Why Utah is So Weird 

I said "Mormons" as I was clicking the video, and then Johnny Utah confirmed: "Mormons."

Utah resident, ex mormon here. I usually dont like hearing about Utah and the Mormon church online because people get a lot of things wrong. This was one of the most fair videos ive seen on the topics. Good and bad, it was accurate.

For the record, the beers are no longer watered down. Beer companies got together and told the Government that they would no longer be brewing, packaging, and shipping special 3% beers for a single state. 5%ish is the standard and available at gas stations and grocery stores, but if you want a highpoint you will need to go to a place with a liquor license

For everyone wondering, yes even East High where High School Musical was filmed has an LDS Seminary across the street.

I really respect creators who don't make you wait for the answer to the question in their title, but Wendover takes the cake here by giving us the answer as the first word of the video.

As a Wisconsinite, I take pride in the occasional news story about Wisconsin sports fans traveling to Utah for away games and drinking entire bars dry.

Native Utahn here, served a mission, married in the temple, the whole 9, this was one of the most well done, unbiased, and informative video essays I’ve ever seen, I was worried that it would just be 25 minutes of you lambasting the dominant religion, but you did a great job giving an accurate view of the state, it’s origins, and its values! I served my mission in Oklahoma speaking Spanish, and it definitely softened my view on ilegal immigration! I learned a lot about what drives people to leave, and gain the sense of compassion that I had lacked otherwise

16:18 So the interesting thing about that is the Provo City Center Temple wasn't a temple until very recently. It used to be just a tabernacle (a very large meetinghouse). However, in 2010, it caught fire, and the whole structure other than the outer walls burned down. This prompted the decision to renovate it into a temple - and it just so happened to be at the center of the Provo city grid.

I have been in and through Utah many times.. The strangest had to when I spent two weeks in SLC in the 90's for work. At some point I remember telling a friend ..."I have to go to a good burger and beer place!" I was on the road all over the country at the time and was basically living at places like Chili's and Applebees. They took me to what appeared to be an Italian bar / restaurant. We sat down at the bar and I ordered a burger and beer. I could clearly see liquor bottles in the back with beer taps. The waiter said: "You have to have a membership and a sponsor for the beer." I had no idea what this meant. "Membership?" "Spenser?"....for a beer? An older Italian man (like New York / Jersey Italian ..think Tony Soprano) sitting in the middle of the bar said: "I'll sponsor him."....like it was soothing he said 100 times a day and... The waiter brought my burger and beer. Easily the oddest meal experience ever.

as someone from Utah, I can confirm we are weird

Someone in Wendover calling Utah weird is the best part of this super accurate video.

Here's the thing that no one talks about: We have a STRONG, decades long, multi-generational alternative community, and it's kind of growing. I work at the same goth nightclub my dad went to when he was my age (he still goes he's just not my age anymore), and I'm not the first nor the only kid of someone who regularly attend for most of their life currently working there. There's a goth club, multiple goth nights a month in various locations, multiple alternative themed thrift stores, goth community events (monday we're all seeing Abigail), goth camping trips, group migrations to out of state music festivals, post concert meetups.. It's a close knit, long lived community and It's so rarely talked about outside of maybe SLC Punk. Here's another thing I never see talked about: Do you know what Utah has disproportionately more of than most states, aside from children? Haunted house attractions. You have Nightmare on 13th, Fear Factory, Strangling Brothers Circus, Castle of Chaos, Shadows of Fear, Haunted Forest, Asylum 49, Haunted Kay's Cross, Dark Nightmare, Haunted Hollow, SO MANY DAMN CORN MAZES, and our local amusement park hosts at least 5-6 haunted houses on its property every fall. The thing that's always cracked me up about the premise of Five Nights At Freddy's 3 is that all of the games canonly take place in Hurricane, Utah, and Utah is no stranger to making haunted houses out of locations with confirmed deaths. I've named three already. I think these two factors are related. I think haunted houses, and fan conventions, and places like Evermore park (I know its closed at the moment but it's coming back as something similar to the original premise, just hopefully better funded) are the neutral middle ground where the least strict mormons and those who feel alienated by mormonism can meet and have a good time together. Halloween is a big holiday in this state because of that, too. For every family with 3 toddlers waddling from car to car in a church parking lot wearing massive coats over their costumes, there's a group of adults going to Nightmare on 13th and then going to eat at that horror movie themed burger resturaunt.

