Rooted in Belonging: Affirmation’s 2025 Year in Review (So Far)

For many LGBTQIA+ people with Latter-day Saint ties, it can still feel like there are only two choices: deny who you are or walk away from everything you’ve ever known.

Affirmation exists so no one has to face that choice alone.

As 2025 draws to a close, we want to pause and look back at what this community has created together—across continents, across languages, and across very different relationships to faith. This year has been shaped by courage, quiet acts of care, and the simple but radical belief that our lives are worthy of safety, love, and hope.

A Year of Showing Up for Each Other

If there’s one theme for 2025, it’s this: we kept showing up.

We showed up for each other in Zoom rooms and church parking lots, in WhatsApp chats and living rooms, at conferences and Pride events. We showed up for people who are staying in the Church, for those who have stepped away, and for those who aren’t sure where they belong yet.

Our global virtual conference, Rooted & Rising, gathered participants from multiple continents to share stories, sing, learn, and grieve together. With interpretation in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, people could participate in the language of their hearts. For many, it was the first time they heard someone say out loud the things they had only dared to whisper to themselves.

Here are just a few of the ways Affirmation has shown up in 2025, with a preview of what’s still to come in December:

2025 Event Highlights
Latin America

• May–June — First Latin American Congress of Affirmation LGBTQIA Mormons (Cali, Colombia)
  The first-ever regional congress brought together LGBTQIA Latter-day Saints, former members, and families from across Latin America for connection, workshops, and worship-adjacent spaces of hope.
• August — Conference in Bayaguana, Dominican Republic
  Community members gathered in Bayaguana for a multi-day Affirmation conference focused on belonging, faith journeys, and family support.
• October — Annual Conference in Tijuana and Playas de Rosarito, Mexico
  Affirmation Mexico hosted its annual conference on the U.S.–Mexico border, creating space for cross-border stories, regional leadership, and renewed community ties.

U.S. & Canada Chapters

• April — Mexican Food Lunch & Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival (Portland, OR)
  The Portland Chapter combined food, friendship, and Oregon’s famous tulip fields in a colorful spring gathering.
• June — WorldPride 2025 Parade Marching Contingent (Washington, DC)
  Affirmation Washington, DC, marched in the WorldPride 2025 Parade, witnessing to the worth and dignity of LGBTQIA people with Latter-day Saint ties on a global stage.
• July — Pioneer Day Picnic (Washington, DC)
  Community members reimagined Pioneer Day with an affirming picnic that honored both heritage and authenticity.
• November — Friendsgiving Event (Washington, DC)
  The DC Chapter hosted a Friendsgiving gathering for those who needed a chosen-family table for the holidays.
• December — Annual Christmas Dinner & White Elephant Gift Exchange (Portland, OR) (upcoming)
  To close the year, the Portland Chapter is planning its traditional holiday dinner and playful gift exchange, creating space for laughter at a tender time of year.

International & Virtual Gatherings

• October — Post-Conference Community Gathering: Reflections After General Conference (Virtual)
  A global virtual space for people to process, debrief, and support one another after General Conference messages.
• November — Rooted & Rising + Gratitude Gathering: A Global Celebration of Resilience and Connection (Virtual)
  An online celebration that blended the Rooted & Rising theme with gratitude practices, bringing together participants from multiple countries.
• December — Virtual Holiday Celebration (Virtual) (upcoming)
  Our year-end virtual gathering will offer music, messages, and community for those who cannot safely or comfortably celebrate elsewhere. Registration is now open: Register Here

“I came to Affirmation thinking I might be the only one like me. I left knowing I have siblings all over the world.”
— Conference participant

Growing a Global, Multilingual Community

Affirmation’s heart has always been global, and 2025 has made that clearer than ever.

Chapters and belonging groups across the United States, Canada, and Latin America have continued to hold space for LGBTQIA+ people, their families, and friends. In some places, that has meant long-standing groups finding new energy; in others, it has meant the first fragile, hopeful gathering of a handful of people around a kitchen table or a screen.

We also took important steps toward a clearer global network structure, with coordinator roles to better support:

• Chapters in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa, and Oceania
• Latin American chapters and emerging groups
• Online and belonging spaces that serve people who are geographically isolated or not ready to attend in person

Our Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities remained a vital, prophetic voice in Affirmation. Leaders, translators, and interpreters poured countless hours into making sure that resources, meetings, and events weren’t just “available,” but truly accessible and culturally resonant.

