E-grāmata: I Spoke to You with Silence: Essays from Queer Mormons of Marginalized Genders

"I Spoke to You with Silence" is a collection of original essays and previously published writing that first appeared on blogs and social media outlets where self-identifying Mormons of marginalized genders share their thoughts anonymously without risking friendships, their marriages, their standing in the church, or their lives"--

This volume collects 39 essays by queer Mormons of marginalized genders and orientations, particularly transgender men and women, cisgender women, nonbinary and agender people, and those with bisexual, lesbian, asexual, queer, and pansexual orientations and intersex characteristics, who include discussion of how their experiences intersect with race, ethnicity, and nationality. The essays are by ordinary queer and trans people from the US and elsewhere, rather than professional writers (some writing anonymously), who describe their experiences with identity, relationships, shame, suicide, being in the closet, and the church. Annotation ©2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

A collection of narrative essays about the struggles of being LGBTQ+ and Mormon
 

Nobody knows what to do about queer Mormons. The institutional Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prefers to pretend they don’t exist, that they can choose their way out of who they are, leave, or at least stay quiet in a community that has no place for them. Even queer Mormons don’t know what to do about queer Mormons. Their lived experience is shrouded by a doctrine in which heteronormative marriage is non-negotiable and gender is unchangeable. For women, trans Mormons, and Mormons of other marginalized genders, this invisibility is compounded by social norms which elevate (implicitly white) cisgender male voices above those of everyone else. 

This collection of essays gives voice to queer Mormons. The authors who share their stories—many speaking for the first time from the closet—do so here in simple narrative prose. They talk about their identities, their experiences, their relationships, their heartbreaks, their beliefs, and the challenges they face. Some stay in the church, some do not, some are in constant battles with themselves and the people around them as they make agonizing decisions about love and faith and community. Their stories bravely convey what it means to be queer, Mormon, and marginalized—what it means to have no voice and yet to speak anyway.