Mormon Homophobia Rule-Book: The Word ‘Partner’ Is ‘Too Gay’ For Print

Remember a while back when I described my bizarre experience during an evening with Mormon Missionaries? Well, it turns out that my assessment of the absurdity of this religion and those who practice it might not be that far off base. The story of a gay fantasy author and his broken relationship with his would-be LDS publisher illustrates just how insane Mormon homophobia is.

Now, we all know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has huge issues with homosexuality. There is nothing at all newsworthy about Mormon homophobia. Their views are in line with bunches of Christian denominations. We hear about this stuff all the time, so what is the big deal this time you might ask? I’ll tell you what the big deal is. David King and Michael Jensen are fantasy authors of a likely bestseller,?”Woven.” They signed on with Sweetwater Books, which is a division of Cedar Fort Publishing & Media, which is a publisher that is mostly devoted to Mormon publications. However,?Jezebel?reports that the authors say that Sweetwater Books was supposed to be more mainstream than Cedar Fort; there would be no expectation that their work would have to follow the standards of the LDS church. However, all of that came crashing down — and Mormon homophobia became apparent — when the final edit of the cover art came back missing part of Jensen’s bio — the part that says?that he “lives in Salt Lake City with his boyfriend and their four dogs.” Jensen thought it was a mistake at first so he wrote to acquisitions editor for Cedar Fort, Angie Workman . That is when Michael Jensen learned that the issue was?not?a simple mistake. It turns out that there were “concerns” (read: Mormon homophobia) about Jensen’s bio. Here is what he received in return:

I was concerned about your bio and wondered what effect it would have with our LDS buyers, so I spoke with [Cedar Fort’s owner, Lyle Mortimer] about it. He says we can’t risk ruining our relationship with them by stating you live with your boyfriend, so we need to cut that part out. We will have much better sales if we can get into Deseret Book and Seagull, so that’s what we need to focus on. I hope you can understand our objective with this. Thanks!

Jensen was willing to compromise. After all, as someone who has lived in Salt Lake City for quite some time, he is more than familiar with their attitudes toward gay people. So, he agreed to change the word “boyfriend” to “partner” as it had been in his original bio. However, the publisher wasn’t having that either. Workman replied to this more than reasonable request:

?I noticed that when you first sent in your bio and asked them to delete that. It must’ve slipped through somehow. We’ll need to take that out as well. Sorry.

Jensen was more than offended by now and understandably so. He said:

David’s bio said that he lived in Utah County with his wife and their kids. I wanted a comparable, accurate sentence in my bio.

Finally, Jensen called the owner to complain about the obvious discrimination and Mormon homophobia. Here is the Michael Jensen exchange:

The conversation really devolved quickly. Lyle started yelling about my ?agenda? and how I was trying to destroy families. He even started saying inappropriate things about how God had given me a penis for a reason. It was very uncomfortable. Then he threatened to publish?”Woven”?without our names attached or without our bios at all?rather than print that one sentence. He told me that if he decided not to publish because of this, I’d have to buy back the rights to our book and reimburse him for his work so far, and that would cost me thousands of dollars.

Two weeks after this debacle, Cedar Fort decided to cancel publication of “Woven” — all over one sentence. According to Jensen they knew he was gay from the beginning, so the problems that arose later made no sense. He says:

They knew I was gay when they signed me. If they didn’t want to print the bio of an author who happened to be gay, then they shouldn’t have signed an author who happened to be gay.

I agree wholeheartedly. Then again, Mormonism is a bizarre religion that is known for being viciously homophobic. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: LGBT people, stay away from dealings with known homophobes. It will save you a world of trouble. I can only hope that in?this?instance, it is Cedar Fort Publishing & Media who loses out rather than Michael Jensen and David King and that Mormon homophobia won’t keep a good book from being published. See the?Woven?site for more detail. edited by kb

I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.