On November 4th 2008 the joyous news of Barack Obama’s historic victory being elected the 44th President of the US was tinged with great sadness for most gay men and women as on that same day as Californians, by a small majority, voted to overturn their State Supreme Court ruling that had permitted same sex marriage. The notorious Proposition 8 on the Ballot Paper asked voters to affirm that only marriage between a man and woman was valid and recognized, and it was the battleground for a major and costly fight between warring factions that resulted in us waking up depressed and disheartened on the very day we should have been in the streets celebrating the end of the Bush era.
This highly emotional movie examines the successful campaign against gay marriage that was heavily financed by the Church of Latter Day Saints who have always been implacably opposed to homosexuality at any level and made this issue their personal crusade. They fought hard and very dirty mixing their lies and mis-information with some $22 millions of dollars to stage a massive media barrage that succeeded in scaring enough people to swing the vote their way. This made California the first state in the US to take rights away from people by changing its Constitution.
R.T.V. Written and directed with great conviction by Reed Cowan, and with fellow Mormon, the Oscar wining screenwriter Dustin Lance Black narrating this movie, this is essential viewing for not just gay men and women but for anyone else interested in how wealthy tax-exempt churches can wield so much power to distort the truth and perpetuate their own bigotry.
I would just mention that the film does not touch on the weaknesses of what its now considered a lack-luster campaign by the No Campaigners, or even make much shift in the fact that despite the massive budget Prop 8 was only passed with a slim majority, but somehow these omissions do not in any way distract from the authenticity and the power of the piece.
This battle may have been lost, but the war is far from over.
★★★★★★★★★
Labels: documentary, gay, Sundance
