May I ask you or dm a more anthropology based question about your identities? I'm currently diving into a rabbit hole of out how people with both religious and queer/lgbt+ labels interact with the greater lgbt+ community, especially in dating lives. I'd love to hear if you had thoughts or experience within the LDS/mormon community.
For myself and other Catholics, because identifying as lgbt+ and also being celibate is the religious teaching, it makes dating within my own religious community difficult because many do choose celibacy, and it makes meeting people outside of my religious community difficult because of what they assume my views are.
It got me wondering if this Catholic teaching leads this to be an exclusively Catholic issue or if other traditions (see: LDS/mormons who have high visibility of people who identify as both lgbt and religious) have the same issues when dating or interacting with the wider community.
If you're like "bro wrote me an essay go away," please just don't answer and that's totally fine. I would rather not be yelled at in an answer unless you think I've truly done something wrong or hurtful, in which case I am sorry and please tell me. Thanks! - liturgicalrainbow
Imagine being a Catholic in Alabama. There are Catholics but they just aren't that plentiful. Then shrink that down to gay Catholics and it's a very small number. That's what it's like for me as a gay Mormon in Florida. So very similar to what you described.
The potential pool of Mormon gay men to date is miniscule. If they still go to church, they likely aren't dating or doing so quietly. Also, I didn't come out until my 40's, and most queer people leave the LDS Church so gay men nearer my age are nearly nonexistent. I sometimes date, but have never dated a Mormon, that just isn't a realistic possibility for me. I would need to move somewhere with a denser population, like Arizona, Utah, California, etc, somewhere out West.
Maybe others will reply with their experiences of dating other queer Mormons, so be sure to check the comments
Thank you this is fascinating!!
I just moved over to the East coast for work at a university so maybe I will see some regional differences or vacuums like you described.
Age is also not a thought I had ao thank you! Many Gen X Catholics for example can be very progressive and open and many Gen Z Catholics are extremely traditional. So it makes for a younger version of what you described of there is no way I could date another.
Thank you for feeding my brain this afternoon :)