Holding Tender Online Spaces

For many in our community, Affirmation’s online groups are the first door they walk through.

In 2025, our Facebook and WhatsApp groups, along with other online spaces, will continue to offer:

• Peer support for coming out, staying in the Church, stepping away, or navigating a mixed-faith family
• Room to wrestle with theology, identity, and family relationships without fear of shaming
• Gentle redirection toward mental health resources when conversations show a need for professional care

Behind the scenes, moderators and volunteers have worked with trauma-aware community agreements and escalation protocols. That work isn’t glamorous, but it’s essential. When someone posts in crisis or when conversations get intense, it matters that we respond with both compassion and boundaries.

“Sometimes all I needed was to read someone else’s story and think, ‘Oh. It’s not just me.’”
— Online community member

Doing the Unglamorous Work of Stewardship

2025 has also been a year of quiet, foundational work—the kind that rarely makes headlines but protects the community for the long haul.

Leadership teams, committees, and volunteers have invested time in:

• Strengthening and enforcing our Economic & Financial Policy, so that reimbursements, advances, and scholarships are handled with clear documentation and accountability
• Clarifying the roles of our Board, Executive Committee, and committees, so decisions aren’t dependent on informal habits or just a few personalities
• Updating and creating community and moderator guidelines that reflect our trauma-informed, mental-health-aware approach to care
• Improving our use of tools like Google Workspace, Salesforce, and project tracking so we can better support chapters and track what’s happening across the globe

None of this work is flashy. It involves spreadsheets, long meetings, and sometimes hard conversations about old habits and new expectations. But it’s the work that makes everything else possible. It’s what allows a donor to give with confidence, a volunteer to know what’s expected, and a chapter to feel genuinely connected rather than alone.

Gratitude for Leaders, Volunteers, and Donors

Affirmation has always been, first and last, a community effort.

This year, we’re especially grateful for:

• Chapter leaders and belonging group facilitators who held space for joy, grief, and everything in between
• Moderators who tended online conversations at all hours, often without recognition
• Translators and interpreters who made sure language wasn’t a barrier to belonging
• Board and Executive Committee members who carried both strategic decisions and efficient tasks
• Donors and monthly givers whose generosity kept Zoom rooms open, websites running, and leaders supported

If you fall into any of those categories, thank you. You are Affirmation.

Looking Ahead: Building What Comes Next

As we move through the final weeks of 2025 and look toward 2026—and toward Affirmation’s 50th anniversary in 2027—we’re carrying both deep gratitude and clear resolve.

In the coming year, we are committed to:

• Strengthening our global network structure so chapters and belonging groups feel better supported, not more burdened.
• Deepening our trauma-informed, mental-health-aware approach, including clearer boundaries around what peer support can and cannot hold.
• Growing a broader base of monthly donors and sustaining partners, so our work doesn’t depend on a small group of people stretching beyond what’s sustainable.
• Continuing to document and share our history, so LGBTQIA+ people with LDS ties—now and in the future—can see that they were never alone.
• We know the need for Affirmation is not going away. If anything, the messages we receive every week tell us that our communities are more necessary than ever.

How You Can Be Part of the Story

If Affirmation has touched your life—or the life of someone you love—there are three simple ways you can help ensure this work continues:

1. Share your story.
   Stories save lives. Consider sharing a short reflection about how Affirmation has mattered to you. (We can help you do this safely and at your comfort level.)
2. Become a monthly donor.
   Even a small monthly gift helps us plan for the future and support leaders sustainably.
3. Invite someone in.
   Tell a friend, family member, or church leader about Affirmation. Please share a link to our website or this post. You never know who might be quietly searching for exactly this space.

To everyone who has prayed, cried, laughed, sung, marched, donated, translated, moderated, or shown up this year: thank you.

You are proof that LGBTQIA+ people with Latter-day Saint ties are not a problem to be solved, but a gift to the world. And together, we are building communities where that truth can finally shine.

With much love and gratitude to all Affirmation members—past and present—without whom this community would never have existed, and could not have endured for so long.

— Frederick Bowers
President, Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends