Episode 574: Nathan McLaughlin, Gay Latter-day Saint, Recent RM

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2022

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My friend Nathan McLaughlin joins us to share his story as a gay Latter-day Saint and recent returned missionary (returned home in August of 2022). Nathan starts the podcast with his years leading up to his mission, why he decided to stay in the church, organize a rally at BYU-I to support LGBTQ students, and then his decision to serve a mission. Nathan then talks about his mission which including coming out to individual people at times during his mission. Nathan then shares his spirit-led decision to come out as gay publicly on Facebook. I believe Nathan is the first Latter-day Saint missionary to come out publicly while serving. Here is a link to Nathan’s Facebook post. https://www.facebook.com/natemaklocklin/posts/187097709829160 Nathan talks about reactions from members, missionaries, and investigators to his Facebook post (mostly positive) and how it allowed him to be more authentic and a more effective missionary. If you are queer and thinking about a mission, Nathan’s podcast will help you. If you are looking to better understand and support queer Latter-day Saints, Nathan’s podcast will help you. Thank Nathan for being on the podcast and your courage to be you. Respect. Our church and world are a better place with you in it. Thank you for your discipleship. ** Please Check Out My LGBTQ 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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.2	My guest on today's podcast is somebody I've been really looking forward to having on the podcast.
0:14.7	Nathan McLaughlin, welcome to the podcast.
0:17.3	Hi, thank you.
0:18.2	It's good to be here.
0:19.6	Nathan is somebody that's been part of my PowerPoint presentation when I go around and talk about how better support LGBTQ Latter-day Saints, because he is the first person that I know that came out on his mission as gay, who's gay before his mission.
0:33.4	He'll talk about that. But in a public Facebook post, he came out broadly as gay while being a missionary.
0:39.7	And I don't think anybody's ever done that before in the church.
0:42.5	And with social media, that is a possibility.
0:45.7	And Nathan felt like that was the right thing for him to do.
0:49.2	But I think this podcast, just to give you a idea, Nathan came home from his mission in... August 25th, so just a month and a half ago.
0:57.5	And Georgia Atlanta Mission.
0:59.2	Yes.
1:00.3	I grew up in Rexburg, is returning now and to pick up his education at the University of Utah
1:05.4	and Religious Studies and Comparative...
1:08.5	Comparative Literature.
1:09.8	And as somebody that I became
1:12.1	acquainted with, I probably through Twitter, before your missionary, and just grew to respect this
1:18.4	good man. So I think he will talk about growing up, coming to terms of his sexual orientation,
1:24.6	he attended BYU, Idaho for a while. He'll talk about what he did
1:29.0	there. And then he'll talk about his decision to serve a mission. His mission, coming out on his
1:34.9	mission, probably to companions, mission president, and then publicly. And then just a little bit
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Richard Ostler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Richard Ostler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.