It Gets Better at Brigham Young University (Video)

My heart left the Mormon Church the day we were asked to send letters to our MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) asking that gay marriage not become legal in Ontario (2002-ish). I didn’t know what “gay” was (I was about 12 years old) but I knew that marriage, based off of my parents, meant love. I couldn’t understand how my Church could deny two people who love either their right to marry.

I am so happy, I can not even find the right words, to have watched this video! BYU is a Mormon university and when I was writing an essay in 2009 on being LGBT and Mormon specifically I was horrified to find that students had to hide their sexuality or face consequences due to the school Honor Code and that students who advocated for their LGBT peers would be subject to consequences as well under the same code. It is AMAZING that a year after I would write my essay that the school would lift the ban on expressing same sex attraction and not penalizing their allies! (Honor Code: http://saas.byu.edu/catalog/2011-2012ucat/GeneralInfo/HonorCode.php)

I’m proud of these students for being true to themselves which happily can include their Mormon faith and their same sex attraction!

“I Want To Know What It’s Like!”

A friend of mine posted this video on her Facebook wall. It is amazing! It gives me goose bumps and almost makes me cry (if I let myself I would). I think a lot of what is said can be related to by many other oppressed communities.

I believe in sexual freedom, the freedom to love and be with who you want regardless of gender. I left the Mormon Church officially at 17 years old but had checked out years before when my bishop asked the congregation to mail our local government representative and ask them not to let Gay marriage become legal in Ontario, Canada. I knew that marriage was for people who were in love. That is what my parents modeled for me. Why did my Church not want two people in love to be married? I couldn’t understand. I didn’t know what “gay” was then but I do now and I support this community with everything I have in me.

I love my friends who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered. They are entitled to everything that I am as a “straight” citizen of this country. Same-sex marriage is legal across Canada and is seen as a right. No one can touch it and take it away.

Slowly, the United States is seeing the stupidity is not allowing same-sex partners to marry, adopt children, have jobs, have benefits for their partners and so much more. This needs to move faster.

Discrimination gets us nowhere! We cannot go backwards, only forwards!

This is about equal human rights.We should not be surprised anymore when we hear about another young person who has committed suicide because of homophobia! We should be angry that we live in a world that makes its people feel like they are worthless and don’t belong. We can’t blame this issue on an individual mental health problem! The health problem is in the society that says these individuals are abominations, predators, second class citizens and these suicides are the horrible permanent consequence to this disgusting “us” and “them” we have going on!

It can only be US!