Civil disobedience is generally a nonviolent but intentional refusal to obey certain laws or rules as they are currently written. It is often an act or series of acts wherein participants believe deeply that fair treatment is missing, that they need to take a stand and that they must do so with more than just words.
While Latter-day Saints are typically reliable rule abiders, as well as protectors of tradition, there is a collective and heart-led civil disobedience around the treatment of gay people within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that’s worth both noting and supporting.
Recent reports of a married gay couple being regularly offered the sacrament and holding callings as given by their local leaders and upheld by their fellow ward members, I would define and celebrate as such an act. With love in action, Latter-day Saints are defying decades of previous teachings that only defined gay marriage and those who participate in it as sinful and a threat to family, church, children and society.
As a therapist who specializes in treating spiritual and religious trauma amongst LGBTQIA+ people with a Latter-day Saint background, there is nothing that encourages my heart more than substantive movement towards change on LGBTQ+ issues within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In my work over the last decade, I’ve witnessed more pain and agony among LGBTQIA+ individuals grappling with theological, communal and family rejection around their identities, and on the dangerous edge between life and death, than I know how to recount. So often I find myself reflecting on how none of this needs be — how much suffering could be relieved if only there were a place of full participation and belonging of LGBTQIA+ people within the faith of their birth and that bears the name of Jesus.
Throughout human history, civil disobedience has been an important part of raising moral awareness and ultimately bringing about social change towards greater inclusion of the human family. I believe the brave willingness of LGBTQIA+ people to keep telling their honest stories, combined with the brave willingness of straight people to honestly listen with the heart, has little by little led us here to a clear sense of naturally wanting to include the people whose hearts have come to be known.
In many instances, civil disobedience occurs in very public and dramatic ways, but at other times, it’s much more subtle. Like the gentle passing of a sacrament tray to a same sex couple worshiping next to you.
Laura Skaggs
Laura Skaggs, MS, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist living in Provo and mother of two. She sees clients in her private practice and as part of Flourish Therapy: a non-profit mental health clinic providing culturally competent and affordable care for LGBTQIA+ individuals, families and friends.
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