{"id":10561,"date":"2018-04-04T15:54:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T19:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=10561"},"modified":"2022-03-22T13:37:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T17:37:43","slug":"gay-marriage-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/gay-marriage-documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"K Professor Featured in Mormon Gay Marriage Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Kalamazoo College professor has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah\u2019s gay marriage ban.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Petrey, associate professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/religion\/events\/armstrong\/\">religion<\/a>, says he gave an extensive interview to the makers of \u201cChurch and State\u201d about the role of the Salt Lake City-based Church of Latter-day Saints in the fight against legalizing gay marriage.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10564\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10564\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10564\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Taylor Petrey Gay Marriage Documentary\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Petrey, associate professor of religion, has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah\u2019s gay marriage ban.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The movie, premiering at the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs, California, documents how a gay-rights activist teamed with a small Salt Lake City law firm to win an unexpected 2013 court ruling that overturned the conservative state\u2019s law against same-sex marriage. When the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the ban the next October, gay marriage became legal in Utah. With a Supreme Court ruling in 2015, it became the law nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Utah is more than 60 percent Mormon, and \u201cthe conflict between Mormons and gay-rights activists became the defining issue of modern Mormonism,\u201d Petrey says in a clip from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt7309384\/videoplayer\/vi1460582425?ref_=tt_ov_vi\">movie trailer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the interview for the movie, Petrey, who was raised in Utah and is a member of the church, addressed how Mormons, as they sought mainstream acceptance, moved from sanctioning an alternative form of marriage \u2014 polygamy, which they abandoned in 1890 \u2014 to adopting conservative positions on social issues that mirrored those of evangelical Christians.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10568\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Church-and-State-539x800.jpg\" alt=\"Church and State\" width=\"413\" height=\"609\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Though he specializes at K in the history of ancient Christianity, he also studied the history of Mormonism and sexuality, and wrote about the issue during a 2016-17 stint as a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.<\/p>\n<p>He says he first met one of the Utah-based producers of \u201cChurch and State,\u201d Kendall Wilcox, five or six years ago during a previous project on gay Mormons. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in touch off and on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Wilcox\u2019s partner in the production, Holly Tuckett, says that in the film&#8211;edited, coincidentally, by Kalamazoo native Torben Bernhard&#8211;Petrey appears repeatedly, serving as the main authority on the history and positions of the church on homosexuality and gay marriage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe helps contextualize all of that for us.\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Petrey says the choice to use him as an expert on the subject was understandable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a small world of Mormons who are interested in this stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>He hasn\u2019t seen the movie and got his first glimpse of it when he watched the trailer online, he says. Set to be released to theaters late this summer, it was named as one of the documentary festival&#8217;s &#8220;10 must-see&#8221; films by The Desert Sun of Palm Springs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess I\u2019ll see it when the rest of the world sees it in August,\u201d Petrey says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Kalamazoo College professor has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah\u2019s gay marriage ban. Taylor Petrey, associate professor of religion, says he gave an extensive interview to the makers of \u201cChurch and State\u201d about the role of the Salt Lake City-based Church of Latter-day Saints in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":10564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233],"tags":[39,66],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-10561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","tag-faculty","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Gay Marriage Documentary Features K Professor - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A K professor has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah\u2019s gay marriage 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aria-label=\"archive of category Faculty &amp; Staff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/faculty-staff\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Faculty &amp; Staff<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/faculty\/\" rel=\"tag\">faculty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/religion\/\" rel=\"tag\">religion<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/gay-marriage-documentary\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/gay-marriage-documentary\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/gay-marriage-documentary\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p>A Kalamazoo College professor has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah\u2019s gay marriage ban.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Petrey, associate professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/religion\/events\/armstrong\/\">religion<\/a>, says he gave an extensive interview to the makers of \u201cChurch and State\u201d about the role of the Salt Lake City-based Church of Latter-day Saints in the fight against legalizing gay marriage.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10564\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10564\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10564\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Taylor-Petrey-Gay-Marriage-Documentary-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Taylor Petrey Gay Marriage Documentary\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Petrey, associate professor of religion, has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah\u2019s gay marriage ban.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The movie, premiering at the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs, California, documents how a gay-rights activist teamed with a small Salt Lake City law firm to win an unexpected 2013 court ruling that overturned the conservative state\u2019s law against same-sex marriage. When the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the ban the next October, gay marriage became legal in Utah. With a Supreme Court ruling in 2015, it became the law nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Utah is more than 60 percent Mormon, and \u201cthe conflict between Mormons and gay-rights activists became the defining issue of modern Mormonism,\u201d Petrey says in a clip from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt7309384\/videoplayer\/vi1460582425?ref_=tt_ov_vi\">movie trailer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the interview for the movie, Petrey, who was raised in Utah and is a member of the church, addressed how Mormons, as they sought mainstream acceptance, moved from sanctioning an alternative form of marriage \u2014 polygamy, which they abandoned in 1890 \u2014 to adopting conservative positions on social issues that mirrored those of evangelical Christians.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10568\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Church-and-State-539x800.jpg\" alt=\"Church and State\" width=\"413\" height=\"609\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Though he specializes at K in the history of ancient Christianity, he also studied the history of Mormonism and sexuality, and wrote about the issue during a 2016-17 stint as a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.<\/p>\n<p>He says he first met one of the Utah-based producers of \u201cChurch and State,\u201d Kendall Wilcox, five or six years ago during a previous project on gay Mormons. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in touch off and on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Wilcox\u2019s partner in the production, Holly Tuckett, says that in the film&#8211;edited, coincidentally, by Kalamazoo native Torben Bernhard&#8211;Petrey appears repeatedly, serving as the main authority on the history and positions of the church on homosexuality and gay marriage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe helps contextualize all of that for us.\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Petrey says the choice to use him as an expert on the subject was understandable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a small world of Mormons who are interested in this stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>He hasn\u2019t seen the movie and got his first glimpse of it when he watched the trailer online, he says. Set to be released to theaters late this summer, it was named as one of the documentary festival&#8217;s &#8220;10 must-see&#8221; films by The Desert Sun of Palm Springs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess I\u2019ll see it when the rest of the world sees it in August,\u201d Petrey says.<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10561"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10643,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561\/revisions\/10643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10561"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=10561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}