New Facebook Support Group

By Mister Curie


My wife and I have been somewhat frustrated in trying to find a support group for mixed-orientation marriages that seem relevant to our situation (young married couple with young children), so we are starting a facebook group for Mixed Orientation Families. The group is for individuals/couples currently or previously in marriages where one or both spouses are gay or bisexual. We will discuss issues related to navigating parenthood, marriage, and/or divorce while accepting your non-heterosexual identity.

You do not have to be currently married or intending to stay married to join this group. Individuals who have gone through divorce or separation can offer a lot of insight into navigating family-related pitfalls for gay or bisexual parents, spouses, or ex-spouses.

The goal is to have an accepting place to discuss issues related to topics specific to this subpopulation and to help us feel not so alone. Any life path forward that is mindfully chosen will be honored in the group: monogamy, non-monogamy in its various forms, divorce, etc.

If you would be interested in joining this group, please let me know and I will add you. It is a secret facebook group so it will not show up on others' news feeds and you cannot access it by searching for it.

Mormon Stories Local Communities

By Mister Curie

As part of my visit to NYC to see the Book of Mormon musical, I also attended a Mormon  Stories conference.  The conference was an attempt to build a local community of support for liberal and non-traditional Mormons.  I enjoyed myself immensely.  In part due to the successful experience, John Dehlin is attempting to expand the effort by starting geographically organized facebook groups which will help to organize local support networks.  You can sign up for a group in your area by visiting the Mormon Stories local Communities page.  I have agreed to administer the facebook site for the Philadelphia, PA group.  So, if any of my readers are local to the Philadelphia area and would like to join the local support network, visit our facebook page and request to join: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_198752526826037

Impressed

By Mister Curie

I just wanted to say that I was highly impressed with the MoHo community last night as several members of the community showed their love and concern for others through their actions.  When the blog posted suicide note was discovered and broadcast across facebook, a concerted effort was made by people who weren't even sure if they personally knew the blogger to find and protect them in this critical hour of need.  It was amazing to see a variety of modern technologies put into use to improve communication and coordinate efforts to move as quickly as possible. 

This was my first real interaction with the concept of gay suicide.  Hopefully the community we are fostering will help to support people so that suicide does not appear to be the only option available and we will not have to deal as much with the issue.  However, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to create a standardized approach to the situation if something similar happens again so that we can quickly raise the alarm and coordinate efforts to protect each other.  I wonder if the MoHo Map would be an appropriate website to centralize some of these efforts.  What do you think?