759: The Courage of Savannah

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2017

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Mormon Stories, we interview Savannah and her mother, Heather.

In this episode of Mormon Stories we interview Savannah and her mother, Heather. Savannah recently generated international media attention when she came out as gay to her Mormon ward (congregation) in Eagle Mountain, Utah during fast and testimony meeting (May 7, 2017). Towards the end of her testimony, a presiding priesthood authority cut off her microphone and told her to sit down. A friend recorded the video of her live testimony.

In this episode John interviews both Savannah and Heather in order to provide the context for Savannah's testimony that day. Questions answered in this episode include:

*What was Savannah's relationship with the Mormon church prior to her testimony?
*Why did Savannah want to come out as gay to her ward?
*Why did she write out her testimony beforehand?
*Why did Savannah's parents "allow" her to bear her testimony in this way?
*Who recorded Savannah's testimony, and why?
*How did Savannah and her mother feel when the microphone was cut off, and Savannah was asked to sit down by her Mormon priesthood leader?
*Was this event a conspiracy orchestrated by Savannah's parents?
*What has been the reaction to these events?
*What do Savannah and Heather hope to accomplish by talking about this publicly?
*What would Savannah and Heather like to say to LGBT Mormons and their family/friends?

Special thanks to Heather and Savannah for visiting with the Mormon Stories crew and sharing her beautiful story!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mormon Stories is a production of the Open Stories Foundation and relies solely
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0:23.9	podcast and building communities and programs of support for Mormons like you.
0:28.4	Thanks for your support.
0:49.4	So everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host
0:53.6	John DeLin. The date is June 19th, 2017. We're broadcasting to you live
1:00.7	somewhere in South Jordan, Utah and we're really excited for today's
1:05.6	interview ease. My name is John DeLin and for those of you who don't know a few
1:12.6	weeks back, a young girl named Savannah, bore her testimony, read a testimony
1:18.2	that she wrote during fast and testimony meeting in her word and in that
1:24.6	testimony I would say it was a bit of a non-traditional testimony because in that
1:28.1	testimony she came out as lesbian and talked about all sorts of things including
1:36.1	her belief that her heavenly parents love her and did not make any mistakes when
1:41.7	they made her and talked about her hopes and dreams and what she wanted to do
1:47.1	with her life. And of course by all accounts it was not a traditional testimony
1:52.9	offered in your traditional Mormon congregations and at some point I guess it
2:01.2	was the first counsel in the state presidency he became really uncomfortable
2:04.9	with the testimony and he asked her to sit down. So a video was taken of that
	...

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