Back in 2009, there were calls to boy cott the Sundance Film Festival because most of the money behind the successful attempt to ban gay marriages in California came from Utah. That ill-
conceived boycott failed, and this year the festival debuted “8: The Mormon Proposition,” a hard-hitting exposé of a shameful episode.
Director Reed Cowan and his collaborators, who are mostly Mormons, draw on internal documents and videos from the Church of Latter-day Saints to damningly detail how it funneled an estimated $22 million from church coffers — and religionists who were pressured to donate — to pass the notorious Proposition 8, covertly leading a coalition with other groups such as the Catholic Church.
Among the victims of this orchestrated fear campaign is Tyler Barrick, a direct descendant of a founder of the religion who rushed to marry his longtime partner on the day gay marriage was legalized by the California Supreme Court, only to see it banned by voters months later.
The leadership of LDS — revealed in documents to be sensitive about its longtime role at the forefront of the anti-gay-marriage crusade — refused to comment on camera for “8: The Mormon Proposition.” Small wonder: Not only is its position indefensible, dabbling in the politics of hate may endanger the church’s tax exemption.