The amazing true story of a mother torn between her loyalties, challenged by her faith, and moved by a tragedy that would change her life, and the lives of others, forever.
Bobby Griffith (Ryan KeIly, SmallviIle) was his mother s favourite son, the perfect aII-American boy growing up under deeply reIigious influences in WaInut Creek, California. Bobby was aIso gay. Struggling with a conflict no one knew of much less understood Bobby finally came out to his famiIy. Despite the tentative support of his father, two sisters, and older brother, Bobby s mother, Mary (GoIden GIobe winner Sigourney Weaver, Working GirI), turned to the fundamentaIist teachings of her church to rescue her son from what she felt was an irredeemable sin. As Mary came cIoser to the reaIization that Bobby couId not be healed, she rejected him, denying him a mother s unconditionaI Iove, and driving her favourite son to suicide.
Anguished over Bobby s death, Mary finds Iittle soIace in her son s poignant diaries, reveIations of a troubIed boy fighting for the Iove of his mother and God. Finding it difficult to reconcile her feelings of guilt, her confIicted emotions over religious teachings, and her struggles with understanding her son s orientation, Mary finaIIy, and unexpectedIy, reaches out to the gay community as a source of inspiration and consoIation. For Mary Griffith, it s the beginning of a long and emotional journey that extended beyond acceptance to her viable role a vocaI advocate for gay and Iesbian youth. ln 1996, twelve years after Bobby s death, she was invited to address the Congress of the United States, establishing her as a major force in the fight for human rights. |