RENE FROST

René Frost is a native of Arizona. She attended Mountain View High School and obtained a B.A. in Design from Brigham Young University.  René has three beautiful children and a wonderful daughter-in-law that all live in the Phoenix area. They are the pride and joy of her life.  René was raised in the LDS church by dedicated and loving parents. She was an active and faithful church member until the age of 44 when she began to self-identify as an LGBTQ LDS woman. She is a member of Affirmation and has a leadership role in helping mothers and women who are also LGBTQ and LDS. René has a passion and zest for life. What she values most are relationships and the people in her life. She is a lover of many things but among her favorites are fashion, architecture, interior design, and music. Her greatest dream and fantasy is to be a musician and ultimately perform on stage with Ricky Martin as a backup singer. Since Ricky hasn't called yet, she takes pride in the fact that she won a costume award at her ward Halloween party in Rochester, NY dressed as Sporty Spice.

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MINDY BUTLER-CHRISTENSEN

Mindy Butler-Christensen is a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the mother of three daughters. Her oldest daughter is LGBT. Mindy and her husband Don were raised in Tempe, Arizona and now make their home in Scottsdale. Approximately 100 years ago, Mindy served a mission for the LDS Church in Guatemala, where her love of "all things Latino" blossomed. She now practices law as an immigration attorney in Phoenix.

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RICHARD BUSHMAN

Richard Bushman, a respected American historian, is the Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus at Columbia University.  He is well known for his path-breaking and prize winning books; among them From Puritan to Yankee: Character and Social Order in Connecticut,1690-1765, The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities, and Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.  He served as the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University and helped establish the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia.  He is an editor of the Joseph Smith Paper Project and is currently co-chair of The Mormon Arts Center Festival to be held in New York City from June 28 to July 1 this year.  Bushman’s church service includes serving as bishop, stake president, patriarch and temple sealer.

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CLAUDIA BUSHMAN

Claudia Bushman, also an American historian, has taught at many universities, most recently Columbia University and Claremont Graduate University.  She has written fifteen books about nineteenth-century America; many about Mormons and women.  Some of her books include Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah, Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America and Mormon Women Have Their Say.   Together with her husband, Bushman co-authored Building the Kingdom of God in America.  In 1974 she became the founding editor of the magazine Exponent II and in 2002 she was named New York Mother of the Year.

 

Richard and Claudia Bushman choose to show love to their LGBTQ brothers and sisters in the church.  Over 20 years ago, the stake president in Manhattan asked Brother Bushman to draft advice to bishops in the stake for how to minister to their gay members; many of whom were “out”.  His recommendation was to give them church callings to help them grow spiritually, and to not do anything to make their burdens heavier.  More recently, the Bushmans were the keynote speakers at the 2015 Affirmation Leadership Retreat in Palmyra, New York.

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Q & A PANEL

Theresa Bartholomew / Rachel Manwaring / Rachel Moulton / Nick Pratt / Sam Turner / Jim White