Great video! Thank you. As an attorney who practiced in Utah and now practices in Illinois, I would add expungement as one of Utah’s uniquely progressive areas of law. Utah has been one of the leading states in the nation in pioneering ways for those with criminal records to clean, expunge, or overcome their records. Utah’s law is still ahead of Illinois’s in this way.

I love videos that answer the title question in the first second. Anti clickbait.

I am Colombian and member of the LDS church. I came to Utah for school and I love it here. I appreciate the nuanced and respectful tone of the video and the comments! Much love to everyone ❤

Well done, Wendover Productions. This video kept cropping up in my RU-vid feed, but as a lifelong Utahn I was very hesitant to click on it. I couldn't help but think, "We've heard it all before, trust me." But tonight, after a little celebratory session after a trip to the dispensary up the street (You heard that right, folks. It's 4/20/24 and Utah has medicinal dispensaries.) and a few beers from the Utah State Liquor Store, I finally clicked play. Utah IS weird . . . and that's why I love it so, so much! I'm not gonna go through the video point by point because aside from some minor tweaks and pronunciation corrections (I swear you were mispronouncing "Brigham" on purpose, haha! There is no N in Brigham, my guy), you pretty much nailed it. I especially appreciated your occasional use of the word "nuance." As is the case with so many overviews and summaries, it's nearly impossible to emphasize the multitude of nuance surrounding us every day. Making broad, generalized assertions without mention of nuance is just poor journalism, in my opinion. I feel like you did a very good job of describing Utah in such a short amount of time without resorting to GIANT blanket statements. Others will surely disagree, but I think you did a helluva job. I grew up in SLC, then moved to St. George at age 15. I moved back to Salt Lake at 26 and have been here ever since, although I still consider St. Geezy and Las Vegas my other two "hometowns." I've also spent a lot of time in Massachusetts, LA, San Francisco, Denver, and Texas. I only bring this up because I want to mention how wonderful the people of Utah are. Not that people in those other places aren't wonderful as well, but there's a very unique spirit to Utah that I don't see or feel in other states. It's probably just my own biases, but I swear it's noticeable. I can only think of one way to explain what I mean; I've been to hundreds of concerts and comedy clubs all across the country and there is nothing like seeing a band or comedian in SLC for the first time. Without fail, every time, they're like, "HOLY SHIT! You guys are awesome!" Now, that could easily be low expectations on their part, but I've seen it from repeat visitors as well. Utahns have an extra-weird sparkle in their eye, haha. There are definitely militant Mormons and far-right lunatics here (a couple of my friends' parents spring to mind), but it has been my experience that most Utahns are fairly reasonable centrists with a lot of love in their hearts. Especially as the old timers age out, a younger generation of Utahns---people such as myself, in their mid-40s---are taking to leadership roles and dialing back some of the more outdated and outlandish quirks. Anyhoozle, this comment completely got away from me. Sorry for the essay. Utah's a weird, wacky, wonderful place. ✌️❤️

Also, there is a town called Wendover, which is on the border of Utah and Nevada. West Wendover, NV is the go-to place for people to drink, gamble, visit the dispensary, etc. Basically all the sins that are restricted in Utah.

One important caveat for the high percent of Republican voters in Utah is the caucus/primary system. Because Democratic candidates are less likely to win, many voters with left-leaning values will register as Republican in order to participate in the Republican primary and elect more moderate candidates.

As someone who lived in utah for years and used to be a member of the church I appreciated the unbiased view this video presented. Even though I personally don’t agree with a lot of the doctrine taught I still have a lot of respect for people within the church as my family and a lot of old friends are still members. It was nice to see someone cover a topic that is incredibly easy to politicize in a way that pretty much only covered facts and routed their arguments in logic and reasoning rather than hate. Props to the creator for showing people the actual causes for the mormon influence on politics rather than the biased crap the typical person would give.

This was so well done. I grew up mormon, but left in my thirties. I learned a lot of things I didn't know much about our history. And you made me appreciate that our politics here is nuanced . Thank you for putting this together.

Moved from New York backcountry to Salt Lake City for my masters degree. You wouldn’t think Utah is weird until you leave the state and go somewhere else. I loved my time in Utah, people are friendly and outgoing, and the temples, while not my thing, are some of the most beautiful structures you’ll see.

