Rhode Island International Film Festival 2009

The announcement of the filmmaker's wedding to another man in his small hometown newspaper leads to a firestorm of controversy and a plea for help from the mother of a gay teen being tormented at school. A gripping and uplifting journey through love, hate, and change in the American heartland.

Rather than approaching homophobia with conflict, gay filmmakers/husbands Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer try something new – listening – and opening a conversation with the opposition. The story begins when Joe and Dean send their wedding announcement to Joe’s hometown newspaper in Oil City, Pennsylvania. The published announcement catches the eye of Kathy Springer, whose son C.J. is being taunted for his sexuality in high school. While C.J. is a sports-loving jock, he’s constantly under threat of bodily harm at school from his bigoted classmates. Kathy reaches out to Joe and Dean who respond by grabbing their film equipment to see just what’s going on in this conservative rust-belt town. They meet Diane Gramley, local organizer for the American Family Association, w ho incites the town against Kathy and C.J. to the point where they receive a death threat. They also meet a fundamentalist preacher and his wife and begin a life-changing friendship with the conservative couple. And they meet a lesbian couple whose renovation of a long-abandoned local theater galvanizes the town towards positive change. Most of the town, even the mayor, ignores the boycott of the theater called by the town’s bigots. Thinking creatively to fight homophobia, the activist filmmaker couple shed new light on the constantly evolving LGBT civil-rights struggle.