623: Elizabeth Grimshaw - Facing LDS Excommunication for being Same-Sex Married
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elizabeth Grimshaw was raised Mormon. She knew she was lesbian as a teenager, but spent her earl years (teens and 20s) attempting to date men and to marry a man. In her early 30s, after many attempts to be "straight," she came out as a lesbian, stopped attending the LDS church, and began dating women. Elizabeth found a committed partner 10 years ago, and married her partner 8 years ago. They are currently raising a daughter.
Even though Elizabeth has not attended an LDS congregation since her early 30s, she was recently approached by her bishop (whom she'd never met) in her driveway, and told that: 1) she needed to pray to God about whether or not to leave her wife and child, and that 2) if she wouldn't divorce her wife and child, that she would face excommunication from the LDS church.
This is Elizabeth's story.
Transcript
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| 0:31.0 | We kindly light a myth in circling glue. |
| 0:43.0 | Lead thou me on the night is dark and I am far from home. |
| 0:51.0 | Hello and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm John DeLin your host. It is currently February 22, 2016 and I am very excited to have with us Elizabeth Grimshaw. |
| 1:07.0 | Today's episode is probably going to be a relatively brief episode. It's basically providing kind of an update on the situation with the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. |
| 1:19.0 | Elizabeth Grimshaw reached out to me recently and we're going to get into her story but just to give you a quick summary, Elizabeth is, she identifies as lesbian, is that right Elizabeth? |
| 1:32.0 | That's correct. |
| 1:33.0 | And are you legally married, right? |
| 1:35.0 | We are, yes. |
| 1:36.0 | You've been married for how long? |
| 1:38.0 | We have been legally married since for eight years. |
| 1:42.0 | Okay, so she's been legally married for eight years and even though she hasn't been attending her local ward, has it really been connected with the church in a while? |
| 1:52.0 | She recently was contacted by her bishop sort of out of the blue and told that I believe that she needed to either what, leave your wife or be excommunicated, is that kind of? |
| 2:06.0 | That's what he said, yes. |
| 2:08.0 | So we're just going to dive into that story because I think if there's a headline for this story, it's sort of like LDS Church, you know, opens hunting season on gay and lesbian married members and we just want to document Elizabeth's experience to let other gay and lesbian married Mormons know that apparently they should be looking to hear from their bishop or state president soon. |
| 2:35.0 | Is that sound right Elizabeth? |
| 2:37.0 | Yes, and I have reached out to other members or other priesthood members that have said that that's not official doctrine of the church. |
| 2:47.0 | They have said that it's a rogue bishop, but I, I don't know where else he's getting it other than official mandate by the church. |
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