Wednesday, February 5, 2014

BYU’s Gay Mormon Panel a Huge Success, Overflow Crowds Turned Away
Overflow crowd of students and visitors standing outside of the auditorium. Photo courtesy of Christopher C. Smith.
On Wednesday night April 4th at Brigham Young University, a panel of three self-identified homosexual students and one bisexual student talked openly regarding their struggles with their sexuality and how they have coped with their same-gender attraction along with their Mormon faith. All four students were attending BYU and had committed to living Church standards and the BYU Honor Code.

On university fliers for the event, the forum was advertised as, “Everything you wanted to know about being gay at BYU but were too afraid to ask.”

Held in an upstairs auditorium of the Martin Building (MARB), the university-sanctioned panel-discussion for gay, lesbian, and bisexual BYU students was met with perhaps more success than its organizers anticipated. The seating was full to capacity a half-hour before the event was scheduled to begin. More students, professors, and visitors found spots to sit on the floor or stand against the wall. The event was officially for BYU students only, and several visitors were turned away. BYU police were maintaining security at the forum.

Reactions



Reactions after the event were overwhelmingly positive. When the panel was finished, those in attendance gave the speakers a standing ovation. One student who attended told me,
“These four students [in the panel] have some of the strongest testimonies and wonderful relationships with Christ. … I hope that those who are struggling with same-gender attraction may see these four strong individuals and realize that they don’t have to choose between being honest about themselves and who they are and in being a member of the Church.”


One non-Mormon visitor who was not able to find seating at the event said that though disappointed he couldn’t personally hear the panel, he thought it was ”nice to see so much interest in the subject” at Mormon-dominated BYU.

A few minor reactions were less positive. According to some there were at least three attendees at the forum from a group called the “Standard of Liberty,” an organization composed of Latter-day Saints based in Pleasant Grove, Utah, who had been attacking the planned event earlier in the week. The Standard of Liberty had sent out an e-mail claiming the BYU forum on homosexuality would aid in destroying traditional values and would violate the BYU Honor Code. Stephen Graham, the group’s president, wrote,
“[The BYU forum] will be harmful, harmful to the souls of those giving the talks, harmful to those young minds listening who will be supported in covering both inward and outward sins and initiated further into homosexuality, and harmful to all those these people come in contact with.”


Others dismissed the “Standard of Liberty” group as being outside of mainstream Mormonism.

Read Full Salt Lake Tribune Story



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