The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Black, Dustin Lance. Mama's Boy: A Story from Our Americas. New York: Borzoi Books, 2019.

As a child, Lance was taught by his mother, Anne, that Los Angeles was a place for "sinners and moral relativists" (3). However, he would eventually come to call that city home. Over the years of their relationship, Lance and his mother had learned to bridge the distances between them. In the prologue, she suddenly collapses and Lance rushes to make it to her side at the hospital.

Anne contracted a severe case of polio as a young child and was left permanently disabled and in need of crutches. Despite her physical reality and the protestations of her doctors, she was determined to achieve everything she wanted in life including a career and a family of her own. Anne eventually met and married a Mormon man named Raul Garrison, who would father her three children, Marcus, Lance, and Todd. Anne became a devout Mormon but Raul's infidelity led to the end of the marriage and his abandonment of their entire family, including his three sons. Lance assumed a sense of responsibility at this time and became the man of the house and his mother's protector. From a young age, Lance was taught that homosexuality was a very serious sin, and, knowing that he was gay, he sought to conceal this secret of which he was ashamed. This negatively impacted his mental health and happiness a great deal. Lance suffered from panic attacks, crippling shyness, and suicidal ideation at various times throughout his childhood. When he was eight years old, his mother met and married Merrill Black. Merrill soon became physically abusive toward both Anne and Lance; this relationship led to a series of very unhappy and unsafe years for Lance's family. Eventually, Anne met a new man named Jeff and divorced Merrill. Anne and Jeff married and the family moved to California when Jeff was transferred for work.

At high school in California, Lance developed a close friendship with Ryan, whom he suspected was also closeted. Lance became involved with community theatre and decided to move to Los Angeles to study film at university. Ryan moved with him and eventually came out to Lance after a period of struggling with his one closetedness. Lance remained closeted for a while longer before finally coming out to Ryan and getting involved in the local LGBTQ+ community. Returning home for Christmas, Lance tried to remain closeted to his family but was moved to come out when his mother started demonstrating her homophobia in response to the recent introduction of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy. They were ultimately unable to build any bridges between their differences on that trip.

Anne came to visit Lance for his graduation and met many of his LGBTQ+ friends, who shared their personal stories with her, not knowing her feelings about homosexuality. After hearing these stories, Anne's opinion and understanding completely changed and she became an LGBTQ+ ally. After realizing the power of the personal story, Lance decided to dedicate his career to telling the stories of diverse people who have been mistreated. This eventually led him to write and produce the film Milk which would win him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In this acceptance speech at the Oscars, Lance promised the LBGTQ+ of America that they would soon have equal rights, federally across the country. The promise set Lance on a course of serious activism. Working with others, he set out to repeal Proposition 8 which denied LGBTQ+ people equal marriage rights in California. They succeeded in this endeavor but their ultimate goal was to take a case to the Supreme Court so that LGBTQ+ across the country would all have equal rights.

Meanwhile, Lance's brother Marcus came out to him. Seeing the discrimination that Marcus faced while living in other parts of the country, compared to the relative equality Lance himself experienced in California, is a big part of what prompted Lance to want to take the fight for equality to the federal level. Many prominent LGBTQ+ activists disagreed with this strategy, fearing that failure at the federal level would set back the movement and impede further progress. Lance was undeterred, however, believing that the fight for true equality should not be delayed or postponed. This belief of Lance's was in part motivated by the fact that his brother Marcus was diagnosed with advanced cancer around this time and soon passed away, never having felt truly accepted by the country he loved so much. Lance and his colleagues persisted in taking their case to the Supreme Court and were ultimately successful in securing equal marriage rights at the federal level.

Having accomplished some major and very difficult goals, Lance set out to build bridges in his life. He reconnected with his conservative extended family and began engaging positively with the Mormon community to begin dismantling the homophobia in that community and connecting it with the LGBTQ+ community. Anne passed away suddenly when Lance was home for a visit, leaving her grieving son with the message that he should continue to fight for her life. To do this, he intends to stay in the fight for an America that is accepting of diversity and difference.

In the epilogue, Lance writes that he married his husband Thomas in 2017 and they welcomed a baby boy into their family in 2018.