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Beitrag 5 von 230 Beiträgen.

Seite erstellt am 27.4.24 um 2:57 Uhr

der Beitrag:

Verfasser: Sappho

Datum: Mittwoch, den 21. Januar 2009, um 12:21 Uhr

Betrifft: Eigene Erfahrungen und die LDS

> Hier wird kein organisierter Kampf gegen die Kirche gefÃ¼hrt, auch wenn es manchmal so erscheint. Viele berichten hier einfach nur von den eigenen Erfahrungen, die sie in der Kirche gemacht haben.

Eben, vorallem, um den eigenen Schmerz, die eigenen Verletzlichkeiten aufzuarbeiten, aber auch, um ds PhÃ¤nomen Mormonismus besser zu verstehen.
In meinem fall wurde ich ausgeschlossen, weil ich transsexuell war, eine "Krankheit" (so die Definition der Reichsversicherungsordnung), die in vielen LÃ¤ndern, sogar im Iran, anerkannt ist. da dieses aber dem mormonischen Denken von Mann und Frau entgegengesetzt ist, wurde ich ausgeschlossen. lange verstand ich nicht deren BegrÃ¼ndung, heute verstehe ich es, und es macht mich wÃ¼tend, wenn ich solche Dinge lesen muÃŸ:

http://www.connellodonovan.com/abom.html#trans

The LDS Church’s stance opposing transgenderism, transsexuality, and transvestism is clear: Spencer W. Kimball twice made uninformed remarks disparaging transsexuality in 1974. At BYU on September 17, 1974, Kimball gave an address called "Be Ye Therefore Perfect" (which he also delivered to the University of Utah Institute of Religion on January 10, 1975) in which he stated that "we’re appalled to find an ever-increasing number of women who want to be sexually men and many young men who wish to be sexually women. What a travesty!** I tell you that, as surely as they live, such people will regret having made overtures toward the changing of their sex." At October General Conference that same year, Kimball gave a speech entitled "God Will Not Be Mocked" in which he claimed that the "high purposes of life are damaged and destroyed by the growing unisex theory. God made man in his own image, male and female made he them. With relatively few accidents of nature, we are born male or female. The Lord knew best. Certainly, men and women who would change their sex status will answer to their Maker." Here Kimball makes some room for intersexed people (those born having reproductive organs and/or the chromosones of both sexes - his "accidents of nature") but those who know that their external sex does not match their internal sex are at cross-purposes with God, in his view.
[**N.B. Humorously the word "travesty" comes from "transvestite", although I doubt Kimball knew this.]
(...)
So President Kimball, in his special Christianity, arranged for a blessing from President Lee [Harold B. Lee, President of the LDS Church from mid-1972 until his death in December 1973], and I was privileged to be part of the circle. But before President Lee gave the blessing he spent twenty minutes rebuking the man in a kind but firm way. I confess, I sat there and thought, "President Lee, you don’t understand. This is a strong fellow. He made a magnificent effort." I was bright enough, though, not to say anything. Then President Lee gave the blessing and rebuked him a little further. It was a beautiful blessing. He made specific promises. Then we went up to President Kimball’s office and President Kimball gave him specific instructions. President Kimball didn’t interfere with his free agency. He said, "I’ll be able to help you if you will do these several things," and he listed them.
While I was there, President Kimball called a stake president in another city and arranged for an appointment for that man. As we were leaving President Kimball’s office, I was still a little concerned about President Lee’s approach. However, I watched this man over the next 3 years and I watched his former wife’s life and the children. I came to know her very well. They were from another state, but circumstances brought us together. I found, of course, that President Lee was inspired; he was absolutely correct. This man had put up what might be called a commendable struggle, but he was so turned inward and had become so self-focused that he could not think of anyone else but himself. And then a lot of other things began to make sense. I helped him move once, and I had helped him pack his clothing. He wore clothes that I could never afford. His indulgence in himself in every way was total to the exclusion of his very attractive and loving wife and his lovely children - to the exclusion of any consideration, frankly, except his need to assume the woman’s role, so that he could be taken care of. He had no real homosexual tendencies. He was just self-centered. There was no psychological or emotional justification for the change of sex, and President Lee had seen that as an inspired Priesthood leader.
As with Brown’s reaction noted here ("he had no real homosexual tendencies"), Mormon authorities consistently have conflated homosexuality and transsexuality, often speaking about "gender confusion" when addressing homosexuality, or, like Brown, they inaccurately speak of a transsexual’s "homosexuality".
Three years later, on March 5, 1978, Boyd Packer gave his "To the One" speech at a BYU fireside. Although the speech was mainly on homosexuality, he did briefly diverge into the topic of transsexuality, unleashing strange and unfounded theories about its etiology and development (and, as usual in Mormon rhetoric, conflating it with homosexuality), especially invoking narcissism:

