PFLAG National Honors 'Tru Loved' With Focus on Equality Award

PFLAG National Honors 'Tru Loved' With Focus on Equality Award

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., July 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) has chosen to honor the film "Tru Loved" with its prestigious Focus on Equality Award. The leaders of PFLAG selected "Tru Loved" to receive this honor for its role as a leader in portraying positive images of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, as well as their families, friends and other straight allies.

"Seeing positive, healthy images of GLBT people and their families, along with the many challenges that they face, is critical in transforming hearts and minds," said Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG Executive Director. "'Tru Loved' does this perfectly, and shows how, alongside our straight allies, we all can create real change -- this is why they deserve PFLAG's Focus on Equality Award."

Huckaby will be on the set of the film on July 25th to meet with the cast and crew, and present director/writer/producer Stewart Wade with the award on the film's behalf; Huckaby will also participate in behind-the-scenes filming.

The production, shooting in locations all over Southern California, is written and directed by Stewart Wade ("Coffee Date") and produced by Wade, together with Antonio Brown and David Avallone. Eric Borsum, Eric Miller, S. Eugene Margolis and Marjorie Margolis are serving as executive producers. The Director of Photography is Howard Wexler.

The cast features Bruce Vilanch ("Hairspray"), Jane Lynch ("The 40 Year Old Virgin"), Jasmine Guy ("A Different World"), Matthew Thompson ("Drake and Josh"), Marcia Wallace ("The Simpsons"), Nichelle Nichols ("Star Trek"), Jake Abel ("Threshold"), Alec Mapa ("Desperate Housewives"), Cynda Williams ("Tales of the City"), Alexandra Paul ("Baywatch") and Najarra Townsend ("Me And You And Everyone We Know").

In "Tru Loved" sixteen-year-old Tru (Townsend) is uprooted by her lesbian moms (Paul and Williams), from her comfortable gay-friendly home in San Francisco and moved to a conservative, suburban community in Southern California. Her only friend is a closeted football player (Thompson) -- and even that friendship is jeopardized when Tru decides to start the school's first Gay-Straight Alliance. Production is scheduled to wrap on August 2, 2007. To learn more about "Tru Loved," visit www.truloved.com.

The film team, under Wade's leadership, has formed early partnerships with numerous civil rights organizations, including PFLAG as well as the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, the ACLU and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

About PFLAG -- Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is the nation's foremost family-based organization committed to the civil rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender persons. Founded in 1973 by mothers and fathers, PFLAG has 200,000 members and supporters in more than 500 chapters throughout the United States. To learn more, please visit www.pflag.org.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)

CONTACT: Antonio Brown, Producer of TRU LOVED, +1-323-656-8605,
abrownphd@gmail.com; or Adam Ratliff, Communications Coordinator of PFLAG
National, +1-202-467-8180, ext. 212, aratliff@pflag.org

Web Site:

http://www.pflag.org/
http://www.truloved.com/

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