So Mayne, like the bishop who called him to serve, is a volunteer who works for the church on top of his full-time corporate communications job.ĭon Fletcher, an ophthalmologist, said that when he was called last month to serve as the bishop and leader of the Bay Ward he wanted to make sure every Latter-day Saint in his ward knew they were welcome, including the vast majority who weren't showing up. The LDS Church, which entrusts local leaders to determine local callings, does not pay clergy, nor does it send would-be bishops to seminary. In this case, the Bay Ward is one of three wards that make up the San Francisco Stake. Various wards fall under the auspices of a stake, the rough equivalent of a diocese. “While that’s not a big accomplishment in and of itself,” Mayne said, “it is a remarkable accomplishment for the simple fact that maybe for the first time, a man was called to a priesthood leadership position not in spite of the fact that he is gay, but partly because he is gay.”įor those unfamiliar with LDS Church vernacular, a ward is essentially a congregation or, to use Catholic terminology, a parish. It is a role in which he'll offer administrative help but also take part in shaping congregational work. Mayne shared these words during a farewell address to the Oakland ward he long attended, amid an announcement that he would be leaving because he had been named the executive secretary to the bishop of the Bay Ward. To accept me is to marginalize me with the assumption that I am less than you. To accept me is to graciously grant me the favor of your company. I want respect as a fellow striving child of God - an equal in his eyes. "I don't want tolerance. If I am tolerated, I am disliked in some way. To understand me is to love me as an equal. Late last month, from the pulpit, Mayne revealed - to anyone who didn't already know - who he is: What makes Mayne unique, Stack said, is that he "may be the first local LDS leader to announce his orientation over the pulpit.” In Seattle, Washington, and Oakland, California, gay men have reportedly served in LDS Church leadership roles, Peggy Fletcher Stack wrote in her piece about Mayne in The Salt Lake Tribune. Mayne’s appointment may have generated attention, but he’s not the first gay Mormon to assume a leadership role in the church. Now, Mayne finds himself in the spotlight as he embarks on a journey he says “belongs to all of us.” In mid-August he was selected, or called (as Mormons say) by local church officials to serve in an LDS Church leadership position in San Francisco.
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And the church has actively backed measures to ban same-sex marriages. After all, the LDS Church teaches that homosexuality, specifically if same-sex attractions are acted upon, is a sin. It’s part of my DNA, part of my makeup.”Īctively Mormon and openly gay: It's the sort of combo that might leave people wondering. “I’m a man that lives in two worlds that a lot of people don’t think intersect,” Mayne said. It is where he feels spiritually at home, irrespective of the fact that, for the past 10 years, he’s been openly gay. Even after he drifted away from the LDS Church following his parents’ divorce, he came back to Mormonism on his own in his mid-20s. At 8, after his parents converted, he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith he embraced. He would race home from school to watch reruns of “Star Trek” and swoon over his crush, Captain Kirk. But when tragedy strikes Vince's family, Paul must put aside any notions he has about himself and stand next to the man who thinks he's perfect the way he is.(CNN) - Early on in life, Mitch Mayne knew exactly who he was. The only thing stopping Paul from believing in Vince is himself - and that is one obstacle Paul can't quite seem to overcome. Vince must be messing with him, because there is no way Vince could want someone like Paul.īut when Paul hits Vince with his car - in a completely unintentional if-he-died-it'd-only-be-manslaughter kind of way - he's forced to see Vince in a whole new light. And for some reason, Vince pursues Paul relentlessly.
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Vince is everything Paul isn't: Sexy, confident, and dumber than the proverbial box of rocks. He works a dead-end job in a soul-sucking cubicle, and if his grandmother's homophobic parrot insults him one more time, Paul is going to wring its stupid neck. His closest friends are a two-legged dog named Wheels and a quasibipolar drag queen named Helena Handbasket. He's thirty, slightly overweight, and his best features are his acerbic wit and the color commentary he provides as life passes him by.
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For current Paperback edition see: Tell Me It's Real