Prayers for Bobby: Drama. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Ryan Kelley and Henry Czerny. Directed by Russell Mulcahy. Written by Katie Ford. Based on the book by Leroy Aarons. 9 p.m. Saturday on Lifetime cable channel.
If "Prayers for Bobby," airing Saturday and based on the book by the late Leroy Aarons, is a tearjerker, it's not only because it's a Lifetime original film, and that's what the network does, but because the true story of Bobby Griffith is tragic.
Twenty-six years ago, when Bobby Griffith threw himself to his death from a Portland, Ore., overpass, there were fewer options for young gay and lesbian people than there are now. But even if the Walnut Creek youth were living today, it's unlikely his life would be any easier. That's because Bobby never found acceptance within his own family and, above all, from his mother, Mary, whose fundamentalism told her that her son was a sinner and that he would burn in hell unless he resisted "temptation."
Bobby kept detailed diaries which, as quoted in Aarons' book, gave the boy a voice he never had in life: "I've overheard (family members). They've said they hate gays, and even God hates gays, too. Gays are bad, and God sends bad people to hell. It really scares me when they talk that way because now they are talking about me," Bobby wrote.
From SF Chronicle (read the rest)
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