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If you'd like to donate by mail (you'll receive a receipt for your tax-deductible donation by mail also), please make the check out to the San Francisco Film Society, and put Seventh-Gay Adventists or FSP-1195 in the memo line.

seventh gay adventists

None of this would be possible without the incredible grassroots community that continues to make it possible. We felt we needed to do something to help make our world and our faith community a better place for our daughter.

We started out making a more classic “issue” film and spent three months on a road trip around the country when our daughter was a baby, interviewing theologians, pastors, psychologists, and other experts.

We were expecting our first child that December,  and when the rhetoric around Prop 8 (a same-sex marriage ban) heated up, we witnessed some incredibly hurtful and damaging actions towards people we now knew and loved, and often in the pews of the denomination our families have been part of for five generations. If you can open your hearts to their stories, you will walk out with an expanded worldview of what it might be like to face such a dilemma as the people in our film have.

As Thoreau asked, "Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"

 

Faith, identity, and sexuality collide in this raw and moving documentary about the challenges and spiritual journeys of three Seventh-day Adventists who love God and their church and are also gay.

Caught in the collision of two worlds, three gay and lesbian Seventh-day Adventists wrestle with how to reconcile their faith, identity, and sexuality.

Mail it to:

Seventh-Gay Adventists FSP-1195
c/o San Francisco Film Society
ATTN: Finance Department
39 Mesa Street, Ste 110
San Francisco, CA 94129

Thank you so much for your support, encouragement, and engagement. As Sharon Groves from the Human Rights Campaign said, "This is a beautiful and compelling film...anyone who has felt that their faith and sexuality are in conflict will instantly get this film." And for those who can't tell their Adventists from their Mormons, this film offers a chance to hear a unique perspective from those who have often paid a very high price to keep their faith. 

Being a gay Christian isn’t easy, but being a gay Seventh-day Adventist is an especially difficult path because Adventism, to most, is more than a belief system; it’s also a close-knit community of belonging.

So we just focused on stories, which we felt we were missing, and the film is now entirely character driven. 

The film is set in the context of the Seventh-day Adventist church, which is currently the fastest-growing denomination in the United States (with an even faster growing international presence). The unique setting of Adventism with its distinct cultural markers and traditions, heightens this conflict.

But it is about listening to a demographic in most churches that is often talked about or at but very seldom with. Can he find his calling again?

Watch

Seventh-Gay Adventists 

Stream the entire film NOW for free.

Available in English (CC), Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Faith, identity, and sexuality collide in this raw and moving documentary about the challenges and spiritual journeys of three Seventh-day Adventists who love God and their church and are also gay.

Buy the digital version on VHX/Vimeo

If you believe in the power of listening and want to support this work, please consider making a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter.

These questions and journeys cross over. Another was an Adventist pastor in Brazil who was fired for being gay. It is a way of life, a community not easily left.
 
We hope seeing Seventh-Gay Adventists: A Film about Faith on the Margins will help you enter into the stories, challenges, and spiritual journeys of those who are often not allowed to speak.

And a lesbian mom from the midwest wants her daughters to grow up with her faith and beliefs, even though she knows her church might not accept their family. 

Growing up Adventist means knowing you belong. The people featured in this film challenge stereotypes and assumptions on all sides as they strive to to find love, faith, and belonging. 

Our journey with this film began in the fall of 2008. We had been attending a small, non-traditional, and very inclusive church in San Francisco where we got to know LGBT Adventists for the first time.

We realized that the traditional issue film wouldn’t move the dialogue forward in any productive way--it would just promote more debate. Additionally, we set up story booths in safe homes where we just listened to story after story of LGBT Adventists and those who loved them. The voices in this film are the ones least heard in the often contentious and shallow debate that's too often cast as God vs gays.