Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

Carol Lynn Pearson

Carol Lynn Pearson to Speak at First Baptist Church

Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons presents: "Facing Carol Lynn Pearson--Mormon author, poet, playwright." Sunday, November 19, 7:30 pm., at First Baptist Church - 777 South 1300 East, in Salt Lake City.

Carol Lynn Pearson is our guest speaker for the evening. Her remarks will address: "Thanksgivings," "the importance of 'family'--biological or created," and will draw also from her most recent creative projects: the World-Premiere of her play, Facing East , by Plan-B Theatre Company at the Rose Wagner Theatre, Nov 16-26, and the publication of her book, No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones. Music will be provided by the Salt Lake Men's Choir. There will be a reception and book signing afterwards.

Billed as "a parable for our place and time," Facing East draws theatre goers into the experience of Ruth and Alex McCormick, an upstanding Mormon couple reeling from the suicide of their gay son. In "Facing East," they are stuck between the comfort of their faith and the unfamiliarity of their new reality when they encounter their son's partner, Marcus, for the first time.

Facing East also coincides with the 20th anniversary of Carol Lynn's seminal book Goodbye, I Love You, the story of her life with her gay husband Gerald, their 12-year Mormon temple marriage, four children, divorce, ongoing friendship, and his death from AIDS in her home, where she cared for him. The 20th-anniversary edition of Goodbye, I Love You was recently printed.

"My Mormon temple marriage to a gay man and subsequent events had filled my life with a realization of how badly -- society and especially religious communities like mine -- deal with homosexuality, and how condemnation and hopelessness too often drive gay people to suicide. The suicide attempt of a gay man who had become a dear friend still haunted me. And I knew that Utah's statistics on suicide -- now placing the state first in the nation for suicides of men 15-24 -- was itself a cry for help.

What is better equipped to answer that cry than drama? Nothing I know of has the immediate magic that invites one person into the heart of another like theatre does."

All are welcome to attend.

Salt Lake Affirmation is the Utah chapter of Affirmation, an international non-profit fellowship serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersexed Latter-day Saints since 1977. Affirmation aims to provide a safe, inclusive space for GLBTI people from Mormon backgrounds who live along the Wasatch Front. We affirm that living as a GLBTI person can be positive and is not incompatible with spirituality. At the same time, we are a diverse group who embrace a variety of lifestyles and hold a variety of attitudes towards spirituality, religion, morality and politics. We are bound together by the common purpose of affirming that being “other” than heterosexual is of no more consequence in the eternal scheme than blue eyes or left handedness. “It just is.” We are united chiefly by our desire to interact with others who share our dual background -- Mormon and GLBTI -- and who therefore share the unique struggle and blessings which that duality engenders.