Jerrod Guddat was raised in Seattle, Washington and is a 30-year convert to the Church. He has served in a variety of capacities in the Church including ward and stake leadership positions. Jerrod is currently serving as second counselor in the elders quorum of his ward. Professionally, Jerrod runs an international humanitarian nonprofit to love and care for disadvantaged children in Latin America. Jerrod, his remarkable wife, Megan, and their five children live in southeast Idaho.
Enter Jerrod…
One of the recurring themes of the October 2025 general conference was belonging in the Church despite difficult personal circumstances or “non-traditional” life situations. Several leaders lovingly acknowledged members who feel they don’t fit the traditional mold.
As I listened carefully to multiple talks, however, I noticed something that made me pause: while many non-traditional family realities were named—divorce, singleness, loss, faith struggles, and social differences—situations involving LGBTQ+ family dynamics were never explicitly mentioned.
This raised a sincere question for me: Why weren’t LGBTQ+ family dynamics specifically mentioned, and what are the implications for members who experience these realities?
In congregations across the Church, there are quiet questions resting in faithful hearts—questions about identity, discipleship, and belonging. For Latter-day Saints who identify as LGBT, those questions can feel especially tender. As shepherds and fellow Saints, perhaps our first work is not to resolve every tension, but to ask ourselves: How are we making room for every sincere seeker to hear and feel the message—You belong here?
I offer this reflection not as criticism, but as an invitation to consider how naming—or not naming—shapes belonging.
Shaping Belonging
Several Church leaders acknowledged members whose lives differ from traditional expectations. President Oaks noted:
“Many of us must do this [teach our children] when not all of our families are traditional. Divorce, death, and separation are realities.”
Elder Gong described various reasons members may feel they don’t belong:
“There are many reasons we may feel we do not fit in at church—that, speaking figuratively, we sit alone. We may worry about our accent, clothes, family situation. Perhaps we feel inadequate, smell of smoke, yearn for moral cleanliness, have broken up with someone and feel hurt and embarrassed, are concerned about this or that Church policy. We may be single, divorced, widowed. Our children are noisy; we don’t have children. We didn’t serve a mission or came home early. The list goes on.”
Sister J. Annette Dennis similarly spoke of those who feel they don’t fit the mold due to faith struggles, mental health challenges, cultural differences, or life circumstances. She said:
“Unfortunately, for some of us, attending church can be hard at times for many different reasons. It could be someone struggling with questions of faith or someone with social anxiety or depression. It could be someone from a different country or race or someone with different life experiences or ways of seeing things who may feel they don’t fit the mold. It could even be sleep-deprived and emotionally stretched parents of babies and young children or someone who is single in a congregation full of couples and families. It could also be someone mustering the courage to return after years of being away or someone with a nagging feeling that they just don’t measure up and will never belong.”
“Some of you may reflect on the proclamation and say, ‘This isn’t working for me.’ ‘It seems insensitive.’ ‘My family doesn’t look like that.’ ‘I don’t fit.’”
The consistent message across these talks was clear: everyone should feel they belong in the Church.
Emotional Complexity
Despite repeated references to non-traditional families and those who feel they “don’t fit,” none of the speakers explicitly referenced:
- Members experiencing same-sex attraction
- LGBTQ+ individuals
- Families with LGBTQ+ children
- Mixed-orientation marriages
- Parents navigating a child’s change in identity
- Tension between Church teachings and sexual identity
For many Church members, these situations represent some of the most emotionally complex family realities in modern Latter-day Saint life.
This absence becomes notable precisely because the talks emphasized inclusion and belonging.
A Pressing Challenge
Naming experiences can communicate recognition. Silence—even unintentional—can sometimes be experienced as invisibility. Many faithful members of the Church are actively navigating LGBTQ-related questions within their families. For some, this is among the most pressing challenge they face. When leaders speak broadly about not fitting in, listeners often ask:
- Does this include my situation?
- Am I seen here?
- Is my struggle understood?
The question is not whether leaders care—conference messages consistently teach love, compassion, and belonging. The question is whether more explicit acknowledgment might help some members feel more directly included.
Looking at Elder Rasband’s quote again, he said:
“Some of you may reflect on the proclamation and say, ‘This isn’t working for me.’ ‘It seems insensitive.’ ‘My family doesn’t look like that.’ ‘I don’t fit.’”
Some listeners/readers may reasonably assume that Elder Rasband’s quote brings to mind those who feel like the proclamation doesn’t include them due to their personal LGBTQ+ experience, listing them with divorcees and other groups named explicitly in other talks. However, this assumption further illustrates my point. The reality is we simply don’t know beyond speculation what each individual speaker intended by their choice of inclusive descriptors and which they chose to leave out.
Some readers may infer from my line of thinking that I am suggesting an intentional obfuscation of the term LGBTQ+ in General Conference talks. However, my observation isn’t that there was some kind of intentional orchestration or blacklist of words. Rather, it is that while three of the four speakers explicitly named certain groups or situations (divorce, widowhood, singleness, cultural differences, even feeling embarrassed for smelling like smoke) none explicitly mentioned same-sex attraction or LGBTQ+ family dynamics.
Given that, in my perception, questions surrounding LGBTQ+ identity and family relationships are among the defining cultural concerns for many North American members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2025, that absence felt noticeable to me.
Complex Realities
Others may not experience it that way, and that’s okay. My intent wasn’t to assign motives, but to explore how naming (or not naming) shapes the way different members and observers of the Church experience belonging.
There may be several possible explanations for exclusion of the LGBTQ+ experience:
- Leaders may intentionally speak in broad terms to include many situations without categorizing them.
- They may seek to avoid politicization or cultural framing.
- They may emphasize doctrine over social categories.
- They may assume existing teachings already address these concerns.
- They may aim to keep conference messages universally applicable across global contexts.
Understanding the intent behind messaging can help members interpret what they hear. Rather than drawing conclusions, perhaps the more helpful approach is to ask:
- What role does naming play in helping members feel they belong?
- How do Church leaders decide which realities to explicitly address?
- How do members interpret general invitations to belong when their specific situations are not named?
- How might local leaders apply conference teachings to members navigating LGBTQ+ family dynamics?
These questions may help us better understand how to minister in complex modern realities.
You Belong Here
General conference repeatedly teaches that all are welcome and that discipleship involves bearing one another’s burdens. As the Church continues to address the needs of a diverse global membership, questions about belonging and recognition will likely continue.
Perhaps one of the ongoing invitations for all of us—leaders and members alike—is to consider how we ensure that every sincere seeker can recognize themselves in the message: You belong here.
