ANYONE AND EVERYONE

That’s the name of a documentary (made by Polis Schutz) I caught the other night on PBS that was extraordinarily moving.

It was about the parents of “gay people,” as one of them put it, including a Catholic couple who never miss Mass, a Native American (Cherokee) couple who are Southern Baptists, a Mormon couple who are Republican, an Asian-American Presbyterian couple, A Bolivian-American parent, etc.

Most of them shared an initial reaction to their sons or daughters “coming out”—they cried, were shocked, confused, etc. Only some were immediately accepting—and it was surprising which were—and all eventually were.

That’s the moving part. Hearing these mostly middle-aged couples explain their initial “ignorance,” again their word, followed by their eventual understanding.

I was crying by the end of it, as the parents and sometimes their children often were in the film. I challenge anyone to watch it and not at least be moved, if not actually teary eyed, as I was, by the end of it.

Talk about acceptance and reconciliation. A dramatic model for all of us in our various conflicts of personality and perspective, biological or otherwise.