On the Inside with a LGB Mormon

Let me introduce a friend who I met online, they are an active LGB member of the Mormon church. We’ll call them Jordan.

I have some questions for Jordan that I’d like to give their unfiltered responses to the readers.

My questions are bulleted and the answers from Jordan are put in italics.

• When I grew up in the church as a youth, we were taught in my culture that being gay was a choice. Today we see online some very orthodox members say the same thing. What has your experience been in the church? Do people express similar views?

I have a brother who still acts like he believes that being gay is a choice. Outside of him, the few members I've known who believed that, no longer seem to act that way after speaking with me. Whether or not they still believe it, I don't know, but most people's rhetoric and behavior around me softens after genuine conversation.

• I have a LGBT relative. Recently David A. Bednar said that “there are no homosexual members of the church”. What are your thoughts on that?

It makes me want to say not nice things about Elder Bednar. That remark from him was the spark that lit the fuse on a stick of dynamite in my family. Bednar wants to be seen as smarter/more insightful than he actually is.

• What is the greatest thing the church has given you as an LGBT person? What is the worst?

Growing up with the law of chastity has kept me from trying to find fulfillment in meaningless casual sex. On the flip side, it has also kept me from genuine human intimacy & connection.

• Do you have anything you would like to say to orthodox believing members who have LGBT relatives?

LGBT people need love and family as much as anyone else and are less likely to find those in the Church, so step up and fill in where you're needed in their lives, whether they admit that need or not.

The following questions were given by respondents on an X/Twitter post.

• I have been taught that in the next life we will be restored to our perfect state and the Proclamation on the Family implies that state will be a heterosexual one. As an LGB individual, how does this sit with you?

I think our current ideas of sexuality and sexual identity, including what is found in the Family Proclamation, are woefully inadequate metrics by which to measure a celestial experience.

• As an LGB individual do you feel God loves you and values you just the way you are?

Yes.

• What as been your impressions for what he is most concerned with for you and your life?

Becoming more like Him, whether that includes straightness or not.