Support
This year, a new approach is being taken to how workshops have been organized. There will be eight different “workshop tracks,” each representing a specific area of interest or a specific need.
Please consider making a donation of any amount that you are able. Given the heart-breaking challenges of the past year, the need for the life-saving community and connection that Affirmation offers has never been greater.
We need safe spaces to discuss and work through the pain that has just been inflicted upon our fellow humans, upon members of our community. Let’s do everything within our power to create communities of safety and refuge. It’s always the time to offer our love and care to those in pain.
Jesus turned everything upside down. No sorting of people into social bins. Jesus ignored the social norms that spell out the who, when and what of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is full of surprises. The first shall be last. All are invited, the clean and the unclean. All are loved. All persons are of worth: free and slave, women and men. Everything is upside down and no one is excluded from the Kingdom as unworthy.
A lesbian couple who stopped by were delighted to learn that Affirmation had a place for them even though they had left the Church long ago, while it also had a place for their devout, believing family and friends. Another lesbian woman I spoke to shared her faith and her testimony with me, as she also shared the intense conflict she experienced, and was grateful to learn about Affirmation’s Prepare group, for church-active LGBT Mormons.
Bring all of who you are and march with us. Bring a sign. Bring a picture. Bring a poster or a painting. Something that symbolizes a significant piece of your journey and/or who you are.
We invite allies to come join us and show solidarity! Bring something that symbolizes your celebration of the life of an LGBTQ+ loved one!
We need to recognize that what is strengthening to different people may be different. We need to foster self care and healing, finding our sources of spiritual strength — whatever those may be — and learning to accept ourselves.
For many years I have struggled, first to have the love of someone who despised me. Then I fought to be someone I was not, then I struggled to accept who I really am… I may have been abandoned in this life by earthly parents, but my heavenly Father has never left me.