As a native Utahn, this is a very fair and accurate exploration of things that make Utah unique (for better and for worse). This video connected a lot of dots I'd never considered before, thank you! One very small point of correction - at 16:11, maps are shown with the streets always starting at temples, using Provo as an example. In these pioneer towns, the streets were based on the Tabernacle, as they didn't have Temples when first settled. Tabernacles are still religious buildings to gather in, but don't hold the same sacred regard as Temples. The Provo example, in particular, is confusing because the Tabernacle burned down in 2010 and was reconstructed and opened as the Provo City Center Temple in 2016. The photo shown of the Provo Temple after the maps is the original Provo Temple that was finished in 1972, that is not in the city center. Again, it's not a huge deal, but I figured I'd point it out in case anyone was confused!

Originally a Las Vegas native and moved to the Orem/Provo area of Utah back in 2020. The second I landed in Salt Lake City, I immediately felt like something was off. I was told by a few about the "Mormon Bubble." As the years went on, I can somewhat understand what they meant. Besides the countless number of Swig's, there are also so many different car washes, I haven't seen so many automated car washes in my life. Also a vast amounts of cookies such as Crumbl, Crave, and Chip to name a few. When I was getting settled in, I wanted a bottle of wine, so I went to Target only to find only beer, then with looking up information where to find wine, I was confused at first what the heck is a State Liquor Store. I talked to some older natives and they told me for the time you couldn't really get coffee let alone alcohol. That a lot has changed since their youth. Living in Provo for a year I felt a real strong presence with the church, let alone the weird humor they bring and ideals they have. But being in part of the faith myself for six years, the members here, with those I have experienced, are more passive aggressive. My long time friend has even experienced times where racism has occurred in a passive aggressive manner for her being African American. I've also have noticed that most of the members I have met in my wards I was in served in a Spanish Speaking mission, they will share their time in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, or Ecuador. And then new comers will be from a Spanish speaking country to learn English and build a new life for themselves. It's an interesting experience. In the end, I have a love and hate relationship with Utah, just like I did when I was living and growing up in Nevada.

I'm honestly never been more impressed with the degree of research put into making this video as accurate and informed as possible. Hats off to you, my friend.

As a Missourian, the stories of the church BEFORE Utah are amazing. The only violence order ever given by a governor in US history against its own people (Boggs). Its a pretty amazing gap in our history that people do not know.

A former Utahan here. This is 100% accurate! Well researched and presented. (Aside from a few mispronunciations.)

Most Mormons don’t really seem to care what the people around them do as long as they can do what they want. Of course, what they choose to do is often a VERY different issue… (I once had a Mormon acquaintance who go pregnant as teen. Because the father wasn’t a Mormon, they couldn’t pressure him to marry her, so they sat the girl in the middle of a circle of elders, publicly shamed her, and then excommunicated her. After that, I can’t see the Mormon church as “harmless” anymore)

I drove through St. George once, but have never really been to Utah aside from on a technicality. Fascinating.

Thank you for being willing to go in depth and not just stopping with "Mormons = Weird". I lived for many years in that part of the country, and saw first hand how, for many people, the church played a positive role in their lives, organizing community events, encouraging family time, and building public institutions that helped the community. I'm not a member, but I respect what they have accomplished.

While on a winter trip to Utah. We got stuck in the snow twice up in the mountains. What amazed us was how nice the people were. They stopped to ask if we need help and pull us out of the snow in the middle of the night(3am). One of them even gave us a pair of snow chains. Beautiful state and great people. Thank you Utahns.

This video is perfect. I found it extremely informational and entertaining and you are right It really is a world of its own.

My favorite Utah liquor law story: In the days when advertising alcohol was illegal, there was a convenience store on the road to the SLC airport that found a clever workaround. One side of their sign advertised "Cold Bee?" (a nod to the Beehive State moniker). The other side said "Cold Beer" with a much smaller "nuts" below it.

When I lived in Utah, one of my favorite parts was the public transit system, UTA. It's clean and efficient.

As a wierd person , I can confirm, i live in Utah .

this is really, really interesting knowing more about the State that i am actually living in, right now

I really appreciate this video. I grew up in a Mormon family in the Salt Lake Valley. While I long ago parted ways with the theology, I still see how that upbringing shaped my pragmatism, tolerance, and compassion - values that are profoundly Mormon and powerful counterweights to the broader U.S. culture war. I think this video paints a broadly accurate picture, shedding light on what makes Utah unique.

