When it was announced that "8: The Mormon Proposition" was to be screened as part of the Sundance Film Festival, I knew that it needed to be the lead story for our Sundance coverage. Despite being more than a year since the passing of Proposition 8 and the subsequent protests, the topic of gay rights has been a constant subject of conversation in the news, in the church and around the office. This, however, was not the reason I sought out an interview with Reed Cowan, the film's director and former Salt Lake resident and television personality. My reason was of a more personal nature, which I hope you will forgive me for.

In September of 1983 my father, who for much of his life had been the epitome of a "good Mormon boy," died in Salt Lake City's LDS Hospital. He had been the first patient in Utah to be diagnosed with AIDS. He was also the first to die from the disease. Yes, he was gay, and like Cowan he had tried to overcome his sexuality to fit within the teaching of the church that he whole-heartedly believed in.

"You really sincerely think, 'Oh my God, if I get married and try hard it will go away,' " Cowan explains. "So I married a beautiful young girl and tried my best to be what she needed me to be. Unlike a lot of men, I was faithful and didn't cheat. It was a very difficult marriage and she finally made the decision to leave. I loved her deeply and I still love her."

As an active member of the LDS Church and the son of a wonderful, kind and loving father who was gay, I have watched with a great sadness an ugly sense of contention make its way between the LDS and gay communities. My beautiful friends, once made up of light and kindness, have been transformed into unrecognizable people filled with anger and bitterness. This is not how we were meant to live.

In preparing for our interview, I was somewhat surprised to learn that "8: The Mormon Proposition" wasn't the film that Cowan set out to make. His only objective initially was to tell the stories from the LGBT community that had gone untold. His film was focusing on the homeless youth of Salt Lake City who have been forced from their homes after coming out as gay to their families.

"But then, of course, Prop. 8 was happening, the fallout and the investigation was happening and I thought if the value is telling the story that is not being told, we have to tell the whole story," Cowan says.

The whole story is Mormon teachings about gay people, how they are spoken about from the pulpit, how these opinions become public policy and the effect these teachings have on the lives of other people.

"I just saw wrongs being committed, and I felt like if someone didn't step up and put the accusations and allegations on record then they would eventually be forgotten. I'm a great believer in having the truth on record. I think that it serves all parties. It might be painful for [the LDS Church] right now but it will eventually serve them to have this on record," he says.

Cowan admits that the film has not been easy to make, and not just because of the stories about homeless kids, families destroyed, suicides and the pains of having basic human rights stripped away.

"It has been very difficult on my family who are very active LDS. It has had a damaging effect on my family relationships. It has also been very painful because I was a well-liked and well-thought-of anchor and reporter in Salt Lake City and my sense of it is that all of that is gone now. I'm not liked -- hated in certain circles," he says.

While in Utah, Cowan was not only a popular anchor for "Good Morning Utah," he was also a well-respected advocate for children and helped draft the first legislation in Utah aimed at stopping bullying in schools. He was asked by Mary Kaye Huntsman to help create the "Power in You" organization that focuses on at-risk teens.

In April of 2006, Cowan was sent to cover the accidental death of a young boy's hanging. Upon arrival Cowan realized that the young boy was his son, Wesley. Following his son's tragic death, Cowan started the "The Wesley Smiles Coalition" to work along with "Free the Children" to build schools, water treatment facilities and medical clinics in Africa.

"All of that was completely obliterated because of people's opinions about my decision to do the same thing [by making this film], which is to step up when there is a need," he says.

Cowan knows that getting members of the LDS Church to see "8: The Mormon Proposition" is going to be difficult because the film had already been perceived as an exploitive and slanderous attack, which Cowan insists it isn't, rather an effort to bring the truth out into the light.

"It has been a very painful thing because you know that I was once a Mormon. When I was in that mindset, anybody who had a contrarian's view I was quick to label and dismiss as 'anti.' I didn't stop to listen to what they were saying. That's painful for me to see that the message, the set of facts and allegations that we have, won't be seen by some because they are too quick to judge and dismiss," he says.

In speaking with Cowan, it is clear to me that purpose of the film is not to start a quarrel but a plea to those who oppose gay rights to open a dialogue with the gay community and abandon the conventional ideology that gay people are inherently lesser beings because of their sexual orientation.

"Anytime the rights of a person are compromised, it is because we dehumanize them," he explains. "When I work with anti-bullying, I say, 'You have to dismantle a human being and make them unlike you, make them inhuman, in order to take away from them.' Because if a person who is looking you in the eye is your equal, your spiritual inclination is to feed them, to help and shelter them. If you are able to dismantle them, it is easier for you to take from them."

So how do we move forward? Cowan suggests that we start seeing and hearing each other.

"That needed to happen a long time ago and because it didn't happen now there is damage," he adds.

I ask whether there is too much damage to overcome or if he can see a way to enter into a peaceful dialogue.

"A great deal of trust has been broken. We're in a painful place in history where wrongs have been done and lives destroyed and yet we have this spiritual mandate to put it all back together again, to fix and rise above it all. It is as difficult for me to do that as somebody who perhaps has been victimized physically and emotionally for so long they no longer have trust anymore. But I am willing to try," he says. "In my mind I have a picture of what needs to happen and it is so big that I am doubtful that it can ever happen."

Cowan suggests that there is a lesson to be learned here and that is that we are all children of God and that includes gay and Mormons alike. He says that we all come into the world with the same need to be loved.

"We have to find that compassion or we're going to fail and hurt each other," he says.

Considering the perceived distance that exists between the gay and LDS communities, I ask what Cowan would like to see come from a dialogue, with the understanding that it is unlikely that the Church will change their stance on same-sex marriage.

"Don't change your position on marriage, but also don't stand up in front of an audience of young people and discuss how homosexuality is an abomination," he says. "I would hope that eventually they would erase that from their dogma because it destroys people and it destroys families."

For years I was told about how "the gays" were pedophiles with insatiable sexual appetites that would bring about the end of the world. I was fortunate enough to know better. My father was not a perfect man but he certainly was not the shepherd of the apocalypse. Young Mormons who believe they might be gay aren't nearly as fortunate. They are forced to develop their sense of self from misinformation and shameless propaganda.

As human beings, we cannot forget that disapproval and a sense of fear does not justify the stripping of a person's inherent rights. The Constitution was written to ensure that all people, regardless of belief or practice, would be granted the same opportunities and privileges. The real slippery slope is to begin to strip away the rights of minority groups simply because we disagree with them. We must learn to trust each other with the freedoms we have been granted and hope for the best rather than expecting the worst.