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WATCH: Film Documents Mormon Family's Journey to Accept Gay Son

WATCH: Film Documents Mormon Family's Journey to Accept Gay Son

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Families Are Forever, screening Saturday in San Francisco, chronicles one family's evolution.

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A short documentary premiering this weekend at Frameline, San Francisco's LGBT filmfest, chronicles a Mormon couple's journey from campaigning for Proposition 8 to accepting and supporting their gay son.

Californians Wendy and Tom Montgomery say they didn't know their son Jordan, now 14, was gay when they were working for Prop. 8's passage in 2008. When Jordan came out to them, they found out he had considered suicide because he feared being gay would mean he'd be cut off from his family for eternity.

"To be honest, before my son came out, I didn't know any other families who had gay kids," Wendy Montgomery told ABCNews.com. "It's one of the things that's not talked about in my church, which makes it so much harder to deal with and know who to go to for help."

She eventually found help from the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, which produced the documentary about the Montgomerys, Families Are Forever. "It felt like a ray of sunshine in the middle of the darkest period of my life," she said of the Family Acceptance Project. "It gave me hope."

She added, "I am a better person for having a gay son. I love differently, and I love more openly. I didn't realize the judgment I had before I realized that having a gay son was a great blessing and not a burden."

Families Are Forever will screen as part of a program of short documentaries Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Victoria Theatre; watch the trailer below For more on the festival, which opened Thursday and continues through June 30, click here.

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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.