Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

2002 Affirmation Writing Awards Contest Winners

Sept. 2002

First Place - Sam Clayton, "Winning and Losing: One Kid's Best Shot at BYU." The author of this essay became prominent a few years ago as one of a handful of openly gay - but celibate - BYU students. He recounts an incident from his junior year, when administrators tried to trick him into confirming a statement he did not in fact make, alleging that a certain BYU professor was gay and preying on students.
Second Place - James F. Cartwright, "My Story." While the author of this coming out story has transitioned out of the LDS Church, it is clear that he remains deeply Mormon in his outlook on life, most notably in the importance he assigns to personal revelation. Especially moving is the author's account of taking the sacrament each week to a fellow gay Mormon, dying of AIDS.
Third Place - Oliver Beck Jones, "There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today: Open Letter to a Friend" The author addresses this open letter to a straight LDS friend who has predicted that most of the author's gay friends "will be dead within 5 years as a result of choices they are making." In response, the author explains to his friend why he has chosen to come out of the closet and the process he has had to work through.

Honorable Mentions:

Megan Bennet, "Dear Jane" Dear Jane" is a collection of letters by a Mormon lesbian to a straight-but-supportive friend. The letters give the author a chance to talk her way through issues and questions that we've all grappled with.
Robert J. Christensen, "Tin Ears and Hard Love: A Personal Response to Elder Boyd K. Packer's 'Ye Are the Temple of God'" and "'To Dance My Own Dance': Remembering Karl Keller, A Man I Never Met" "Tin Ears and Hard Love" is a response to an address given by Boyd K. Packer during the October 2000 General Conference. "To Dance My Own Dance," is a eulogy to Karl Keller, one of the individuals memorialized on the Affirmation AIDS quilt.
Braulio Ventura, "The Temple: An Everlasting Farewell" In this journal entry, the author describes a recent visit to the London Temple - a visit charged with special significance, because he realizes this will probably be the last time in his life that he enters an LDS temple.