LGBT Aggies respond to the Mormon policy change

Andrew Romriell grew up with the dream of getting married in the Mormon Draper temple. Now he is engaged to marry his sweetheart on June 11. But Romriell and his fiance will not marry in the Draper temple — or any Mormon temple for that matter — because they are gay.

“It hurts,” he said. “I grew up learning through temple marriage is the only way to be together as an eternal family.”

Regardless of being barred from the temple because of his sexuality, Romriell said he still believes in the same God he always believed in since his Mormon upbringing, though he did have doubts for a while. He said he did everything in his power to not be gay, but came to a point where he couldn’t figure out how to make his religion and his sexuality fit together.

“What else could I do?” he said. “I thought God didn’t love me or he didn’t care.”

After Romriell opened up about his sexuality, he began fighting for equal rights within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Defending and advocating gave him hope for a better future for all LGBT Mormons.

“I identified as a gay Mormon,” he said. “I believed I could be a gay Mormon and marry in the temple one day. I believed it was a possibility.”

He hoped that, with more people standing up for the LGBT community within the LDS church, maybe something could change for the better. He thought the community took huge steps toward equality. But his hope was shattered when he learned about an LDS church policy change that disallows children of LGBTQA children from being allowed to be baptized into the Mormon church without first disavowing their homosexual parents.

“This policy change is 100 steps back,” he said. “I realized everything I thought was changing for the better, wasn’t. It was a false dream.”

The policy change has resulted in the suicides of 26 individuals between the ages of 14 and 20 in Utah and six in other states, according to Mama Dragons, an LGBT advocacy group. But that number could not be confirmed.

“How could God support something that could cause so much damage?” he said. “32 children died because of this.”

Even after the policy change, Romriell said part of him won’t let go of the Mormon church because he still has a relationship with a father-like God.

“I still believe in a loving God, I just don’t think the inspiration for the policy change was from him,” he said. “It was man’s bias.”

Romriell said one good thing that did come from the policy change was a lot of allies came out of the woodwork in support of the LGBT community.

“People are so supportive,” he said. “I haven’t felt any backlash and nobody turned against me.”

Charles Bentley, a psychologist for the USU’s Counseling and Psychological Services, said it is important for those who do feel ostracized by their family and religion to seek support from their friends.

“Social support is a huge protective factor in depression,” he said.

Brooke Lambert, the program director for USU’s LGBT Access and Diversity programs, said the Love Is For Everyone club on campus can serve as a means to create that social support for students.

“It is a good opportunity for students to be able to engage with others who may have had similar experiences and to be able to meet like-minded people,” she said.

Bentley said he has not seen an increase in the number of LGBT students seeking CAPS services since the policy change. He also said he is unsure if those who identify as being on the LGBT spectrum tend to seek psychological services more often.