{"id":2083,"date":"2013-05-16T19:28:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T01:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/affirmation.org\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2021-10-03T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T14:30:24","slug":"lgbt-straight-latter-day-saints-gather-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affirmation.org\/pt\/lgbt-straight-last-day-saints-reunir-em-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBT, santos dos \u00faltimos dias heterossexuais se re\u00fanem em Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Affirmation<\/a>

Affirmation members Brooke Wardle (left) and Devan Hite helped plan the event with Stake President Gary Blakely<\/p><\/div>\n

Stake President Promotes Difficult but Faith-building Conversation<\/h3>\n

by Devan Hite, coordinator for Affirmation Chicago<\/p>\n

Brooke Wardle, secretary of Affirmation Chicago, approached me during the fall of 2012 to inquire about hosting a special dialogue between straight Mormons and those who identify as LGBTQ\/SSA around the question of what it means to be an ally. We discussed the proposal with other members of Affirmation. The motion was quickly approved, and we began arranging the details.<\/p>\n

As we began discussions with local Church leaders, they were reluctant to grant us permission to use a meetinghouse, due to the fact that we were presenting our dialogue as an Affirmation event. In order to have the dialogue in an LDS church, and to secure the attendance of Mormon leadership in the area, we decided to disassociate the dialogue from Affirmation and organize it as simply a conversation among concerned members of the Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re Missing the Empathy\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A total of twenty-five people were present at the March 24 dialogue. Twenty-three self-identified as Mormon; eight as LGBTQ (no one identified as strictly SSA), and seventeen as straight. Brooke and I set it as our goal to facilitate an emotionally-safe event, which simultaneously encouraged authenticity.<\/p>\n

Just prior to the event, as Brooke and I auditioned a handful of clips from the website, we noticed that a participant who had arrived early to help set up was struggling emotionally with its contents, simultaneously expressing her anxiety and rage, while holding back tears. Her struggle was certainly something that I could identify and empathize with, as I had a similar reaction the first time I viewed the website. However, this also added to my anxiety, as I anticipated the force of how her reaction might affect the dialogue.<\/p>\n

As our group assembled, Chicago Stake President Gary Blakely warmly welcomed those in attendance and turned the time over to me to conduct the proceedings. We began singing the children\u2019s hymn titled \u201cI Am a Child of God,\u201d which was followed by a prayer, offered by President Blakely. I then presented part of a narrative I had gathered from an interview with Kendall Wilcox a week earlier in Utah. Kendall tells of the experience coming to terms with his sexuality through the course of a relationship with another male Mormon. Kendall described how his inner turmoil led him to a breakthrough moment:<\/p>\n

I actually went to southern Utah to the place that I was going to take my life.\u2026 I went down there and went up on the mountain and had what I felt was my final conversation with God, saying, this is how I feel, this is my justification, why I don\u2019t feel hope internally\/externally. I don\u2019t see any tenable options…. But, I said, if I\u2019m missing something… let me know. And this feeling, prompting, voice\u2014whatever it is\u2014said, \u2018you\u2019re missing the empathy.\u2019\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I concluded Kendall\u2019s story for our group and reflected on the possibility that, for some in this room, dialoguing with us, our ability to empathize may be a matter of life and death. We followed this with an exercise that would help inspire empathic responses for one another, and then broke up into small groups to discuss a series of questions geared toward building common ground among participants.<\/p>\n

Dallin Oaks and Jamison Manwaring Clips<\/span><\/h3>\n