The Internet has again been conspiring to thwart me in posting. But hopefully, by the time you read this I will have conquered the great cyber-demons and you will be able to view the video below. It's sort of long, but an interesting bio of a gay Mormon. Apparently, several of these video clips are available on LDSresources.info. Prior to this video, all I knew of Schow was that he had responded to the Salt Lake trib article that featured yours truly, and had less than enthusiastic things to say about marriages like mine.
Then, several days ago, the video became the subject of discussion on a list serve I read and my curiosity was piqued. Looking through LDSresources.com, I was delighted to see a review of In Quiet Desperation that took Byrd to task for his, well, obnoxious review. By this, Schow was bumped up a few notches in my estimation. As I read more and more of the site, I saw nothing to support the opinions I had heard that Schow was on the very fringe of LDS faithfulness, claiming adherence and credibility, but actually seeking to contradict the brethren and advance homosexuality as acceptable in the church. What I have seen is a man with unusual compassion and insight into the difficult nature of the issue, as well as a strong advocate for LDS people to follow the prophet's directions to love and accept members of the church who are homosexual as they go forward in faithfulness. And I think we can always use more of those.
5 comments:
Ron Schow's brother, Wayne, wrote a book about his gay son Brad, who died of AIDS. It's called Remembering Brad: On the Loss of a Son to AIDS.
Ron Schow is a voice of compassion in the LDS community. He has also made a concerted effort to study the gay Mormon experience in a rigorous empirical way. His opinions of gay-straight marriages are, I believe, informed by his understanding of the data he has collected and analyzed.
I followed the links and read the review of "In Quiet Desperation." Wow. It couldn't be more obviously biased if it had "PROPAGANDA" stamped across it. How is it something can be so funny and so infuriating at the same time?
I have mixed feelings about Ron Schow. I appreciate his willingness to challenge the dogma of "everyone can change their orientation if they try hard enough", but he is just as dogmatic in his beliefs as those he stands in opposition to. And I wish he were more forthright about his motivations and his credentials.
I also thought that video was kind of strange and creepy. Can they find some homosexual Mormons who aren't socially backwards?
anonymous:
...but he is just as dogmatic in his beliefs as those he stands in opposition to.
How so? Which of his beliefs do you find dogmatic?
And I wish he were more forthright about his motivations and his credentials.
Do you have some special insight here? How is he not being forthright? What are his motivations and credentials that he is not revealing?
What makes him so socially backwards? He appears to have a group of devoted friends to share his life with. He clearly could have married if he had been able to get past his aversion to intimacy with women.
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