Sometimes in the LGBT Mormon sphere there is silence and then there is noise. The last few days have been noisy. A video about the Xian, Becky, and Scott Mackintosh family was added to LDS Church website(s) in multiple places including mormonandgay.org and the lds.org homepage. Bryce Cook of ALL Arizona posted an extensive overview of the gay Mormon conundrum. Apparently, a soon-to-be-released Ensign article suggests same-sex marriage is a counterfeit of opposite-sex marriage. I viewed the Mackintosh video and read Bryce’s paper, but I have not read the Ensign article and do not plan to. Continue reading →

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In a stunning turn of events, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints publicly endorsed polygamy as genuine marriage and called all civil marriages counterfeit marriage in the April 2017 Ensign.

For perhaps the first time since the second Manifesto, the Church has openly endorsed polygamy as only one of two genuine forms of marriage. Continue reading →

The Church’s recent release of a video showing North Star International Board member Becky Mackintosh’s family loving and accepting their openly gay son Xian has caused much discussion in social media.

While many laud this video as a step in the right direction, and indeed a lifesaving step in the right direction, it smacks as hypocritical to many LDS LGBT who see the “open door” love and acceptance modeled in this video slam shut on an institutional level when the church rejects the LDS LGBT children of these families when they legally marry.

They are getting closer to telling our stories, but they aren’t getting it completely.

This video may be an important development, but a far greater gift to the LDS LGBT community was quietly rolled out late last night that deserves both our full attention and gratitude.

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I just had my piano tuned by someone I would consider a master of his craft. I found him by chance in the grocery store parking lot last Tuesday. He had a decal advertising his profession on his vehicle.

In conversing with him while loading groceries into my car, I found he comes to town once a year from Montana for a couple of weeks to stay with family and while he is here he tunes pianos to pass the time. I asked him to please come over.  Continue reading →

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Psalm 51:17

A familiar anthem rises universally in LGBT writings and speech. It is the triumphant declaration: “I am not broken!” Sometimes at our most vulnerable moments in life we need to hear from others “You are not broken” before the actualization of this powerful statement independently ignites in our soul.

So much surrounds us that wants to extinguish this idea. Perhaps no one knows this better than our LDS LGBT. While each coming out story is unique, every gay Mormon passes universal milestones common to every such journey. One common milestone is the point at which you realize you are different from your typical peers at church. Continue reading →

Most LDS church leaders will agree with the official church position that a homosexual orientation is not a choice or a sin, though there are far too many bishops and stake presidents in the church who won’t even agree with that. But even in official church teachings, they always follow on by saying that acting on those attractions IS a choice and a sin.

For instance, talking about homosexual orientation, Elder M. Russell Ballard stated: “Let us be clear: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that the experience of same-sex attraction…itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them.” (italics added)

While I agree that all members, straight and gay, have the God-given power of agency to choose how they respond to any situation, straight people are not qualified to make a judgement on this topic as it relates to gay members. Continue reading →