I'm a never Mormon but I was raised evangelical and we watched Studio C every day for years. This is an interview I've been waiting for a long time. Thank you for everything Stacey!
Honestly I took a break from Mormon stories bc I felt so much frustration and sadness listening to the stories but this episode brought me so much positivity and hope. His outlook made me reevaluate my own outlook. Love it!
Amen to that! His perspective is so invigorating and hopeful. And his views on humanity and how everyone is doing what they feel is right are inspiring. Stacey, thank you for shining so brightly
Wow. Thank you Stacey. You are indeed Gold. So wise and eloquent and compassionate and powerful! Please take a leadership role in our world. We need more of you.
Still waiting for David Archuleta. After his great statement at the Masked Singer, it would be a great time for an epic interview. David, come to Mormon Stories Podcast! ❤🏳️🌈🥰
😊love this story, my son is gay and he was in the church as a 14 to 16 year old. My heart hurts so much to know the pain he went through being in the church. Stacy is beautiful spirit and brings such genuine feelings. ❤️
I left the church 4 months ago and am definitely feeling the waves of grief. Not only has my faith in the Mormon church crumbled, but my marriage is crumbling due to my choice to leave the faith. Stacey's positivity and encouragement has given me hope! Thank you! I have shared this episode with my teenagers :)❤
Thank you for a great interview! Stacey is so mature in his perspectives. Wow! My favorite quote (talking about the church) “This can do good. This can hurt people, just like us……the nuance is so important…..lift where you stand. You do your thing let me do my thing.” For me one of the BEST things about deconstructing was overcoming Black-and-White thinking. I now see it as one of the major polarizing forces hurting our society. Learning to listen and really hear different sides and experiences of others is a super important skill that too many of us do not have.
Love the part about how accepting his queerness helped him in so many other ways. I've been feeling that as I've realized my own queerness outside of the church.
Never watch the show but have to say Stacey has amazing coping skills so early in life, in spite of handling so many life hurdles, like divorce, coming out etc. An inspiring strong person.
I love listening to Stacey, he’s so funny and personable but also extremely thoughtful and real. So glad you had him on the podcast, I was hoping he’d come on soon! ❤
Never-Mo here, Stacey is the most awsomest person I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know on MS!! He is so down to earth and real, thank you for telling your story, Stacey, you are so inspiring, and this interview was a great way to start my morning!
Stacey and I have multiple mutual acquaintances from BYU. This interview made me wish I made a concerted effort to be his friend. What an amazing human!
I normally would say Welcome to Freedom Stacey but he sounds like he’s always been free. What a healthy perspective. Great interview John, Geraldo and team. Thank you. Never-Mo atheist here.
Code switching explanation at 15:00 was very interesting. Black culture sees eye contact as disrespectful, white culture sees it as friendly. Stacey is so off the cuff and informal- what a likeable personality.
What an amazing attitude. I have learned so much. I try to find inspiration in other people to teach my grandkids. I want a better world and more humanity for them. These lessons are so key.
This was a very insightful and fun discussion. Refreshing take on accepting people who have different perspectives and how to navigate relationships when we disagree. Thanks Mormon Stories and Stacey!
Props to Stacey for being such a genuine and authentic person. I don't usually listen to long-format podcasts but I could listen to him for hours and hours more
Wow, amazing perspectives! I'm fulled with joy and introspection. Thank you, Stacey, John, and Gerardo. This is why Mormon Stories is so much needed. ❤❤❤
I love this interview! So on point, so much resonates with me although as a single/married straight woman leaving the church. Also love Stacey's positivity.
Incredible episode. I feel the love of humanity and God while watching this, more so than General Conference talks. I remember watching Studio-C when I first joined the Church.
This is one of my favorite episodes of Mormon Stories!!! It was entertaining, enlightening, and inspiring. Stacey, I so appreciated your perspectives that provided me new insights! You are very articulate, self-aware, grounded, authentic, genuine, and emotionally intelligent. Will you be my friend? 🙂
Learned so much with this kid’s interview. And by the way, I went to Africa (South Africa) to find out that I was not white. All my life I thought that I was. I’m Portuguese by the way.
This one is a treasure amongst the Mormon Stories! Stacey Harkey, your underlying perspective and attitude is extremely valuable to witness. Instead of debating abuse issues, you go to your core beliefs and glide right over the dichotomies battling each other. Love the, “I’m not asking for your permission!”
I started watching during my angry and pissed off at the church phase and had to take a break but with charlie bird getting married I started to scroll the past videos and saw this and its pretty wholesome to listen to. I didn't have the worst experiences growing up, but I didnt have a sunshine and daisies experience
8:30 Simultaneously raised in the LDS and a Baptist church and comparing doctrines... That's already a setup of a free thinking mind. No wonder he would free himself later on.
I didn’t realize they were for years- I watched stuff from Studio C in Bible College years ago. I showed the the show to my little brother- he even wanted for awhile to go to BYU to try to be part of the show before we realized it was an LDS school. We had no idea. Lol
I just watched and downloaded Barbs & Rhonda 😂❤ Also, it really is so impressive how Stacey learned to embrace flexibility and nuance so early on. Not many of us who grew up in the church did, it was often very black and white. Stacey is just overall wonderful ❤
Hi, professional linguist here! Just going to put it out there, code switching isn't universal. It is specific to minority groups who have different dialects and tonations to their language. Changing between in-speech to traditional English isn't code switching.
