A researched approachĬaitlin Ryan started the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University when she wanted to research how families could better engage with their LGBTQ children. “She started to realize that it’s not a sin and God loves everyone, and that I should be able to love someone as everyone has the right to,” he said. “ had heartbreaking stories about - she didn’t want that kind of thing to happen to me.” “She noticed how it could be such a tragedy for some people,” he said. Zach said he saw the change in his mother too. She said it changed the focus of her son’s sexuality in terms of morality to one that focused on his well-being and keeping their family together. It changed my whole view about homosexuality,” Searle said. The book was titled “Supportive Families, Healthy Children: Helping Latter-day Saint Families with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Children.” Searle and her husband referred to a booklet by Family Acceptance Project specifically designed to help Mormon families with LGBTQ children.
The project, which is based in San Francisco, has helped families support their children in the context of different cultures and faith traditions by offering direct services to families and training service providers and clergy members. The project, which started in 2002, is a national research, intervention and policy initiative to help diverse families support their LGBTQ children and decrease stigma and rejection. Pearson then told Searle and her husband, Greg, about the Family Acceptance Project. Searle reached out to a member at her church who connected her to Carol Lynn Pearson, a Mormon author who had married a gay man and publicly spoke about accepting gay family members. I have to figure out how to, as a parent, not only to be supportive in our home, but show support to others,” Searle said. She told her son she loved him, and everything would be fine as long as he didn’t act on his homosexuality.īut when another mother from their family’s congregation told her about rumors that were spreading about her son at his school, Searle decided she needed to change course. Searle and her husband are Mormon, and for the first two months after finding out about Zach’s sexual identity, they didn’t talk about their son’s sexuality. “For me and my religious background, and everything we’ve been taught about homosexuality, I just felt like my whole world shattered and crumbled before me.” “I had a moment of complete and utter despair,” she said. In a moment, she said, they were all gone. When Christy Searle found out her 14-year-old son Zach was gay, she thought about all the dreams she had envisioned for him. From left, Adam, 17 Isaac, 10 parents Greg and Christy Luke, 11, and Zach, 15. The Searle family found out about the Family Acceptance Project last year and say it’s helped them become an advocate for their brother, Zach.