(no subject)
Oct. 12th, 2010 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hiddenmuseIf you haven't heard about this Mormon bombshell - Same-Sex Attraction Can Change, well now you have!
Anyways, the gist of is that at the Church's recent General Conference (read: semi-annual meeting for Church Muckety-Mucks to tell everyone what they'd received through 'divine inspiration' or some such whateverness), one of the aforementioned muckety-mucks (Boyd K. Packer) said during his talk that 'Same-sex attraction can be overcome and any type of union other than marriage between a man and a woman is morally wrong...'.
Ha fucking ha. Nice try, but no.... And of course, there has been backlash - duh - with members offering up their support for this particular muckety-muck. My sister-in-law (brother's wife) is a member of a Facebook group called "I Support Boyd K. Packer". My immediate thought was, "of course you do, because you it's what you were brought up with..."
Then, I ended up being inspired to write this lovely missive at the office:
Dear Sister-In-Law,
I think I get it. You grew up in some shiny happy near-Stepford Utah Mormon family, where everyone goes on a mission; goes to BYU or some other iteration thereof; gets married in the Temple; has eleventeen kids, etc.
No one in your family is gay - or has ever questioned their sexuality; no one swears, smokes, drinks, has dealt with divorce, mood disorders, unwed pregnancies or step-parents. That's just not the Mormon way. Then, you married into our family: with a divorced and re-married (and later widowed) mother-in-law, queer sister-in-law, unwed mother sister-in-law, and its fair share of swearing (all sisters-in-law), smoking and drinking (two sisters-in-law), depression (one sister-in-law) and sexing (take a guess).
One of the bad things? The queer sister-in-law? Married to (shock! horror!) another woman. And (clutch your pearls...) the happily devout Mormon family is happy for them! The heathens and heretics!
And of course, SisTwit, during that whole tenure of being raised Mormon, we're taught songs in Primary like "Follow The Prophet" (Off A Cliff) and other songs about how the Church leaders are great men, appointed by God, blah blah, whatever. Yet, those same men are so un-Godlike, saying that people can change their sexual orientation. Please.
--I> Tell that to anyone stuck in the closet, rather than be who they are, because the Church tells them they can either be in the closet and celibate, or out and out of the church.
--I> Tell that to my friends and many others that married - and had families - to possibly prove to themselves (and others) that they were straight.
--I> Tell that to the kids that contemplated - or committed - suicide because they were different and made to feel like they were some how bad, dirty or evil because of who they are.
Oh, I tried to change myself...believe me, I did. I threw myself into the religion and did all but go on a mission or get married to a man - well, okay I was engaged to a man (a Lutheran, for the record). Went to the singles ward, the dances and activities. I felt like a failure when all of my friends were getting married - my friends who were divorced or unwed mothers. I was single, and all I had against me was that I was fat and that I'd done "all but" with a couple of guys. So, when I couldn't even get a date, I felt like I was somehow damaged goods.... My friends who'd obviously done far more (and granted, were skinnier) were getting married. What was my fucking problem anyways?
So, what was my problem? I'm not straight. That's my "problem". The guys I wanted to notice me seemed to be aware of that vibe far more than I was. When I stopped trying, stopped pretending, stopped faking, I found that I was so, so much happier.
So, SisTwit, while I may not be going to whatever level of Heaven, and I may risk ending up at Satan's weekly luaus.... Whatever. It doesn't matter, because I've found what makes me happy - and that is being me. Silly, dorky, occasionally slackery, fucked-up me. And if you don't like it, or my Little Miss Sunshine/ Royal Tenenbaums family, I'm sorry that you feel that way - but you're stuck with us.
Signed, with love,
Your Queerball Sister In Law
Anyways, the gist of is that at the Church's recent General Conference (read: semi-annual meeting for Church Muckety-Mucks to tell everyone what they'd received through 'divine inspiration' or some such whateverness), one of the aforementioned muckety-mucks (Boyd K. Packer) said during his talk that 'Same-sex attraction can be overcome and any type of union other than marriage between a man and a woman is morally wrong...'.
Ha fucking ha. Nice try, but no.... And of course, there has been backlash - duh - with members offering up their support for this particular muckety-muck. My sister-in-law (brother's wife) is a member of a Facebook group called "I Support Boyd K. Packer". My immediate thought was, "of course you do, because you it's what you were brought up with..."
Then, I ended up being inspired to write this lovely missive at the office:
Dear Sister-In-Law,
I think I get it. You grew up in some shiny happy near-Stepford Utah Mormon family, where everyone goes on a mission; goes to BYU or some other iteration thereof; gets married in the Temple; has eleventeen kids, etc.
No one in your family is gay - or has ever questioned their sexuality; no one swears, smokes, drinks, has dealt with divorce, mood disorders, unwed pregnancies or step-parents. That's just not the Mormon way. Then, you married into our family: with a divorced and re-married (and later widowed) mother-in-law, queer sister-in-law, unwed mother sister-in-law, and its fair share of swearing (all sisters-in-law), smoking and drinking (two sisters-in-law), depression (one sister-in-law) and sexing (take a guess).
One of the bad things? The queer sister-in-law? Married to (shock! horror!) another woman. And (clutch your pearls...) the happily devout Mormon family is happy for them! The heathens and heretics!
And of course, SisTwit, during that whole tenure of being raised Mormon, we're taught songs in Primary like "Follow The Prophet" (Off A Cliff) and other songs about how the Church leaders are great men, appointed by God, blah blah, whatever. Yet, those same men are so un-Godlike, saying that people can change their sexual orientation. Please.
--I> Tell that to anyone stuck in the closet, rather than be who they are, because the Church tells them they can either be in the closet and celibate, or out and out of the church.
--I> Tell that to my friends and many others that married - and had families - to possibly prove to themselves (and others) that they were straight.
--I> Tell that to the kids that contemplated - or committed - suicide because they were different and made to feel like they were some how bad, dirty or evil because of who they are.
Oh, I tried to change myself...believe me, I did. I threw myself into the religion and did all but go on a mission or get married to a man - well, okay I was engaged to a man (a Lutheran, for the record). Went to the singles ward, the dances and activities. I felt like a failure when all of my friends were getting married - my friends who were divorced or unwed mothers. I was single, and all I had against me was that I was fat and that I'd done "all but" with a couple of guys. So, when I couldn't even get a date, I felt like I was somehow damaged goods.... My friends who'd obviously done far more (and granted, were skinnier) were getting married. What was my fucking problem anyways?
So, what was my problem? I'm not straight. That's my "problem". The guys I wanted to notice me seemed to be aware of that vibe far more than I was. When I stopped trying, stopped pretending, stopped faking, I found that I was so, so much happier.
So, SisTwit, while I may not be going to whatever level of Heaven, and I may risk ending up at Satan's weekly luaus.... Whatever. It doesn't matter, because I've found what makes me happy - and that is being me. Silly, dorky, occasionally slackery, fucked-up me. And if you don't like it, or my Little Miss Sunshine/ Royal Tenenbaums family, I'm sorry that you feel that way - but you're stuck with us.
Signed, with love,
Your Queerball Sister In Law
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-13 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-13 05:42 am (UTC)And oh lordy - those poor kids. All the insults they had to endure.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-14 01:41 pm (UTC)makes me giggle every time. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-14 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-13 02:40 pm (UTC)