Mama's Boy: A Story from Our Americas

Raised in a conservative Mormon home in the American South, Dustin Lance Black's mother, Anne, had polio as a child and endured years of hospital visits and brutal surgeries. Reliant on crutches for the rest of her life, Anne refused to be defined by the disease; she went to college and forged a successful career for herself whilst also raising a family and surviving two abusive marriages. When Black came out to Anne at the age of 21, the close mother and son began a difficult journey together, reconciling her conservative, Mormon belief system with his new life as an openly gay man. By the time he won an Academy Award in 2009, she accompanied him proudly on the red carpet, wearing the white ribbon in support of same-sex marriage. Her support & encouragement led him to fight for marriage equality overturning California's Proposition 8, reach out to Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City, and re-embrace his family in Texarkana.