After years of being content to issue its inane edicts about gay people from the sidelines, the Catholic Church has spent the last four years actively repealing gay marriage rights.
It was a leading force to overturn gay-marriage laws in California in 2008 and Maine in 2009âfunneling cash from archdioceses around the country into Maineâand now it is barreling down on Washington State. This movie, which you must watch, contains footage from two documentarians who embedded themselves inside the opposing campaigns in Maine.
The first crucial moment in the film comes halfway through, when Marc Mutty, who manages public affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, expresses his queasiness about being ordered by the church to cochair the campaign repealing marriage equality. "This has been a fucking son of a bitch. This has been awful. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it," he says. He hates the tactics: attack ads with dildos and sex toys, hammering voters over the head with the threat that gay marriage and gay kissing will be taught in schools, declaring that society will abandon monogamy. So why is Mutty doing it? "We are at the mercy of the bishop. I would not have done it. This was none of my choosing." In other words, the Catholic Church is forcing him to do un-Catholic things. In Washington State, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain is aggressively leading the charge to repeal marriage rights this fall with Referendum 74 and may be equally willing to force his staff to deploy unscrupulous campaign tactics. That is, tactics so offensive, even Catholics say they're a "fucking son of a bitch."
Question One's second crucial moment comes at the end, whenâspoiler alert!âmarriage equality is struck down by Maine voters. The good guys lose, even though they thought they were going to win. Even though they thought, having watched a similar campaign the previous year in California, that they knew the other team's playbook. You need to watch them cry. You need to feel what losing is like.
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO LOSE THIS NOVEMBER?
No. Of course you don't. This movie will show you just how bad losing sucks and how much you're willing to make phone calls, volunteer, and write checks to dodge that bullet. You don't want to cry in Washington like they did in Maine. 
