If you haven’t seen it yet — I’m playing catch-up because we had an unexpected blackout for half the afternoon — there’s a really interesting story at The Advocate today from a guy named Kevin Kloosterman, who used to be a Mormon bishop and ended up evolving into a staunch LGBT ally in the strangest way: he became more familiar with LGBT people. First, it was because he happened to start watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which was the beginning of a series of lightbulb moments for him. That we’re actually human beings, that there’s no “gay agenda,” and that we’re deserving of the same love and respect as anyone else. Take the time to read it:
One of the turning points was when I first began developing personal relationships and friendships with LGBT individuals. For me this came about first in a surprising way. I began watching a television show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. As is sometimes typical for Mormons on a variety of issues, I was late. I didn’t see it until a year or two ago, when it went into syndication.
What seemed to be a unique twist on the typical makeover show became for me my first significant introduction to the LGBT community. I had never had contact that I knew of or built a friendship with an LGBT person outside of work. The show spoke to me from the start. It had a catchy synth intro that reminded me of the dance grooves we used to club to in the late ’80s when I was at Brigham Young University, where I met my wife for the first time.
For me it was much more than watching five gay men help get straight guys’ act together in grooming, home decor, fashion, culture, and cuisine. It began to create a bond for me to these men. They had a certain synergy that kept me wanting to watch more. I liked them as people. I saw them as individuals expressing their God-given talents and trying to make people’s lives and the world a little bit better. As Carson Kressley, the show’s fashion guru, would often say, it’s not a makeover show, it’s a “make better” show.
I would watch the show and imagine what it would be like for them to be in a Mormon bishop’s home, which is probably considered the heart of enemy territory by some in the gay community since Proposition 8. There was something about the spirit of these men that seemed to break barriers of orientation, politics, and even religion. Perhaps like every other fan, I considered them to be more familiar than reality would dictate. Then something that Carson said in his cheeky manner struck me like a thunderbolt. He said, “We are very pro traditional marriage.” Those words echoed in my mind for months and months. It seemed to disrupt and challenge a deeply held belief that the traditional family was under attack by a so called “gay agenda.”
Very cool. Read it all, and then watch this video of Kevin speaking at a conference in support of LGBT Mormons. It’s emotional.
[h/t Towleroad]
