A Family Worth Knowing

Lavender Magazine in Minnesota brings us the story of the Reitans, one of the families featured in the documentary "For the Bible Tells Me So."

In times of crisis and in times of joy, a family comes together and rises
like a phoenix, overcoming its struggles as a united force. The Reitan
family—father, Philip; mother, Randi; children, Britta, Josh, Ben, and
Jacob—have faced personal, public, and political battles that have made them
stronger than ever. The obstacles and the triumphs have brought them to a point
where they can take on any challenge.

What makes the Reitans’s profile so compelling is how a quiet Lutheran
family from the Midwest had their lives transformed in the blink of an eye.
While the world at large can follow their story from the comfort of a theater
seat in less than two hours, the real story started 10 years ago, and continues
to unfold to this day. As a 15-year-old sophomore, Jacob, the youngest of four
children, first came out to his sister, Britta.

Jacob recalls, “My sister was home from her first year at college. It
was tremendously difficult for me to actually say I was gay. I think it is for
anybody the first time they come out. The act of doing so can feel like such a
Pandora’s box event. But despite my struggle to actually say the words, I felt
safe, because I knew my sister would be supportive of me. Time and again, before
my coming out, she made statements to me and others in support of gay rights. In
retrospect, those statements were so important in making me feel safe in my own
skin.”

Click here to read the rest of the story in Lavender Magazine.