Queering Mormon Spaces: Talking with God, Critical Love, and Structural Reorganization

Abstract

The Mormon Church, like other religions, discursively produces hostile, anti-LGBTQIA + spaces. This study uses queer theory to explore how sacred and religious spaces are created and navigated by queer members of the Church. Analyzing data from an online survey and in-depth interviews, the findings reveal patterns of divine communication and organizational perceptions that blend together as a powerful discursive production of thirdspaces deemed religious-sacred spaces. By offering structural and discursive solutions to structural White cisheteronormativity in the Church, the final section introduces some possibilities of reorganization for queering Mormon spaces.