#pioqueer

[nerdygaymormon]

[nerdygaymormon]

BYU legendary professor

I just read this from 2017, a review of the life of a lesbian who worked at BYU and made the world better for children, youth, and women. 

Elouise Bell was a BYU professor for over 30 years. During much of that time she was in a relationship with a woman who taught at Provo High School. This at a time when BYU regularly ran sting operations trying to catch gay students. 

She was the first BYU woman faculty member to deliver an address at the BYU Forum. She wore a pantsuit, which was against the BYU dress code for faculty, and spoke about the women’s movement as one of history’s most significant advances & worthy causes as BYU school president Dallin H. Oaks sat in attendance. 

She served on the LDS Young Women general board. She was a member of the Utah Governor’s Commission on Child Abuse. 

Bell published frequently, including literary studies, poetry, personal essays, humor, a newspaper column and a one-woman play. I particularly like this imagining of “The Meeting”, a satire which imagines a gender-flipped Mormon Sacrament Meeting