If you haven’t seen it yet — I’m playing catch-up because we had an unexpected blackout for half the afternoon — there’s a really interesting story at The Advocate today from a guy named Kevin Kloosterman, who used to be a Mormon bishop and ended up evolving into a staunch LGBT ally in the strangest way: he became more familiar with LGBT people. First, it was because he happened to start watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which was the beginning of a series of lightbulb moments for him. That we’re actually human beings, that there’s no “gay agenda,” and that we’re deserving of the same love and respect as anyone else. Take the time to read it:
One of the turning points was when I first began developing personal relationships and friendships with LGBT individuals. For me this came about first in a surprising way. I began watching a television show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. As is sometimes typical for Mormons on a variety of issues, I was late. I didn’t see it until a year or two ago, when it went into syndication.
What seemed to be a unique twist on the typical makeover show became for me my first significant introduction to the LGBT community. I had never had contact that I knew of or built a friendship with an LGBT person outside of work. The show spoke to me from the start. It had a catchy synth intro that reminded me of the dance grooves we used to club to in the late ’80s when I was at Brigham Young University, where I met my wife for the first time.
For me it was much more than watching five gay men help get straight guys’ act together in grooming, home decor, fashion, culture, and cuisine. It began to create a bond for me to these men. They had a certain synergy that kept me wanting to watch more. I liked them as people. I saw them as individuals expressing their God-given talents and trying to make people’s lives and the world a little bit better. As Carson Kressley, the show’s fashion guru, would often say, it’s not a makeover show, it’s a “make better” show.
I would watch the show and imagine what it would be like for them to be in a Mormon bishop’s home, which is probably considered the heart of enemy territory by some in the gay community since Proposition 8. There was something about the spirit of these men that seemed to break barriers of orientation, politics, and even religion. Perhaps like every other fan, I considered them to be more familiar than reality would dictate. Then something that Carson said in his cheeky manner struck me like a thunderbolt. He said, “We are very pro traditional marriage.” Those words echoed in my mind for months and months. It seemed to disrupt and challenge a deeply held belief that the traditional family was under attack by a so called “gay agenda.”
Very cool. Read it all, and then watch this video of Kevin speaking at a conference in support of LGBT Mormons. It’s emotional.
[h/t Towleroad]
God continues to move hearts and minds toward equality. God is good!
If God is so damn good, why did it take Him so many thousands of years to finally “move hearts and minds toward equality”? That He allowed gay people to needlessly suffer for all those years makes Him a monster. But in my opinion there is a better explanation: Gods do not exist.
Have to agree Richard. There is no evidence of a “good God” or any gods for that matter. A good God would have decried racism, slavery and sexism in clear, unambiguous terms 2000 years ago when all that energy was going into writing bibles and korans. A good god would never allow a child to be born with a cleft palate or spina bifida. A good god would have taught us to wash our hands and to boil water to prevent infection. A good god would do myriads of things that were never done by any of the gods celebrated in human history. God is not good, because s(he) doesn’t exist.
This is similar to when white people began integrating with black people. They were no longer some strange, dangerous pseudopeople who lived in a parallel universe. They turned out to be ‘just like us’.
My 2 cents on the other comments: astrophysicists have determined that the chances that the finely tuned conditions which exist to enable the evolution of life on earth as it is, came about purely by random chance, are 1 in 10 to the 10th to the 123rd power. As one scientist grumbled, ‘it looks like a put up job’.
Richard, Paul, you assume two things 1) suffering is Gods doing 2) that we do not have free will.
This is not a religious site, (thankfully) but we live in a religious world. Just be a) happy that more religious people ARE coming to the realizations that this man did b) remember that when people are insulted (and not just pro gay heteros and gay folk read here) insulting their religious beliefs is NOT helpful to the work of increasing out rights c) religion, or the lack of it, is not a guarantee of support for OR opposition to, gay rights and good in the world. Bishop Gene Robinson is relgious, as is Bishop Tutu, who is one of the few strong pro gay rights voices in Africa. Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot and Mao killed tens of millions and were homophobes, and each of these 4 were athiests. Long and short of it, ones beliefs or lack of do not guarantee ones stance on LGBT rights.
I am not interested in arguing about the existance of God. I just know we should celebrate this mans movement towards being an ally, realize he is almost certainly NOT going to abandon his faith, and that most of the world will not be doing so either. We should just celenbrate this good news, and leave the pro or anti religious arguements out of it and deal witht the world we live in.
Mr. Kloosterman, good for you, and if you read this THANKS for being an ALLY!
As an ex-Mormon I am really glad to hear this and glad to see that there is a chance of change within this church that often seems so inflexible. Hopefully there will be more people like Bishop Kloosterman and that will prevent the things that happened to me from happening to other young GLBT Mormons.
Richard, Paul, I’m an atheist too but I see this as progress. Although I no longer believe the things I did I know how great the pull of religion can be and how hard it is to get out of it.
I’m very happy when religious types finally see the error of their way and become allies to the LGBT community. I really think a lot of these haters shoul get to know LGBT people, just as this gentleman did.
I thank Bishop Kloosterman, and whatever Force-for-Good (natural or supernatural) put it in his heart (brain) to change.
Beyond that, can we not make EVERY thread that involves a person-of-faith into a “God vs no god” debate? Priorities, here! I want MY equal rights, and will accept allies of ANY belief-system!