Gene Robinson addresses lesbian and gay Mormons

Religious beliefs may differ from one denomination to another, but the experience of gays in their places of worship is similar across the board, according to the only openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, who delivered the keynote address at a gay Mormon conference Saturday.

“We are both connected to institutions that we both love and are so frustrated with,” said Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. “[They are] institutions that have oppressed us, and yet somewhere in the middle of them we know lies the truth of God.”

Robinson spoke at the Affirmation Conference, a gathering of gay outcasts from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. Robinson is on a three-month sabbatical from his post as bishop and will leave in early November to meet with Anglican primates in Asia’s Pacific Rim.

His audience was made up of about 160 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Mormons and ex-Mormons from across the United States, Canada and Europe. Other speakers at the conference included authors Carol Lynn Pearson, Jonathan Rauch, Buck Jeppson and representatives from Human Rights Campaign, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and Equality Maryland. Local speakers included Sgt. Brett Parson, a gay officer with D.C. Metro Police, and Lisa Polyak and Gita Deane, a lesbian couple who lost a lawsuit against Maryland last month seeking marriage rights. Read more
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