As San Franciscans celebrated the court-ordered demise of Proposition 8, roughly 150 Mormons marched in the city's massive LGBT Pride Parade on Sunday to demonstrate support for a community deeply hurt by the $20 million and thousands of volunteers the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints poured into the fight to approve Prop. 8 in 2008.
Following immense backlash from those efforts, the Mormon church has backed off its vocal opposition to marriage equality In recent years -- a quiet shift that's made a huge difference in the fight for federally recognized same-sex marriage.
Marching behind a banner that read "Mormons for Marriage Equality" and led by San Franciscan Mitch Mayne, LGBT-supportive Mormons carried signs with slogans like "This Mormon mom loves her gay son," and "I'm not gay, but he is! And I love him!"
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the Mormons who marched in Sunday's parade was Wendy Montgomery, a mom who obediently campaigned for Prop. 8 in 2008, before she knew her son, Jordan, was gay. Today, thanks to now 14-year-old Jordan's honesty and some help from San Francisco State University's Family Acceptance Project, Montgomery proudly loves and accepts her son for who he is.
The Family Acceptance Project, a research organization that helps families from a diverse background of religious and cultural perspectives come to terms with and accept their LGBT children, is set to release a short film chronicling the Montgomery family's journey to acceptance. The 21-minute film recently screened at San Francisco's Frameline LGBT Film Festival, and the touching trailer below has been making the rounds online.