The 10 Most Read Stories of 2021
by Joel McDonald
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.
10. Virtual Fireside with Ben Schilaty and Sarah and Brandon Langford
by Ben Schilaty, Sarah and Brandon Langford
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! View Fireside.
9. Protect Your Queer Children Under the Boughs of Love
by Nathan Kitchen
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. Read More.
8. Two Degrees off Center: The S Word
by Rich Keys
Over 370 religious leaders from across the world signed a declaration asking for forgiveness for harm caused to the LGBTQIA+ community, but the Church doesn’t practice what it preaches. It doesn’t say “sorry.” Read More.
7. Time for the LDS Church to accept LGBTQ equality
by Nathan Kitchen
Unlike the Equality Act, the Fairness for All Act is a disingenuous attempt to manage LGBTQ people without having to respect them as a protected class under existing civil rights laws. This harmful work-around is supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and would protect its continued ability to discriminate against LGBTQ people in civil matters under the banner of religious freedom. Read More.
6. Affirmation President Speaks at LGBTQ Interfaith Sunday Service
by Nathan Kitchen
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. Read More.
5. BYU Alumni Challenging School’s Religious Exemptions in Court
by Joel McDonald
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. Read More.
4. Trans Ban Policy Anniversary
by Skyler
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. Read More.
3. Understanding My Asexual Place in the Church
by Madison Boswell
I carried around these ideas for a long time, constantly feeling guilty and ashamed of what I could not feel or desire. I was afraid of embracing my feelings because I didn’t want more church members looking down on me as a waste of space or failure. I never thought anyone would want to marry me. But most of all, I feared that God was angry at me for not being able to “get over it” and just be straight. I constantly read and taught stories of God healing other people – so why wasn’t He fixing me? Read More.
2. Holland’s BYU Address Merely an Event in the Arc of History
by Laurie Lee Hall
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. Read More.
1. The Rise of the Celebrated Celibate and Single Sexual Minority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
by Nathan Kitchen
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. Read More.