November 11, 2015
Letter to Mormon Apostle Dallin H. Oaks
Dear Elder Oaks,
You probably don’t remember me, but we met when you visited Oakland last February. At my father’s suggestion, I had driven up from school that Sunday morning to hear your remarks.
There was no way you could have known this at the time, but I had spent a lot of time during the previous few weeks wrestling with my sexuality. I had not yet told anyone that I was gay, but had come to at least personally accept that part of my identity. The weekend you and I both came to Oakland was the first time I had come home since reaching this understanding. To be honest, I don’t remember much of what you talked about, because I was too anxious about my future, family, and faith to pay full attention to the speakers that day.
When I finally came out to my family a few months...
September 4, 2015
Gay Eagle Scout Speaks Out on Mormons and Boy Scouts
You can listen to the interview here, or on the Nevada Public Radio website.
August 2, 2015
Mormons should embrace gay Boy Scout leaders
When I became an Eagle Scout four years ago, nobody knew I was gay — I was still in the process of accepting it myself. If I had told anyone, I would not have been given the award, despite a decade of involvement with scouting, countless hours with dozens of volunteers installing a garden at my elementary school and more than a hundred nights camping in the California wilderness.
Becoming an Eagle Scout was one of my proudest achievements as a teenager. My parents were thrilled as I was presented with the award in the Mormon chapel where my dad, the bishop of our local congregation and a former scoutmaster, had received his. As I thanked my peers and leaders for their support, I spoke from the same pulpit where a few years earlier, a letter had been read announcing the church’s decision to intervene in the battle over...