[ghayes]

“Elder Christofferson did say earlier this year that we don’t have a very good understanding of these issues. Clearly we don’t, and it is clearly not black and white.”

But clearly, I believe the church is treating this all as a black and white issue…despite admittedly not understanding it. If they don’t understand what is going on, then stop the witch hunt. Stop making policies that drive children to commit suicide. Stop labeling that poor 14 year old boy and girl as a sinner before they’ve even had their first kiss. This is what children face in our wards each and every week. And I’ve personally seen the struggles they go through. It’s heartbreaking.

I see this whole topic treated in church as though people dealing with this are invaders from another planet…a group of “others” to which we simply cannot relate…who are off in caves plotting our downfall. When in reality they are our family, our neighbors, our children sitting right next to us. The family is of God…and these folks are part of my family.

[ghayes]

Yes, even if only a few children on earth are born with a gender determination issues, broad based policies presuming everyone on earth is either a boy or a girl completely ignores reality. The individual stories you hear of people who were just assigned gender at birth by guessing are heartbreaking. And what they deal with due to societal norms is so sad.

If determining gender can get dicey, surely there are more things that occur that affect gender identity and sexual attraction. Think of all that we know about that does go “different”…including autism, OCD, color-blindness. It is such arrogant thinking to label anyone who is living a good and decent life…but “different”… as being a sinner.

Let’s start punishing folks because they are born with two different colored eyes and punish their children because it freaks us out.

[ghayes]

When I was fairly young, my mother told me not to tell the Bishop anything…because they weren’t always going to be Bishops and they were human beings likely to be fallible. It was good advice.

I think a conversation with your daughter is good…but I think you really need to call the Bishop out on this one. Your daughter was honest with you and told you…despite being “sworn” to secrecy…so she gets it.

I told my children that the first thing they should do when someone tells them NOT to tell their parents….is to TELL their parents! It’s creepy to swear a child to keep things from their parents. Really creepy.

The Bishop is probably well meaning, but needs a wake up call.

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