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Coming Out to Our Wards: An Act of Love Consider celebrating Pride month this year by coming out to your ward on Sunday, June 3, 2007 By David Melson, Washington, D.C., Chapter Leader May 2007 June is traditionally celebrated in the LGBT community as Pride month, both in commemoration of Stonewall and as a celebration of who we are. Consider this an invitation to celebrate the unique blessing of being LGBT LDS this June. Affirmation's membership runs the gamut, from those who are active members of the LDS Church to those who want nothing to do with the Church. Members of the Church, in contrast to the General Authorities that they sustain, are becoming just as divided on their views of LGBT members. Last June, on the first Sunday of Pride Month, two of us stood up before our respective wards in the Washington, D.C., area and we bore our testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, of our faith, and of our knowledge that we were sons of loving Heavenly Parents. We also bore our testimony that as gay men, we did not always feel welcome within the Church that we loved. We were following in the footsteps of a Seattle Chapter leader who came out to his ward during testimony meeting and challenged others in Affirmation to do the same. We walked into those testimony meetings with full knowledge of the possible consequences. They say that you never fully love someone until you have reached the point of being willing to risk losing them. Sam Wolfe and I loved the members of the Church enough to take that risk. Other Affirmation members stood up and came out to the congregation as well. We each experienced the warmth and embrace of members of who praised us for our courage and who expressed their support and their love for us. A few people came out to us. Sam and I each felt a huge wave of emotion and a tremendous testimony of the Holy Spirit, stronger than anything that we had felt in many years, that what we had done was right. I have prayed and pondered and asked. I know that one of the greatest blessings that my Heavenly Parents have bestowed upon me was being sent here to earth at this time as a gay man. Three weeks after we bore our testimonies, I stood before Sam's "Court of Love" and spoke of Sam's love of the gospel, of his sacrifice, and again I bore my testimony. Sam was excommunicated at 2:00 in the morning on a stormy night, secure in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit was with him. In my stake, a member of the Stake Presidency stood after I had born my testimony and spoke with tears in his eyes of my dedication and courage; no action was taken and I continue to hold a stake calling--in spite of the fact that I have not attended a church meeting in over three years except for that one Sunday last June. The world is changing. The LDS Church will change. There are many wards and stakes where out gays and lesbians hold church callings and even a few where they attend the temple. But change will only happen as people continue to come out of the closet and stand up as who they are, overcoming the ignorance that surrounds us and that breeds the fear that forms the hatred. I ask you to consider celebrating Pride month this year by coming out to your ward on Sunday, June 3. To do so as an act of not only courage and possible sacrifice, but also as an act of love. We are Saturday's Warriors and the time has come.
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www.affirmation.org