My name is Richard. I am a lifelong member of the LDS faith. I have been married 32 years and have four boys. The three older boys have served missions for the Church, two are BYU graduates and the third is a junior at BYU. Our youngest is 12 years old and recently ordained a deacon. I served a mission to Sydney, Australia. I was a graduate of Rick’s College (where I met my wife). My profession is a veterinarian of dairy cows for 26 years and I’m an active member of the LDS faith.
I can’t begin to say how grateful I am for the social and supportive influences of the LDS faith. It has been a tremendous medium for formation of morals and ethics in my life and the lives of my family and friends. I understand, also, that many people strive to find reason, purpose, and justification of existence and a way to try to describe the chemical and physical parameters of our existence. I personally formulate these metaphysical principles through empirical science.
Taking all these things into consideration, I am saddened that an organization that has meant so much to me, my family and friends, continues to practice sectarianism and inherited prejudice against gender and gender preference.
In reviewing our civilizational evolution regarding civil rights and equality of opportunity, it is truly moving to see the progress and tremendous steps that have been made. I was inspired by the courage and charity of the Church leadership in 1978 when the Church discontinued its stigmatization against men of African descent. I look forward to the day when that same benevolence and empathy will be extended to gender and gender preference. I believe women should be ordained.