My parents were Mormon, or at least claimed to be. Blake’s (my bio father) family was and my moms family was, so they both decided, Mormonism was for us. However, it was far from perfect. My mom married the first guy she dated. Mistake number one in my opinion. Blake…
Category: Family
Harvey Milk
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Hollywood is rolling out Harvey Milk, a tribute to the first openly elected gay man to a major office in the United States. The reviews of Harvey Milk are excellent. Sean Penn is supposed to be magnificent and the movie captures humanity of the gay…
Gary Lawrence: Familiarity breeds contempt (for Mormons)
Gary Lawrence, director of Proposition 8’s Mormon grassroots effort. The Brethren [the top echelon of Mormon leadership] have felt that the best way to organize and pass the Proposition is to have an Ecclesiastical arm and a Grassroots arm to the organization … The senior folks who run the grassroots…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Afterglow Edition!
What a beautiful Sunday morning! Actually it’s kind of cold and cloudy in Zürich, but I’m feeling warm rays of love coming in from all over Outer Blogness, as people post their personal photos and experiences from yesterday’s marches for equality. From Utah, from Seattle, from Hawaii, from Chicago. (Actually…
A Primatologist Looks at the FLDS
A real one this time!! (It’s not just me pretending to be a primatologist, as in my primatologist looks at the mathematical community post.) I was reading along in the book Parenting for Primates (which I discussed here and here), and I found that the author (Harriet J. Smith) devoted…
Peace, Order and Religious Freedom
In the wake of the reformation Europe was torn by religious wars for almost two centuries. France had the Huguenot wars, Britain the civil war between king and parliament, and in Germany, there was the 30 year war, which killed one third of the population. My home town was the…
Recovering Our Honor
Thank you, Barbara Young. Mormons owe you: I am very passionate about this issue and Steve is completely supportive of me and my work for eqaulity,” Barbara Young said in a statement to the Mercury News after midnight. “We both love our Church and are grateful that our Church encourages…
An Open Letter to the ‘nacle
Remember when you were upset last fall when one poll after another revealed that a substantial number of liberals applied a religious test to Mitt Romney? I tried to explain to you that people felt threatened by our involvement in racist and sexist discrimination. We resisted racial equality for 24…
A Post That’s Not About Gay Marriage (except it totally is)
I have a question for you believing Mormons out there (there are some of you who read this, right??? I hope). First, some exposition: With one (brilliant) exception (me), my immediate family members are all active Mormons. They are, however, split pretty much down the middle: my mother and sisters…
The Divine Institution of Marriage: A Rebuttal
On August 13, 2008, the Mormon church released a statement titled The Divine Institution of Marriage, explaining the reasons for its support of Proposition 8. The church’s statement is well-written and comprehensive, and it seems to invite open, rational discussion on the issue. However, many of its arguments are flawed….