I've seen criticism from people that members of the Church who stay don't do enough to confront the harmful treatment of LGBTQ+ folks, both inside and outside of the Church.
Some food for thought who find themselves asking why church members don't do more to improve the situation for LGBTQ+ people.
Most of the people I know, myself included, who care enough to be outraged by the Church's treatment of LGBTQ+ people are women.
What institutional influence do they imagine women have in the Church that they're not already using on behalf of LGBTQ+ people?
I used to think I could stay and change things. Then I realized the Church is a very big place, with most of the power concentrated in the hands of a very few men. The only thing I could do, the only power afforded to most women, is to reason with people who choose to ignore me.
I don't say this to belittle the struggle with LGBTQ+ members. I say this bluntly because it's true. Women in the Church can't give something they don't have. All we can do is talk to our husbands privately and hope they listen. Just because you don't see these conversations taking place doesn't mean they don't happen. But I cannot stress to you enough how little what we say matters at all. There's no position of strength for us to lift from.
Every woman I've ever seen try has been ostracized, has ultimately left the Church, has been excommunicated, or lives with the ongoing anxiety that they will be.
If you know how to convince the average man in a leadership position to listen and do the right thing, please tell me your secret. I'll go back to church this Sunday and duke it out with my bishop, without hesitation. I've yet to find anything he's listened to me about, but maybe this will be different.
The trouble I'm finding with withdrawing my support completely from the Church (because that is essentially what I've done for now) is it doesn't make anything better for anyone else except for me.
I was never the one in any danger, so I'm questioning who benefits from my absence.
You want to know where the heart of the average church member is, who has enough of a conscience to mourn and lament over the horrible treatment of LGBTQ+ people? That's pretty much it.
Interestingly, I've never seen anyone ask queer men why they're not doing anything to change the institutional church for disenfranchised women.
But the answer to that is probably because if intersectional institutional change was easy, we'd be doing it together already.
