In this episode, we interview Laurie Lee Hall, a former bishop, stake president, and temple designer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who later came out as transgender while serving as a Stake President. Laurie shares her journey of growing up with a gender identity that didn’t match how she felt, her experiences on a church mission, and attending Affirmation for LGBTQ+ Latter-day Saints. She also discusses her work designing temples, her struggles with the 2015 Exclusion Policy for children of gay couples, her excommunication, and the church’s evolving policies on transgender individuals.
To view Laurie Lee’s original Mormon Stories, click here.
One Response
This week in Mormon Stories censorship
It is sad I have to say this every time, I’m NOT a Mormon. This statement speaks more to the lack of inclusion of alternative viewpoints in Mormon Stories than it does to the “inclusion” work John believes he is promoting. John can be critical, rightfully so, of the Mormon Church’s willingness to censor dissenting voices. John and Mormon Stories are guilty of the same alternative censorship problem as the Mormon Church. It would be nice to hear an alternative civil voice in some of the podcasts.
I’m under no illusion my comments will be posted.
I have a simple question for John because it appears he has inconsistent viewpoints.
John regular chides, with legitimacy, the Mormon truth barometer, namely positive emotions (holy ghost) means truth. As John has said multiple times, feel or human emotions are a terrible way to decern “truth”. John doesn’t seem to acknowledge or doesn’t seem to be self-aware enough to see that the members of the LGBTQ community use the same Mormon ‘truth” barometer, namely feelings. Often, you’ll hear the words “my truth” from the LGBTQ members which are the same words, although framed differently that you hear from Momon testimony.
Mr. Hall feels he was born in the wrong body and has always felt he was a woman. If my son’s told me he feels like he is a cat and would like to start wearing cat clothes, I would tell him the same thing that I would tell a Mormon who feels their church is the only path to God. Okay, if you want me to acknowledge your catness, show me, empirically, that you’re a cat. And you can’t use any words that denote human emotions in expressing your catness.
It is impossible, scientifically, to separate sex and gender. Every part of Mr. Halls DNA has been constructed and organized to express HIS gender. This process started before he was born.
John why don’t you use the same logical fallacy of using human emotions to determine truth when speaking about or with the LGBTQ community? You are quick to make fun of Mormons who use the same logic to determine truth.
I know you have a soft spot for this Community, which is noble, and we should seek to help everyone who struggles with life’s complexities; however, that shouldn’t mean forsaking logic in the pursuit of sympathy.