Outfest 2011: Don’t miss the outstanding “With You” which recounts life of gay 9/11 hero Mark Bingham

Watched a DVD screener of the documentary With You the other night about the life of 9/11 hero Mark Bingham. With the 1oth anniversary of that terrible day coming up, this is a timely tribute to a man who was among the heroes on United Flight 93. I heartily recommend you catch tonight’s screening of the film at Outfest. [Ticket info HERE].

It is such a wonderful thing that so much video exists of Bingham from throughout what looks to have been a very full and happy life. We see him in younger years then on the rugby field, in college, on trips abroad and through the eyes of his dynamic mother, Alice Hoagland, who is really something special. You will wish you had her in your life!

My friend Karen Ocamb has posted an in-depth interview with Alice on her blog LGBT POV. Here are a few highlights:

“For me watching that film was the very first time seeing many scenes in my son’s life,” she said of With You. “It was really wonderful in that respect.”

Hoagland also candidly conceded – as she does in the film – that it was difficult for her to accept Mark’s homosexuality when he first came out:

“When my son first told me, my subconscious mind just rejected it. I acknowledged and believed it on an intellectual level but it took me a while to really come to grips with it and accept it. And when I did, in a matter of months, I guess, I became grateful then that Mark had enough confidence in me and love for me and thought enough of me that he wanted me to be one of the first people in his life to know something very fundamental and true about himself. Even though he knew that my attitudes towards gays was vague and not accurate. I would say that I was vaguely antigay –imbued with stereotypes. I’ve had to fight through that. I am one of those lucky human beings that has done an about face and rejected a lie and embraced the truth. But I wish I had had the courage and goodness of heart to do that on my own.

But it took my son to do that for me by acknowledging, by telling me – challenging my stereotypes and telling me, “Mom, I’m gay.” Because of him, I have gone on a different journey in my life. And with all the important things in my life – and all the accomplishments that I have – most of them have been because I had a little boy who grew up to be a man who set me on an important life’s quest.”

Here is a LINK to the rest of Karen’s interview and below is the film’s trailer: