Outfest has just started in LA, and one of the films screening is the documentary Mississippi: I Am, about the hope that the endemic homophobia in the conservative Christian State can change, using the experience of N*Sync singer Lance Bass (a Mississippi native) as a case study. You can see the trailer above and there’s an Outfest interview with Lance below.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘In 2006, ‘NSync’s Lance Bass came out publicly as gay. Once the “most beloved son” of his home state of Mississippi, he was instantly rejected and his hopes that Mississippi could ever embrace change were dashed. Four years later, the story of a Mississippi youth made national headlines. Constance McMillen was suing her school for denying her the right to go to prom with her girlfriend.
‘Something was shifting in one of the most socially conservative places in America. This gave Lance, and so many others, a glimmer of hope for change in the state they call home. Mississippi: I Am examines the relatively new battle on the part of primarily young LGBT people to bring gay civil rights and visibility out in the open and beyond division.’