Carol Lynn Pearson
Poet, Author, Playwright, Philosopher
From the hundreds of letters, emails and conversations with gay Mormons I have been privileged to have over the last two and a half decades—and from my ongoing challenging relationship with the Church—I will share my view of where we have been, where we are and where we’re going. And my conclusion that there are various “promised lands” for each of us, found only by personal inspiration, and that it’s fine to say, “This is the place”—as long as we keep the wagon ready to pioneer new ground.
Emily Pearson
Actor and Producer
Emily Pearson has been performing most of her life. Film and TV credits include Taking 5, Brigham City, Evil Angel, Beverly Hills 90210, Touched By An Angel and Saved By The Bell. She received a double nomination (Best Actress in a Musical - 1999) by the Connecticut Critics Circle for her work as Carrie in Carousel and Mitzie in Over Here! Emily worked for years as managing director of Main Street Movie Co. during which time she was an associate producer on the film States of Grace.
Emily co-authored, with her mother Carol Lynn Pearson, the book Fuzzy Red Bathrobe and is the author of the children’s book Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed. Emily is the co-founder of Wildflowers, a support network for women currently or formerly married to homosexual men, has just completed a memoir Dancing With Crazy, blogs at www.dancingwithcrazy.blogspot.com, and is currently producing an independent film based on the stage play Facing East.
LDS Apology
The Foundation for Reconciliation (LDSApology.org)
In the wake of Prop 8, a group of Mormons in the Santa Cruz area felt the time had come for the LDS Church to acknowledge and apologize for its poor treatment of LGBT people. To that end, they agreed to start an online petition at LDSApology.org, under the leadership of Cheryl Nunn. Soon the ad hoc committee expanded to include LGBT ex-Mormons and more straight allies from all over the country.
To promote the petition, the committee legally formed the Foundation for Reconciliation, is sponsoring a benefit concert for Utah homeless youth (focusing on LGBT youth) this coming Monday night, will be holding an LGBT Mormon suicide memorial service on October 4th, and has plans to deliver the petition to the Church Administration Building in a handcart, trekking from the "This is the Place" monument to church headquarters on November 4, the first anniversary of the passage of Prop 8.
Come meet some of the committee members and find out more about their various projects, and how YOU can help out!
Dottie S. Dixon
Entertainer, Gay Advocate, Mother
Mike Bonifer of The Huffington Post describes Dottie Dixon, as a game-changer of the highest order, taking the stage nightly at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City in her one-woman show, The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon, which chronicles her experiences as the activist Mormon mother of a gay son. Her show, a comedy with what she describes as "moments of poignancy," addresses the controversy of Sister Dottie's stubborn refusal to accept the Mormon church's anti-gay positions.
"I can't choose between my church and my child," she said last week when I spoke to her on the phone between rehearsals for her show. "My church wants me to choose. I don't do that.”
Passionate as she is about her cause, Dottie is not an angry woman. She is a funny woman, which may be the only way to build a bridge over the fissure she feels between her religious faith and her family. Even Janice Dickinson Dirt from SLC Dirt.com said—“All fuss and pretense aside, I was incredibly moved by the performance. Mormon or not, you’ll laugh, you’ll love, you’ll feel things and you’ll probably wish your own mother would do half the things Dottie does for her gay son.”
The Passion of Sister Dorrie S. Dixon - The Second Coming returns to The Rose Wagner Black Box Theatre October 2-25. Performances daily except Tuesday. Produced by Pygmalion Theatre Company, written by Troy Williams and Charles Lynn Frost, and starring Charles Lynn Frost as Sister Dottie S. Dixon. Tickets available through ARTTIX. Group Rates available for Affirmation members on Monday and Wednesday evening performances.
Congratulations on three wins at the 2009 ARTY Awards!
Best Production: Pygmalion Theatre Company, The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon
Best Production: Pygmalion Theatre Company, The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon
Best Original Play: Troy Williams, Charles Frost, The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon
Listen to Dottie every Friday at 3pm and Saturday at 10am on KRCL 90.9 FM or streamed at KRCL.org.
Her website is www.sisterdottie.com.
She’s a regular on Radio From Hell X96’s “The Painful Circle,” Friday’s from 8-9am.
Connell O'Donovan
Writer, Historian, Genealogist
Connell O’Donovan is an independent writer, historian, and genealogist. He presented the very first history of LGBT Mormons at the 1988 Affirmation Conference in Los Angeles, and then published the first history of Mormonism and homosexuality in 1994, “‘The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature:’ A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980.”
