Troy Through a Window By Brad Barber Entropy Productions, LDS Video Store, 2002. Genre: Film
Reviewed by: James Kent

James Kent, one of the national leaders of Affirmation, has provided the following comments about "Troy Through a Window", which we are forwarding with his permission:

I was recently asked to review the film Troy Through a Window. It was filmed, edited and produced by Brad Barber, a Senior student at BYU.

The subject matter is how his LDS family has dealt with the fact that one of their children/siblings, Troy, is gay. Troy came out to his family at the age of 23 in 1993. Troy is also a member of Affirmation.

This intimate, personal and just under one hour documentary takes place seven years later, during Christmas in 2000. Brad narrates as he interviews his parents, and his five siblings, including Troy. It is also full of childhood films which shows the Barber family growing up.

I found the video to be very neutral and balanced. There will be aspects of the film that will both please and annoy you, regardless of whether you or not you believe the doctrines of the LDS Church on homosexuality.

The two finest points I found were the issues of stereotyping any group of people is wrong and loving members of your family unconditionally is the ideal within every family.

The challenge the video makes is how do you respect and even accept someone with a completely different viewpoint and way of living than you have?

The best message of the video is dialogue communication, with the hope that somewhere between a call to repentance and total acceptance, a middle ground can be found. It is a tragedy when family members cast out their gay and lesbian members. It is also a tragedy when gays and lesbians cut their biological families out of their lives.

Troy has the advantage of being totally immersed in LDS Culture for at least 23 years, versus his family's very limited contact with openly gay people or very limited knowledge of gay issues.

The myth of missionaries being pulled out of San Francisco's Castro District because they were attacked by gays, rears its ugly head again. The corollary myth is that there are no LDS missionaries in San Francisco, because of its wicked gay population. These myths have existed for at least 25 years.

I would highly recommend this video to everyone of LDS Background.

This film is distributed by LDS Video Store: www.LDSVideoStore.com