Here’s your new gay role model: Tyler Glenn, lead singer of the band Neon Trees.
Glenn lashed out at the Mormon Church on facebook recently, posting a tearful video where he accused church leaders of having blood on their hands. He was referring to two recent suicides by gay Mormon teens. It’s widely known that the abusive Mormon Church engages in psychological torture of LGBT people. Just a few months ago, church leaders announced that the children of same-sex couples were unwelcome in the church.
In his video, Glenn pleaded, “Please don’t let this be the summer of more gay suicides … Please make a space for your gay members. Please tell them they are okay and they are made in the image of God and they are not flawed. Please stop telling them they are abnormal.”
Related: Mormon Frontman Of Neon Trees Comes Out
How about we take this to the next level?
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Glenn was a devout Mormon for most of his life, brainwashed by the bizarre religious organization to believe in their weird rituals and extraterrestrial beliefs. He went on a mission, and even helped convert new members. It’s hard to imagine the guilt he must feel over that.
Fortunately, there’s a pathway out of the cruel Mormon church for LGBT people and their families and friends. Organizations like PostMormon and the Exmormon Foundation help survivors recover from their ordeals and move on.
How many more Mormon kids will die before church leaders accept responsibility?
Watch below:
StormNC
” It is widely known that the abusive Mormon Church engages in psychological torture of LGBT people”???? KNown to whom? I lived Utah several years and my Mormon friends knew I was gay. I was never ‘psychologically tortured’ or even discriminated against there. I never felt any hatred towards me at all. I even attended a couple services with them. After many years, I’m still in contact with many of my friends there. I wouldn’t consider ‘niceness’ psychological torture of any kind.
As to being a bizarre religious organization, I think that could be said about any religious organization. Just because you don’t agree with them, it doesn’t make it any more ‘bizarre’ than whatever you believe in.
As to gay suicides of young people in the Mormon Church , while I find them very, very sad regardless of whatever religion of lack thereof they have. Are there more gay suicides among Mormons than other religions? Are there more gay suicides among those who don’t believe in a church? A well researched and well written article would have given us that information. The author of this article just wanted to criticize the Mormon Church.
And on top of it all, I have found Mormons to be much more tolerant than whoever wrote this very biased article.
StormNC
and just another comment, if you don’t like the Mormon’s belief about gays – then don’t go to that Church! If you don’t like what Catholics believe in – then don’t go to their church. If you don’t like what Pentecostals believe in – then don’t go to their church.
There are hundreds of churches out there. If you want to go to church – find one that believes like you want them to believe!
That is just what religious freedom is all about!
tr6886
Mormons are cancerous in today’s society.
It’s nice to see Storm NC to whitewash those garbage Mormons who are nemesis of human being. If my memory serves me right, storm NC was trolling on towleroad.com on the topic of Mormonism few weeks ago.
unclemike
@StormNC: Just “don’t go to that church?” That’s very easy to say–unless your entire family is in the church, and you’ve lived your entire life up until that moment in the church, and all your friends and their families are also in the church.
@StormNC: Are you Mormon? Were you raised in a Mormon family?If not, then I don’t think you understand what “psychological torture” the article talks about. The family that you’ve known shuns you, convinced that you’re going to hell. The church elders you trusted now want to send you to aversion therapy. Mormons do that to their own family. They don’t do that to non-Mormons.
Daniel-Reader
Good for Tyler Glenn for speaking out.
Daniel-Reader
Creepy that the founder of Mormonism attended an exhibit on Egyptian heiroglyphics before “finding” the magic tablets and magic glasses. And was doing fraud before “finding” his religious calling. And then tried to kill his own followers when they suspected his real motives.
ted72
@tr6886: religion is cancerous in society.
martinbakman
LDS has their hand into hundreds of billions worth of business and real estate. They’re leader is in direct communication with God!!!
gayhope1990
All religions are guilty.
Sizmo_3981
I dated a guy who is a practicing Mormon. Yes he finds it tough sometimes, but has found far more accepting and loving friends in the church than he has people who are unwelcoming or nasty. Indeed, my closest friend is a Mormon and her family and friends have shown nothing but love and support for me. I’m sure these nasty Mormons that Queerty keeps going on about are out there, but I’m yet to meet one.
Transiteer
Maybe you’re safe if you’re wearing your magic underwear. Mormonism is a cult, and always has been. Started by people who wanted money and power and the ability to sleep with other members wives. One of the world’s great evils.
AtticusBennett
i do love how these pro-LDS comments are being made Anonymously. *cough cough*
http://littlekiwilovesbauhaus.blogspot.ca/2009/10/born-gay-into-world-of-latter-day.html
I’m not a Mormon, thank Jeebus. But the LDS were the main force behind Prop 8. Mormon suicides in Utah, yes, are higher than for any other demographic group. As is LDS anti-depressant usage.
the LDS’ specific beliefs are inherently harmful, and it’s no surprise that the voices defending them aren’t strong enough to come from a place of meaningful visibility.
gaym50ish
Are there more gay suicides among Mormons than other religions? Yes, there are.
It’s difficult to compile such statistics because most Mormon families won’t admit that their kid who took his life was gay. I have personally known such a case — the family members would say only that their son suffered from “depression,” and “was bullied,” and wouldn’t admit what they and I both knew, that the kid was gay.
But here’s the evidence that it’s greater among Mormons. Political science professor Benjamin Knoll did a study in which he found that teen suicides occurred at a higher rate in communities that are predominantly Mormon. While that’s not proof, there is definitely a link.
gaym50ish
The one encouraging fact is that the Mormon Church is practical when it comes to social issues. When an issue is harming the church badly enough, the leader (prophet) has a convenient “vision” sent by God and the policy is changed. It’s why the church is no longer polygamous and why it will now accept black people in leadership roles.
Also, if enough Mormon celebrities support gays they might have some influence. Marie Osmond supports her lesbian daughter Jessica and says she’s “a magnificent woman.” (On the other hand, when her adopted son Michael Blosil, a fashion student, leaped to his death from an LA highrise, like other Mormons she denied that he was gay.)
DCguy
@StormNC:
Awwwww, the fake gay troll defending Mormons. Easily spotted by the phony “I am gay and” OR “I’mean not Mormon but…” followed by an impassioned attempt to claim everything everybody knows about the abti-lgbt church that has spent over 100 million in the last decade to fight against our rights is false.
Haven’t seen fake posts like this since the Prop 8 issue. And you guys has the same fake B.S. then.
Miss Understood
@StormNC:
Mormons spent millions to prevent same sex marriage in California:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/10/the-mormon-money-behind-proposition-8/209748/
The Mormon church was actively involved in this fight. Along with the Catholic Church they were a major donor to the antigay National Organization for Marriage. Acting nice while trying to take away our rights isn’t actually nice. Freedom of religion means you are free to practice your religion, it does not make you free from being criticized and called out for bad behavior.