Marie Rothenberg Hafdahl, David Rothenberg’s mother, has been filmed, photographed, videotaped, and interviewed relentlessly by the world’s press. She has received thousands of cards, letters, and telegrams from well-wishers around the world wanting to know more. In response, with the assistance of prize-winning filmmaker, television producer, former pastor, and best-selling author, Mel White, Marie recounted her son’s fight for life as only a mother can in her book David’s Story.
Winner of the ACLU’s National Civil Liberties Award, the Rev. Dr. Mel White has served the Christian community for thirty years as a pastor, professor, author, filmmaker, and ghost writer to some of the nation’s most powerful religious figures. After a thirty-year struggle to “overcome his homosexuality” through various “therapies” from exorcism to electric shock, Dr. White finally accepted his sexual orientation as “a gift from God.” In writing his best-selling autobiography, Stranger at the Gate: to be Gay and Christian in America, Dr. White came out of his closet to bring hope and healing to his GLBTQ sisters and brothers and to begin his own justice ministry on their behalf. With Gary Nixon, his partner (husband) since 1984, he co-founded Soulforce, a network of volunteers across the U.S. using the tools of nonviolence to help end religion-based oppression.
