulated, truly depends on the stable foundation of families in the world. They really believe it and they will declare holy war over it, and they did.
FT:
On the broader scope, is it all based on religious fear? Why else are homophobes so threatened by what someone else does? The people on that side of the debate even beyond Mormons are so fearful that allowing gay marriage would end all marriage.
RC:
I can only speak from my background and my background again is Mormon. I was taught that second only to the sin of murder is homosexuality. They have a definite way of defining family. You’re taught from a very young age that there are two things you protect with everything you have. Number one, your family and your family’s eternal chain. Number two, the Constitution of the United States. Mormon theologians project a day when they say the constitution will hang by a thread in the United States and in fact that Mormons will be the ones to salvage it and save it and preserve it. So those are two things that are ingrained in your brain as a child: family and the Constitution, family and the Constitution. Literally, I believe as somebody who was raised in it and schooled in it and dedicated my life and my youth to it, they are telling the truth when they say, “We are indeed compelled by doctrine to speak.” Otherwise, why would they risk their tax exempt status? Why would they risk what they value so highly, which is public favor?
FT:
Yeah, wouldn’t they have a reason to want separation of church and state?
RC:
You’d think. You’d think but we’ve seen in the history of the world times when money changers need to be expelled from the temple, so to speak, and when religions forget that line and when they miss the mark. There's a Mormon scripture even that says, “At times, people miss the mark.” I think they missed the mark here. I think they were willing to risk everything for this fight and I think they still are.
FT:
Was putting Buttars interview out there in the media a victory?
RC:
Until my children are raised in a partnership where their fathers are married and receive the benefits of full marriage equality, there is no victory. Until families like ours have full marriage equality federally, there is no victory. Was it a step in the process of maybe shining a light on the type of human being Mormon bigotry can produce? Yes. Was that a victory? Yeah, maybe. We begged and pleaded, at least we felt like we begged and pleaded Mormon leaders to come out and talk about all of these things. We went through their public relationship division only to be told that they care about doing stories that help them to look good and boost their public image but they don't care about big J Journalism. So we had no other choice but to go for their more active, more vocal members, more prominent members to tell the Mormon story relative to this subject. I think it was a moment of pause for people who heard him, because we are all products of our upbringing and he is a product of his Mormon upbringing. I think it’s sad because my Mormon ancestors, who I am proud of many things about their survival through many hard times, it was like Senator Butters just spat on their legacy and the legacy of his ancestors by acting in such a horrible way.
FT:
I hope most people see how hateful they are and think, “That is how not to be. Let’s not do what they say.“ Do you think most people react that way?
RC:
I truly think that went we know better we do better. We've proven that as a culture and as a society throughout history, relative to human rights especially. I think the more he speaks and the more people like him open their mouths, the closer we inch towards a culture that finds viewpoints like that hurtful and distasteful and that people will choose better.
FT:
Judging by history, isn't it inevitable that we give gays the right to marry? We ended slavery, gave African-Americans the vote, women's suffrage... Hasn't it all happened before?
RC:
Yeah, and in many of those issues, the Mormon Church was the last holdout. They were the last to come onboard. We know from history that it took them until the late 1970s to allow African-Americans full participation and worship and in temple worship and in membership. They were very much against women's rights and rallied their troops against the ERA. We definitely see that Mormons are the last to come to the table and come to the party so to speak and smell the coffee, as my grandma, God rest her soul would put it. But eventually they do smell it and the good ones, like all good people, history bends towards justice.
FT:
So why don't they just look at history and say it’s pointless to resist?
RC:
Well, why don’t any of us, really? That is the great question I think that could come out of this film. I certainly hope it does. WHEN are we going to learn from our history. And I don't know.
FT:
Who did they cast in their TV campaign? Was it all Mormons or just some SAG members who needed work?
RC:
I don't know that. I do know that for the one commercial, “A Storm is Gathering,” auditions were held. So I cant imagine that they would only hold auditions just for Mormons. In fact, I think that’s how some of that raw footage got least, some of the audition footage got leaked to the gay organizations. I don't know. I do know that it was very telling in all of the ads, you didn’t see anybody older than maybe 25, 26.
FT:
That’s why I thought they were actors. They were too pretty.
RC:
Well, they’re Mormons. [Laughs] Look, they want to look good. They want to appeal to the youth. In their call to action, “You Twitter, you blog, you write on your Walls.” Well, what 60-year-old do you know who often Twitters, blogs and writes on their Walls? They are going for the youth of the church. Certainly we know that people older than the young people got involved of course, but it’s very clear from those ads that they wanted the young people to carry this mission on their back. And they did.
FT:
Obviously we would all like to have loving families. If that’s just not possible, is there strength in gay couples holding firm against their unsupportive elders and families?
RC:
Yes. Not only strength but an imperative. My children deserve to grow up in a relationship where they look at their fathers and they see two men who are not willing to accept less and who are not willing to kowtow to a less than definition of our family. My children deserve that example. They will get that example always.
