Episode 291: Evan and Cheryl Smith, Former Stake Presidency Counselor, Gay Son

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2020

⏱️ 137 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friends, Evan and Cheryl Smith, join us to share their journey supporting their gay son, Weston. Evan and Cheryl, who live near Plymouth, Massachusetts and have given decades of service to the Church, share their story, which includes a new navigable e-book that Evan wrote available at gayldscrossroads.org. Their story includes their journey to love and support LGBTQ Latter-day Saints and their support for Weston who feels his path is to marry a man---a decision that came during his LDS mission. Included in the podcast is a difficult experience they had with a General Authority, which gives us all insights into pitfalls to avoid when ministering to LDS parents with LGBTQ children. The Smith family is one of the finest families I know. I encourage everyone to listen to their podcast and read their book at gayldscrossroads.org. It will help you better support families with LGBTQ Latter-day Saints, give hope for the future, and help keep the family circle together.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Listen, Learning, Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.5	My guest on today's podcast calling from an area south of Boston near Plymouth called Halifax are my friends, Cheryl and Evan Smith.
0:20.7	Welcome to the podcast, you too.
0:23.9	Thanks.
0:25.0	Glad to be here.
0:26.5	We're going to talk about, in fact, let me just introduce them.
0:29.8	I met Cheryl and Evan via a Facebook post that Cheryl shared about being an LDS mother of a gay son.
0:40.1	And we're going to talk about their journey.
0:46.7	They grew up, Cheryl, in the Toronto area, and Evan and Murray, Utah, which is where I live right now.
1:12.8	They've lived in the Boston area since 2003, and as I mentioned, they live in Halifax, near Plymouth,, South Boston. Evan served his mission in the San Francisco, Oakland area, 1994 through 1996. They both graduated together from BYU in the year 2000. They've been married over 22 years. They were married into Toronto Temple in 1997.
1:17.6	Cheryl is a stay-at-home mom and also operates a horse business.
1:21.1	And I'm Facebook friends with both Cheryl and Evan, and Cheryl often post these pictures of that business.
1:25.2	And I just want to sort of escape to some of those places she goes with
1:29.7	their horses and just the beautiful outdoors and the piece of those posts. Evan is a corporate
1:36.1	attorney working in Boston, at least pre-COVID. He was working in downtown Boston.
1:42.6	They're active LDS and have spent decades as part of their
1:46.9	service for the church and have helped many come into Christ through our church. Cheryl has been an
1:52.0	early morning seminary teacher twice, a young woman's president, a stake institute teacher,
1:58.0	a primary teacher, a primary president, a Sunday school gospel doctrine,
2:02.9	teacher, and a nursery leader.
2:05.5	And Evan has been a counselor in a young men's program.
2:08.4	He's been award mission leader, early morning stake institute teacher, high counselor,
	...

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