Episode 486: bj Nelson, Transgender Woman, Age 67, Married, Active LDS

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2021

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend bj Nelson (RM, active LDS, married with 4 children and 14 grandchildren) shares her story of over fifty years of gender dysphoria. bj shares the decision to finally come out to her wife Donna in April 2017 and her time in the closet “expired”. bj talks about the role of Encircle to provide hope and healing. bj talks about the personal revelation she is receiving from her Heavenly Father and how she believes He loves all of her—and how bj would not longer choose a different road. bj talks about her supportive wife, their love story and how they are walking this road together. bj talks about a supportive ward and being welcome in Relief Society. bj has a long view (over fifty years) of being transgender and has insights, suggestions and principles to help other transgender Latter-day Saints (and their families). If you’d like to learn more about transgender Latter-day Saints, how to be more supportive, and how to value their contributions, please listen to bj’s story. bj and her story is helping us better create Zion. Thank you bj for being on the podcast and sharing your story. ** Please Check Out My Book At: ** Deseret Book: www.deseretbook.com/p/listen-learn-and-love-embracing-lgbtq-latter-day-saints Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/1462135773 ** Want to develop church-supported LGBTQ activities in your local area? Please join our FB group below ** https://www.facebook.com/groups/1433556613672143

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.9	My guest on today's podcast is a transgender Latter-day Saint, B.J. Nelson, welcome to the podcast.
0:16.8	Great to be here. Thank you.
0:18.8	B.J. is a transgender woman, so I will use she and her pronouns, and she will tell her story.
0:28.1	BJ is married to Donna, and they've been married for how many years?
0:32.5	46 years.
0:33.8	46 years. They have four children, 14 grandchildren, and BJ has felt gender dysphoria for over five decades, 55 years. And I like, I think our joint prayer is that since BJ has been walking this road for so long, that his long view of his gender, of her gender dysphoria will be helpful for you.
0:57.2	Those of you that experience gender dysphoria and are trying to figure out your way forward,
1:01.3	or those of you that are parents or local leaders that are trying to help someone with gender dysphoria,
1:07.1	find their place in our church, and get the necessary medical help and any other help
1:13.8	they need in their lives to make their way forward. Is that okay for an introduction, VJ? Sure.
1:20.7	And the best way I know to do that and to help people understand is I've always felt that
1:25.5	storytelling is the platform of this podcast. So I felt
1:29.4	a long time ago that I shouldn't make any assumptions about my transgender friends without
1:33.9	first meeting transgender people. And I really tried to do that. And every story is a little
1:40.5	different. So it's not like I've heard one story, BJ, and I've checked the box,
1:44.4	and I understand that whole community. As you know, within your community, there's a lot of
1:49.8	different stories and a lot of different experiences. And one of the themes of this podcast is
1:54.9	write your own story, but it's often helpful to hear other people's stories as you're writing
1:59.6	your story. So BJ has been writing her
2:03.7	story for 55 years. And I think the things that she shares will be helpful for you and the
2:12.3	principles and the insights and the person revelation that she is receiving. So with that,
	...

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