Given unprecedented pre-release attention by leading civil rights organizations and students at early screenings, a number of festivals including Los Angeles LGBT fest Outfest, mainstream Breckenridge Festival of Film, and NewFest: The 20th Anniversary New York LGBT Film Festival (where the film was programmed for opening night on June 5th), have made their selection of “Tru Loved” – the inspiring new family-friendly film about LGBTQ youth and their families – as a highlight of their 2008 fests. From there, the film has now moved into theatrical release and opens in South Florida at Fort Lauderdale's Gateway Cinema on Friday November 21st.

The key to understanding and appreciating this film is to view it through a teenagers eyes.

The story revolves around a high school girl, Tru, whose moms (hopefully you get that) move from San Francisco to some common Southern California suburbia and ends up in a high school filled with stereotypical jocks and queers. Like all teens, Tru struggles to fit in and find love. Her pursuit is complicated by sexual politics, closed minds, and an in the closet friend who attempts to make her his "Katie Holmes."

After getting her bearings and support from everyone on the faculty, except a gay teacher's, Tru establishes a Gay-Straight Alliance.

Tru often escapes into fantasies that when played out on film serve to distract from the storyline. The fantasies are often the film's weakest moments; in most cases they are relevant to something that immediately preceded them, but in one case I found myself laughing out loud at an amateurish production of a scene from Grease. I don't think I was supposed to laugh. Once Tru comes back from her fantasy moment, nothing about the reality of her circumstances has changed and she is not any more enlightened than she was before.

Eventually, the star Quarterback at her high school begins to pay attention to her. At first she is ecstatic, thinking a relationship is about to blossom. In the end she finds out what every gay person watching the film new right away, he is yet just another closet case looking for support. My Gaydar went off the minute I saw him.

Ultimately the situation with the closeted athlete requires her to examine the value of their faux boyfriend- girlfriend relationship while she is at the same time preaching LGBT Equality through the Gay-Straight Alliance she formed at her school.

The film wraps up in a scene of queer bliss with the quarterback dancing with a Gay kid he used to pick on at school. In walk his best friends, out loud and unrepentant homophobes, who suddenly find him dancing cheek to cheek with the frequent object of their contempt. What do they do? You'll have to see the film and find out. Sorry, I try not to spoil endings.

While the film has a few weak fantasy moments, overall it succeeds in teaching tolerance to its intended audience. As an adult it seems that respect for LGBT people should be taken for granted, but after Prop 8, Amendment 2 and the result of an election that offered hope for another disenfranchised segment of America, and nothing for Gay people, it looks like we need a lot more movies with messages like Tru Loved!