Connell has published extensively on Gay spirituality, LGBT anthropology and archaeology, and LGBT Mormon issues, and has won two Affirmation awards for his writing. He was very active in opposing Prop 8 in California and currently sits on the LDSApology.org committee. Connell resides in Santa Cruz, California, where he attends the United Church of Christ, an open and affirming congregation.
Irony and Ecstasy: Communism, Mormonism, and the Origins of Modern Homphobia
In this session, Connell will explore the anti-Communist panic of the 1930s-50s, culminating in the “McCarthy era,” and how such red-baiting was linked to homosexuality and the fears of a takeover of the United States by highly organized “Commie-Pinko-Queers.” This happened just as the LDS Church finally emerged from parochial obscurity and reversed its policy of “the gathering” (to Utah).
With growing national and international power in this first post-polygamy generation, the church grew increasingly conservative while seeking ways to stand out as “a peculiar people.” These included a far more rigid interpretation of the Word of Wisdom and a renewed emphasis on “the family unit” (which included a push for more temple work). Conservative LDS politicians and lawyers, like J. Reuben Clark and Ernest L. Wilkinson, were both rabidly anti-Communist and therefore anti-Gay, and were instrumental in setting both tone and policy for the church on homosexuality and gender issues that we still are dealing with today.
The many layers of irony in all this will also be explored, including that early “homophile” leaders were in fact members of Communist Party of America.
Clay Essig
Clay Essig is an active member of the LDS Church and Gay activist. While searching for his own answers to the realities of being Gay and LDS, he was grateful to learn that the gospel as taught by Jesus Christ and LDS scriptures is GLBTI supportive and that being Gay is not a “cross to bear” but a wonderful gift from God. He has spent over 15 years writing and compiling scriptures and other LDS religious teachings which not only helped prevent his own suicide but can also help individuals and families resolve traditional Gay LDS conflicts. After directing his first feature film, he largely set aside his film career to help slow the far too steady stream of Gay LDS suicides through education within LDS culture and extensive volunteer involvement within the GLBTI community.
Clay is currently developing a web site www.GaysAndTheGospel.org to further promote understanding of GLBTI people within LDS culture while promoting gospel principles which are a powerful resource for Latter-day Saints and other Christians who truly want to follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ in the global debate over the lives, rights, marriages and families of God’s GLBTI children.
Clay received his BA degree in Liberal Arts from Utah State University and a MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California. He has worked with many GLBTI organizations: Equality Utah Board of Directors; Log Cabin Republicans Board of Directors; Utah Aids Foundation, HRC and been actively involved with several Gay/LDS organizations. Clay has done television, radio and newspaper interviews and taught many classes and given speeches on resolving Gay/LDS conflicts. He has also lobbied Utah legislators for equal rights for GLBTI citizens.
Lisa M. Diamond, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University of Utah
Lisa M. Diamond is Associate Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development from Cornell University. Dr. Diamond is an internationally-recognized expert on female sexuality and specifically on female sexual fluidity, which describes the phenomenon of women periodically developing attractions and relationships that run counter to their overall sexual orientation.
Dr. Diamond is best known for her unprecedented 13-year longitudinal study of 100 lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, and “unlabeled” women, whom she has been interviewing every 2 years since 1995, tracking changes in their sexual identities, attractions, and behaviors over time. Her 2008 book, Sexual Fluidity, published by Harvard University Press, describes the changes and transformations that her respondents underwent from late adolescence to adulthood, and profiles some of the most intriguing women in detail. Sexual Fluidity has been awarded the Independent Publishers Book Award and the Distinguished Book award from the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Study of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered Issues.
Dr. Diamond has received numerous other awards for her work from the American Association of University Women, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the American Psychological Association. She has published over 50 articles and book chapters, and has been invited to present her researach at over 40 Universities and international conferences. Dr. Diamond and her groundbreaking work were recently featured in the January 23 cover article of the Sunday Magazine section of the New York Times, “What Do Women Want,” and her work has also been featured in USA Today, Scientific American, Salon, The Advocate, Ms, Women’s Health, Oprah Magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and a 2008 documentary about bisexuality entitled Bi the Way. Dr. Diamond has been awarded grants in support of her research from the National Institute for Mental Health, The W.T. Grant Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, the American Institute for Bisexuality, and the Templeton Foundation.
