I won a Brodie Award!
Winners for the 2011 Brodie Awards were announced last night.
I was nominated in 3 categories and I won 2! There are many people creating high-quality, great content about Mormons, Mormon history, Mormon culture, Mormon politics, Mormon humor etc that the competition was stiff this year. I’m honored that a few of my posts were included in the list and that I won.
A big heartfelt thank you to all who nominated and voted for me. Thank you for the support and encouragement.
-seth
(Re)Creating Community: Phoenix Mormon Stories Conference Feb 17-18, 2012
It’s almost time for this conference! I’m one of the speakers and I’m putting the finishing touches on my talk titled “Time Machines, Cemeteries, and the Desert.” Info about the conference is below. Click here to register.
With Margaret Toscano, Jared Anderson, Joanna Brooks and John Dehlin! Read more 
I’ve been nominated for a Brodie Award!
The Brodie Awards are given by the good folks at Main Street Plaza as an annual award to recognize the best in Mormon-themed related blogging. Named after historian Fawn Brodie who published the groundbreaking biography of Joseph Smith titled No Man Knows My History in 1945, the Brodie Awards are in their third year and I’ve been nominated in 3 categories!
I’m truly honored to be nominated. Some of the other people who were nominated are insanely talented and smart and I feel humbled to be included next to them.
Voting ends on February 16. If you think my posts deserve to win, please click here to vote for me in the following categories:
2011 Most Poignant Personal Story.
2011 Best LDS Church Watch
2011 Best History Piece
Elder Jay E. Jensen and Marriage Equality
On January 8, 2012 Elder Jay E. Jensen of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The talk was same old, same old. The Desert News covered his Church Educational System (CES) Devotional address and reported that he spoke about the three themes of the Holy Ghost. I don’t want to embed the video but here’s a link
The Desert News failed to report this quote from his address (skip ahead to the 18 minute mark of his talk to hear it):
“The adversary seeks to deorganize and to destroy, especially families, as evidenced today by abortion, divorce, and same-gender marriage.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
Divorce AND marriage are destroying families. What?! Read more
Thus Sayeth the Lord…
This revelation from the child molester prophet Warren Jeffs appeared in the Arizona Republic. Honest to goodness, I cut this out of the paper. Read more
So I Made a YouTube Video….
Yes, I did.
I made this at the request of someone who is working on a project about homosexuality and Mormonism and approached me to tell my coming out story in an “It’s Gets Better” type of YouTube video.
My goal was to keep this under the 5 minute mark, but it ended up being just over 6 minutes. I’m ok with that. Read more
Mormon Stories Phoenix Conference
I’ve been a huge fan of Mormon Stories podcast for years. It’s a place where Mormons of all backgrounds, activity levels, and beliefs share their personal stories and struggles about being Mormon. These stories cover the spectrum from LGBT issues, marriage and sex, history, philosophy, Mormon theology and everything else in between. (My parents and I were interviewed for the podcast earlier this year. You can listen to it here.)
In March 2011 I was lucky enough to travel to New York City and see The Book of Mormon Musical with Mormon Stories podcast founder John Dehlin and other listeners of Mormon Stories from all over the country. That weekend was also the first (maybe second) Mormon Stories Conference. To be honest, I only planned on attending a few hours of it then I planned to hit the city. But nothing, not even the Big Apple herself, was able to pull me away from that conference. It was life changing. Read more
Like Father Not Like Son
In November 2011, Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney signed an anti marriage equality pledge. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) created the pledge that commits signatories to fight for a “federal constitutional amendment defining marriage, to appoint federal judges who don’t see a Constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and to back the Defense of Marriage Act” should they be elected to the office of the presidency.
Brother Romney signed this pledge along with Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum. All three were praised by NOM as “three marriage champions.” Of course they are referring to what they call “traditional marriage” and that’s why it really bugs the hell out of me that Romney is being hailed as some great defender of “traditional” marriage.