Sam : "Mormons made Utah weird That's why I'd like to thank our sponsor. " End of Story

That's about half of my 7th grade Utah history class in only 25 minues. Can I have those hours of my childhood back, now?

Extremely well done and extremely fair. I expect nothing less from Wendover. Thank you for covering our odd home!

The only thing this is missing is an explanation of fry sauce. It's good! Everyone needs to try it. The most basic form you can make is (2 part mayo, 1 part ketchup, 1 part mustard. Mix well. Should be pink like a peach and taste tomato-y and tart. Goes well with heavily salted food.)

Biggest cultural difference I noticed when I lived in utah: people always talk about outdoor activities as opposed to bars and restaurants and festivals.

the mormon missionaries taught me english when they were in albania, was pretty cool. and they were extremly nice.

I never realized how many channels you were in. I now have two new sources of amazing content :D

I love visiting Utah for my camping/hiking trips. Just love the hospitality and the nature

As a big fan of this channel, an active member of the LDS church, and a Utah resident (not born here, recently moved), I would like to offer Sam and his writing team a huge THANK YOU. I was honestly bracing for this video to be a roast of my faith and beliefs. Instead, it was respectful and nuanced. Appreciate you!

Swig: because downing 200g of sugar mixed with soda water is way healthier than drinking coffee.

Love the video, very well made. I appreciate the respectful tone. UT is weird but great.

For the producer of this video, Thank you for your fair and balanced presentation on us and our State.

6:50 - The LDS Church does have a very strong "Love the sinner, hate the sin" approach to this kind of thing.

as a Utahn and an LDS member, the "dirty soda" is actually so true it's hilarious also, this was very well researched and thanks for being respectful

my seminary building was like 50 feet across the concrete from one of the main highschool entrances. it was surrounded by parking lot

I am very glad that you eventually came around to talking about the missionary missions late in the video, it basically explains most of the other incongruities you mention early on about policies that buck traditional conservative patterns.

California, Florida, Utah, West Virginia. Weirdness of four states explained so far. Just 46 + 6 to go, Sam 😁

I have old friends in the Mormon community around Phoenix. I’ve been a lifelong atheist/agnostic, and blurry borderline communist politics, so it’s an unlikely friendship, but we bonded over music (we were all in touring bands at the time). We engaged in plenty of political discussions, and found that our values aligned nearly across the board. We just had different ideas for how to approach solutions to societal issues. It’s a great idea example of how much we all have in common, and how much we could do together if we could abandon the counterproductive culture war BS.

Thank you so much for this informative video, telling objective facts while carefully avoiding subjective opinions!

Well done! Insightful.

As a Mormon from Utah I approve of this video. It correctly shows why and how we are different, for good or for bad. I especially appreciate how you have showed how much involvement the church has had in everything for good or for worse. To be honest, Utah is like a bubble, the community the laws the people, everything is different in big or small ways, and it all adds up to make a very unique community that at times is the most supportive, but in others can be the most hypocritical and biased on other matters.

Good job. Utah is difficult to portray, but this was really accurate. And the mispronunciation of “Nauvoo” shows it wasn’t an insider-seriously impressive for anyone, let alone an outsider.

Allowing seminary during school hours isn’t only in Utah, they do it in plenty of other states

Another interesting thing regarding seminary where i went to school was the fact thst they didnt just adjust hours for seminsry, they also adjusted credit requirements so students could take less credits each semester (making room for seminary) and still graduate at standard times.

The only Utah city built around the temple was salt lake. All others were built around a tabernacle (a church building for the local congregation). Provos was converted to a temple after a fire destroyed most of the original building. It’s a fascinating construction story

As someone from Vancouver, the city being surrounded by mountains and a huge lake on one side is ideal skyline quality!

happy to hear someone talking about Utah I've lived here my whole life and there is nowhere id rather be.

been to utah many times and have a friend that lives there. i’ve always noticed how weird it was but this was a great video to put words to it

As a member of the church, I have to say this has been probably one of the most fair and well researched videos I have seen discussing the church in a social-political lens. Thank you for the good video

I remember a BBC journalist who did two documentaries, one on Scientology and one on Mormonism. With Scientology he experienced secrecy, mistrust and sometimes hostility, this was a religion (or cult if you prefer) which didn't really care about public relations and tried at every turn to discourage him from digging any deeper, right up to having someone film him to intimidate him, and it kinda worked, he infamously lost his temper during one interview and again during a radio broadcast when famous Scientologist Tom Cruise was mentioned. Investigating Scientology basically traumatised him. So he was understandably nervous when doing a similar documentary on a controversial religion a year or so later. But he found Mormons to be almost the opposite of Scientologists, very keen to talk to him, happy to let him into their temples and show him around, and very transparent about their culture and beliefs. There was a clear desire to present a positive image to the media and pressure to maintain good public relations with outsiders.

