Elena Thurston returns to share with us how the PoS, the new LDS LGBT Policy Handbook update dubbed the Policy of Silence, still affects families and children who want to serve missions. There has been no update, no clarification regarding children of “same-sex attracted” parents and the requirement that they disavow that parent in order to serve a mission with the LDS Church. This existing policy continues to cause excruciating emotional damage to children and families. Members who “suffer from same-sex attraction” are still encouraged, forced or feel no other choice than to seek out conversion therapy to “fix” their homosexual attractions. A practice that results in youth 8.4x more likely to attempt suicide. GLAAD reports “San Francisco State University found that “compared with LGBTQ young people who were not rejected or were only a little rejected by their parents and caregivers because of their gay or transgender identity, highly rejected LGBTQ young people were:
- 8.4x more likely to report having attempted suicide
- 5.9x more likely report high levels of depression
- 3.4x more likely to use illegal drugs
- 3.4x more likely to be at high risk of HIV and STDs”
Links mentioned in the episode:
- Patreon FULL VIDEO of Elena’s Episode
- Elena’s Amazing Ted Talk about Her Experience with Conversion Therapy
- Elena’s Love Story on MHH
- GLAAD Discusses Efficacy and Consequences of Conversion Therapy
- VENMO for Mormon Happy Hour one time donations
- Music by bensound.com and by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 - Transition pieces found here
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Michael Smith returns with his irreverent interruptions to discuss the recent LGBT Exclusion Policy Reversal that was announced. We also introduce a VERY important Instagram account that is raising awareness in an area Colleen passionately advocates to change, the BYU Honor Code office! And lastly, since it is the very weekend of LDS General Conference, please enjoy some hopeful conference rumors! Don’t miss the bonus content with Michael, which you get a teaser of in this episode! Head on over to Patreon to catch all the videos from this episode!
This week, catch exciting Mormon Headlines with Marie Kent from My Book of Mormon Podcast. You can always count on Marie’s feminist never-Mormon perspective to highlight just how peculiar Mormonism can be. Colleen and Marie discuss the news that Sister Missionaries are now permitted to wear pants in the mission field, an unfortunate missionary that chose an isolated island to die on, President Dallin H. Oaks receives a prestigious recognition, a former reparative therapist, David Matheson, has come out as gay, and an important update from QuitMormon dot com. As always, if you’d like to watch this interview instead of just listen, head to Mormon Happy Hour’s Patreon page for the full video and much more bonus content!