Imagine tweeting this whole thread instead of just saying “I want queer people to fit easily into the roles proscribed for them by an oppressive culture.” https://twitter.com/AddisonDJenkins/status/1278040787272396800

Addison points out that queer Mormon folks cannot change the material conditions that make the church oppressive. He’s right. But you can change the way you relate to God, relate to spirituality, and what you find in it.

Addison’s thread constantly flips between “Mormonism is a belief system, which can easily be changed” and “Mormonism is an immense monolith that is very difficult to change” without seeing the contradiction in his framing.

People know the church is homophobic. They know! The transitional problem is that folks have trouble squaring their positive experiences with other people or parts of the doctrine with a hateful institution.

I understand that Addison later makes the distinction that you can believe whatever you want and not be a part of the institution. But that does nothing to help queer youth who feel trapped between family, schooling, finances, and their own beliefs.

Furthermore, Addison’s description of queerness as immutable is conservative bullshit masking as queer liberation.

Do we deserve to be oppressed if we choose to be queer? Queerness is not less real if we choose it, or if it exists under a different name than the accepted term.

Your queerness is not immutable, it is yours! And whatever terms you use are only useful in how they describe your experience.

I understand that so much of the discussion around queerness is set up by oppressors, but some of us actually find queerness liberating.

Losing the community of the church can be devastating. If we can’t fix up the parts of it that can be fixed and/or build a community to support people moving within and out of mormonism, then what are we doing?

I found a lot of that thread deeply troubling, even as and had to voice that. I’m not really interested in starting fights. I trust ya’ll not to @ strangers and whatnot. Just hope this thread encourages some discussion and reflection.