December 8, 2020

Hi, I’m Dusty

Posted 6 years ago Tagged Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints coming out Equality family Gay Married

I vividly remember being 13 years old, walking home from church on Sunday. As I walked alone, I started to tear up because I believed I would never have what most of the families at church had. You see I … Read the rest here

Latter Gay Stories

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Latter Gay Stories

15 hours ago

All three four-year universities owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at or landed near the bottom of a new national ranking measuring LGBTQ+ inclusion on college campuses.

In Erobella’s 2026 Out on Campus LGBTQ+ College Index, which evaluated 1,718 four-year colleges, BYU in Provo and BYU–Idaho both received a score of 0.0 out of 100. BYU–Hawaii scored just 2.3.

BYU–Provo ranked 1,691st nationally. BYU–Idaho ranked 1,709th, placing it among the 15 lowest-ranked schools highlighted. BYU–Hawaii ranked 1,646th.

The index examines documented campus policies and resources, including LGBTQ+ centers, gender-inclusive housing, protections for transgender students, insurance coverage for transition-related care, chosen-name and pronoun policies, the surrounding LGBTQ+ environment and documented institutional penalties.

Both BYU and BYU–Idaho received zero points in the campus-policy category. BYU–Hawaii also received zero campus-policy points, but picked up enough points from its surrounding environment and local LGBTQ+ resources to finish slightly above zero.

All three campuses are governed by the Church Educational System Honor Code, which prohibits “same-sex romantic behavior.” CES guidance specifically identifies same-sex dating, holding hands and kissing as conduct that may result in discipline—including expulsion from the school.

The index also penalized the BYU campuses for documented factors including religious exemptions from federal LGBTQ+ protections. BYU–Provo was additionally flagged for appearing on Campus Pride’s 2024 Worst List and ranking fourth on Princeton Review’s 2026 student-voted list of LGBTQ-unfriendly colleges.

A zero does not mean LGBTQ+ students have no counseling, student groups or individual sources of support. It means the universities earned essentially nothing under the index’s measures of institutional policy, protection and inclusion.

For a church that repeatedly says its LGBTQ+ members are loved, welcomed and valued, its three universities finishing 1,646th, 1,691st and 1,709th out of 1,718 schools presents a considerably harder picture to reconcile. ... See MoreSee Less

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Latter Gay Stories

16 hours ago

Leonard Matlovich was exactly the kind of airman the Air Force liked to brag about until he told them he was gay.

He had served for 12 years, completed three tours in Vietnam, earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and built a nearly perfect military record. He was also a Mormon convert who had joined the church while serving in Vietnam and became a deeply committed member of the faith. To him, Mormonism was a religion that gave him a sense of belonging and he felt needed.

Matlovich knew he was gay. He also knew the Air Force had a policy requiring his discharge if he admitted it. So he did the thing that felt honest: he admitted it.

He handed his commanding officer a letter acknowledging that he was homosexual and asked to remain in the service. When the officer asked what the letter meant, Matlovich answered, “It means Brown v. the Board of Education.”

He wanted to force a legal test of the military’s ban. TIME called him a nearly perfect case because his record left the Air Force with very little to complain about except the fact that he was gay.

On September 8, 1975, exactly 51 years ago today, TIME put Matlovich in uniform on its cover beneath four words that were still dangerous for an American to say publicly: “I Am a Homosexual.” He became the first openly gay person on the cover of a major American newsmagazine.

The country he came out into could fire gay people, evict them, arrest them for private consensual sex and even discharge them from the military. TIME documented much of that discrimination while also repeating some of the era’s ugliest assumptions about homosexuality.

Ultimately, the United States Air Force discharged Matlovich anyway. His church offered no refuge either. After he became publicly out as gay, The Mormon church subjected him to church discipline and eventually excommunicated him—local leaders cited that all the publicity threatened “the good name of the church.”

Matlovich died of AIDS-related complications in 1988. He was 44. Before his death, he designed his own grave marker at Congressional Cemetery, his name does not appear on the front. His headstone only identifies him simply as “A Gay Vietnam Veteran.”

Beneath it are the words he chose for himself:

“When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

51 years later, we remember those who blazed the trails that we eventually turned into freeways. ... See MoreSee Less