FT:
How does this film and its message reach beyond the already pro-gay supporters?
RC:
You know, I’ve had some people say this film preaches to the choir. I just want to say, “Oh, come on. That is so short sighted.” Honestly, this is not a gay film. This is a film for voters and anybody who values the integrity of their vote and the process of trying to solicit someone’s vote and keeping the process transparent and full of truth should see this film. This film belongs to the voters who value a democracy and who are afraid of a theocracy. I hope that more people than just gay people will see the film and we know from the comments that we’re getting that many of our allies are seeing the film and that many curious Mormons are seeing it. We come out on demand I believe on the 18th. It’s my hope that within the privacy of their homes, Mormons will see this film and people of all faith traditions will see this film. Whether or not they agree with everything, at least have a conversation about what the people in the film have to say and maybe choose better where they see inequity.
FT:
Hopefully interviews like this can present it to a different readership too.
RC:
You know what? These inequities are happening on the watch of President Obama. My call is to the president because we need full federal equality and we need him to take the lead and not wait for a second term because my children can’t wait. They won’t wait. These inequities are happening on his watch. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is still around under his watch. It’s still okay in our country to deny somebody service at a restaurant because they’re gay, under his watch. It’s still okay to deny somebody housing in our country because they’re gay. That’s happening on his watch. I would hope that the President himself would get involved and be a champion of people who I think he should and could identify with.
FT:
How do we get that initiative to his desk?
RC:
I think he’s got to hear from the citizenry. We’ve got to let him know. That’s the beauty of our country. You dream a world. You dream a world, you articulate what you want, you elect leaders who will carry out your wishes and you live in that world. My hope is that they will dream a world that is better than this.
FT:
It’s obvious that that re-orientation programs don’t work. Your film only dramatizes how barbaric the practice is. Has anyone done an official study to say, “You can’t change someone’s sexual orientation?”
RC:
That certainly wasn’t within the scope of our film so I didn’t dig into those studies. All I know is I’ve talked to many people, myself included, who went through reparation therapy and came out greatly damaged. You can look at studies and you can look at statistics, but what rings true and resonates mostly are the stories of people who come out of the other end of those things alive but damaged.
FT:
To me, it’s obvious. It’s not something you “fix” but some people may need to see the numbers to be convinced. So I hope they exist.
RC:
I would hope they do too and honestly, I would hope those studies be granted the attention that they’re due. I don't know that they are because still the imperative in our culture to “fix” people who are gay. I know a lot of well meaning parents, liberal thinking parents. You look at Cher. Her daughter came out. Her immediate reaction was to fix her daughter. She discloses that. When we live in a culture where a parent’s immediate reaction is “Oh my God, something’s wrong, we’ve got to fix it,” those programs look pretty attractive, don’t they? And you’re willing to give it a try. So what we have to do is train our parents to see beauty in the first glimpses of homosexuality that you see in children and celebrate it. Let them be who they are. I just think by inches, even by centimeters in some parts of the country, we are making progress. We’re making progress.
FT:
Obviously it will remain a fight and I wish it weren’t. As we discussed though, it seems inevitable historically. What do you imagine the next civil rights issue we face will be?
RC:
Wow, that’s a great question. I don't know but I am hoping that gay people will be just as actively involved in being champion for other people’s civil rights as we are for our own. When you have been the brunt of being robbed of your civil rights, you damn well better become an advocate for everybody else’s civil rights. As we learn, you go to The Holocaust Museum, it says, “They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.” [Martin Niemoller] If you’re in the business of being a champion for human rights, it doesn’t only apply to your community. Number one, I don't know what the next civil rights front will be, but my hope is that we’ll all be anxiously engaged in that good cause.
FT:
Wouldn’t it be great if this is the last one?
RC:
It would be great but we also know that we need to peak over our mountains and across our waters and realize that in developing countries, female babies are left to die. There are great inequalities against women, against gay people. Maybe once we’ve achieved a certain level here in our country, to realize that we’re all connected, even if we’re separated by mountains or water, and get to work in developing countries.
FT:
On a personal level, when you see the homeless kids you’re interviewing, after you cut film, do you want to just help them, give them money or something?
RC:
Yeah, I do. The sad thing about Utah, and this is a whole other article that could be done, is that Utah law prohibits you harboring a minor. Even the Homeless Youth Resource Center in Utah after a certain hour has to turn them out in the cold and all they can do is hand them a blanket and a tent. So yeah, I want to help them but Utah legislators have made it impossible to help these kids. So you turn back to their families and you try to make change in their family so they’re not quite so motivated to kick out a child after coming out.
8: The Mormon Proposition opens in theaters and On Demand June 18, and DVD July 13.
8: The Mormon Proposition opens in theaters and On Demand June 18, and DVD July 13.
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