Blessings of the PIE to Pride season to you and your beloved community! We are excited to invite you to our Pacific Mountain Region-wide screening of the documentary “Mama Bears”. This screening follows the multiple local screenings that took place around the region in March for PIE Day, and it is opening the way forward to our Affirming Ministry Advocacy Evening at the PMR AGM on May 30th.
This inspiring film follows the lives and journeys of mothers, children and women who are navigating faithful lives in a climate of institutionalized Christian homophobia and transphobia. There are so many beautiful moments in this film, and we would love to draw your attention to the advocacy and action themes throughout. We will be picking up some of these threads in our AGM workshop, as well as encouraging discussion and visioning along these lines at our online screening on May 21, 2025 at 6:00 pm Pacific Time.
Our screening will be facilitated through zoom, so register as an individual, as a community of faith, as an Affirming Committee, or as a group of friends. Watch together and either stick around for our discussion online after the film, or feel free to use the Mama Bears Discussion Guide to facilitate your own discussion in your own space. We are thrilled to connect and support.
Register for this Zoom screening at the link below, and please share widely! We look forward to seeing you there.
PMR Regional Mama Bears Online Screening
Information about the film:
Mama Bears
2022 | USA | 90 min
ABOUT THE FILM
Did you know there are more than 32,000 mothers in America, many from conservative, Christian backgrounds, who fully accept their LGBTQ+ children? They call themselves “mama bears” because while their love is warm and fuzzy, they fight ferociously to make the world kinder and safer for all LGBTQ+ people.
LONG SYNOPSIS
MAMA BEARS is an exploration of the journeys taken by Sara Cunningham and Kimberly Shappley, two “mama bears”—conservative, Christian mothers whose profound love for their LGBTQ+ children has turned them into fierce advocates for the entire queer community—and Tammi Terrell Morris, a young African American lesbian whose struggle for self-acceptance perfectly exemplifies why the mama bears are so vitally important.
MAMA BEARS is the story of women who have allowed nearly every aspect of their lives to be completely reshaped by love. Although they may have grown up as fundamentalist, evangelical Christians, mama bears are willing to risk losing friends, family, and faith communities to keep their children safe—even if it challenges their belief systems and rips their worlds apart.
Once Kimberly accepted her transgender daughter, Kai, she quickly transformed from a Tea Party Republican to an award-winning “LGBTQ Activist of the Year” as she joined forces with the ACLU and Equality Texas to battle the anti-trans bathroom bill that would prevent her child from using the girls’ bathroom in their small Texas hometown.
Sara went from repeatedly forcing her gay son, Parker, to deny his sexuality to not only embracing him, but founding Free Mom Hugs, a national movement of mothers offering love, acceptance, and hugs to the LGBTQ+ community. With the support of the mama bears, founded by Liz Dyer, Tammi—who knew she was gay as a little girl—went from marrying a man to “earn the promise of heaven” to learning to live her truth as a proud lesbian.
Shot in a poetic, deeply intimate style, MAMA BEARS uses social media posts, home movies, photographs, interviews, and cinema verité footage to explore the complex intersections of politics, religion, faith, and true, unconditional love.
You can find more information about Mama Bears at the following links:
The Film Collective : https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films/mamabears
The Mama Bears website: https://mamabearsdoc.com/
This film comes with available promotional material and a discussion guide aimed at encouraging community groups and communities of faith to actively advocate for Trans rights, Trans safety, and Trans joy
In solidarity,
Kendra Mitchell-Foster
Regional Minister: Justice, Pacific Mountain Regional Council
KMitchellFoster@united-church.ca
1-800-934-0434 (within BC) or +1-604-431-0434
Lheidli T’enneh Territory
Prince George, BC
PacificMountain.ca/Justice-Network