It is normal for a male to want to become more masculine, or for a female to want to become more feminine. But one cannot increase masculinity or femininity by deviate physical contact with one of his own gender. There are many variations of this disorder, some of them very difficult to identify and all of them difficult to understand. When one projects himself in some confused role-playing way with those of the same gender in an effort to become more masculine or more feminine, something flips over and precisely the opposite results. In a strange way, this amounts to trying to love yourself.
A male, in his feelings and emotions, can become less masculine and more feminine and confused. A female can become, in her emotions, less feminine and more masculine and confused. Because the body cannot change, the emotional part may struggle to transform itself into the opposite gender. Then an individual is on a hopeless, futile quest for identity where it can never be achieved.
There is even an extreme condition in which some individuals, in a futile search, will undergo so-called â€œchangeâ€ operations in an effort to restructure their identity and become whole. Do not even consider that. That is no answer at all! That has eternal, permanent consequences. If an individual becomes trapped somewhere between masculinity and femininity, he can be captive to the adversary and under the threat of losing his potential godhood. (pp. 7-8)
In 1979, a wealthy Mormon Elder (having been a missionary in Argentina) in his mid-30s and living in Orange County, California decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery to become a woman, calling herself Kristi Independence Kelly. She was subsequently excommunicated from the LDS Church, although she fought this at every level. One biogrpahy of Kelly, written by a friend named Kay Brown - herself a transsexual - claims that Kristi Kelly owned a financial company called the Sunshine Group, employing some 500 people, many of whom were Mormons. After getting a separation from her wife, Kristi fell in love with another transsexual named Liz Thomas and Liz was hired to be the Director of Advertising for the Sunshine Group. Taking advantage of the church crisis brought on by the feminist movement of the late 1970s, Kristi threatened to start a "feminist branch" of the Mormon Church "and take her many supporters with her", althought this alleged threat never materialized. At the same time, Kristi’s ex-wife refused to allow Kristi to see their three daughters so Kristi took the matter to the courts. Unfortunately in June 1980 Ms. Kelly lost the case and she was not allowed to see her daughters again, because, as a friend of hers noted, the court felt that Kristi, "as a transsexual person, is now unsuitable as a parent because she deviates from the ’accepted’ norms of parenthood in the father role." However this didn’t stop the court from assessing her $25,000 a year in child support. Kristi then became "a prominent cultural figure in the Hollywood scene". One month after her excommunication, Kristi, an accomplished pilot who owned her own corporate plane, died when the plane she was piloting crashed in northern California. Another transsexual onboard (apparently not her partner Liz) also died in the crash. Members of the Los Angeles transsexual community immediately began circulating rumors that Danites (an early Mormon secret paramilitary vigilante group, which almost certainly no longer exists) had assassinated her, since some of her plane mechanics were allegedly faithful Mormons upset by her growing dissidence and apostacy. While I strongly doubt the current existence of Danites, in recent years Mormons Lance Wood and Russell Henderson have tortured to death Gay men (Gordon Ray Church, and Matthew Shepard respectively) in horrific hate-based crimes. In addition, Tracy Val Kendrick and Shayne E. Rhodes, two large teenage LDS football players from Logan, Utah, also nearly beat to death bisexual Utah State University student Harold Dean Hawker (who weighed less than 120 lbs) with their fists and boots in 1989, leaving him naked in a gravel pit parking lot in the middle of winter. Hawker’s hypothermia saved his life although he suffered severe skull fractures, some brain damage, a crushed eye socket, and punctured lungs from the beating, resulting in over $125,000 in uninsured medical bills. (Incidentally, the LDS church excommunicated Hawker for his bisexuality, but not his assailants for their brutal crimes against him.) The two youths only served three-year sentences for their heinous crimes. Therefore while the Danites might no longer exist, the accusations that Kristi Kelly died as a result of "rogue" Mormon intervention may have some truth to them.