8: The Mormon Proposition

On the same day that Barack Obama won the presidency in November 2008, gay marriage was voted down in California. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the official name for the Mormon Church, spent $22 million to keep gay marriage from becoming law in that state. Proposition 8 would change the law and define marriage as an institution reserved exclusively for a man and a woman, and it passed with a narrow majority of 52%. It's no revelation that religion and homosexuality don't always mix, but in this documentary reconstruction, the ultraconservative Mormons from Utah go to extreme measures to get their way. Speeches from Mormon church leaders with rhetoric like "Better dead than gay" led to a wave of suicide among religious adolescents who were struggling with their sexuality. In order to liberate their supporters from homosexuality, the Mormon Church also advocates shock therapy and even exclusion from society. The film alternates the testimony of gay youth with occasional statements from church leaders and politicians.