Politics makes strange bedfellows, for as Mitt Romney lives and breathes he is a product of non-traditional marriages. His father, George Romney, was the descendent of Mormon polygamists who were living The Principle (as it was and is called today) across the border in Colonias Mormonas in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. In the 19th century, to escape persecution and discriminatory marriage laws in the United States, Brigham Young sent some of his followers to Canada and Mexico so they could live their alternative polygamous lifestyles. Read more
Donnie, Marie and Elijah Abel
Update: This post won a 2011 Brodie Award
Besides being a source of constant amusement (Honey Badger for example), YouTube is also a historian’s dream. There is so much archival video available to study and learn from. (I particularly love the commercials from the 1960s and school PSAs about sex and drugs.)
This particular interview clip with Barbara Walters shows Donnie and Marie floundering around like a Utah Lake carp when asked about the Mormon Church’s racist stance on blacks and the priesthood. This interview was sometime before 1978 as the Church reversed the policy (note it was a change of policy, not doctrine) in June 1978. (The stuff Marie says at the end is a whole other topic to be dealt with on another day.)
Donnie answers that he’s not an authority on the subject and one would be better to ask the General Authorities of the Church for an answer. Read more
Book Review: Dancing With Crazy
How much tragedy and heartbreak can one person live through?
Emily Pearson’s new memoir, Dancing With Crazy, gives the answer to that question: a person can live through a hell of a lot and live to tell about it with humor, wit and wisdom. Emily writes that her life was like a dance competition with a merciless partner named Crazy who delighted in her misery and, “thrived on my diminishment. He lived for my utter annihilation.” (p. 11)
From the very first paragraph of this scintillating memoir I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in about a day and half. Read more
Mormon Porn?
After learning the term “soaking” last week, nothing can surprise me. (Seriously, “Soaking“, you’ll be like, WTF?!) Apparently “Soaking” is something Mormon students at BYU actually do to remain pure in the eyes of the Lord (I guess). I obviously can’t confirm if “soaking” is made up or if people actually do it. I don’t care one way or the other but it does not seem very satisfying for either party, kind of like Michele Bachmann’s marriage. (Zing!)
While doing research on the topic of “soaking” I came across this dilly of a pickle: “Bubbling” or “Mormon Porn.” Read more
New Post on Main Street Plaza
Last February I wrote a story for Main Street Plaza about a cozy relationship between John Eastman and Apostle Dallin H. Oaks. Last week John Eastman was appointed Chair of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
I see an interesting connection between one of the highest ranking officials from the Mormon Church and NOM.
Read it here.
Dinner with a Polygamist
Some people asked for the text of the essay I wrote and read on the Mormon Expression podcast. So here it is.
I’m pro-polygamy.
Reactions vary when this comes up in conversation, but overall, I think I’m in the minority.
Regarding my beliefs about polygamy a friend once told me, “you only think that way because you’re a man.” But that’s not why. The reason is because I support the rights of consenting adults to form and maintain their own relationships however they chose to define them.
I didn’t always think like this. While growing up in the mainstream Mormon church polygamy was just a quaint 19th century institution practiced by a few people under very specific circumstances. I learned later this was simply not true but learning about the alternative-lifestyle proclivities of early church leaders didn’t upset me.
Being from Utah my family line had multiple polygamists, but we talked about polygamy in the abstract, an idea that works in theory, like Communism, or a Chevy. Read more
My Essay on Mormon Expression Podcast
One of my favorite podcasts, Mormon Expression, holds an annual essay contest for listeners to share stories pertaining to anything related to Mormonism. $100 is the top prize.
Listeners were asked to write an essay and record it as an mp3. I submitted my mp3 just under the wire and it is now included in an episode of Mormon Expression!! I didn’t win, but I’m still pleased with my essay about polygamy and what I learned from a polygamist woman I befriended. You can listen to it here. I’m the second essay on episode A. Read more
My Interview on Mormon Stories
My parents and I were interviewed by Natasha Helfer Parker for the Mormon Stories podcast. I was glad that both my parents were willing to be interviewed as well and share their experience as parents and as Mormons when their only son (me) came out of the closet. You can listen to the podcast on the website of download it in iTunes.
My coming out story isn’t a horror story. My worst nightmare turned out to not be so bad and I have my parents and family to thank for their unconditional love and support. I understand that my experience is the exception, and this breaks my heart. My story is one of unconditional love and it is my hope that I can carry that message throughout my life.
To all the young, gay (Mormon or otherwise) men and women who may be reading this: remember how special you are. You are beautiful and perfect.
