8: The Mormon Proposition

8: The Mormon Proposition is an indictment of the Mormon Church's historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California's Proposition 8 and the Mormon religion's secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights.  The film takes place in California and Utah as Mormons, following their prophet’s call to action, wage spiritual warfare fought with money and lies against US citizens and their fight for marriage equality and the rights that come with marriage.  

When Proposition 8 passed in California by a slim margin in 2008, Mormons were quick to take credit for the success.  Mormon leaders bragged that the fight against gay marriage in California began to flourish only after the Mormon Church got involved.  However, when backlash from the LGBT community targeted Mormon temples throughout the United States, and attention was called to the amount of tax-exempt funding they procured and their questionable accounting methods, the Mormon Church was the first to complain that they were the ones being persecuted.

Director Reed Cowan, who was raised Mormon in Utah and was a door-to-door evangelist for the Mormon Church, exposes the efforts of the Mormon Church and its members to halt nearly every piece of LGBT legislation on the desks of lawmakers from Hawaii to New York.  He collected secret recordings, secret documents and never-before-seen footage exposing Mormon efforts to deny rights for LGBT citizens all over the world.

8: The Mormon Proposition is a call to action not only to LGBT community, but also to citizens everywhere to stand up for civil rights, and to pay attention to the origins of the money and the information.

In Person: Bruce Barton, Linda Stay, Steve Stay, Tyler Barrick, Spencer Jones, Film Subjects