A Family Faces the ‘Truth’ in Coming-Out Tale

“The Truth About Jane,” tonight on the Lifetime cable channel, is a sort of after-school special for parents as well as young people. As it tells the story of a family coming to terms with a daughter’s sexuality, it reminds us that a parent’s on-the-job training never ends--that there’s always more learning, more growing, for both parent and child to do.

At times, every line of this movie sounds like a platitude, spoken by just the right person, at just the right time. Yet as performed with passion and commitment by Stockard Channing and James Naughton, along with supremely talented young actress Ellen Muth, the show rings true in all the ways that count.

The story is narrated in voice-over by the teenage daughter, Jane (Muth), who breezily delivers such observations as: “If parents could Krazy Glue us to them, they would.”

After a quick look back at all the hope surrounding her entrance into the world, Jane brings us up to the present, as she enters high school.

Her mom (Channing) is a focused, involved parent--friendly and open, if at times neurotic and overprotective. Dad (Naughton) is constant and calm.

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The happy household is blown apart, however, when Jane’s younger brother (Kacy Clark) spies her kissing a female classmate (Alicia Lagano). Mom and Dad go into denial, with Jane briefly playing along, until she finds the courage to tell the truth. Fear, disappointment and disgust wash over Mom and Dad’s stunned faces, and though love struggles for the upper hand, both of them wig out. Jane, in turn, rebels.

Soon, mother and daughter, especially, are taking on ugly roles they never intended to play.

Terrified, Jane turns to her mom’s gay friend (RuPaul, out of drag as RuPaul Charles) and to a teacher (Kelly Rowan). They understand, as Mom and Dad don’t, that a parent’s rejection can be more painful to a gay child than all of the world’s slings and arrows.

Written and directed by Lee Rose, “The Truth About Jane” believes that a person’s love for someone of the same gender is, plain and simple, just love. And while that may alter the expectations of both parent and child, it shouldn’t change anything else.

Maybe you agree; maybe you don’t. Either way, this movie has something to say to you.

Lifetime advertises itself as “television for women,” but tonight, it’s television for everyone--for gay children and their parents, who need to know that they’re not alone; and for everyone else who cares about America’s families.

* “The Truth About Jane” plays tonight at 9 on Lifetime. The network has rated it TV-14-D (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14, with a special advisory for suggestive dialogue).