Episode 783: David Smurthwaite, Ministering to Latter-day Saints in Transgender/Non-Binary Spaces

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2024

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My friend David Smurthwaite (married father of 4, gender expansive, active Latter-day Saints) joins us to share ideas on ministering to anyone struggling with the updated Church transgender policies. David starts with a brief recap of his own story (including talking to his Bishop at age 11 and opening up to his wife Marisa about 8 years ago). David then talks about the new policies—and what we can do to bear, mourn, and comfort each other given these difficult circumstances. David then answers questions (Resources/support groups, Should I come out?, Honoring personal revelation, etc). If you want to gain insight into someone (or yourself) experiencing a gender journey, please listen to David’s story and perspective. He offers powerful insights thanks to a deep understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a long view of being on the road to discovering divine identity. Thank you, David, for being on the podcast. I learned so much from you. Thank you for all your contributions to our community. You give me hope and better tools to understand, love and support my transgender/non-binary friends. Links: David’s e-mail: [email protected] David’s Instagram: @davidsmurthwaite_writer David’s Instagram post on handbook changes: www.instagram.com/p/C_R83ooxkNE/ Church’s Transgender Guiding Principles PDF: assets.churchofjesuschrist.org/1d/76/1d76991533df11efbaeeeeeeac1ed7e66fbf94a7/general_handbook_guiding_principles_for_local_leaders.pdf Episode 254: soundcloud.com/user-818501778/episode-254-david-smurthwaite-married-father-of-4-former-bishop-gender-dysphoria Life and Love Support Groups: www.liftandlove.org/meeting Monica Phillps on Facebook: www.facebook.com/monica.phillips.3597

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.2	My guest on today's podcast is a returning guest, David Smirthwaite.
0:14.0	Welcome to the podcast, David.
0:16.2	Thank you so much for having me.
0:18.5	David was on episode 254, which is four years ago. I just felt
0:24.4	impressed to have David come back on the podcast. His pronouns are he, they. He is not a cisgender
0:30.7	man. His gender expansive would be how he feels about who he is, and I hope I use all the right pronouns
0:38.8	and the right vocabulary.
0:41.5	He's just been somebody who's been really thoughtful in this space, and I've learned so
0:45.2	much from David and others, and I just felt impressed.
0:48.6	I reached out to Dave and said, please come back on the podcast, and to update you our listeners, on a story if you haven't heard it,
0:57.1	to also talk about the new policy, the new transgender policy, if that's what we're calling it,
1:02.5	that was released in August.
1:05.6	And David will talk about that and the realities of that and what we can do to better support
1:10.6	people in the space.
1:13.3	And we just broadly call the space non-Sys.
1:16.7	You may have better vocabulary for us.
1:18.9	And then probably kind of a Q&A.
1:21.5	David's background, he's in his 40s.
1:23.4	He's a married father of four.
1:26.5	Former bishop, he lives in Seleck City. He's a business consultant. He's got married father of four. Former bishop, he lives in Selig City.
1:29.2	He's a business consultant.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -167 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Richard Ostler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Richard Ostler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.