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Affirmation President Nathan Kitchen presented at the Utah Valley University Humanities Symposium on February 17, 2022. The title of his presentation was “Unashamed Authenticity: Unapologetically Navigating the Queer/Latter-day Saint Intersection during an Ongoing Restoration.”
Here are the top 10 most-read stories from Affirmation published in 2021. Stories published on the Affirmation website are from, for, or about the LGBTQIA+ Latter-day Saint community around the world.
It behooves us as we find our joy as LGBTQ people, to internalize the lessons of our first parents that are taught in the temple. This lesson is that sometimes to find joy you have to make hard decisions about what your joy is and where your joy is found. And sometimes your joy is not found in Eden.
You cannot build walls and fortresses to keep them out, for they are already a part of us, already a part of the sealed network of Saints. But you can use musket fire to drive them out from among you, from their spiritual home and from their families, through exclusionary positions and rejecting behavior.
We care about you, and we understand the pressure cooker of the LGBTQ/Latter-day Saint intersection because we stand there and have stood there. We know the true power of your story and receive it in the spirit in which you delivered it. Not as a weapon or a currency, but as a celebration of the power of the queer soul.
I discovered that being trans isn’t a social choice, but the cure for a disease of the mind and body called gender dysphoria. It wasn’t until I acted in faith by trying a new name and pronouns in a limited setting that I started to taste the relief that was in store for me. It was a small and simple act of faith, akin to reading the Book of Mormon.
We were thrilled to have Dr. Ben Schilaty as our guest speaker and musical numbers provided by Sarah Joye Langford and Brandon Eric Langford for our first Affirmation LIVE Monthly Virtual Fireside of 2021!
Here are the top 10 most-read stories from Affirmation published in 2020. Stories published on the Affirmation website are from, for, or about the LGBTQIA+ Latter-day Saint community around the world.
This year everything turned odd, quirky, strange or bizarre, even tragic—anything but normal, and by June, most of us were ready to give up on the year, flip the calendar, and move on to 2021. Gay Pride was no exception. Throughout the world, all things Pride were shut down, canceled, or reduced to a virtual reality online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.