A couple years ago, a member of the Bishopric in a previous ward shared how happy he is in the Church. He shared how happy the gospel makes him and his family. He finished it off with, “I don’t even…
Sadness
Tag: Personal Reflections
Identity or Attraction?
The central theme of the Circling the Wagons Conference held in Salt Lake in February of this year was relationship building. The focus of the conference was on developing a set of guiding principles or norms for people of differing…
Letting
Recently, I reconnected with an old friend from the ward I grew up in. He was a year ahead of me in the youth program. We are both gay. We began our conversation via Facebook messaging. But I sensed a…
Christmas Cards
Christmas has come and gone. It is now that carefree time between Christmas and New Year’s. The Christmas tree is still up and Christmas lights still adorn the house. There is a bit of a food hangover from family parties,…
Salt Lake LDS LGBT Mormon Social Devotional
This is the complete text of a talk I prepared for a gathering of about 75 LGBT/SSA Mormons and their family and allies in Salt Lake City on August 1, 2013. My husband Göran and I wore our wedding shoes,…
The Gay Mormon Ten Commandments
This post originated in an on-line conversation I had with a friend about LGBT community ethics in relation to coming out. There’s still tension within the LGBT Mormon community over the question of how “out” to be in the Church.…
Salvaging Our Humanity (and our Faith) from the Wreckage of Politics
Anybody who has been following the progress of Proposition 8 through the courts knew that the least likely outcome of the Supreme Court decision would be the one officially hoped for in the amicus brief filed by the Church, i.e.,…
Honor Thy Father
There are two conflicting scriptural messages about honoring parents. Of course, there is the fifth commandment: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:…
Living with Doubt
Doubt, I’ve learned, is a facet of life and of learning. When I was an active member of the Church, I wrestled with doubt in relation to my testimony. As a teenager (like many Christians throughout the ages) I wrestled…
Lessons from MLK for the Mormon LGBT Advocate – Part 1: Cleansing the Inner Vessel
In his second inaugural address two weeks ago, President Obama alluded to the Declaration of Independence and connected several major civil rights struggles in American history. He said, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –…