Affirmation Conference Workshops and TED-style Talks

The workshops and TED talks will be held in two rounds following the Affinity Sessions on Saturday Morning.

10:15 – 11:10 a.m.

Workshop 1: Special Session for Priesthood & Auxiliary Leaders: Creating a Welcoming Ward Environment for All (Bonneville Room)

by Jonathan Manwaring
This workshop will help local leaders understand how to utilize official Church resources to minister to the needs of their LGBT members and their loved ones.

Workshop 2: How to Begin to Reconcile Our Mormon and LGBT Experiences (Officers Club North Room)

by Judy Finch
This workshop will discus how to begin to reconcile the disparity between an LGBT member’s two essential parts (sexual orientation and spiritual aspirations). The discussion will focus on how these two aspects of ourselves are experienced as painful and largely hidden as the our coming out process is typically resisted and/or tested. The workshop will also explain the role of avoidance mechanisms that can lead to depression, anxiety and suicidality. The workshop will also suggest ways to begin to accept the disparity in one’s life and even integrate the two parts of one’s life, even while experiencing the fairly constant assault of religious/social messages to the contrary. Finally this workshop discuss how and when to re-evaluate assumptions and scrutinize the value of relationships and institutions in one’s life.

Workshop 3: How to Achieve an Integration of Our Mormon and LGBT Experiences (Officers Club South Room)

by Lisa Hansen
This workshop will help participants better understand how to “settle into” his or her own sexual orientation/spiritual aspiration journey and move more flexibly within the larger, often unaccepting, culture. Participants will learn how to commit to applying their values and strengths to helping others in their own journey and use his or her own experiences of as a source of power and inspiration to awakening the larger community toward building a healthy and sustainable integration of sexual orientation/gender identity and spiritual aspirations.

Five 10-Minute TED Talks (Douglas Ballroom)

Finding Our Personal “Why” as LGBT Mormons

Living life authentically as an LGBT Mormon requires an in-depth understanding of our personal “Why”
by Brady Emmett

Suicide Prevention in LGBT Mormons

I will tell you the one thing that everyone can do to help save the lives of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters who are suicidal
by Phil Rodgers

Reconciling Mormon Doctrine and My Trans Status

I will share two defining moments in my life that set me on the path to lifting my cloud of confusion regarding LDS doctrine and my Trans status
by Paula Ison

Using Critical Theory as a Source of Affirmation for LGBT Mormons

Using tenets drawn from liberation theology, queer theory, & post colonialism as a source of affirmation when you are an outlier in the faith
by Berta Marquez

Never Part from the Splendorous Light of Your Own Spirit (presented in Spanish)

A la Luz del Esplendor de Tu Propio Espíritu, escindirme nunca jamás
by Adrián Sánchez Román

11:30 – 12:20

REPEAT: How to Begin to Reconcile Our Mormon and LGBT Experiences (Officers Club North Room)

by Judy Finch

REPEAT: How to Achieve an Integration of Our Mormon and LGBT Experiences (Officers Club South Room)

by Lisa Hansen

REPEAT: Special Session for Priesthood & Auxiliary Leaders: Creating a Welcoming Ward Environment for All (Bonneville Room)

by Jonathan Manwaring – This workshop will start at 11:45 after former Bishop Don Fletcher’s talk

Five 10-Minute TED-Style Talks (Douglas Ballroom)

Making Our Wards More “Gay Friendly”

There is much that can be done to make our wards more “gay friendly”
by Donald C. Fletcher MD

Healing Hearts – Saving Lives

Enlightening Minds, Strengthening Families and Healing the Wounded Heart
by Becky Mackintosh

“Everyday Theologies” of LGBT Mormons

I will present qualitative research findings from work I’ve done collecting the “everyday theologies” of LGBT Mormons, their families, and allies
by Devan M. Hite

Finding ‘Middle Ground’ for LGBT Mormons in Mixed Orientation Marriages

Repressed and hiding in the proverbial closet, or “Out” and divorced, there just doesn’t seem to be much ‘middle ground’ for LGBT Mormons in Mixed Orientation Marriages–Affirmation’s new Affinity Group for MOMs is a place where couples can become affirming of all aspects of their shared lives
by Ron Raynes

How Mormons Respond to their LGBT Loved Ones

How do Mormons think about and respond to their LGBT family and friends?
by Bryce Cook