Mormon Married And Gay ? [only Part 1]

Opinion

Married. Gay. And Mormon. (Part 1)

By Jana Riess | June 13, 2017

Source: http://religionnews.com

Readers might ask why your MesaZona blogger is featuring a post on this subject. Easy to respond since so much on this issue with LDS adherents is usually avoided from both internal and external discourse, except for recent items like Mormons ending their long-standing sponsorship here in Arizona for The Boy Scouts.
It's also been no secret at all that current Senator Jeff Flake and former Congressman Matt Salmon both have gay sons [Perhaps that is "a blessing" in-disguise ?]  who have been forced to undergo what's called conversion therapy.

What happens to Mormons who are gay and still have a strong testimony of LDS beliefs? Can they remain active in a church that claims to welcome them but whose policies have been—and continue to be—damaging?
In this guest post, journalism MFA student Kristin Lowe follows a same-sex couple over the course of four months as they move from Hawaii to Washington and learn that “bishop roulette” is very real in the LDS Church.

Because of length, I’m putting up the first section today and the conclusion tomorrow. — JKR
A guest post by Kristin Lowe with one excerpt. You can read the entire article by going to the link with the headline: "Nick and Spencer were born and raised Mormons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s no longer a sin to be Mormon and gay, but the church says it is a sin to act on same-sex attraction. Nick and Spencer are trying to navigate the largely uncharted territory of being gay and married and active in the LDS church.
By the church’s standards, they are living in sin and are subject to church discipline. When they got married in Hawaii, they lost the privileges of full membership in the church, and they were forced to accept painful restrictions—no partaking of the sacrament on Sundays, no callings in their ward, no temple attendance, and no wearing of sacred garments. . . "

 

About the author

Kristin Lowe is an active member of the LDS Church who loves her faith and her faith community. She is currently a MFA student in the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism studying narrative nonfiction writing, while also learning to embrace the beautiful mess of being a mother of five.