(Article changed on October 7, 2012 at 15:13)
(Article changed on October 6, 2012 at 21:10)
First Published on NowPublic.com 10-05-12
[A Double Meaning]
I have recently published a book titled No Mormon for President [NMFP]. In that book I make no mention concerning the questions which I raise in this article. And certainly the questions poised here are not in any way intended to ridicule, denigrate or to dismiss the right of any person regardless of sexual orientation to run for public office.
I, like others, have gone through a transition in recent years in which I have learned to accept the fact that about 1/16th of humanity are born LGBT. I have written articles about that issue on OpedNews.com since the November 2008 national elections and the expose' of Mormon Church organized involvement in promoting Proposition 8 in California to defeat "Gay Marriage".
What I am targeting here is deception. Deception I have observed concerning the forced need of secrecy for LGTB people to suppress their orientation in order for them to survive and to succeed in endeavors in a "straight" society. No one can really blame them for it is a matter of acceptance by their peers in a society that is equally to blame for placing unwarranted pressure on those who through no fault of their own were born the way they are. It is not an illness it is a reality! But the deception should not elevate itself to the office of Presidency in spite of forbidden litmus tests of the Constitution.
Formerly a very active Mormon I am aware at how close to home the issue comes. Indeed in my own extended family there is a representative percentage. It is a fact of life to which there can be no denial. As a member of a Mormon Ward Bishopric I was aware of that percentage in the Ward membership. Admittedly, I didn't appreciate or accept it at the time. In Mormon families it is a disaster when children born under the Covenant display homosexual orientation. ("Under the Covenant" means children born of couples who were married in a Mormon Temple.) I have also observed that on a number of occasions.
Also as a former full time missionary I became aware of that percentage within the ranks of the missionary pool when I served in the British Mission 1949-1951. In particular the lifestyle of missionaries who may have been required to sleep in the same bed with another missionary, who actually may have Gay orientation, for two or more years. Since that age is filled with very strong sexual urges and there can be no socializing with a female during the mission, it is sad that the church has more or less forced upon the gay missionary a discovery that there was a natural deviation toward homosexuality.
Many Missionaries return home knowing without doubt they are different. For them they suddenly discover they have to face a life of struggle to survive in Mormonism.
A large percentage of them become tightly closeted in order to survive and advance within the priesthood ranks of the church. Therefore Gays are found in high places, even as high as the ranks of the "General Authorities" of the church. These closeted "Elders" are the worst kind for they single out for abuse those who are not lucky enough to have a family name by which they can conceal their true identity.
In my Book [NMFP] Chapter 13, Mormon Leaders Lie, I discuss an issue of the mixed-up sexual orientation of the late Church president, Gordon B. Hinckley, who crossed all borders of prohibited sexual activity for a Mormon let alone a General Authority. I also discuss the cover up of Hinckley's not so pure lifestyle by his successor, the current church president, Thomas Sterling Monson.
Years ago, I was approached by a returned missionary who confessed he was Gay. In the course of the discussion, he told me that he had gone to Salt Lake City and laid his plight on the shoulders of a church general authority who, admitted to also being Gay. That authority counseled him to closet himself and attempt to lead a "straight" life within the church. That meant heterosexual marriage and children. (And sneaking out at night to fulfill his sexual orientation)
Now how does all this apply to the title of this article?
I boarded with a fellow missionary in London Mission headquarters during part of 1951 that had a prestigious position as the editor of the oldest publication of the church, called the Millennial Star. He had made a trip to Speaker's corner at Hyde Park in London where Elders get on a "soap box" to preach Mormonism.
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