Awesome job. As an ex mormon (from idaho) i dont send most information to my family back home due to it being so disruptive. Im sending this video to my dad (who just got called to be a bishop in the church) because i hope it will lead to valuable discussion between us. Thank you

This has been said so many times in these comments already, but you absolutely nailed the research and writing on this. I live in Utah and am a member of the LDS church and I've never seen such good journalism on Utah.

I went to high school in deep blue New Mexico in Albuquerque and we had a Mormon seminary across the street from my high school and all the Mormon kids would go over there for seminary class in the middle of the day 20 some years ago

Utah is weird because the GOP doesn’t have a grasp of Utah - conservatives do, and by conservatives, I mean the old kind. That’s why McMullin did so well

glad to see my home town shown in this video through a photgraph no name saloon is a great bar

He didn't once mention how different Sundays are in Utah vs anywhere else. Many businesses close on Sunday, you should expect it to be one of the slower retail days out of the week. When I was a child it was a lot worse, grocery stores were like ghost towns. More people moving in makes a difference. Another HUGE factor for government and being such a Red state. Republicans can vote in the Democratic Caucus but Democrats cannot vote in the Republican Caucus. So many people (some of my siblings even) will register as Republicans but truly vote Democrat. Its a stupid game the government plays imo, but you've gotta play it if thats what it takes. AMA, born and raised!

As a Republican, I praise Utah for going beyond everyone else and actially building a good public transit network. One can get from Brigham City to Santaquin (distance of 123 miles) on ONE transit agency (UTA). A total of five rail lines (one commuter, one streetcar, and three light rail) and two bus rapid transit networks make the backbone of transit in the Utah Valley.

I live there. So close on “Zion”, “Nauvoo”, and “Deseret”.

Very good video, you answered the title question so well in ways i hadn't considered before, even after growing up in Utah. One point of inaccuracy is in trying to judge the churches motivation on certain policies, (Immigration, LGBTQ issues, more liberal policies) you make it appear as if there is some sort of well-thought-out strategy for making the the church as big and popular as possible. The actual motivation for these is not for image or popularity, but rather because they are striving to follow Christ by having charity for all, and being more loyal to doing what they feel is right than to a political party.

Thank you for making me and my state feel special :)

Utahn here. You did a really good job explaining the history and politics of the State.

I just want to thank you so much for your nuanced take-as a queer Utah Mormon, it can be frustrating to see Utah, and the LDS church, painted in a strictly wonderful or terrible light. It’s refreshing to see someone talk about it and acknowledge the good and the bad, as well as some quirks that are merely unique!

At my high school, the seminary building was even closer than at Bonneville, facing the school’s pick up/drop off area.

Great video, very instructive

I appreciate all these in-depth videos on individual states; It helps people see the forest for the trees when it comes to what makes the United States as a whole.

Deseret: “Dez-ur-ette” Mantua: “man-away” (yes, really”

Funny enough, the picture of the Swig store they show isn’t in Utah. It’s in Mesa, Arizona on the northeast corner of Gilbert Rd and Brown Rd. Which also happens to be one of the most Mormon places outside of Utah! Bonus: if on street view you go one mile east, you will see a seminary building across the street from a high school, as described in the video.

4:38 that’s downtown Saint George I live there so weird to see it in one of your videos!

As a mormon myself, I really appreciate the detail and research that clearly went into this video, as it’s so accurate and while showing our quirks and obvious oddities, it doesn’t paint members of the church as complete weirdo’s or cult-ish. I’m just glad to see a correct video on my religion, Thanks Sam!

The beauty and variety of Utah's outdoors cannot be overstated. Otherworldy. What an exceptional place.