I enjoyed studio c in high school. The full cast changed happened around when I graduated high school and the crew fell off of my radar for a while. And a year or 2 ago i left the church and found myself. And got tiktok for the exmo community. I stumbled across Stacy. Saw he was openly gay and wondered where he was at and what his story was. It was great to see him happy. Im gald I got to see him talk about his story. There's aspects to his queer experience I relate to. Being ace, I've had very confused looks from leaders not expecring me to not have a problem with that stuff.
Love this guy!!! What a genuinely amazing human being. I love his bright personality and his ability to talk about his intimate feelings. I hope he has a wonderful life with the love of his life. ❤
What a truly lovely man. Fellow Southerner... we have a little ( or a lot) of spice. We judge people by doing the best they can with what they have. If they fall short, " bless their heart."
Stacie, John and G, best episode to date and I have seen hundreds of MS episodes. Truly best ever. The authenticity is awe inspiring. You have left me with a few key ideas. Yes, no man in leadership is more important than my own relationship with my higher power/savior. In this perfectionist scrupulously mormon environment when I authentically let down my guards and be myself others will maybe feel safe too and lastly being my flawed authentic self while allowing others the same grace will lead to better communities. Many more good parts but few highlights that vibed with me. ❤️❤️❤️ Hope to see you back.
Stacy you are a celebrity in our house! We quote you all of the time. One of my favorite skits is the crayon one. Skin color crayon 😂 Thank you for this wonderful interview!! It has helped so much!!
Stacey, your faith story is so similar to mine, even though it’s in different religions. I love the nuance, and I know nothing in life is black and white, but I still struggle with that sometimes and I certainly did when I was a teenager.
Current questioning member and I really love this podcast! This interview specifically as a fan of Stacey, but also because of the overwhelming positive experience in the church and in Stacey’s personality! I haven’t had any problems with the church I tend to do what Stacey did and just put what I don’t like or agree with, out of my mind. Lately with issues in my marriage (for years) and with my oldest kid almost being 8 and the cultural expectation to be baptized I really have just become riddled with fear of some of the cultural teachings and the way things are taught without information. I grew up not in the church and abuse happened, so I’m very passionate about teaching consent and since my kids could start asking questions about their bodies or sexuality I have been as straight forward with them as I can be. Anyway as the expectation of baptism for my son gets closer, April, I just can’t stop with the questioning because it doesn’t seem like a choice. I feel like he couldn’t care less and the only reason he kinda does is because of his peers and that we have talked and learned so much about it. The quotes that got me: when do they wear the person hat and when do they wear the god hat and Their doing the best with what they got and they don’t got much!
Great interview. Great perspectives and attitudes towards approaching life. It made me happy watching this episode. Thank you to Stacey and everyone involved in the interview 😊
We had very similar discussions about the Catholic Church in Germany, which cared much more about appearance than for truth. For example,when a Catholic staff member remarried, which was not accepted in the Catholic church, he/she was asked to move to another parish where it was unknown the person was unmarried. so it was not about morality but about appearance of morality.
Stacey has a great, optimistic attitude. Glad he's not bogged down with a sour victim mentality. It's refreshing to hear his level-headed approach to life.
Great interview. Totally different than the other minorities that were interviewed. He seems like a really good guy. In his case more than the others, he seems to be totally assimilated whereas the others seemed to have a hard time.
I left the church at 12 years old because my bishop, and then my stake president, could not explain to me why black people "carried the mark of Cain" thus had no rights in church, yet we were also being taught we were not responsible for the "sins of our fathers." During those conversations I also questioned why God would not choose the BEST prophet, and why the BEST prophet had to have a penis. I was distraught leaving the church, but the other teaching "You know the truth by the fruit of the tree" or whatever it was. The fruit was poison, thus the entire church was lies and poison. Nearly all of the LDS people of my age, pre-convenient "revelation" are racist to the core, they just don't admit it in mixed company.
Your not responsible for the sins of your fathers and your not held accountable for those sins either however you do suffer the consequences of their actions
I thought this was a reflective, not an angry, interview. I understand some people are mad or sad. However, Stacy addresses how naysayers lack understanding and resources. I appreciate that.
I find it interesting that you identified as being Cherokee. Being from Oklahoma I would bet money you are part Native. My mothers family are from OK and are half-breeds ( as I have seen a couple of the ancestors referred to in history books). That family are Southern Baptists and I spent my summers going to both churches when visiting my grandparents. I always felt the Baptists were more hardcore. Then I found out one of the aunts married into the Packer family in Nauvoo and came into Utah. I think there are more Native Americans who were part of The Church from the beginning. Over the past 400 years we have many in the family and I don’t think we are that unusual. I was also born in Texas and went to high school there. Enjoying your story!
His family identified as Cherokee. From this interview sounds likeStacey himself didn't seem to think much of it and in any case his DNA test disproved it.
@@andrewsuryali8540 DNA tests for Native blood are inconclusive since so many have Caucasian blood. If your family have been here since the 1600’s there is a 50/50 chance of having Native American relatives. My great-grandmother told me about how her grandparents walked to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears ( she didn’t call it that). Most people from Oklahoma have some. I stand by my statement
I LOVE everyone interviewed on Mormon Stories but I LOVE LOVE Stacey! I swear I think he could be my best friend. I wish I knew him. I believe if anyone can completely change the Mormon Church and it’s views on homosexuality, it is Stacey. I think he might be cracking the armor a bit. And if Stacey can do that, some of these other brave souls here can work on the other parts of Mormonism
