WENDY MONTGOMERY was born and raised in Southern California. She has always been a member of the LDS Church and is currently the Sunday School teacher to the 16-18 year-olds in her ward. She and her husband Tom Montgomery were married in the Los Angeles Temple in 1995. They had 5 children in 7 years – not recommended. They found out in January of 2012 that their oldest son (13 years old at the time) was gay. It has at times been unbearably painful. But it has also been an enlightening, spiritual and joyful journey. She and her husband and children live in Central California. Wendy is a voracious reader and is currently working on her fictional degree in Gay Mormon Studies.
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Powerful and thought provoking.
What a touching and amazing episode. I’m impressed by the love, understanding and acceptance that these parents have for their son, especially coming from the conservative environment that they had both grown up in. I love that they still love the church, but aren’t trying to change him, but doing their very best to support him. What a blessed kid to have parents like Wendy and Tom.
I love this family for supporting their son. He is one blessed young man to have them as parents. Unfortunately some members of the church don’t connect the dots when it comes to accepting everyone unconditionally. Christ loves him as all mankind should no matter what he claims to be. We oftentimes say…’The church is perfect but the people are not.’
Just a thought on this show…notice I said show and not podcast…being one of your older listeners, I would like to add that I would be proud to sit by and visit with Sister Montgomery and her son. I don’t care about a person’s color, parentage or sexual choices. The only thing I do ask is that they refrain from PDA’s in front of me. This also goes for the hetero folks as well. Good people are good people. We have been commanded to seek them out where ever they may be. As for prop 8, I am not from California and really didn’t pay it much mind. I don’t think most of the Californians did either. Members and non-members alike need to educate themselves on these things before they open their mouths and speak out on things. Just for the record, I am not gay.
But if you are, that’s okay too.
Brad G.
I listened intently to this episode (as I often do.) I can strongly feel the love and sincerity that Wendy has for this subject. This has also helped me as I continue to learn to understand the complexities involved with being gay, being mormon, and ultimately gay marriage.
If Wendy ever comes back on, or if she cares to comment here I’d love to hear her feelings about the position of the church on gay marriage and the family proclamation. My sense is that Wendy was/is struggling with feelings of apostasy (I have had similar feelings of varying degrees.) If her son does decide to become sexual or to marry a same sex partner, is she willing to declare that marriage is between a man and a woman, or how this experience changed her view of this?
Thanks Wendy for helping people see what its like to try and navigate staying in church with a gay child. Our son came out 5 years ago when he was 17. Our ward has been much better than yours but there is still a long way to go. My favorite response was from a sweet older woman in my ward who said “I really don’t understand all this gay marriage stuff, but i know I am supposed to love everybody so that’s what i do.”