No More Strangers and Foreigners

I just read this opinion piece that was in the Salt Lake Tribune by Bob Rees and Bill Bradshaw. I tried to find it in my reader feed so I could share it in my sidebar but I couldn't so I thought I'd just devote a post to it. The article discusses a study by a woman named Caitlin Ryan about the correlation between family acceptance or rejection of gay family members and the gay family members mental and emotional health as they mature into adulthood. I know, I know, it's kind of sad that we need a study to tell us that familial rejection is bad on the psyche and familial love and support is good on the psyche, but apparently we do need a study to tell us this. Thank you Dr. Ryan for doing it.

I saw Dr. Ryan present the results of her study a couple of years ago when I went to a Sunstone symposium in San Francisco. I remember someone in the audience saying that this is something that the broader church needs to hear and especially in Utah where there seems to be higher rates of suicide and teen homelessness due to family rejection of gay family members. I have no idea if that's actually true, but either way, it's something all of us could benefit greatly from hearing and it made me happy to see an article about Dr. Ryan's study in the Salt Lake Tribune.

I'm guessing most of you know who Bill Bradshaw is because of the lecture he gave recently at BYU on the biology of homosexuality and his interview on Mormon Stories, but Bob Rees might not be as familiar. He is similar to Bill in that he is an active and believing member of the church who is trying to create more understanding in the church on the issue of homosexuality. He wrote a fantastic piece called No More Strangers and Foreigners: A Mormon Christian Response to Homosexuality that is well worth the read if you haven't already read it. I think it's also very palatable to mainstream members of the church, and would be a good thing to share with family members and friends who are getting their feet wet on the subject and want to understand more.

On a side note, my choir had a concert last night. I can't tell you how happy and loved I felt to have Pablo, Konrad, Trevor, James and other friends from church come and support me. Afterwards, we went out for crappy, strip mall Chinese food. I don't know if anyone else appreciated the moment, but it was great to sit and eat with a group of people that consisted of a mix of gay and straight and varying levels of affection and disaffection towards the church. In a way I kind of hope no one else noticed, that it just happened, because that's what we do, we sit down with people who are not like us, and we eat crappy food with each other family style, and we laugh together.