Mormon “Mama Dragons” are creating a safe space for their LGBT “children.”
Mama Dragons are doing everything they can to eliminate the suicides of LGBTs in the Mormon Community. They are a group of women, now 900 strong, who are fighting to protect LGBT youth as their own church turns against them, reports NPR.
Mama Dragons Try to Prevent Mormon-LGBT Youth Suicides[/tweetthis]
Youth suicide rates in Utah, where the majority of the population is Mormon, doubled from 2006 to 2014. And then last November, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints publicly stated that it regards same-sex marriage “as a particularly grievous or significant serious kind of sin that requires church discipline.”
Wendy Montgomery, one of the original Mama Dragons, has a strong suspicion as to what is causing many of the suicides of Mormon youths. “When the God that you believe in and the family that raised you and loves you, when they reject you, you don’t have a lot left to live for.”
LGBTQ suicides on the rise in Utah. Love to Stockton & the @MamaDragons caring for his family. We need change NOW. https://t.co/X9kVWzMSrp
— Troy Williams (@TroyWilliamsUT) June 29, 2016
Debra Coe, another Mama Dragon, said Jesus led the way for the actions of the Mama Dragons. Jesus reached out to the outcasts, those who others shunned from society and loved them and healed them, Coe said. Her son is gay, and he later explained to her that he had thoughts of suicide.
“Our church leaders have worked very hard to help the members in our local area to understand that charity, reaching out, kindness, love empathy, etc. are the core of our LDS religion. Helping reduce LGBTQ suicides and homelesness go hand in hand with those core beliefs and we appreciate the huge support we have had from our local church leaders,” explained Coe.
The Mama Dragons have a five-pronged approach to aiding those in the LGBT community:
- Loving their LGBT children.
- Preventing LGBT suicide.
- Supporting parents of LGBT children to better love and support their children.
- Rescuing rejected LGBT children from homelessness and abuse.
- Attending funerals of deceased LGBT youth in support of the surviving families.
The name Mama Dragons, at least in part, comes from the Book of Mormon. Mosiah 20:11 ends this way… “But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore, they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight.”