WATCH: Trailer released for Imagine Dragons singer’s LGBTQ documentary “Believer”
The documentary features Dan Reynolds questioning the Mormon Church's treatment of LGBTQ youth
The first trailer has been released for a new documentary that delves into the Mormon Church’s stance against LGBTQ people.
Dan Reynolds, frontman of rock band Imagine Dragons, is the host of Believer, named after the band’s 2017 hit song.
The HBO documentary will follow Reynolds as he sets up the Love Loud Festival, a pro-LGBTQ music festival in Salt Lake City to raise money for charity organizations. Believer will also feature Reynolds grappling with his Mormon upbringing and views on LGBTQ people.
“I can’t say that there was one event or one day where I suddenly woke up and said, ‘I wanna be a [LGBTQ] ally,’” the singer, 30, told Entertainment Weekly. “I think it was a lot of events over the course of my life that led me to be naturally very impassioned and feel like I could do something in a real way that could maybe help.”
While not LGBTQ himself, Reynolds has seen firsthand how the Mormon Church’s “spiritual abuse” of queer youth can have devastating consequences. Reynolds said that he has lost friends to suicide because they were told “God is mad at you.”
“I’m a Mormon who is not happy with where the church is at, and I know in fact that it’s hurting our youth and even killing our youth. Period,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds added that his family, which still embraces the Mormon faith, has experienced “nothing but grief” for him becoming an LGBTQ advocate, and says it feels like a fresh wound. “So, no, I’m not doing this for any purpose other than my heart and the universe tells me to do this,” he said.
Believer is intended to be a “fair” look at the church’s treatment of LGBTQ youth, and is being directed by Don Argott and produced by Live Nation Productions.
Believer is available to stream June 25 on HBO. Watch the trailer below:
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