Being Gay at BYU: Times, They Are a Changing

[Curt Sunshine]

Matthew Easton graduated today as the Valedictorian of the BYU Political Science Department.

He included the following in his speech:

"As a gay son of God..."

Here is the link to the video of the entire speech. It is exceptional.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=you ... LeMVykzvKY

[mom3]

[DarkJedi]

Incidentally I happen to know some people who were at that particular graduation - I can't wait to ask them about it.

Edited to add link to the Youtube video. (The line is just before the four minute mark, but the whole 6+ minutes are good)

https://youtu.be/rLeMVykzvKY

Ray: Thanks, DJ. I included the link in the original post once I had the chance to do so.

[DoubtingTom]

Definitely a sign of progress that a gay man can come out publicly like that at BYU.

I can’t help but feel sorrow for his difficult sojourn in the church if he chooses to stay. Living a life devoid of the loving and intimate connections that are so fulfilling to the human experience and essentially becoming a marginalized member of his community.

I love seeing progress but the church is still not a safe space for those of the LGBTQ community.

[DarkJedi]

Definitely a sign of progress that a gay man can come out publicly like that at BYU.

True. Even 5 years ago he probably could not have done that.

I can’t help but feel sorrow for his difficult sojourn in the church if he chooses to stay. Living a life devoid of the loving and intimate connections that are so fulfilling to the human experience and essentially becoming a marginalized member of his community.

I love seeing progress but the church is still not a safe space for those of the LGBTQ community.

Also true. But who knows where we might be 5 years from now?

[Curt Sunshine]

My children's generation (his generation) is going to change the Church. His speech was met with widespread applause. That says something important.

[Minyan Man]

I saw it on youtube as well. It is very encouraging.

[rrosskopf]

Moderator note: This post has been moved for review.

It is being reinserted, with an admin note in the following comment.

Can a gay person not find love and intimacy with the opposite sex? They usually don't want to, but I'm pretty sure they can. Humans have a greater capacity for love than these labels will suggest.

[Curt Sunshine]

Admin Note: We have found over the years that debate about sensitive issues involving radically different views can and usually do become contentious and divisive in a hurry. That result is not in line with our mission, so we focus carefully on keeping threads focused on the point of the original posts, as much as possible. We need to keep that in mind with this post.

[Curt Sunshine]

This is a personal comment, not an admin note. I just want to make that clear.

My intent in writing this post was NOT to launch a debate about homosexuality or any LGBTQ+ issue. My focus was on the obvious fact that a BYU valedictorian coming out to their entire college in a public speech would not have happened even a few years ago - and it certainly wouldn't have been met by widespread applause from the faculty and student body. I did not want a debate about whether or not full intimacy is possible in a mixed-sex marriage when one person is same-sex attracted. The answer is simple (No), but the explanation is extremely complex.

A good discussion of that question would require a long, detailed disucussion of new medical / neurological understanding of what it means to be LGBTQ+ - including the distinctions among those classifications. Particularly, it would require a solid explanation of the differences between being lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer - and then an explanation of the subcategories within being queer. For a straight, cisgender male, I am reasonably qualified to have that discussion, but this is not the thread for me to tackle it. It might not be the forum, either.

So, as the author of the original post, I ask that comments remain focused on the intent I outlined in the first detailed paragraph of this comment.