Laurie Lee Hall discusses her new memoir, “Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman.”
Jana Riess: Trans woman, once a Latter-day Saint stake president and temple architect, speaks out in new book, yet in the past few years they have found themselves the center of outsized and unwelcome political attention. As trans womanput it in a recent interview, trans issues have replaced abortion rights as the new “bogeyman of choice” for conservative politicians.
We conducted our interview Nov. 5, the day of the presidential election, and politicized transphobia was very much on Hall’s mind. It was, in fact, a major reason why she wanted to write this book in the first place in 2022. Monson, who succeeded Hinckley in 2008, turned his attention away from the “mini-temple” building campaign toward the culture wars. This meant getting church members to supportThis put Hall in an awkward position. “The church’s efforts to help pass Prop 8 became a full-court press and a bona fide loyalty test for its members,” she wrote in “Dictates of Conscience.
It was a beautiful moment of acceptance and peace, but not, unfortunately, the norm. As Hall’s commitment to living authentically as Laurie grew, so did the church’s institutional resistance: The church took away her, then her church membership. She was excommunicated by some of the exact men she had called into their positions when she was a stake president. Her wife also divorced her.
But now, she said, “there is no wiggle room whatsoever. The church’s language expressly targets those who have transitioned away from their sex assigned at birth. It’s the concept of transitioning that the church is currently hanging their hat on — you can be transgender, but don’t act on it.”
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