Brigham Young University
There is no room in the gentleness of Love for a Rameumptom, for ARE we not ALL sinners and all fall short of the Glory of God? In the end, it is the Love of God that will welcome each one of us home, and it is our bearing of His gentle Love that helps others along the way. We become one another’s angels.
It is hard for me to imagine a Jesus who would not have walked among those whose love and concern lit the Y tonight and would not also have brought his light as well to show love.
Since queer students are being disciplined for a rule that no longer exists, they are being discriminated against for doing things that abide by the Law of Chastity but aren’t explicit in the Honor Code any longer.
Blaire Ostler moderates a panel discussion featuring queer student leaders from Brigham Young University campuses in Utah, Idaho, and Hawaii.
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’ve seen it before. Events occur, but the arc of the history of this painful intersection between the LDS church and their LGBTQ members is bending towards eventual fellowship and perhaps even equity.
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.”
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.
They were born into OUR Mormon families. They grew up singing the same Primary songs, learning the value of family relationships and wanting that for themselves, being taught they are each a child of God, learning to love one another, learning to get their own answers through prayer, and learning to stand up for what is right, even if they must stand alone.