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Mormon Stories Podcast

175: Carol Lynn Pearson Pt. 3 - Goodbye, I Love You: Loving Gerald Until the End

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.65.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2010

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Carol Lynn Pearson is one of the most successful Mormon authors, poets, and playwrights of all time. Her book"Goodbye, I Love You" about the death of her gay husband from AIDS took the world by storm in 1986. Her musical"My Turn on Earth" is one of the most successful Mormon musicals of all time. Carol Lynn has spent all her years since"Goodbye, I Love You" as an advocate for both women and gays within Mormonism.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Mormon Stories Podcasts made possible through the financial contributions of its listeners.

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To keep it alive and available to future generations, please consider a donation today at

0:12.0

MormonStories.org. This interview was also recorded in high definition video and can be

0:18.0

viewed at MormonStories.org on YouTube at youtube.com slash Mormon Stories and in iTunes as part

0:25.0

of the podcast feed.

0:29.0

You made a really interesting point in here, and I'm going to just read from it. If my

0:35.0

house had been destroyed by fire, if my child had been run over, I could call on the church.

0:42.0

The church would be wonderful, but not this. I could not bear it. Gerald might be extremely

0:49.0

communicated and I would be humiliated and pitted. And then you also talk about a little

0:58.0

later on when some ladies from the Relief Society came to visit you, and they asked you how

1:06.0

you're doing, and you said, we're fine, we're all fine.

1:09.0

Oh yeah, we say that. And then you asked that question, did every woman in the ward who had a real heart

1:14.0

like lie about it like I was lying? Did we need so badly to look as bright and happy as the

1:22.0

perfect family on the front of the ensign that we smiled no matter what the cost?

1:31.0

I guess you didn't end the book this way, and we'll talk about the ending in a little while,

1:37.0

but you didn't end with this theme that the church wasn't there for you, but it's clear that

1:41.0

there were some ways in which the church just could not be there for you.

1:46.0

It can't be there for other people.

1:48.0

Right, in terms of dating with the issue, the church was not a resource for me, not at all.

1:55.0

But then, and I will be happy to talk about, you know, at the very end.

1:59.0

That's where Mormons come through, when there's physical stuff to be done, and often they can put

2:05.0

away their judgment and say, I don't get it, but sister Pearson needs us.

...

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