This is a recent status recounting the experience, definitely worth the read.
TL;DR A friend taught Italian at the MTC that he absolutely loved posted a Facebook status supporting gay marriage, his friends tattled, he was interrogated and harassed on multiple occasions, begged for his job, and was still let go.
"Storytime: This time last year, when I was a student at BYU and an Italian teacher at the MTC (Missionary Training Center - where Mormon missionaries go to learn their assigned languages), I wrote a post for my personal blog that articulated, as best I could at the time, why I felt that gay marriage should be legalized, in Utah and nation-wide. The post caused a mini-stir among my Mormon friends, but nothing huge. At the time I had, maybe, 1,500 hundred Facebook friends, resulting in probably 300 views on that post. Nothing groundbreaking, to be sure, but I was proud of what I'd written. Nbd. Next. However, a few days later I found myself sitting in a chair in the office of the BYU Human Resources director. Aka - the last chair you sit in, in the last room you see before you're expelled from BYU. He had some questions for me. Phone calls had been made, apparently, by people who remain anonymous (I was told that "it's not important that you know who called us" … whoever they were, I assume that we were/are friends, at least on FB) - these people were concerned that someone "like that" was teaching missionaries at the MTC. An interesting allegation, based on one, political opinion. His questions were pretty personal. He used the phrase "not even once?" a few times, even. Kind of like when you're giving blood and they double-check to make sure you don't have the hiv. But whatever, right? I assured him that my behavior and attitude were consistent with church teachings, I expressed my love for my students, my coworkers, and my job, and I begged him to let me keep my student status, as well as my teaching position. He said that I wouldn't be expelled, but whether or not I would keep my job was up to the MTC. A week later I had a similar conversation with my boss's boss's boss, except this time it was much more hostile, and much more personal. She read my blog out loud to me, line by line, demanding an explanation for each sentence, asking "How can you believe what you've written and still have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ." (Not paraphrased.) The interview ended with me begging, again, tearfully this time, to keep my job. She said, "We'll need to consider it carefully. Rest assured that we will be prayerful and keep the needs of the missionaries as our top priority." During the weeks that followed, I endured several follow-up interviews with both the HR department and MTC administration, as well as additional, interrogative meetings with my ecclesiastical leaders and LDS Family Services, none of which were initiated by myself. It almost goes without saying, but my grades plummeted, my social life shriveled, and I think I ate an entire quart of Ben and Jerry's for every episode of New Girl that I watched in my room when I should have been in class. I still managed to lose weight. (Miracle diet, amirite?) Finally, a decision was made: "We feel that it would be best if you were not in the classroom. We believe that this is the safer option for the missionaries." (Again, not paraphrased.) I wasn't fired, but I lost my job. I can't be sure how good I was at the job, because I've never been taught by me, but I really loved it, and my students. Enough, at least, to want to be good at it, and good for them. I was moved to the language development department, to work on the Italian team.… but there was no Italian team. They had finished their project at the end of the previous summer and were on an indefinite hiatus. I suggested curriculum improvement ideas, but they were ignored. I did some data entry, (actual quote: "You're going to do the stuff that is too boring for the real developers.") but I mostly watched Netflix … because my boss told me to. I gave up, after two or three weeks, and just stopped going to work. They took me off the employee list sometime during the summer. I didn't fight back, really, at any step of the ordeal. I was confident that I would be fine, so I wasn't worried. I believed that an active Mormon could, in good faith, support marriage equality. Obviously my superiors' personal, hyper-conservative politics were a factor in their reaction (which was actually admitted to me, by one of my interrogators.), but I trusted them to make the right decision. They didn't. I'm still not interested in retaliating, because I was right: the Mormon church declared this week, without changing ANY doctrine, their support of legislation that defends individual liberties, like gay marriage, as long as the church's and church members' rights to worship are equally defended. Basically, we won't be seeing any missionaries in pride parades, but we also won't be seeing any more Prop 8 fiascos, which clears the way for normal Mormons to be okay with the gay. No earth-shattering revelation, no official declaration, just a statement of the obvious: there is absolutely nothing in all of Mormon theology that prevents an active Mormon from supporting gay marriage, including (but not limited to) voting in favor of marriage equality, attending gay weddings, selling cakes to gay couples, liking gay stuff on Facebook, etc. A kind of lifestyle commonly referred to as "being a nice person". There are supplementary details to the story that I have intentionally neglected to include, but the point is that the church's announcement was meaningful, at least to me, and that progress is possible. And that I'm really glad that I live in New York. Was I right all along? Yes. Is this me saying "I told you so"? Absolutely."
Nincsenek megjegyzések:
Megjegyzés küldése