Tyler Glenn: Mormon Trash

If you haven't heard or seen, there's a new music video out by a gay Mormon singer/songwriter, entitled 'Trash'. The controversial video shows the singer Glenn dressed in satanic attire, spitting on an altered picture of the LDS founder Joseph Smith while singing, 'You baptized me when I wasn't ready.'

The video ends with him in an elevator, reenacting sacred Mormon handshakes, and painting a big red X across his face. The final scene has him singing 'Maybe I'll see you in hell", and passing out on a floor covered in ripped pages of what one would assume used to make up the Book of Mormon.

The video has sparked outrage and disgust from some Mormons, while garnering support from the LGBT community and ex-Mormons.

So how does someone go from publicly defending their Mormon faith to brazenly mocking it in the span of just a few years?

While it's easy to feel insulted and injured from this kind of vulgarity towards Mormons, there is a long history one should walk through before reaching any kind of objective conclusion about whether Glenn's vilification of Mormonism is baseless or well-deserved.

So let's take a walk down memory lane, where we'll revisit some of the politics and rhetoric surrounding gays and Mormons. Our first stop? California, 2008.

Proposition 8

 

2008 was an odd year for me. I'd recently returned home from serving an LDS mission, and was currently living with my brother and sister in the heart of Mormon-dom (Orem/Provo, Utah). Oh, and I'd recently come out to my family and friends as an Atheist. I had no ill will towards Mormons, and still had found feelings towards their members and leaders. I was trying to find a balance between spirituality and science that would satisfy me. So when I heard what was happening in California, I wasn't sure what to think. From family and friends I'd heard that if gays were given the right to marry, they could force catholic priests to marry them, something I was adamantly against. But I felt it wrong that the LGBT community couldn't have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. So in an act of fairness I found the middle ground, where I was sure the truth would be, and supported civil unions.

I'm sure this is how many Mormons today, who are sympathetic towards gays, try to reconcile these two seemingly contradictory views. Desperately trying to find some middle ground, so as to be fair to both their faith, and their gay family/friends.

But I can assure you: If you are a Mormon who's sympathetic towards gays - In the end you will only discover what Glenn has finally figured out himself. Simply put, there is no middle ground. And the longer you try to find it, the more shame you will feel from one side or the other.

In reminiscing about this time period , I decided to look up some of the ads that ran on Prop 8. Watching these now - a part of me wants to laugh, a part of me wants to cry, and a part of me wishes some people would contract a severe illness.

 

 

A confused child drearily carries on a conversation with her two fathers. Questioning, "If gays are allowed to get married, won't that destroy the purpose of marriage?" Her doe-eyes expressing a profound pain. Hey straight people! Don't you see? These two gay fathers are breaking this little girls heart! Do you seriously expect her to share the word 'marriage' with those who can't have children!?! 

 

It was at this time, when the LDS religion came into the public eye and made their stance clear. Estimates claim the churches members donated over 20 million dollars campaigning against gay marriage in California, while the church itself (not the members) claim to have spent 97 thousand. In the end, the proposition passed and gay marriage was once again made illegal. Score one for the Mormons.

Next stop on our tour?

 

Obergefell V. Hodges

In November 2014 a series of appeals court rulings decided that state-level bans on same-sex marriages were unconstitutional. But when the Sixth Circuit appeals court ruled in favor of state-bans on marriage equality, it created a split between the circuits, and led to the case being pushed out of the states hands, and into the hands of the Supreme Court to make a decision that would effect the entire country. The case was resolved on June 26th, 2015, when the Supreme Court decided by a 5-4 vote to federally guarantee same-sex couples the right to get married in America.

You might remember it as the day all of your LGBT friends on facebook changed their profile pics to an equal sign, or rainbow colors. Or, you might remember it as the day all of your religious friends got on facebook to declare the apocalypse and god's judgement was coming for us all.

Score one for LGBT supporters.

But before you head downtown to celebrate, or to the nearest bomb shelter seeking refuge from god's wrath, we have one last stop on this tour.

For The Sake of Your Children, We Don't Want Them 

On Nov. 5th, 2015 the Mormon church received new revelation on how to deal with the 'gay agenda'. Children living with parents in a same-sex relationship could not be baptized until they reached age 18, disavowed the practice of gay relationships, and moved away from their parents. If those conditions were met, they could get baptized. The revelation also stated that those in a same-sex relationship were considered apostates by the church.

And when the dust from that revelation finally settled, those who were in the middle - trying to find a balance between faith and equality, would only find 'Trash'. An angry depiction of what learned helplessness looks like when the victim confronts the object that's been oppressing him.

Was it insulting? Absolutely.
Was it disrespectful? In the most brutal way possible.
Was it merited?

Let me try to answer that last question by asking: How would you feel if the roles were reversed?

Imagine if the LGBT community was actively trying to make it illegal for LDS members to marry other LDS. Now Imagine LGBT members funding millions of dollars to take away that right. Now imagine a video of a Mormon spitting on a prominent LGBT leader. Anyone offended?

Despite what some Mormons might believe, families are important to the LGBT community and their supporters. When your leaders call our families 'counterfeit', and when they actively campaign with words and money to take away LGBT rights, you spit on what I find sacred -


You've not only had the right to disrespect others, you've quite literally had the right to oppress LGBT for decades. If you wanted to be treated better now, you should have had the foresight to respect equality sooner. Cause when the dust settles from the clash between secular humanism and religious zealotry, no one's gonna care that a group that has a history of oppressing others is being mocked by the same people they kept down.