Affirmation Southern California Conference

Sarah Bowers is an out-and-coming Mormon lesbian freshly embarking on a new faith journey. She is one of Affirmation Los Angeles chapter’s coordinators and recently joined the Pacific Region’s leadership. Currently applying for MSW programs, Sarah has a background in international studies and nonprofit management.

Candice Czubernat has been a therapist for the last 15 years and is the founder of The Christian Closet, a team of individuals engaging in online counseling, coaching, and spiritual direction with and for LGBTQ Christians. In addition to this work, Candice is the founder of Gloriously Queer, a 2-day event for LGBTQ Christians. She believes walking alongside other queer people of faith to be beautiful, deep, and holy work.

Candice identifies as a lesbian, Christian with Jewish leaning, wife to Crystal, mother to Deacon and Dylan, writer, and speaker. If she’s not working you can find her digging for dinosaur bones in her backyard with her kids.

Kurt Nielsen grew up in Cache Valley, Utah on a dairy farm. He was one of 5 children who learned the value of hard work from a very early age. He served a 2-year mission for the LDS church in Ireland and Scotland. He later completed an undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture and moved to California to begin his career. Within a few weeks of moving to Orange County, he met his future wife, Mary, at the Irvine Single’s Ward. They were married shortly thereafter and immediately began enlarging their family. They have 3 grown children, Samantha, Jacob (and wife Emily, along with new granddaughter Eloise), and Matthew. Kurt owns his own landscaping business. He currently serves as a youth advisor in his ward. We invite you to listen to Richard Ostler’s podcast interview of Kurt on the platform, Listen, Learn, and Love.

Chelsea Gibbs is a New York based film archivist and programmer who’s always interested in recommendations of LGBTQIA films, shows, and books. She’s queer as heck.

Tom Christofferson is the author of That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon’s Perspective of Faith and Family, published by Deseret Book. His career in global investment management and asset services included long-term assignments in Europe and Asia. He is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his Mesa, Arizona ward and stake.

Caroline Kline is Research Assistant Professor in the Religion department at Claremont Graduate University where she works to promote the study of global Mormonism. She will be the Assistant Director of the forthcoming Center for Global Mormon Studies at CGU, and she is also the director of three separate oral history collections: the Claremont Mormon Women Oral History Collection, the Claremont Global Mormon Oral History Collection, and the Claremont LGBTQ Mormon Oral History Collection. Her areas of interest revolve around the intersections of Mormonism, gender studies, and religion in the Global South. She is the co-founder of the Mormon feminist blog, The Exponent.

Sarah Bowers is an out-and-coming Mormon lesbian freshly embarking on a new faith journey. She is one of Affirmation Los Angeles chapter’s coordinators and recently joined the Pacific Region’s leadership. Currently applying for MSW programs, Sarah has a background in international studies and nonprofit management.

Kristofr Clement is a bisexual transgender man raised in the LDS church. He is the creator and moderator of the Discord chat room server: Queerstake, an online community of LGBTQ+ folks with LDS experience. He is currently studying computer science and is in the process of creating “[email protected]”: a Dungeon & Dragons podcast.

A. Todd Jones is the father of two teenagers, and has been with his husband for 6 years.  He is a full time Communications Professor. His areas of study are relationships, identity, and human sexuality.  He considers himself to be a non traditional active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Vinnie Jones is originally from Maine and was raised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Currently living in San Francisco, Vinnie is a professional dancer and choreographer specializing in contemporary ballet work at Menlowe Ballet and Trivial Motion Dance. She also co-founded the em(body) dance project, a company committed to representing diverse human experiences including women and queer people, in which she is also a choreographer and dancer.

Vinnie is the regional vice president of Affirmation Pacific Region and is active in her local Affirmation chapter. She also has a spiritual group that meets once a week to create a safe and diverse spiritual community.

Mike grew up as the fifth of six children in an active Latter-day Saint family. He is currently a member of the Atherton ward in the Long Beach East stake of the LDS church and serves on the stake’s public affairs committee. His unofficial calling is de facto LGBTQ specialist for the stake since coming out as gay in a January 2019 stake conference talk. Under the supervision of his stake president, he has been involved in organizing monthly LGBTQ Family Home Evenings and Ally Nights. He’s also one of the new coordinators of Affirmation in Los Angeles. When he’s not doing outreach, he’s working full-time as a physician in interventional radiology in Los Alamitos, California.

Sarah Bowers is an out-and-coming Mormon lesbian freshly embarking on a new faith journey. She is one of Affirmation Los Angeles chapter’s coordinators and recently joined the Pacific Region’s leadership. Currently applying for MSW programs, Sarah has a background in international studies and nonprofit management.