LGBTQ-affirming insights from “When Church Is Hard” - Part 1/4
The first thing you need to know about Tyler Johnson’s book When Church is Hard is that it is published by Deseret Book. Yeah. The Church’s publishing arm cleared the following quotes for public distribution.
Here are a few that are particularly relevant to the LDS LGBTQ intersection.
Life inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has always been easier for some people than for others. If you are a straight white man with even a slight inclination toward religion, life in the Church can easily be fulfilling, expansive, and intuitive. If, however, you are gay, or Black, or a woman, or single, or an immigrant, or imprisoned, or any of a long list of other identities—then life inside the Church can be much more difficult. I am not suggesting that those who belong to any of those groups cannot find fulfillment within the Church. I am saying, however, that fulfillment may not be as straightforward.
Social media empowers people to tell their stories. If much of history has featured tales about old straight white men—and a press whose controls were most often wielded by those same people—the twenty-first century has seen the proliferation of microphones.
Hear hear for those microphones! Here’s my personal Top Five list of LGBTQ people telling their own stories in alpha order, plus a bonus:
Charlie Bird, Without the Mask and Expanding the Borders of Zion
Meghan Decker, Tender Leaves of Hope: Finding Belonging as LGTBQ Latter-day Saint Women
Laurie Lee Hall, Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman
Nathan Kitchen, The Boughs of Love: Navigating the Queer Latter-day Saint Experience During an Ongoing Restoration
Ben Schilaty, A Walk in My Shoes: Questions I’m Often Asked as a Gay Latter-day Saint (in English and Spanish)
BONUS: ally Richard Ostler’s Listen, Learn and Love series. Also check out his Substack with his current thinking about matters such as masturbation, supporting a trans loved one, etc. (Humble disclosure: I’m one of his editors.)
One more quote from Tyler Johnson:
For many decades, LGBTQ Church members have found themselves at the precise intersection of an exquisitely painful constellation of cultural, religious, historical, and personal forces. They have suffered deeply for many years, and, before the last decade or so, often did so in silence.
While the silent suffering continues for many, I’m pleased to see so many queer Latter-day Saints claiming their voices and blessing us with their profound insights. I’m also grateful for those who listen.
-Marci