Hi Laura,

Thank you so much for sharing your perspective on the podcast.  I really appreciate your positive outlook towards the church and the brethren, plus your positive representation of the LGBTQ community.   
I am a 47 year old mother of 6. Happily married for 27 years, I’m an active LDS member, my husband has served as a bishop and I have mostly served in YW and Primary.  Our oldest son (25y old) came out to us last August. Honestly, the last 7 months have almost been like a time of mourning for us.  We love our son so much and we are supportive of him living true to his journey in this life, but for us it has almost felt like someone dying. It at least has been the death of an “idea” of what we thought the future would look like in regards to him marrying and having children of his own.  
We involve him as we always have and we want him to be a part of our lives. With that being said I don’t know if we will ever be on the same page in regards to the practice of homosexuality.  I am more liberal in my beliefs about it and I am even ok with him getting married to a man in the future because I don’t want him to be alone; I want him to love and be loved, but my husband is struggling so much with this concept. So…  
I have a couple of questions…
  1. How did your family handle and accept you being gay, how do they continue to treat you and include you and your wife? 
  2. At times I worry about my son taking his own life, he is mostly strong, but I know this journey must be extremely difficult for him as well.  How can I help him stay positive and keep his testimony in a loving God and Savior, when the teachings of our religion are counter to him being gay? 
  3. This is kind of an esoteric question, but what do you think about the aspect of procreation within the idea of gay relationships? In my mind I can’t piece together how this fits in the eternal perspective. I imagine my Heavenly parents as Male and Female co creators of my spirit body through their sexual intimacy with each other. Just like in this world you can only create a body through male and female elements getting together. I get the concept of adoption, sperm donating, in vitro fertilization etc. But in the natural law of procreation it takes a male and a female to make a body. How do you see this dilemma resolving itself in the here after?  
  4.  Do you think that being gay is a challenge for this world only or do you think being gay is an eternal characteristic? 
Sorry I hope these questions aren’t too personal, but these are the thoughts that wake me up at 4:00 am. Thank you again for your honesty in your journey. You have helped me so much already.
Sincerely,
NSG

 

Laura answers questions from a listener, NSG, regarding NSG’s son who just came out to the family and Laura shares with the listeners some personal news.

Hyperlinks mentioned in this podcast:

Taylor Petrey’s Dialogue article, “Towards a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology.”

Family Acceptance Project

Empirical Data Regarding Mormon LGBTQ Suicide

A response to Taylor Petrey’s article published in Dialogue. 

Article written by Taylor Petrey and published by the LDS blog, By Common Consent

Article published by the LDS blog, Times and Seasons, discussing Taylor Petrey’s article

Mormon Matters podcast episodes, from 2012, where Dan Wotherspoon, Kristine Haglund, and Taylor Petrey discuss a Mormon theology which affirms homosexual relationships in the eternities. 

Mama Dragons website

Mama Dragons Face Book page

The Macintosh Story from LDS.org

To submit questions to Laura (or to today’s guest, Michael Klein), fill out the form below, or email her at asklesbianmormon@rationalfaiths.com (it is NOT askAlesbianmormon@rationalfaiths).

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    Laura lives in Boise, Idaho with her 2 dogs, cat, and several chickens. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, nordic skiing, reading, and travel. Laura is single and ready to mingle.

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