 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Cowan, the film poster and protesters seen marching in the documentary
film from a queer perspective
Interview
| KATM media outlets |
| KATM featured weekly |
| Join Us! |
| KATM on RT |
| Vidcast Starring KATM |
| NOTE: THIS SITE ONLY LOADS CORRECTLY WITH EXPLORER AND MOZILLA BROWSERS - SORRY SAFARI USERS! |
| Buy the KATM Book |
Bravery Under Fire: Reed Cowan on 8: The Mormon Proposition
6-16-10 Windy City Times Interview
By Richard Knight, Jr.
6-16-10 Windy City Times Interview
By Richard Knight, Jr.
| Out documentary filmmaker Reed Cowan, who has written, produced and co-directed (along with Steven Greenstreet) 8: The Mormon Proposition has had to endure a lot of professional and personal attacks for making the film. He discussed this in an informative and often emotionally painful interview with Windy City Times. The movie, which exposes the behind the scenes campaign by the Mormon Church to defeat gay marriage in California and their long history of anti-gay bias, opens this Friday, June 18 at the Gene Siskel Center (164 N. State Street) and is a searing, eye opening indictment of a religious institution using their wealth and power to work against the LGBT community. Highlights from our interview: WINDY CITY TIMES (WCT): The Mormon church’s anti-gay stance has provided material for a lot of creative endeavors – from a myriad of theatrical shows, books, fictional films and documentaries including your own movie – having been so close to the subject for such a long time, do you think that there will ever be a possibility of finding common ground between the church and the gay community? REED COWAN (RC): Well all I can do is site the history of the Mormon Church relative to other similar issues. It’s very well documented that the Mormon Church and its members fought the ERA and eventually when it became unpopular to do so they softened. The Church did not allow Black people into full participation until 1978 and, in fact, told their missionaries in the field to not proselytize people with African-American bloodlines – to not even talk to them, knock on their doors or solicit them for membership until 1978. Or maybe even beyond by some accounts. So we have seen in the past the Mormon Church has, when they’ve been on the line, they’ve changed. Their history with polygamy for example – they were very cavalier in their practice of it; they were major proponents of the practice until the heat got on them by the state. I think what will happen is that we’ll see change only when our government is able to send a message to them, “Look, you either stop getting involved in politics of seeking away rights from gay people or we will take away your tax exempt status.” That’s when I think you’ll see change. Until they have that, I don’t think you’ll see change because at the root of this is their belief in a man and other women being married in a Mormon temple and getting their own planet and becoming gods. That is at the top of the mountain of Mormon belief and they’re not going to excavate the top of the mountain. WCT: So, when gay marriage eventually becomes a reality in this country – which we know it will someday – how will the Mormon church deal with it? They’ll just have to grudgingly go along with it? RC: I think they’ll be the last. I think they’ll be the final hounds of hell against this but I think eventually they’ll have to, in some way, acknowledge it. Will it happen? I don’t know. But if the arc of history has anything to tell us it’s bent toward justice for other marginalized groups and the LDS church was the very last holdout in the country in all of those instances. WCT: Why don’t these big time gay and lesbian groups sue them for Defamation of Character? RC: I think that would be very interesting to do. I’m a friend of many people in the HRC and GLAAD but that’s a conversation we have not had. I would anticipate that when you look at action and lawsuits you realize that it’s very expensive to do so and the Mormon Church is definitely a Goliath where money is concerned. WCT: Even in the film there’s a brief moment where you call their spokesperson and she seems to nervously say, “We don’t want to get into any dustup with the gay community” and you definitely get the idea there’s a hesitation to publicly go against us. RC: Yes, because look what happens – they’re exposed for their bigotry and its ugly and it’s distasteful to the people that they need to fill their pews and ultimately their coffers. Keep in mind that to participate in Mormonism you give 10% of everything you own to the Church. So them not wanting to get front and center with a battle with the gay community as she puts it is all about public relations. There have been accounts of the Mormon Church having to close certain branches of their operations in California because membership dwindled after Proposition 8 to the point where they took a financial hit for taking their stand. WCT: Your film goes way beyond the Mormon Church’s attempts to defeat gay marriage and claims a history by them of anti-gay tactics. Can you talk about that? RC: Through my research we know that there are many who claim being subject to electric shock aversion therapy at Brigham Young University. The Church has denied that ever happened but there are just too many people whose stories are the same thing. We know that there are claims that go into the 1990s of electric shock aversion therapy. We also know that the Mormon Church is very supportive of a group called Evergreen which is a group that counsels gay people in what is known as reparative therapy and they definitely believe that you can conform with the standards of the Mormon Church to going with their program and by conformity I mean leading a celibate life. They site success stories – I’m using fingers making quotations marks in the sky right now – of people who have gotten married and have families. They’re huge supporters of that. I believe, to the detriment of anyone who goes into those programs. I’ve known some who have come out and committed suicide; some who get married and cheat on their wives on the side and compartmentalize their lives. I know a lot of really ugly situations that have come out of that. They don’t talk about those. WCT: I’m assuming having been a Mormon to make a film like this has probably come at a great personal cost to you. Is that correct? RC: This film dropped a nuclear bomb on my family relationships. Just completely shredded my family relationships. I had one sister who told me in a phone call that Proposition 8 came directly from God through the prophet and that she would be obedient to the prophet and her direct quote was, “If God told the prophet to tell me to cut off my arm, paint myself orange and take my own children’s lives, I would do it. I’m that obedient.” I had another sister who was a guest on the Dr. Laura unbeknownst to me until my peers heard it about me doing the documentary. My father said, “God gave me the scriptures before he gave me you” and my mother was quick to defend all of them and there we have the collapse of a family. In the last communication with my father I said, “Dad, don’t be bad at me for the fracture in our family. Be mad at the prophet because our family is one of thousands of families all over the world who are literally torn apart by this.” |
