This letter, along with all signatures, will hopefully be submitted to The Salt Lake Tribune and other local news outlets. If you agree with what has been written, please include your name below and share this with anyone else who you think would want to help this message be heard. We appreciate your support.
A note from the author: The wording of this letter has been very carefully chosen. This is not meant to be an attack on anyone. If it was, that would make me a hypocrite. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. We also have a responsibility, as outlined below, to express those opinions with care. This letter focuses on that responsibility and not on the individuals who started the attacks on Dr. Coyne or their opinions.
On Loving Others
On March 30th, Dr. Sarah Coyne shared with her “The Eternal Family” class at Brigham Young University that she has a child who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. This was part of her lecture on LGBTQ+ issues and was preceded by discussion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ policy and doctrine regarding this topic. At no point did she promote transitioning or any other practice that was contrary to what the Church teaches, but instead focused on the mental and emotional pain and difficulty that have come with her child’s experience.
On April 13th, an article titled “BYU Professor Speaks About Her Transgender 8 Year-old in Class" was published by The Cougar Chronicle, a student run magazine that aims to "spread the conservative perspective to the BYU community," and was retweeted by Senator Mike Lee (R, Utah). It has garnered tens of thousands of views. The author of the article did not attend the class and related the experience of a single student in the class who was “shocked and saddened” by what Dr. Coyne had presented. After omitting key parts of Dr. Coyne’s story, including the fact that her child has been suicidal for years because of their gender dysphoria and that she and her husband have been fighting to just keep them alive, the article then went on to describe the church’s stance on transgender issues, neglecting the fact that Dr. Coyne had done that as a preface in her own lecture.
The editor’s note at the end of the article states “We make this report and others with the intent to heal the wounds of the psyche with the truth, not to ‘damage another’s reputation with pathetic and pithy barbs’ as President Nelson said.” The hate mail and cyberbullying that Dr. Coyne has received because of this article suggests that even if that was the original intention, the message that was delivered has had the opposite effect. This journalism has proven to be severely biased, inadequately researched, and unnecessarily destructive.
In the most recent General Conference, President Nelson taught us that “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to be examples of how to interact with others—especially when we have differences of opinion. One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people… My dear brothers and sisters, how we treat each other really matters! How we speak to and about others at home, at church, at work, and online really matters. Today, I am asking us to interact with others in a higher, holier way. Please listen carefully. ‘If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy’ that we can say about another person—whether to his face or behind her back—that should be our standard of communication.”
More specific to BYU, the Honor Code states that “Brigham Young University… exist[s] to provide an education in an atmosphere consistent with the ideals and principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That atmosphere is created and preserved by a community… who voluntarily commit to conduct their lives in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and who strive to maintain the highest standards in their personal conduct regarding honor, integrity, morality, and consideration of others.… [E]ach member of the BYU community personally commits to observe these Honor Code standards…: Respect others, including [but not limited to] the avoidance of profane and vulgar language” (emphasis added).
Members of the BYU community need to better uphold this. We invite those who wrote and published the article in The Cougar Chronicle to rise to a higher level of journalism, understanding, and discipleship, and to do better building bridges and facilitating meaningful change through love instead of through highlighting perceived flaws. We ask the BYU Honor Code Office, Office of Belonging, and all other relevant BYU entities to take appropriate action to better protect students and faculty who, because of their association with LGBTQ+ issues, are recipients of hate and discrimination. We invite members of the church everywhere to grant grace to those who have differing experiences from our own and to seek to see them and talk about them in the way that our Saviour Jesus Christ would. Finally, we invite all people to stand in solidarity with Dr. Sarah Coyne: a professor, accredited researcher and psychologist, mentor, mother, disciple of Christ, and daughter of God who is doing her best to take care of her child and her family and does not need our criticism or judgement. Dr. Coyne, we love you.
