Back to My Roots
Regular readers know that I grew up Mormon and gay, and that I started this blog in part to chronicle my personal coming-out story. Now that I’ve come out and don’t have any need of a semi-anonymous outlet for my closeted gay angst, I’ve branched out to include such scintillating topics as TASER abuse, contra dancing and the works of Stephen Sondheim as grist for my mill.
But I’m still a gay former Mormon, and I view the intersection of Mormonism and homosexuality as the womb that bore me. So it is with great interest and displeasure, but without much surprise, that I read the article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune about a family that was driven to resign from the Mormon Church because of the husband’s support of gay marriage.
When Jeffrey Nielsen lost his job as an adjunct lecturer at BYU, Peter Danzig, a professional violinist and licensed clinical social worker, wrote a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. In the letter, Danzig came out as a Mormon, a returned missionary, a musician in the Orchestra on Temple Square and a supporter of Nielsen’s pro-gay-marriage stance. Within a week after the letter was published, Danzig’s church leaders began a campaign of intimidation and retribution in which they tried to browbeat him into changing his mind and to coerce him to admit he was wrong and to apologize to “the Brethren” (the highest level of Mormon authorities) whose “feelings were hurt.” In the end, Danzig and his wife ended up moving and resigning from the Mormon Church in order to keep from being excommunicated.
The Tribune article is fairly bare-bones; if you want the REAL dirt, go read Danzig’s wrenching personal account in which he gives an exhaustive chronicle of the whole affair, from his own father’s unjust railroading at the hands of the Mormon Church to the letter Danzig sent in when he resigned his church membership. That anyone can treat another human being the way Danzig’s religious leaders treated him and his family nauseates me. The fact that this is not an isolated incident, but is apparently endemic to the way the Mormon Church operates, is enraging. And the realization that I live in a state that is controlled by Mormons, and thus indirectly by the Mormon Church, is more than a bit appalling and frightening. This is the atmosphere that spawns bigoted, backwards scum like Buttars and Ruzicka.
Well, history has shown that the only thing that can make the Mormon Church change its mind is bad publicity. So let’s give them some.
[You can read other reactions on Utah Cog and yes, i am. (Thanks to Cog for the link.)]
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February 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Mormons love to show off how happy everyone is in the Church. And it’s true. The only people who stay in the Church are the ones who can be happy there. God help you if you want to stay but like to raise the dissenting hand because all Mormons are happy! So be happy or get out!
February 26th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Those who stay are either happy or are really good at pretending to be so, and then privately cutting themselves to ribbons for not being content. It’s the Mormon Way.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Ah the joys of mental flagellation. All the pain with none of the visible scarring!
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
My favorite past time of being an ex-Mormon (well I’m still Mormon out of laziness and just because I’m evil.)
Anyways my favorite part of being said being is the deflowering of any Mormon young woman. Return Missionaries are bonus points. Nothing gets me going like a girl in garments.
Too bad my other favorite past time takes away from my first favorite past like a tick sucking blood from its host.
You see if I actually stopped devoting my time to the study, collecting, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Stop reading from my frightening library. Stop working and pumping money back into the economy by being a well-read lush.
If I stopped doing all of that I would actually have time to have sex with Mormons. Too bad, non-Mormons actually enjoy sex.
I’m a touch venomous today. Oh well.
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I would be very disappointed if you decided to stop reading frightening books and exploring the world of alcohol. I have so few role models as it is.
Deflowering anyone is fun, I’ve found. I’ve never really understood the “garments as sexy” thing, but to each his or her own.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Garments are only sexy if you’re in love with your companion and you’re pretty sure he’s in love with you. A conclusion you’ve gleaned from little clues like: long, meaningful looks, sitting way to close to you and that time he crawled into bed with you and tried to *ahem” get all biblical on your ass.
Then and only then are garments sexy.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
[...] is not a little), and are so enraged/repulsed/ashamed that they decide to resign. Or those (like the Danzigs) who resign rather than be excommunicated/disciplined. Or those who are so freaking sick of having [...]