Episode 373: Nate and Elena, Converts, RMs, Active LDS, Parents of a Transgender Son

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2021

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friends Nate and Elena share their powerful conversation stories, finding each other at BYU after serving missions, and building a wonderful family together over the next two decades. Nate and Elena share the complexity of having their two oldest children step away from the Church—including their transgender son Glen who they love and support. Nate and Elena, like many other LDS parents of LGBTQ children, are in a middle of a faith-crisis trying to figure out how their children fit into the Church that they love and support. Nate and Elena are honest, vulnerable, and faithful as they process these complex issues. Their story is still unfolding (like many stories)—but their insights and work to keep the family circle together is inspiring. I hope and pray our Church is able to receive further light and understanding so that more of our LGBTQ members (and their families) feel a greater sense of belonging—increasing the chance they will feel their path is to stay in our Church and partake of its unique and healing doctrine. Thank you Nate and Elena for being on the podcast. You two represented the best and brightest of our faith. You inspired me and will inspire our listeners!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love hosted by Richard Osler.
0:11.0	My guest on today's podcast are a married couple with three children.
0:15.8	My friends, Nate and Elena.
0:17.5	Welcome to the podcast.
0:19.7	Thank you, Richard.
0:21.6	Thanks, Richard. I wish you all could see them on the screen.
0:23.6	They're just this wonderful couple in their 40s, full of life and goodness,
0:29.6	and they're going to talk about their journey with a transgender son, but it'll be broader than that.
0:34.6	They're both converts to the church, so they'll talk about why they join the church,
0:39.3	they'll talk about their life in the church, they'll talk about how things have gotten really complicated for them as Latter-day Saints with children,
0:47.3	a transgender son, and just children have a worldview that conflicts with some church teachings, especially for full inclusion,
0:55.8	for LGBT people and women, and how that has been something that Nate and Elena processed.
1:03.3	So I'll talk about that, and just, you know, that's complex.
1:06.3	And if you, and this is just this wonderful couple sharing their story. Is that okay for an introduction?
1:14.7	Perfect. Very good. So I'll just turn it over to you two to kind of get us started where you
1:20.0	want to start. Okay, well, I'll start. I am originally from Santiago, Chile, and I became a member of the church when I was 14.
1:32.8	I lived with my grandmother, who was Catholic, and she would bring me to church every Sunday,
1:38.3	and I started taking lessons to have my first communion, which I did. And then I decided to do confirmation,
1:48.8	which were many years studying in the church. And but there were many questions that I did not
1:55.4	receive answers for while I was studying. One of them being what's going to happen to me as his life. I had no
2:05.4	answers that made me feel peace that made me feel like I really want to be there. I felt like
2:14.6	what's going to happen if I can see my family again.
	...

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