Several months ago, we posted about a video that was going viral at the time, called “It Could Happen To You.” It was the story of a married couple named Shane Bitney Crone and Tom Bridegroom, told by Shane one year after Tom suddenly died. It was not only devastatingly sad, but it also highlighted exactly what all too many gay couples go through because we’re not yet treated equally under the law.
Towleroad reports that soon after, a team of producers led by the wonderful Linda Bloodworth Thomason [Little Rock, represent!] decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to turn it into a full documentary:
“The prejudice and bigotry that Shane and Tom experienced was not unlike what I witnessed in 1986 when my mother died of transfused AIDS,” said Bloodworth Thomason.
It’s broken all the Kickstarter records for film:
BRIDEGROOM, the documentary about tragedy befalling a gay couple and the inequalites that result from a lack of marriage protections, has become the highest funded film in the history of Kickstarter.com. The fundraising website, which has helped to finance more than 7,400 films, confirmed that the indie documentary about marriage equality surpassed all previous fundraising efforts by netting $384,375 in four weeks.
The entire story of BRIDEGROOM is a testament to the power of social media. On the one-year anniversary of his partner Tom’s death, Shane Bitney Crone posted a video to YouTube entitled, “It Could Happen to You.” The video takes the viewer on a ten-minute journey through Shane and Tom’s relationship, their commitment to marry if it were to become legal in their state (California), their attacks and rejection from Tom’s family, Tom’s tragic death, and refusal from both the government and Tom’s family to recognize their relationship.
Fantastic. Here’s the original video if you haven’t seen it. Grab Kleenex.
OK PTSD notwithstanding, this DID happen to me three years ago. We were together 24 years. There was no gruesome accident though. It was as mundane as me taking a trip to the grocery store and a brain hemorrhage claiming my other half while I was gone for the 45 minutes. He was brain-dead, but the hospital had to keep him on life support until his sister could fly to Florida from Chicago to sign the paperwork. Given her frailty and advanced age, this took a week to get arrangements made.
His family was very good about the whole thing with me, and the hospital did the little that they could to accommodate me, which was basically to be a little flexible with the visitation arrangements in ICU, but that was about it. I got no support from social workers, hospice, grief counselling, etc.
The only saving grace was his sister, niece, and nephew. They were far more supportive than even my own family, which is how my story differs from this one. Even with that, it was far and away the most traumatic thing I’ve ever been through.
I can’t even imagine how terrible this must have been for this poor guy. Loss of a spouse is one of the most difficult things anyone ever has to go through, with the possible exception of loss of a child.
How could have such horrible cold blooded parents produced such a wonderful son?!
This video made a puddle out of me. I don’t know what it has to take, for anyone to understand, there is nothing gained by being spiteful and cruel to gay people.
And to do so in a time of pain, crisis and vulnerability takes a lower form of cowardice.
Family values, indeed.
And the people who most need to see this, I dare to see it.