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Mormon Stories Podcast

559: Michael Adam Ferguson, J Seth Anderson, and their fight against gay conversion therapy Part 1

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.55.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2015

⏱️ 75 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

11891403_528200313115_7214367412887132989_oJ Seth Anderson and Michael Adam Ferguson were catapulted into the public spotlight when they became the first same-sex couple to be legally married by the state of Utah. Seth and Michael both grew up in LDS homes, completed full-time missions for the Church, and throughout their twenties, undertook tortuous journeys to renegotiate their relationships with both the institution and with the faith of their childhoods.

Seth and Michael recently completed their graduate work at the University of Utah--Seth finishing his master's degree in social history focusing on the history of sexuality in the Western United States, and Michael defending his PhD dissertation in bioengineering in which he developed new analytical methods for monitoring brain activity using fMRI.

Since November 2012, Seth and Michael have been embroiled in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against a gay conversion therapy organization in New Jersey named JONAH: Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (formerly Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality), filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. On June 25, 2015, a New Jersey jury unanimously found JONAH liable for multiple counts of consumer fraud and unconscionable business practices.

Seth and Michael are actively involved in education and advocacy on behalf of LGBT and queer individuals, including the project Team Truth--a grassroots campaign they are creating with advocates and allies to end the lies and harm of gay conversion therapy.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The

0:01.0

Warmest Stories Podcast is a production of the Open Stories Foundation.

0:10.0

All donations to Warmest Stories are fully tax deductible and go directly towards keeping

0:14.3

the podcast alive and towards building a community of support for Mormons like you.

0:19.0

This podcast is also available in high definition video at youtube.com slash warmestories.

0:24.8

Come, come, you say no toil nor labor fee, but with joy when you're way.

0:40.8

Hello and welcome to another edition of Warmest Stories Podcast.

0:44.8

My name is John DeLin.

0:46.6

It is July 15th, 2015.

0:49.9

We are recording live from the Utah Pride Center in downtown Salt Lake City in front of

0:55.7

a live audience.

0:56.7

Let's hear it audience.

0:58.7

Woo!

0:59.7

Very happy to have you all here.

1:04.8

And we're here to interview to friends of mine from many years back, I'd say.

1:15.7

We're here to interview today Michael Ferguson and Seth Anderson.

1:21.9

For those of you who are real Mormon stories nerds, you'll know that I interviewed Seth

1:26.9

along with I think members of his family on Mormon stories and I don't even know if I was

1:31.9

on that interview.

1:32.9

It was Natasha.

1:33.9

Natasha let it.

1:34.9

I'm in a guest round 2010-2011.

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