Some 13 years ago Jay Foxworthy and Bryan Leffew became good friends, fell in love and had a Civil Union. Along the way, they fostered and adopted Daniel and his sister Selena. Then when gay marriage was legalized in California in 2008, Jay and Bryan got hitched at City Hall in San Francisco. Both men where born to blue-collar families, and are still regular churchgoers in San Diego where they now live. Although their political consciences had shifted over the years, they didn’t really awaken them until Protect Marriage Org. managed to get Proposition 8 on the Ballot in an attempt to ban same-sex marriage. Frustrated and angry that their marriage may be invalidated Jay and Brian made a series of videos about their everyday life which they published on Youtube simply called Gay Family Values … and which set out to put a human face on the whole gay marriage debate. As the overriding criticism of the ‘No To 8’ Campaign was simply the ill-advised choice of not featuring any happily married gay couples at all when stating their argument, this series of ‘home movies’ shows how very wrong the ‘No’ organizers had been.
There is nothing exceptionally different about the Leffew family or anything in this movie that will specifically help propel the case for same-sex marriage forward. What you see is an articulate and passionate pair of attractive men who were prepared to step outside their own comfort zone to safeguard their families future. And when Prop 8 was passed we relive that dreadful aftermath when we should have been solely celebrating Obama’s election, but the reality was our sheer anger and disappointment of the loss instead.
Filmmaker Cassie Jaye has mixed this all with archival footage of many of the events of the flawed Campaigns. The rhetoric from the Right used the same few key sound bites over and over again to ensure that their emotionally-charged message that was so short on facts played up the fear fact to make their point. The only strident voice of reason that Jaye used was from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow who simply pointed out that as marriage was a ‘right’ for all, then the Constitution made it illegal for an State to withhold those rights from anyone. We know this to be true since the recent Supreme Court Ruling.
The Family Equality Council gave Jay and Brian an Award for the videos they made. And whilst this movie may not move mountains and or change the world, I still think credit should still be given to the basic fact that the change in public opinion that has swung so heavily in favor of gay marriage, must in part be due to the fact that society can see more easily and readily that gay families have such high values. Especially ones like the Leffews.
Labels: 2012, biography, documentary, gay, political, Same Sex Marriage