Robert Kirby
Writer, Humorist, Father
Salt Lake Tribune humor columnist Robert Kirby was raised in a military family. After serving an LDS mission to South America, Kirby became a police officer. His law enforcement career was cut short in 1989 by the idiotic notion of becoming a writer.
Robert has written for the Tribune since 1994. His column appears every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. He is the author of six humor books, two novels, and a history book on Utah's murdered police officers.
A confused grandfather, Kirby has three daughters and one wife. He lives with his long-suffering family in Herriman, where neighbors no longer speak to him on the record.
Chad Hardy
Man on a Mission
On Sunday, July 13, 2008, life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chad Hardy was excommunicated by the church for releasing a calendar that features shirtless Mormon missionaries.
Chad Hardy made headlines around the world with his thought-provoking Men on a Mission Calendar in late 2007. Hardy's vision of the tongue-and-cheek project involves a much deeper story than the eye-candy; one that can reshape perceptions, heighten awareness, and perhaps encourage and inspire a broadened acceptance of human and religious diversity.
Chad -- and a few of his models -- will be at the 2009 Affirmation Conference to explain a bit about their mission.
Hardy's project has proven to be a powerful progressive step in building a dialogue that encourages people across every belief system and walk of life to defy stereotypes, step out of judgment and embrace tolerance over fear. With the recent months of the Mormon Church's heavy involvement in the politically charged agenda targeted at discriminating gays and dividing families in California, Chad is certainly timely.
Having come from a sixth-generation Mormon family, lived in Utah for 8 years, and served a 2-year mission himself, he has an in-depth understanding of the LDS church and its devotees. Hardy set out on a mission to "open shirts, open minds" by showcasing individuality within one of the most conservative religions as a medium to build bridges that separate humanity based on religious and cultural intolerance.
Hardy's bold move not only cost him his place in the Mormon Church, but it has now cost him his BA degree in Communications Studies at Mormon-owned Brigham Young University.
Hardy's excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an attempt to silence him because of his project. And now the continued blow with his revoked degree has given him more reason and conviction to encourage people of every belief system to take a stand for what they believe in to let their own voice be heard and live with the powerful consequences without fear.
Hardy believes that change does not happen until the status quo is challenged. His goal is that others will follow, to shine the light of accountability on the intolerance and abuse that exists within our country in the name of God.
The Men on a Mission calendar has also served as an outlet of expression for the models involved. Some of the men were attracted to the project because of its charity contributions (a portion of the profits would be donated to the charity of each model’s choice), but others saw an opportunity to express their own sexuality. Two of the men from the 2009 calendar and half the models for the slated 2010 calendar are gay. And you only have to remember back to California’s Proposition 8 to know how the LDS Church feels about homosexuality.
Debut Screening: Voicings
A much anticipated highlight of the 2009 Affirmation Conference is the first showing of a new film by Stephen Williams entitled Voicings. The film portrays the results of sexual repression, depicting the double lives of men who are unable to express who they are in the light of day. It is an intimate look at Douglas, the central character, who yearns to become free from the prison created both by himself and his society/church.
Many will remember Stephen’s earlier film, Blessing, which was viewed as a work in progress at the 2003 Affirmation Conference. It dramatically depicted the conflict, and resolution, of a young gay man and his LDS family, and was based on a true incident. The film was so powerful that a member of Affirmation was motivated to write a large check on the spot to assist with the final production cost of the film. Affirmation has contributed to the production on Voicings and will be listed in the film’s on-screen credits.
You do not want to miss the first showing of this amazing film, but you need to be at the 2009 Affirmation Conference in order to get the first peek.
Stephen Williams
Stephen has received recognition in film festivals throughout the world, and is a great friend of Affirmation. He received an MFA in Film Studies from the University of Utah in August 2002, completing the degree he began at USC Film School. He also holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a BA in English Literature from Brigham Young University. In addition to making films, Stephen currently teaches film theory and production courses at Salt Lake Community College. He was a recent recipient of the Utah Arts Council Artist's Grant, and was a participant at the 2006 Sundance Producer's Conference.
Make a Contribution
If you would like to make your own tax deductable donation to the production of the film, click below to download a special donation form specifically for the film. If you use the general Affirmation donation form, indicate that the donation is for the Stephen William's project.
Download Donation Form
