In the insulated world of Mormonism a courageous 12 year old girl came out to her congregation. By coming out as a lesbian. Her hand written message along with what must have been months of inner turmoil to be honest with her tribe. Her microphone was cut by one of her religious leaders seated behind her. She turned in surprise at the 2 male leaders and was then asked to be seated. A shocked and upset Savannah collected her hand written plea only to be comforted by her mother in the foyer outside the chapel. I have read online how she cried and sobbed in her mothers arms.

It was video taped by friends and has now gone viral. Here is a link… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAkfA4jxFBg

As you can imagine censorship of a 12-year-old coming out to her own congregation is quite newsworthy. It has since been seen by millions and every angle has been judged worthy or not so worthy of our attention. The former winning hands down. Who silences a young girl? Especially when she is pouring her heart out. The Mormon hierarchy have remained silent. On the other hand her local bishop along with Mormon apologists underhanded the event by blaming those who video taped it and anti-mormons seeking to spin a story making Mormons look bad.

The narrative gained some traction amongst Mormons splattering their hubris on social media: the church can never being wrong. To side step the core issue was no surprise coming from an elitist, bigoted, white washed, conservative, out of touch bully. It is no surprise the reaction or lack of any substantial reaction from an institution with a history of racism, mysogyny and mind-numbing treatment of LGBTQ community.

Their latest attempts of trying to show acceptance or equality is a disgrace. “We accept the gay community with all our love but you must never act on your sexuality, and you get to be a Mormon.” An ass backwards approach to civil rights and equality. Wake the fuck up… Its the 21st century… Defining fundamentalism: a strict adherence to the literal interpretation of scripture. Mormons by behaviour have historically alienated themselves from the rest of the world — this shows how they have always and still alienate their own members who are different than the Mormon prescription.

Video taping church services within Mormon culture is common, tape recordings, video recording farewells, weddings, and homecomings. For Savannah video recording her testimony for what would be an overwhelming emotional triumph and sharing something so personal. She had planned it for months. Cutting her mic and asking Savannah to sit down propelled a small community gathering onto a World stage. And so it should…

Savannah’s courage and bravery should be applauded by her Mormon peers not silenced. Fundamentalism screams for the protection of religious freedoms while applying a noose around the LGBTQ community. Teenage suicide is on the rise in Savannah’s home state of Utah. And the Mormon Church does nothing. Its dogma planted the tree and later produces the rope.

Savannah’s attempt at being accepted by being herself has now been put on the World stage because of the actions of her local leaders. Had they let her finish (which we now know would have taken an additional 20 seconds) there would be no story. There would have been a brave young girl happy to begin the scary journey of being you, whoever this is…

To make the story even more engaging and disparaging is the fact that local news outlets refused to report the story. One can make safe assumption, they might lose sponsorships, ratings, because of a predominant Mormon audience and offending Mormon Inc by suppressing the truth. After a week of viral feeds and written publications of Savannah’s story around the globe. I spoke with my sister who lives in Utah and she had not heard a thing about Savannah.

Suppresion of a story like Savannah’s in a single state is an alarming example of censorship over profit. It raises so many issues with a free society and general freedoms we all can take for granted. Calling out ex-mormons along with journalists spinning a negative story to do harm to LDS Inc is appalling within a democracy. If you watch the video it clearly needs no hyperbole directing a negative message. Its a simple video of a young girl being censored by her religious leaders for being herself.

“The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Wikipedia

When an institution cares more about its image than its own people the collapse of its entire structure is not only possible but inevitable. For the rest of the World Savannah is triumphantly giving thousands if not millions a voice. Human rights and equality can only improve, it has too, so we don’t destroy each other and the planet we walk on. The Mormon image surely will take a beating, and their PR department will be working overtime, and so it should.

Savannah didn’t ask to have her mic cut and then be told “please sit down.” Rather she asked to be heard and accepted in a place she had been taught she would be accepted, and she wasn’t. Her acceptance comes because she has accepted who she is. Her religion will wave a flag saying we accept you, we love you, we just don’t love you being gay. Now we all get to see acceptance from Mormon hierarchy and it comes with a heavy price…