A Long Way From Heaven tells the story of the queer underground at Brigham Young University demanding their place in the sunlight. It focuses on the students who lit the school's iconic "Y" in rainbow colors, and the resulting fallout at a college with deep connections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Welcome to Brigham Young University – the school where students would rather drink a cup of boiling oil than a cold brew. But, there’s a lot more to the story here at the university. It’s a complicated conservative institution with a varied past, and has been historically highly oppressive to the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the school made international news when a group of students lit up the school’s iconic “Y Mountain” in rainbow colors in early 2020. This film outlines the history of queer treatment at BYU – the good (where it exists), the bad, and the very, very ugly. The film combines new, original footage with a huge variety of historical images, videos, newspaper articles, and other mixed media from every conceivable source to tell the story of BYU’s queer students, and the bravery and risks they constantly take to make their voices heard.
A Long Way From Heaven tells the story of the queer underground at Brigham Young University demanding their place in the sunlight. It focuses on the students who lit the school's iconic "Y" in rainbow colors, and the resulting fallout at a college with deep connections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Welcome to Brigham Young University – the school where students would rather drink a cup of boiling oil than a cold brew. But, there’s a lot more to the story here at the university. It’s a complicated conservative institution with a varied past, and has been historically highly oppressive to the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the school made international news when a group of students lit up the school’s iconic “Y Mountain” in rainbow colors in early 2020. This film outlines the history of queer treatment at BYU – the good (where it exists), the bad, and the very, very ugly. The film combines new, original footage with a huge variety of historical images, videos, newspaper articles, and other mixed media from every conceivable source to tell the story of BYU’s queer students, and the bravery and risks they constantly take to make their voices heard.