Matthew Easton, a 24-year-old political science major, told an audience of thousands, 'I'm not broken.'
Matthew Easton, a valedictorian at Brigham Young University, said being a gay Mormon has not always been an easy road. But he was moved to declare in a commencement speech on Friday,"I am not broken." By Isaac Stanley-Becker Isaac Stanley-Becker Reporter based in the U.K.
“I am not broken,” he declared. “I am loved and important to the plan of our great creator. Each of us are.” Easton, in an interview with The Washington Post, said he has been inspired by the way Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Ind., and upstart candidate for president, has spoken about the connection between his Christianity and his sexuality. He pointed in particular to a speech the 37-year-old gay mayor gave earlier this month to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, in which he assailed the vice president, an evangelical Christian, for his views on sexual minorities.
Mormons, who are the most consistently Republican-leaning religious group in the United States, are hardly alone in opposing same-sex relationships. The United Methodist Church voted last month to uphold its ban on same-sex marriage. And Roman Catholics, roiled by the clergy sexual abuse scandal, have shunned gay priests. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been among the most steadfast in its traditional view of the family.
“I strongly suspect that if I reapplied I would not be accepted,” Kris Irvin told The Post. A Mormon leader was excommunicated in 2017 for living as a woman. Easton was born and raised in Salt Lake City, where his father works as a chemical engineer and his mother, who has been battling cancer, stays at home. His parents were high school sweethearts. His family has been Mormon for generations.
As graduation approached, the valedictorian of each department was eligible to apply to speak. He put his name forward and was selected. He wondered what to do with his platform, and whether it would be best to “give a speech just like any other valedictorian, saying things I’m grateful for, pumping people up.”
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