Straight White Male Seeking Film On Homosexuality & Faith September 15, 2011
Welcome to the the very first entry of the Stained Glass Rainbows Blog. My name is Kent Williamson and I am the producer/director of the forthcoming documentary film Stained Glass Rainbows: Exploring the Bed-Wrestle Between Homosexuality and Faith.
Allow me to introduce myself… I’m a conservative, straight, white-bread, male. I’m happily married and have a house-full of kids. So why am I making a film on the topic of homosexuality and faith?
This project had it’s inception as I was finishing my previous film Rebellion of Thought: Post-Modernism, the Church, and the Struggle for Authentic Faith. In Rebellion of Thought I needed a few seconds of footage of a gay pride parade, so in June of 2007 I packed up the camera and traveled to Washington DC for the Capital Pride event. As the parade began I left my space on the curb near Dupont Circle and I stepped out into the street. Little did I know that step would change the next several years of my life.
I soaked in the parade through the viewfinder of my video camera and the things I saw were remarkable. Up and down the parade route were men and women, all created in the image of God, and all of them promoting their version of homosexuality…
Some were long-time committed lovers.
Some were swingers.
Some were gentle and others were militant.
Some were demanding equal rights and some just wanted to be left alone.
I imagine that in their hearts some of them were more free on the day of that parade that they’ve ever been in their lives. I imagine that some of them were fearful of my camera, wanting to be there at that moment, but not wanting to be filmed. I imagine that some of them hurt inside having wrestled with words like “sin”, “outcast” and “shame”.
There were two things I was most blown away with at the Capital Pride parade. The first was the number of churches that were represented in the parade… spanning all the major denominations. But the thing that moved me the most was the oppressive feeling, not of a straight man being surrounded by homosexuals, but of the weight and burden of my own sin. Now my sin is not homosexual in nature. My sins of choice include greed and lust and things like that which are much more “socially accepted” in the conservative Christian circles in which I was raised and have lived my entire life. But regardless, that day on the streets of DC I was overwhelmed with their weight and I realized that this is why Christ came. To pay the price with his life for my sin… their sin… our sin.
After the parade, as I rode the metro back to my car, I tried to process everything I had seen, heard and felt that day. I knew in my heart I had to make a film about this topic and that was moment that Stained Glass Rainbows was conceived. In a sense I was impregnated by thousands of homosexuals that day… and now I am preparing to give birth to a film.
Over the course of shooting Stained Glass Rainbows I have filmed five Gay Pride parades. I have interviewed people from Florida to Pittsburgh, from Cincinnati to Connecticut. I have talked with lesbian ministers and homosexual pastors. I’ve spoken with people from the God Hates Fags group. I’ve interviewed theologians, ex-gays, and people that minister to the homosexual population. And the things I’ve learned along the way have been fascinating. I’m eager to share them with you through this story.
Over the next few months I will be wrapping up this film and then will get it into distribution. Please join me for the journey.
