I’ve been following the same-sex marriage debate on the legal front since the days of Prop 8. In 2010, Judge Walker gave his damning ruling that “a gender restriction on marriage is nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic…
Category: Homosexuality
Thoughts on RFRAs and Nondiscrimination
Renewed interest in Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (e.g., Indiana, Arkansas) has arisen because everyone knows the US Supreme Court will okay gay marriage for the country in a few months. Conservative religious people and entities want to be in a comfortable position when this uncomfortable reality hits — they want…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: New directions edition!
This week’s biggest topic was Elder Christofferson’s talk about how it’s now (sort of?) OK for faithful Mormons to support gay marriage. See this great analysis: Oops, he does go ahead and mention that by short term he really means “all of mortal life†– and then he doesn’t bother…
LDS Church becoming more and more Orwellian on gay issues
The Presbyterian Church voted today to alter its stance on marriage: Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives. This is the kind of definition that attempts to blend the old with…
Should “My Husband’s Not Gay” Air?
The president of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), Sarah Kate Ellis, has argued that the new TLC show “My Husband’s Not Gay” should not air. She says This show is downright irresponsible. No one can change who they love, and, more importantly, no one should have to. A…
Mormonism, Christianity and Queer Politics
Someone recently brought to my attention an atheist post about how “Jesus was not a queer ally,” how the writer “can’t take LGBT-affirming Christianity seriously” and “why queer spaces must remain secular.” The post covers a lot of important nuances. Looking briefly at my past writings about the intersection between…
The Church asks its gay members to water-down doctrine
The LDS gay community has had ideological ties with the evangelical gay community for many years. Both groups went through an “ex-gay” phase from the 1980s to the 2000s and now both groups are in a phase of “you can be gay, just don’t act on it” after the near…
Women’s Ordination and Gay Equality – How They’re Connected
I’ve made this case before, in most detail in my 2011 Dialogue article “Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads,” that women’s roles in the Church and gay equality in the Church are intimately connected. This is not just a conceptual connection…historically, the Church has treated the two issues as though…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Gay Agenda Edition!!!
I am so glad to be living in the Internet age!! There is so much fun stuff that happens today that just wasn’t even possible before the Internet. Case in point, a Mormon lady posted about the gay agenda in the Disney movie Frozen — and the whole Internet blossomed…
Three Gay Mormon Organizations Become Two
Three gay Mormon organizations are now two, as of January 1st, 2014. North Star has absorbed Evergreen International. Here is a brief history to contextualize this absorption: The first gay Mormon organization, Affirmation, was founded in 1977. It was “against” the Church in that, back in the 1970s, one could…