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Acceptance, safety, belonging, love, respect, progress, happiness, grace, integrity, joy, strength, authenticity, and confidence versus condescension, superiority, judgment, division, ego, and defiance. Here’s what the Affirmation community said Pride means to them, and why it’s not the pride warned of in the scriptures.
From an expected 100 to 200 attendees to actually having over 1,000 people turn out on the day of the first-ever Rexburg Pride, this was a historic event. Thanks to our volunteers in Eastern Idaho, Affirmation was there. Affirmation President Nathan Kitchen shared that he was “humbled and proud to have witnessed it in my lifetime: a Pride celebration, with over 1000 people in attendance, in Rexburg, Idaho.”
This activity holds special spiritual value as the first in-person activity for Affirmation Venezuela. It was a beautiful step in harvesting the many blessings that God has prepared for this young chapter and for Affirmation worldwide as we seek to continue to be a light and a refuge of hope and love for our multicolored and wonderfully unique children in the family of our Heavenly Father.
The Latin America Network Coordinator is a contract position, hired to build and maintain relationships with LGBTQIA+ organizations within Latin America to advance the mission and objectives of the organization, under the direction and supervision of the Director of Operations (DOO) and Executive Committee (EC).
It seems fitting that Affirmation’s first larger-scale in-person activity as the threat and restrictions from COVID-19 decline was Salt Lake City Pride. With thousands of others, members from the Affirmation community participated in the Rainbow March and Rally on June 6th that began at the Utah State Capitol. Following the march and rally, Affirmation hosted a picnic at Winchester Park in Murray.
On June 6, 2021, Affirmation hosted our first virtual fireside especially for parents of LGBTQ kids. Nathan Kitchen, president of Affirmation, was the guest speaker for the fireside.
Blaire steps in and immediately discards the problematic dominant narrative that manages queer bodies in the church. She turns our attention to the theology of restoration and renewal that has always been with us. She lifts our chin and invites us to walk with her as she expertly shows us that in the absence of prejudice and folk tradition, there is not a significant difference between queer Mormon theology and Mormon theology.
Congratulations to Shane Price for submitting the winning design for the 2021 International Conference logo. Thank you to all who participated. A first look at the conference schedule has been published. Workshops and musical numbers still needed. Mortensen Award nomination deadline approaching.
Should church-owned or faith-based schools be able to receive federal funding and discriminate against their LGBTQIA+ students? A federal lawsuit filed in April is challenging exemptions given to these schools allowing sex-based discrimination and asking they be declared unconstitutional. The focus of the challenge is how this exemption is applied to LGBTQIA+ students.