Episode 817: Cort Watson, Gay BYU-I Student, Focus on Christ/Temple/Being Authentic

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend my friend Cort Watson (construction management major/BYI-Idaho, from Tremonton, Arcadia CA RM, former FSY counselor) joins us to bravely share his story including: Navigating feeling different, not sure believed in Church, deciding to serve a mission Coming out first to his junior companion and then his Mission President (both good experiences) Processing pain (and subsequent anger to God) about being gay Deep spiritual experiences (and role of the temple) to “thank God for making me this way” Being gay is part of the God’s plan for me and not a punishment Come out on social media in 2024 to help others Being laser focus on Christ to provide hope, help and healing Role of the temple to feel God’s love and direction Life at BYI-Idaho as a gay student (positive experience) Thank you, Cort, for your courage to share your story with others. Your courage/vulnerability helps others that they too are loved by God and needed in our church community. Thanks for helping us build Zion. You are a good man. Links: Cort on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cortland.watson.96 Cort on Instagram: @wat.cort_ Cort’s e-mail: [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.6	My guest on today's podcast is someone that I met at North Star recently,
0:14.7	where I spoke at a breakout session and visited with people after the breakout session,
0:19.8	and one of those men is Court Watson. Welcome to the
0:23.5	podcast, Court. Thank you, brother, Osler. And Cort is going to share his story as a gay
0:29.5	lottery saint. And I'm going to give you a little bio on him, and then we'll turn the time. That's a
0:35.7	church term. I guess you can use that in a podcast to share his story.
0:40.1	He grew up in Tremont, Utah.
0:43.0	He served a mission to Los Angeles and the Arcadia mission, English speaking.
0:48.9	He's been an, is it FSY?
0:51.4	Is that the right?
0:52.4	FSI counselor in St. George in Provo and Orlando, Florida.
0:58.3	And he is a junior at BYU, Idaho, working towards a degree in construction management.
1:06.5	He's a gay Latter-day Saint.
1:07.8	He's out.
1:08.6	I've connected on social media and read his coming
1:12.2	outpost about, it was 75 weeks ago on Instagram because it somehow tells me that. And I just read,
1:19.4	you know, you're a coming outposts, which is just terrific. And then all the supportive comments
1:23.5	and give me hope for the future when I read your courage to come out and all your supportive comments.
1:29.9	So, Cort's willing to share his story on the podcast, and he's here with his friend Haley.
1:36.2	I'm an embarrassed Haley, even though I told her I wouldn't, and she was recently on the podcast.
1:42.4	Do you remember your episode number of top of your head?
	...

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