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Mormon Stories Podcast

771: Laurie Lee Hall - Standing in my truth, Walking in my faith Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.65.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2017

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In these episodes of Mormon Stories, we interview former LDS Stake President and LDS Chief Architect Laurie Lee Hall. Laurie Lee’s story is fascinating on many levels:

  • Laurie Lee worked for 20 years as Chief Architect for the LDS Church and as Director of Design and/or Construction for around 40 LDS temples.
  • She served as Stake President of the Tooele Utah Valley View Stake in Tooele, Utah for 8 years.
  • While she remembers identifying internally as a woman from a very young age, she began to experience intense pressure to transition to female while serving as an LDS Stake President. This ultimately led to her being released as stake president after 8 years of service.
  • About two months ago Laurie Lee was excommunicated stemming from her decision to transition gender presentation while living in her home ward/stake.
  • Laurie Lee and her spouse have been married 32 years this month and are the parents of five children and 11 grandchildren.
  • Laurie Lee remains a believer in many of the core tenets of Mormonism (e.g., Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the atonement), and reads the Book of Mormon daily.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:09.0

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0:21.0

All contributions to Mormon Stories are completely tax deductible and go towards producing the podcast and building communities and programs of support for Mormons like you.

0:30.0

Thanks for your support.

0:43.0

And now what I'd like to do is kind of pick up on a part two of our discussion if that's okay.

0:49.0

So we've talked about your spiritual journey and we've talked about your family experiences and how you struggled with the oppression and even suicidal ideation, but how the church also in many ways was comforting to you, your beliefs and your Heavenly Father and the church were very comforting to you, how you had that deep personal experience.

1:18.0

You had that deep personal relationship with your Heavenly Father and consolation and the idea of eternal families, your wife was your best friend and you were married to your best friend, even though you experienced to some extent, maybe some envy around that, which I hear is common.

1:36.0

It is.

1:38.0

And, and again, the church and excellence within the church and in your job and in your family, I think was what gave you purpose, what gave you focus, what gave you tracks to follow in terms of fulfilling the gender identity expectations that were on you and maybe in some ways helped you really suppress this dysphoria that you were feeling.

2:03.0

So we've covered that. We're now kind of in part two of this interview and it's tricky because on the one hand, your time at church headquarters is chief architect over, you know, let's just say 40 temple projects and many other things.

2:22.0

That's that's significant and it was a significant part of who you were in your identity.

2:28.0

At the same time, I know you're not the type of person to want to dish dirt that that's not what this interview is about, that's not who you are.

2:38.0

And it's an important part of who you are and obviously as you've seen lots and lots of questions have come in about all sorts of details about the temple.

2:48.0

So, so you know, acknowledging to our listeners that this isn't going to be a dirt dishing fest in any way, shape or form that Laurie still views her beliefs in the in the restoration and her experiences in the temple as sacred and her covenants made in the temple as sacred.

3:11.0

I still think it would be interesting for however much you can to talk about what it's like to be a church employee and what was it like to be involved in building these buildings that are so incredibly sacred for the members.

3:27.0

So what, you know, what things are you comfortable talking about and and again, if it's just the good, we'll take it.

3:34.0

And if there's challenges or difficult things or even stories you want to share, we'll take that to.

3:41.0

Okay, sounds good, John. Thank you.

3:44.0

I think as kind of an umbrella statement, I always considered.

3:51.0

I'm close and personal I always considered my assignments at church headquarters to be perhaps the very most sacred and and highest opportunity for me as a ladder to stay dark attack to be able to perform to have a good time.

4:17.0

I think it's important to be able to be able to perform to have the privilege to honor to do those things.

4:28.0

Because of my deep feelings towards the purpose and the purposes of those several facilities, whether it be welfare square or the missionary training center or the temple.

...

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