In this week's "Mormon Land" podcast, BYU Honor Code administrator Ben Schilaty discusses his new book, “A Walk in My Shoes: Questions I’m Often Asked as a Gay Latter-day Saint.”
In the 1800s, humans were busy scurrying across the globe prying into the blank spots on the map, why? Because, of course, they were
there. From the frozen poles of the Earth to its darkest jungles, we had a guy on it. Here in the United States, the transcontinental railroad had opened up the nation. But, despite nearly a century of poking around by native peoples, Spanish padres, men military, mountain and Mormon, there remained one big question mark over the terrain through which flowed the Green and the Colorado Rivers.
On then-existing maps of the area between Green River Wyoming and St. Thomas, Nevada, there might as well have been a label, in all-caps, bolded, italicized, underlined and with exclamation points:
A new era begins in just a few days for Salt Lake City’s two daily newspapers.
The Deseret News and
Salt Lake Tribune will both move mostly to digital formats at the first of the year, but each will retain a weekend printed paper.
Given the ubiquity and dominance of digital information in the last several years, printed newspapers, once the king of information dissemination, were already on a long death spiral. For me, at least, it’s sad to see the demise of the printed word.
But digital publication and distribution offer myriad new opportunities.
To outside observers, it might seem that the Tribune and Deseret News are moving in the same direction. In reality, their paths are diverging dramatically. The Tribune will continue to be a mostly Utah publication, focused especially on politically liberal readers in the state’s urban areas.
This week in Mormon Land: Court rules on the âChristianâ question; BYU prof paints women giving healing blessings
Also: A look back at the year of the pandemic, and New York pays tribute to the beginnings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(Image courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
New church symbol.
  | Dec. 23, 2020, 9:12 p.m.
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The life of an LGBTQ+ Latter-day Saint is much like the first line of the Everly Brothersâ popular song, âHe Ainât Heavy, Heâs My Brother.â
The song states, âThe road is long with many a winding turn that leads to who knows where.â
Talk to author Richard Ostler, and he would say the same is true for his journey of listening, learning and loving the LGBTQ+ community.
Ostler, a former Young Single Adult bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he is deeply committed to the church and to creating more understanding and support for LGBTQ+ members.