From Teen Convert to Branch President in Thailand

All Out in the Open

All Out in the Open, Questions from the Closet

Latter-day Saint, Christ, Society & Culture, Mormon, Gay, Religion & Spirituality, Faith, Lgbtq, Transgender, Church Of Jesus Christ, Christianity, Lgbt, Lds

5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week’s OUT and About episode, Iese Wilson interviews Max Maneekam, a gay Latter-day Saint from Thailand now living in South Carolina with his husband. Max shares his journey of faith, from discovering the Church at age 12 to serving a mission in Ogden, Utah, to becoming the branch president of his Thai congregation at age 21 to attending BYU-Hawaii. As he has navigated religion and identity, he has been blessed to find unwavering support from his family, and he wants to be a resource...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to All Out in the Open. I'm Ben Shalati, and on this out and about episode,
0:04.8	our friend Yesey Wilson continues to take us on a tour of the LGBTQ experience around the church.
0:09.9	On this episode, Yesei introduces us to his friend Max, who is from Thailand.
0:14.8	And Max talks to us about not only what it's like to be a convert to the church who is gay,
0:18.9	but also what it's like to be gay in a place where
0:21.6	the church is really small and the expectations that come from being one of only a few members
0:26.0	in his area. I found the episode to be so inspiring, and I hope you like it too. Aloha everybody, welcome to Out and About.
0:43.7	I'm your host, Yes, at Purcell Wilson, and today I have a dear friend of mine from college.
0:51.6	He's currently zooming in from Greenville, South Carolina, but he's going to walk us through a journey, his journey as a gay Latter-day Saint from Thailand.
1:04.4	One of my dream destinations to go and visit and have food journeys on and adventures and and connect with
1:13.5	the people it's such a beautiful culture in place and there's a lot of Thai media that I consume
1:19.0	so I'm really excited to have my dear friend Max Manikam here on the on the podcast today so
1:26.8	welcome Max and saudikha
1:29.3	sadiqa hello everybody thank you for being here today let's start off right now
1:37.1	giving some cultural education on you actually go by the name Max even Thailand. And that's something that I think here in
1:46.7	America when we try to be generous to people, we're like, oh, no, no, tell us your real name.
1:50.5	Tell us how does this system work in Thailand? Long story short, and a little plot twist.
1:58.6	This is my American name. This is my American name.
2:04.2	This is my American name, Max.
2:06.8	But I usually go by Tua, which is like nickname.
2:14.0	It actually means cockatoo bird because my mom told me that when I was born, my hair just looks like a mohawk and looks like a cocktoon bird.
2:16.7	So that's why I got that name.
	...

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