Posted by:
Soft Machine
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Date: February 24, 2018 07:11AM
I found this part of an interview in the The Independent (UK) rather interesting and articulate. You may all know the group Imagine Dragons (I don't) and this may be old hat for all of you...
"Reynolds and guitarist Wayne Sermon both grew up as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – or the Mormon church – and the band have been raising awareness of the issues involving LGBT+ youth within that religion: Reynolds fronts the Don Argott-directed documentary Believer – premiered at Sundance Film Festival – where he visits with heartbroken parents of gay children and teenagers who took their own lives after being rejected by their church; meets other teenagers who have managed to navigate their faith and sexuality.
“I was kicked out of BYU (Brigham Young University) – a Mormon college – for having sex with my girlfriend,” he says. “It was this really strange thing of feeling, like this was a beautiful thing in my life yet I was supposed to feel bad about it. It was really the first time I dealt with depression. I had to stay at home, live with my parents while all my friends went off to college. It was a really shameful process for me, being made to feel bad about something that should have been celebrated.
“That did a lot of damage to me, and still has, to this day. And that’s on such a minor scale compared to what our LGBT+ youth in Mormonism deal with, which is being told their innate sense of being and sexuality is flawed and that they should feel bad about it. In Utah the number one reason for death among teenagers is suicide, that’s likely a lot to do with the shaming – Utah is basically all Mormons.
“There are also statistics that show if an LGBT youth is not accepted in their home or environment they’re eight times more likely to take their own life. Three times more likely to take part in risky drug use. It’s a broken culture, that needs to be fixed, and the first step is hopefully shining a light on it. Because Mormons don’t want to talk about it. And it’s not just Mormonism, it’s all Orthodox religion.”
He’s bugged by people who try to brush off the issue by suggesting teenagers should simply “leave the religion”. Of course it isn’t that easy, a frustrated Reynolds points out: “You’re asking the kid to to get kicked out of their home, and that increases their risk of suicide. These kids didn’t choose their religion, and they didn’t choose their sexuality either.”
Much of Reynold’s desire to shine a light on the issues within Mormonism stem from an episode of the musical dramedy Glee, which featured a cover of Imagine Dragons’ song “It’s Time” by an LGBT+ character sending an encouraging message to his love interest. It sparked a surge of messages to Reynolds from Imagine Dragons fans who assumed – because he was raised Mormon, and is a straight, married father – he wouldn’t support their sexuality.
“It’s impossible for me to reach out to all of those people and respond to each one just to say, ‘That’s not true, I support you 100 per cent’,” he says. “But because that’s my culture, that’s my history … Mormons were at the forefront of fighting against marriage equality for gay couples, so there’s a lot of ground to make up.
“The last couple of years have been the first time in my life where I’ve allowed myself to follow my heart regardless of whether it’s going to offend people along the way. I was raised in a home where you were taught not to rub society up the wrong way. To never offend people. Now I’ve just decided if you’re not offending people you’re doing something wrong, you’re not trying to make progress. To make progress you have to have hard discussions – sometimes you have to be offensive.”
Link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/imagine-dragons-interview-dan-reynolds-singer-lgbt-youth-mormons-culture-documentary-evolve-album-a8225226.htmlHave a great weekend everyone :-)
Tom in Paris