Welcome to GLBTQIA Day: Celebrating Nearly 180 Years of Mormon Homophobia, Bigotry and Violence!

But first, your morning dose of Boop (I scratched him, then he scratched me, but I'm the only one bleeding):



Thanks for joining us for our second weekly installment detailing 180 years of Mormon asshattery and dumbfuckery! Last week on "Lamanite" Day, we established that Mormonism is fundamentally based on racism. (We only addressed the racist tenets held about Native Americans and Pacific Islanders -- we will be addressing racism directed at Africans and people of African descent in the near future.)

In addition to being fundamentally based on racism, Mormonism is also fundamentally based on sex. Now, there's nothing new about a religion telling you whom you may fuck and in what position said fucking must occur, and many religions tell you that God doesn't like you very much if you're not a 0 on the Kinsey scale. But Mormonism takes sex to a whole 'nuther level that could possibly only be matched by those wacky Raëlians. Joseph Smith, Jr. liked sex. A lot. I mean, he liked sex so much that he was married to at least 30 women at the same time, and some of them were already married to other living dudes.

Now I'm not going to fault Old Horny Joe for enjoying sexual encounters with multiple sex partners -- that's the one thing we have in common. What I am going to call him out on is basing exaltation on being a temple-married breeder, and on Misogyny Day, we'll talk about how Smith married underage girls -- two of them 14 years old.

But today we'll be discussing a wide range of topics w/r/t Mormonism and GLBTQIA (although Mormonism really only recognizes gays and lesbians) members and the GLBTQIA community outside of Mormonism -- I guess Mormons have to take their bullshit ideas of love and marriage on the road and impose them on the rest of the world.

As a straight nevermo, I don't have any personal experience to draw from, but I get by with a lot of help from my friends. Today I will be joined by three guest bloggers, all ex-Mormons with first-hand experience of Mormon ashattery and dumbfuckery when it comes to sexual preference, gender expression and gender identity.

We'll be publishing a post at least every half hour; personal story posts will be published every fifteen minutes.

Expect:

1. Some background on LDS doctrine w/r/t the three levels of heaven and why GLBTQ folks who do not consummate hetero temple marriages will not get into the highest level of heaven;

2. Notable quotes about GLBTQ folks from church leaders;

3. A discussion about the excommunication of GLBTQ members;

4. A comparison of the process of acceptance of sexual identity and the process of leaving Mormonism written by an exMormon marriage and family therapist;

5. The despicable history of Evergreen, past and present, including BYU aversion torture;

6. An overview of Mormons and Prop 8 meddling;

7. Stories of church-induced suicide and violence;

8. To learn about how the church pressures members to marry someone of the opposite sex even if a member is out to the local church authorities; and

9. Personal stories posted by GLBTQ exmormons

We've got a lot of ground to cover, and our posts won't be exhaustive, but we will provide you with the ability to continue your study of this fucked up bullshit if you so choose. Connell O'Donovan has crafted a well-researched and comprehensive book, "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature": A Revised History of Homosexuality & Mormonism, 1840-1980, revised in 2004. We can't come close to providing you with the depth and breadth of information and analysis Connell O'Donovan provides, and I encourage you to read further at his site.

So, thank you for joining us, we hope you learn something useful, and please feel free to comment, correct, challenge and vent. The anonymous commenting option is open, and comments are not moderated.