By Brianna Morris
Dr. Pray is an English and Science Writing professor at Stevenson University. She is also an ex-Mormon and queer. She has published two books, I Spoke to You with Silence, which she co-edited with filmmaker Jenn Lee Smith, then The Book of Queer Mormon Joy this year. This article will focus on the former.
Mormonism
Mormonism is a religion where they follow the tradition and theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Being a part of the LGBT+ community is not widely accepted within the church.
When Dr. Pray decided to leave the church, she reached out to her lesbian friend that directed her to Affirmation LDS, a support group for queer Mormons. She met her co-editor Jenn Lee Smith there. In this search, they both noticed there were no resources for queer Mormons and decided they needed to make these resources.
I Spoke to You with Silence
This book came out in 2022. It is a nonfiction anthology of stories that were compiled from those submitted by queer Mormons. Dr. Pray and Ms. Smith put out a call online on their blog for submissions and emailed all the writers they knew. They created a blog called “The QWM Project,” named after a secret Facebook group that Jenn had been a member of. It originally meant Queer Mormon Women but was changed to Queer Mormon Warriors to be more inclusive to any queer Mormons who weren’t cis gay men. Dr. Pray said:
“We put out an extra call for papers because we wanted to make sure we got stories from around the world and all the queer Mormon stories that weren’t being told–stories from everyone who wasn’t a cis, gay, white man (the group that for a lot of historical and cultural reasons, the church favors).”
They spent several years collecting stories and Ms. Smith contacted the University of Utah Press to publish the book. From there was produced a book that contained “Stories from people who had historically been silenced and marginalized and stories you would never have heard had we not searched them out.”
It was the first book of its kind.
Social media and queer Mormon organizations further boosted this call to reach all around the world. It took years to collect enough for the book.
Now, what is this book like?
This book is over 200 pages long. There are four essay sections in the book, covering essays on identity; relationships; shame, suicide and the closet; and the church. Over 35 writers are presented. The best way to describe the book is… heavy. The LDS reject queer people by nature, so these stories do not shy away from the ugly nature of their experiences. It’s unfortunate what happened to them. It was triggering enough that Dr. Pray was hesitant to make her second book The Book of Queer Mormon Joy and her co-author Ms. Smith did not return for that book either, so this book took a lot of mental power to make for their mission.
Reflection
Dr. Pray is proud of this book. She’s proud she was able to provide literature for queer Mormon people and queer Mormon organizations. Social media has helped them find and connect with each other. After all, “We didn’t want anyone to have to walk in the dark, like we had to. And now that we’ve published these stories, they don’t.”