Mormon Mom Who Fought Prop. 8 In California Has Gay Son


A devout Mormon mother who knocked on doors in 2008 in support of Proposition 8, which overturned the ruling that allowed same-sex couples to marry in her State of California and is now before the US Supreme Court, did so without knowing her son is gay.

Wendy and Tom Montgomery’s 14 year-old son Jordan contemplated suicide because of their church’s belief that homosexuality is a sin that would cut his ties with his family, not only here on Earth, but in the afterlife.

“One of core tenets we believe in as Mormons is that the family is eternal in nature,” Wendy Montgomery, 37, told ABCNews.com. “Our family units are really strong.”

Having been raised in a conservative community in California, Montgomery says she often heard unkind comments made towards gays and how their sexual orientation was “disgusting and immoral.”

“To be honest, before my son came out, I didn’t know any other families who had gay kids. It’s one of the things that’s not talked about in my church, which makes it so much harder to deal with and know who to go to for help.” the Mormon mom said.

The family’s struggles to reconcile their religious beliefs and that of their son’s identity is highlighted in a video called Families Are Forever, which will debut at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival

In the video, Jordan says that he considered taking pills to kill himself.

“I was mortified at the idea of being disowned by my parents,” Jordan says in “Families Are Forever.” “I was like, I do not want to be thrown out of my home. I definitely expected to be excommunicated and restricted from church. But I still wanted to be with the church, like, I’d grown up with it, it was my life, until now.”

The Mormon mom said she found out about her son being gay when, after he had changed from a happy go lucky child into a withdrawn teen, she looked up his diary entries in which he described his attraction to other boys.

Montgomery has stated that she was shocked to her core but is now a better person for having a gay son.

“I am a better person for having a gay son,” the Mormon woman said. “I love differently, and I love more openly. I didn’t realize the judgment I had before I realized that having a gay son was a great blessing and not a burden.”

[Image via Karin Hildebrand Lau / Shutterstock.com]

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