Summary: Ryan lives in Wilsonville, Oregon, and is a graphic designer/art director, designing big-screen graphics and animations for conferences and events. He and his wife moved to Oregon twelve years ago from the San Francisco Bay area, where he grew up. He served in the Rochester, New York mission and has since served as a ward mission leader, Elder's Quorum president, ward executive secretary, and most recently on his stake high council. Ryan is also involved with North Star, a resource for Latter-day Saints addressing sexual orientation and gender identity. In this podcast interview, he speaks about experiencing same-gender attraction and opening up to his wife and stake president.<br> Episode Highlights:<br> <br> * What is North Star? (4:58)<br> * Identifies as a man who experiences same-sex attraction, but never spoke about it until a year ago (7:00)<br> * How he experienced growing up in the church (7:35)<br> * Prayed for years to have this changed in him (10:46)<br> * The single biggest challenge of his life, and tried to manage it entirely alone (12:20)<br> * The church has made great strides in clarifying doctrine and there are new resources for those experiencing same-sex attraction (16:17)<br> * Experiences as a young adult and decision to serve a mission (18:00)<br> * Sank into intense depression (19:30)<br> * How he met and married his wife (20:15)<br> * His experiences with marriage, family, and in church service (23:10)<br> * Found article in LDS Living magazine and began to consider discussing it (24:20)<br> * Spoke with his Stake President and his wife (28:08)<br> * His realization that it didn’t change anything with his church membership and calling (33:03)<br> * Resources available for LDS leaders (38:37)<br> * Experiences sharing his story with others (40:38)<br> * Story of same-sex couple who divorced to return to membership in/join the church (41:18)<br> * Change from environment where he didn’t talk about it, to where he can (44:40)<br> * These conversations are about individuals and not social/political dialogues (46:24)<br> * Found the book Voices of Hope, and North Star (48:40)<br> * Wendy Ulrich essay was especially helpful (49:56)<br> * What’s coming at the North Star Conference, March 17-18, 2017 (51:30)<br> * How he has developed a greater sense of love and compassion as a leader (56:47)<br> <br> Links:<br> <a href="http://mormonandgay.lds.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mormonandgay.lds.org</a><br> <a href="http://ldsvoicesofhope.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ldsvoicesofhope.org</a><br> <a href="http://northstarlds.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">northstarlds.org</a><br> <a href="http://conference.northstarlds.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conference.northstarlds.org</a><br> <a href="http://www.ldsvoicesofhope.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Voices of Hope</a><br> <a href="http://amzn.to/2m2rOas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The God Who Weeps</a><br> <a href="http://amzn.to/2m2rSXK" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Crucible of Doubt</a><br> <br> <a href="https://leadingsaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2017-NS-Church-Leader-Handout-V3.pdf">2017 North Star Church Leader Handout</a><br> Episode Transcription<br> Kurt Francom (LS): Today we are headed up north to Oregon, to Wilsonville, Oregon to talk with Ryan. How are you, Ryan?<br> <br> Ryan: I'm doing well, how are you, Kurt?<br> <br> LS: Good, now we had met in a different life. I have a friend that runs an audio/visual company and sometimes recruits me to help him in different events, and you were on an event. We were in Vegas doing a show backstage and we found out we shared the same religion and then we met up again later on as we discovered we had a connection through our association with North Star and that is what lead to this conversation.
