Queer Gnosis

by Troy Williams

The following comments were given (more or less) at the National Kiss-In event on August 15th in Salt Lake City.  I had my notes but I delivered the bulk of this by memory — so some bits made it in while others did not.  But the big climax was the Kiss In — and lucky me, I hooked up with the hottest guy there…all in all a pretty good day…thanks to Toni Palmer for the photo.  Every shot of me speaking at a rally makes me look like I’m some kick ass musician singing my heart at in front of thousands.  It’s a fantasy I have from time to time.

I have a plan to end the war between Mormons and Gays! We are ready for hostilities to cease! If queers and Mormons are going to peacefully co-exist we will all have to engage in some very deep soul searching.  But it’s going to require even greater soul-searching by the leadership of the Latter-day Saints.  Hear me out!

The biggest challenge facing Utah today is Internalized Mormonphobia. Deep down inside, many Latter-day Saints are uncomfortable with their theology and their history.  The Garden of Eden in Missouri, baptizing dead relatives and marrying multiple wives in heaven to conceive planets without end is all goofy stuff.  It’s embarrassing.  And most Mormons these days just really want to ignore their oddball theology and just be accepted as mainstream American Christians – badly!  As Gordon B. Hinckley earnestly told Larry King – “we are not a weird people”.

Well, I hate to break this to you Saints – but you are! And it’s okay. Embrace your weirdness!  Mormon scriptures claim that your god called you to be a peculiar people. Go with that!  Don’t fight it! Peculiar is after all, just another word for queer.

And just as Mormons must embrace their weirdness – so too should we queers. We are sexual deviants and perverts.  That’s right!  I’m not apologizing for that.  This is nothing to be ashamed of.  And thank god for us deviants.   Embrace it!  Own it!  Flaunt it with pride!  We’ve got to stop fearing and hating these things inside us.

And this is what the gays and the Mormons can learn from each other! We’ve all got to embrace our inner freak. This is how we end the war.  We’re all misfits, queers and oddballs.  There is no such thing as normal.  One more time: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NORMAL!  And thank god!  Hippy Hop artist Michael Franti says it best, “all the freaky people make the beauty of the world.”

Without the freaks the whole world would be drab and boring.  Can you imagine life as a global Sacrament Meeting?

QUEERS: WE ARE SEXUAL PERVERTS AND DEVIANTS!  EMBRACE IT!
MORMONS: YOU BELIEVE GOOFY, IMPOSSIBLE THINGS!  EMBRACE IT!
EVERYONE: WE’RE ALL FREAKS ! EMBRACE IT!

LET’S STOP PROJECTING OUR OWN FEARS ONTO OTHER PEOPLE!

Doesn’t that feel good?  So now that we Mormons and Queers have embraced our inner freak — there is one more element required to end the Gay/Mormon conflict.  The LDS Leadership needs to repent.  That’s right. In primary I was taught the “4 R’s of Repentance.”  When you hurt somebody – when you steal something – when you bare false witness against someone — you need to first RECOGNIZE that you have sinned.  The LDS Leadership has consistently lied about who queers are.  Spencer Kimball described homosexuality as a slippery slope toward bestiality. Boyd K. Packer advocated physical violence against gays.  BYU electrocuted us.  Bishops counseled gay men to marry straight women. The Church’s Sacred Security physically accosted Matt and Derek. And Thomas S. Monson presided over a deceptive political campaign to strip away the civil liberties of gay and lesbian families in California and across the country.

Secondly, the leadership of the Church needs to feel REMORSE for these actions.  Mormons know what it’s like to be persecuted, mobbed, killed and driven across the country.  Mormons were hated just for being different.  Mormons of ALL people ought to feel empathy for the plight of another stigmatized minority.  Shame on you if you don’t.

Third – The leadership of the Church must make RESTITUTION for their sins against the gay community.  We’ll start with a public apology.  After which, you’ll close down Evergreen.  And finally you will use your influence to encourage the Utah Legislature to pass the Common Grounds Initiative this January.  That would make a good start.

Finally – President Monson, you must RESOLVE never to sin again.

And when the Leadership of the Church humbly asks for our forgiveness – and in good faith work to make amends – we queers will forgive them and we’ll go our way in peace.  We won’t ask to get married in their temples.  We won’t launch any political campaigns to strip away their rights.  And we won’t make fun of them for eating at Chuck-A-Rama.

But understand this reality:  there will NEVER be peace between the Mormons and the Gays, until the LDS leadership takes responsibility for their actions and seriously begins to address their wrongs against us. The burden of “change” has always been placed on our shoulders – but no longer! I stand before you today not with anger – but rather with a determined defiance against all forms of moral oppression and spiritual tyranny.   We will settle for nothing less than full civil equality in this state and in the nation.

We don’t hate Mormons.  We really don’t. My family is Mormon.  I wouldn’t exist without the whole mythical magical fantasy that is the religion.  Thank you Joseph Smith for your imaginary golden plates and your enchanted seer stones.  They captured the conviction of a people who would follow their faith across desolate plains and rugged mountains.  Those people are our ancestors.  And their impossible imagination built a city that we lovingly call home.  And today in this city, a group of New Queer Pioneers are crossing a different terrain.  We are marching forward on an intrepid trek toward social justice, inclusion and equality for all people.  This is the legacy that we queers will leave for Utah.  We are the generation that will break down the walls of patriarchy and bigotry so that all people can be free!

So to all the freaks and queers, the Mormons, the perverts, the polygamists, the dykes and trannies, the missionaries, the fetish S&M club, all you people trying to be gods – let’s respect our difference.  Stop fearing each other.  As I have loved you, Love One Another.  From this day forward, let’s all start making passionate, freaky, horny, hardcore LOVE with each other!

Thank you!