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Mormon author and playwright Carol Lynn
Pearson is working to educate and enlighten
those of her faith that coming to terms with
homosexuality is a family affair.
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Facing East
Plan-B Theatre Company
Atlantic Stage Two
330 W. 16th St.
May 25-Jun. 17
$40; 212-279-4200
Mormon writer Carol Lynn Pearson's new play, "Facing
East," beginning performances in New York following a
sold out run in Salt Lake City, takes as its subject a
married couple's graveside encounter with their dead
son's partner. The searing family confrontation
concerning the gay son's suicide would make compelling
drama on its own merits, but has a particular resonance
given Pearson's personal background.
In 1978, Pearson and her husband Gerald divorced, after
a decade of trying as a devout Mormons to manage and
come to terms with his homosexuality. Six years later,
she would nurse him on her couch as he lay dying of
AIDS. Her writing career was initially championed by
Gerald - on their honeymoon he suggested publishing her
first book of poems and their $2,000 investment would
lead to sales of more than 150,000 copies - and later it
became her way of processing his death.
Her book, "Goodbye, I Love You" (Random House) became a
bestseller.
Since that time, in addition to more than 40 books of
poetry, on women's issues and spirituality, Pearson, 68,
has been a tireless advocate for religious families
struggling to deal with homosexuality. Without every
breaking ties to the Mormon Church, she has sounded a
clarion call for a reevaluation by the Latter Day Saints
on gay issues.
Her most recent book, "No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around Our
Gay Loved Ones," is a collection of stories about gay
Mormons and their families.
CHRISTOPHER MURRAY: Why did you feel compelled to write
this play, "Facing East?"
CAROL LYNN PEARSON: I seem to have a calling in my life
to address this subject. I was married to a gay man for
12 years and it was a wonderful experience for both of
us and terrible, too, as we were struggling to figure
out why and what to do. Gerald, my husband, said, "We
are in this thing to do something really important and
I'm sorry it's so difficult for us both."
In the 20 years now since I published "Goodbye, I Love
You," about our relationship, I've been privileged to be
the repository of hundred of stories, especially those
of Mormon gay people and their families.
We know that the intersection of religion and especially
conservative religions and homosexuality is one of the
huge painful arenas that has to be addressed. As Gerald
was going through his enormous struggle, the anguish was
between his love of the Church and what he felt was the
Church's condemnation of him. For his own sanity, he
withdrew from the Church, which is the case with most
gay Mormon men I know of.
CM: You remain part of the Mormon Church now?
CP: Yes, in fact I'm fourth generation. My grandmother,
Sara, walked across the Plains as an eight-year-old
girl. My friends have been extraordinarily loyal, as has
my family. It brings up enormous questions about my
relationship to the Church, but I have no complaints
about how I've been treated by the Church. My
ecclesiastical leaders have been nothing but kind to me.
CM: How have you remained such a passionate advocate
about this for such a long time?
CP: In the current political climate, tensions have
increased. The issue of homosexuality is central to so
many of the dominant political points of view right now.
But, in the stories that come to me, there's a lot of
enlightenment going on. Sadly, Utah has the highest rate
of suicides among young men between 15 and 24. That's
unacceptable. It should no longer be business as usual
for the state or the Church until we find out how to do
better.
CM: So as in movies like "Ordinary People" or plays like
"Angels in America" or "Facing East" now, the moms get
hit pretty hard as characters reluctant to change their
views about their children.
CP: For a playwright there's no subject matter more
fraught than this confrontation between one's belief
system and a family's love for a person they feel they
must protect by insisting they be what they are not. But
actually, in most families I've encountered, it seems
the mom is one who is least willing to reject a child.
In my play, the mother really struggles and I don't know
if I was deliberately working against stereotypes, but
there was something appealing to me about this father
who has a high status position in the Church being the
one to have a breakthrough on this issue.
With Mormon women, though, it's true that in some ways
their whole existence is getting their families back to
God. They will do it by hook or by crook. Not that men
don't feel that, but women feel it singularly.
CM: What was the reception to the play in Salt Lake
City?
CP: We sold out every night. Our director said 'Who
would have thought this would create such a commotion?'
But I knew that if I built this, play people would come.
I knew the pain that exists among Mormons around these
issues. I watched the audience with such emotion in my
heart knowing that few of them came just to go to a
night in the theater. Most had a story that brought them
there. Honestly, you could hear a pin drop.
CM: What change do you want to see in the Mormon Church
around homosexuality?
CP: I'd like to all of us to say, wait, we seem not to
be doing this right. What are we missing here? Let us
look again at scripture, at our own personal history.
Let us invite in gay people and their families to tell
us their stories. Let's open up new avenues of thinking
on this, because there is still so much pain and we
aren't where we need to be.
We're still not in the Promised Land.
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