- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
My friend, Wendy Montgomery, who has a gay son and is very active with her family in the lds church has been working hard to bring about change towards gays in the lds church. She and her family have been a part of the Trevor Project and did a film for them for lds families called Families are Forever. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Families-are-Forever-FAP-Video/460672370675560 Wendy posted: “ I just learned that this past Sunday in our area there was a tri-stake youth fireside (HUNDREDS OF TEENS IN ATTENDANCE) where the speaker (a man who is currently a high councilman in our stake, and was previously our stake YM president, and also served in our Stake presidency) gave a talk on “avoiding the evils of our day.” He then went on an anti-gay rant, and said things like, “If you’re gay, you have a devil inside you.”
This is a man whose wife has openly and personally… attacked me, and my son – on FB, in meetings and other places (incidentally she did this while she was stake YW president). Thank heavens my son was not at this fireside! But this man didn’t know he wasn’t there! And how many other gay kids (or kids who have gay loved ones) were there? Statistically speaking, there were dozens at least!
This is absolute hate-speech. I am devastated and I am raging. We have fought SO HARD for 2 years to bring understanding to our stake. NOTHING has changed. NOTHING is better. And now hundreds of kids have the message that they are either possessed, their loved ones are possessed, or to run away and shun those who they think might be possessed with devils! Everything he said runs contrary to the church’s website on Mormons and gays. Where is Christ in this message? Where is the love and inclusion Pres. Uchtdorf spoke of in General Conference?
We are in the process of talking to other kids and leaders who might have been there (who are hopefully friendly to us) and will corroborate what was said, so we can take action. We’re fighting this one, and we’ll go as high as we need to to see this made right.
What is it going to take for these ignorant fools to see the damage they are causing? Will it take reading one of these kids’ obituaries in the newspaper before they wake up??
Here is how I replied to her:
Wendy, I feel traumatized just reading what you wrote. The blood just left my face. I too feel so much rage and anger! I am shocked that this could happen in an lds meeting. I still remember when I first found out about my son and was distraught trying to figure out how this could have happened to the sweetest boy in the world. I was like the Mary Griffith mom from “Prayers for Bobby” at first trying to figure out how to heal my son and so I did look at groups like Exodus and Evergreen at first. I still remember a leader from Exodus in Des Moines, Iowa calling me and telling my that my son was possessed of an evil little girl spirit and to pray protection over all the windows of his bedroom so evil spirits could not get in. That freaked me out and made me mad! What superstition and a crock that was to me as there was no way I could believe that this fantastic young man who loved God and the lds church at the time could be demon possessed. You have every right to be enraged and do something about this. All this crazy stuff did mess up my son to where he was suicidal for a while and totally lost his faith in God. Go gettum!!!
Have any of you ever experienced anti-gay rhetoric in your wards or stakes?
I sent Bridget a PM asking for a link to what Sister Montgomery posted. That way, we can supply the link in the post and put it back in the Support Forum for comments. I’m not comfortable with such a long, detailed quote that isn’t linked to the source (for what I hope are obvious reasons and totally irrespective of the issue) – and I would like to add something like, “What can we do in situations like this?” rather than just having the generic, “Have you ever heard this sort of statement?”
Thoughts?
(Once we have commented here, we can delete our commentary when it goes back to the public forum.)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.