I'm reading Andrew Evans' Black Penguin. Evans is a gay exmo who has travelled for Natl Geographic. His book recounts both his trip to Antarctica via public buses, and his journey out of the closet as a gay Mormon.

In one chapter, he is a Primary chorister in England, but his bishop informs him that SLC wants him released because they suspect him of pedophilia. In their minds, all gay men want to sleep with children.

He leaves the chapel and his friend asks him to come back in. He said that the church is not ready for gay members, but they will need them.

My response is: Too damned bad! You rejected us, your own children, so you don't deserve our help. Let the church rot without the talents, time, and money of the hundreds of thousands of gay Mormons you chased out. If you were God's church, you wouldn't treat your own children this way. You deserve to die as an institution that persecuted your own just for being gay.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2017 01:06PM by axeldc.

That's wild. His little brother was my first love.

Nate had a very hard time while serving his mission and crashed with Andrew for a while after he was released. Does the book mention his family at all?

He does talk a bit about his family, a lot about his father. He has mentioned his siblings as a group, but not as individuals.

I'm about 1/3 through it.

I've never met him face to face, but I've been Facebook friends with him for a few years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2017 01:12PM by axeldc.

Should I be relieved I didn't marry into the family? I remember his dad was kind of a dick. He told Nate to come in a box or not come home at all. Oy!

I know Andrew, although I haven't read Black Penguin yet.

I remember that when Andrew was kicked out of the cult ("excommunicated") for being gay, his parents thought it was a great idea... That is way cruel.

On the other hand, I have another gay Mormon friend whose parents were actually relieved to see him go inactive, instead of waiting to be expelled like a leper. His parents were much more sensible and sensitive than Andrew's, and would rather not see their son put through such an ordeal, such a pathetic circus. And they would hate to see their son being otherwhise mishandled in the Church (gossip etc etc).

But Andrew's parents, like many others, totally blinded by the cult, think that "courts of love" and similar forms of cult abuse are acceptable and even advisable. (An effort to eventually bring the "sinners" back to the clutches of the Reich.)

Appalling.