“Some LGBT Mormons Feel Like Outsiders In Their Own Church” — Vice News, 2018, 7:27 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvX7JCBnFqc

Contributed by Mary Scafidi, Cabrini University

This video shows how religion can impact LGBT people and their families with a case study of how the Mormon faith ostracizes LGBT individuals. It highlights the often-conflicting intersection between sexual and religious identities. This video profiles Diane, a lifelong Mormon who left the church after her son came out as gay. Indeed, LGBT teen Mormon suicides are on the rise because the church is so against their sexual expression. In order to live their lives authentically, more and more LGBT Mormons (and their relatives) are leaving the church. There are now entire communities of LGBT ex-Mormons (or “refugees”, as one person describes it). Ideally, religion is something people can find solace in when they are experiencing hard times, but as we see in this video, it can also be a source of hard times.

From the video’s description: A schism is riling America’s conservative Christian denominations: The young and the old cannot agree on same-sex marriage. The disagreement is particularly apparent in the Mormon church. Although the church has softened its rhetoric opposing same-sex marriage since its support a decade ago for California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage, a majority of Mormons still oppose same-sex marriage. But younger Mormons, according to a Public Religion Research Institute poll last year, are generally more amenable to the idea of same-sex marriage. And some young Mormons and their families are choosing to leave the church over the issue. To help those Mormons with their crises of faith, a podcaster named John Dehlin runs workshops across the country that address the most difficult aspects of walking away from Mormonism: Marriages crumble, job opportunities disappear and families sometimes shun those who leave the church. But Dehlin hasn’t been a practicing Mormon since 2015, when church officials excommunicated him — after numerous warnings — because of his support for same-sex marriage. Despite the church labeling him an apostate, Dehlin still considers himself a Mormon.