Good morning, brothers and sisters. My straight brothers and sisters and my gay and lesbian

and transgender brothers and sisters. You and I know that I can't speak on behalf

of the church today, but I can speak on behalf of myself. And I want to tell you, if you leave here,

not remembering anything I have to say. Remember this. I'm sorry. Deeply, deeply sorry.

Brother Miller got one thing wrong with me. I have not been a long time advocate for the cause. I'm a

recent convert. A lot of people have asked me why I'm here today. And as I said yesterday, I have not had a

situation where LGBT issues have come to the forefront for me personally. In my marriage, in my family, in my

extended family, as a bishop. And of course, one of our good sisters yesterday reminded me to include the word

yet. Over the past year, I have felt promptings from the spirit that I needed to learn all I could about these

issues to listen finally to many of your stories. Some of them I've read in books. Some of them I've read

on the internet. And as I took the time to listen, and as I took the time to learn, I began to have a mighty

change of heart. But it was not without some pain. As you know very well, the stories that have been written in

your own stories are extremely painful. Some have called it a tragedy. I call it an atrocity, what has happened. And as I read these

stories, and as I learned more about these issues, I began to see the emotional wounds and the scars

that many of you still have today. And I seem to ask the question, where did you get these wounds?

And unfortunately, the answer was in the house of my friends. And when I felt that answer, I grieved, the wept,

as I would, as any parent would, for their own child. It felt like I could not be comforted. I felt like I was

about to lose everything. I threw Carolin's Pearson's book across the room at one point, because I couldn't read it anymore.

There was one section that was so hard, and I wept in front of my children and they asked me, why are you crying? I couldn't give them a good answer, except to say that I read something very sad.

When I heard about the three recent attacks here in Utah, I knew that I could no longer just sit on the fence. I knew I could no longer just shake my head and pass by on the other side of the road, like a Levite or a priest. I knew I had to do something. I knew I had to say something. I didn't know what to do. And I'm grateful that I was able to.

Contact John Dalin and Anne, and they told me about this conference, and I felt that I needed to be here. And that's why I'm here.

And I still have a lot to learn today, as we stood in or prepared to go into the tabernacle to hear music in the spoken word.

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