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Friday Plenary of the 2024 Affirmation International Conference featuring introductory remarks from Joel McDonald and keynote talks from Liv Mendoza Haynes and Eli McCann. The 2024 Affirmation International Conference was held October 11-13, 2024, at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center in Ogden, Utah. Portions of the conference were streamed and recorded in English and Spanish.…
Nathan Kitchen, former president of Affirmation and author of The Boughs of Love: Navigating the Queer Latter-day Saint Experience During an Ongoing Restoration, is the recipient of the 2024 Affirmation Mortensen Award. The award winner was announced at the 2024 Affirmation International Conference in Ogden, Utah. Laurie Lee Hall, 2023 winner, presented the award. Other nominees included Wesley Acastre and Joel McDonald.
Affirmation is partnering with Flourish Therapy volunteers to host a virtual meeting of support for those impacted by recent changes to the General Handbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The meeting is open to all seeing support or to better understand the impact of these changes. Registration is required to attend. Interpretation in English, Spanish, and Portuguese is being provided.
We mourn with our transgender siblings as we wrestle with the painful impact of recent policy changes and guidelines released by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With over 45 years of providing support to LGBTQIA+ individuals who are current and former members of the Church, we know first-hand the pain that policies like this cause. We stand with our transgender siblings.
Since taking office as the Executive Committee of Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends on March 1st, 2024, Fred Bowers (President), Joel McDonald (Senior Vice President), and David Doyle (Vice President) have been hard at work to ensure Affirmation continues to accomplish our mission and vision. An Evening with Affirmation was an opportunity for LGBTQ Latter-day Saints and their family and friends to meet the new Executive Committee, hear about progress being made, what’s next, and opportunities to support this important work.
Holland’s speech called for symbolic violence in response to efforts to be more inclusive and affirming of LGBTQ+ students and the broader community at Brigham Young University. Fred Bowers “pointed to the speech as one of many recent examples of how the faith has made LGBTQ+ members feel isolated,” in interview with the Associated Press.