I’m Scott—a 40-year-old graphic artist. I’ve lived my entire life (apart from a mission to Philadelphia and a year of college in Logan, UT) in the Salt Lake Valley.
I was raised a faithful Latter-day Saint. I was taught—and I continued to believe well into adulthood—that the Church was running precisely as the Lord intended it to run, and that the words spoken by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve were as true as if they had come from God Himself. I remained active and faithful into my thirties, and served at various times as a teacher, a clerk, an Executive Secretary, and as President of the Elders’ Quorum.
At the age of 34 my life (and the lives of my wife and children) changed forever when the accumulation of over three decades of buried evidence became too much to deny, and I finally allowed myself to recognize—and accept—that I am gay. With that realization came the recognition that men who I had revered as prophets, seers, and revelators had made statements regarding homosexuality that I knew—from my own experience and knowledge of self—to be false.
That crack in the foundation of my testimony opened my mind to the possibility that many tenets of Mormonism I had accepted without question—like the current female priesthood ban—could likewise be untrue, and I examined each of them carefully to see how it resonated with my soul. My retrospection eventually led me to part ways with the LDS church, and I am no longer a member. But I still am interested in seeing inequalities addressed.
I have a daughter, sisters, a stepmom, aunts, and female cousins and friends who still believe in and participate in a culture that I feel denies them the ability to reach their full potential.
I have sons, brothers, a father, uncles, and male cousins and friends who still believe in and participate in a culture that I believe prevents them from seeing the women in their lives as true equals.
I believe in equality. I believe women should be ordained.