I grew up gay in Utah, and the irony of them finally banning conversion therapy isn't lost on me. My own parents attempted to make me go through this, but I ended up choosing (though not really a choice) of being homeless rather than go through with what they were demanding. But I think a lot of this happens to be because family groups are large and more tightly connected, one family member committing suicide because of being forced into conversion therapy can potentially impact the opinion of that practice to dozens if not over 100 people (my own family I have over 100 just first cousins) And from there these people become advocates within their own church organizations, which are also tightly knit, relaying personal stories about family members and what they went through. Many conservatives tend to not really see the negative impacts of things they support until it comes to impact them personally or a family member, at which point their views soften, and with as large as family and community networks are in Utah, it's little surprise that many of their points of view on things are more progressive than many other conservative areas, and not just on the issue I mentioned.

I've lived here most of my life. I've been a member of the church most of my life. I love the western feel of this place. Only things i don't like about it is that sometimes it can get real yellow and grey and that the housing market is getting out of control. One of my favorite places to go used to be Porters place! They had piano, and great rootbeer floats and Buffalo burgers 🍔. I miss Porters place...

Most people seem to not know or realize that the Mormons were refugees themselves, and are in Utah/the west because in the 1840's they had to physically leave the united states (as the borders were before the mexican-american war) and go live in the desert where no other settlers wanted to live to survive due to persecution and violence. The state government of missouri even issued a literal 'extermination order' against them in the 1830s if I remember right. The reason pioneer day is important to them is because they see it as a significant step in their survival. Most Mormons that I've known, know personally what its like to be hated just because of who they are, and most I've met are more accepting of peoples differences than others I've known. (Of course not all of them but generally in my experience, and those that aren't tolerant are especially frustrating considering their own faith's history with intolerant people/government) but overall that may be why they seem to be more moderate rather than straight right/left.

18:05 contrary to all logic and reason, Mantua is actually pronounced *“mana-way”* Sorry about our local linguistic boobytraps. Also, (from your arms manufacturing video) Tooele is *“too-willa”* Thanks for highlighting our wacky state!

Thank you for this video I moved here a couple of years ago and could always sense something in my mind dystopian because of a lot of people’s odd behavior but idk I guess this explained for me a little.

0:39 i literally grew up right next to that exact Swig in Arizona lol

I've lived in Utah for a long time, and one important note has to do with why so many people here register as Republican. The Utah GOP, up until this year, ran a closed primary election, while the Democrats held an open one. That means only registered Republicans can vote in the GOP primaries, but anyone can vote in the Democratic ones. A strategic voter who understands that Utah is a strong Red state will register Republican, even if they don't idealogically agree with the party, so that they can influence the State's Republican representatives.

When I first moved to SLC in 2016 my first thought was that it reminded me of Portland, Oregon in the 1990s. I love how inclusive SLC is. I just hope it doesn't keep going down the rabbit hole that Portland did. It's definitely weird here, and starting to feel a lot like LA does with how crowded it is. What's nice is that even when people disagree politically or religiously, we can get along and do stuff together. One of my favorite people to hang out with is a British Muslim. I'm guessing we disagree on a lot about life, but we focus on commonalities instead of differences and it works. I wish more people around the world would realize we're all more alike than we are different.

Even the middle school I went to had a seminary building several feet away from the main building

I was expecting this video to end up heavily bashing the Latter Day Saint church, but it was actually really interesting to watch! Great job!

Utah an amazing state I've been there twice, I'm not Mormon but the ones I met when I was in my country were really nice they spoke good Spanish. They were good persons to us and treated us with dignity and kindness.

Gay ex-LDS guy living in Utah here, personally I don’t see any issues with the church not supporting or welcoming me within its institutions. I think the fact they flat out made laws to protect people in other ways like work is a completely fair and admirable stance. It’s against the religion, I don’t understand why folks who clearly do not belong within its confines would want to be part of it. I say this after coming out and leaving of course, it’s never that simple, but at the same time, it really is. I like guys, I’m not shoving it down the throats of my LDS family or coworkers, and in turn, they value and respect me. This is how most LDS folks operate in my experience. They do not hate, they do not agree with, and when you respect their beliefs, they tend to respect you. Demanded respect isn’t respect, it’s compliance and may even contain contempt. My word of advice to those struggling with their sexuality in the church, my best advice is to be yourself. Love yourself, respect yourself, you must do this before you can expect others to. Don’t live your life to make others happy, live for yourself before you live for others. Also, you can live between the lines, I’m tired of watching people become polarized and majorly changing everything over this when you can simply fit where you fit. You don’t need to be an activist anti-Mormon if you leave, and you don’t have to be a stuck up bigot either. Just bear in mind, respect is earned, earn yours, and others need to earn your respect too.

This is such a good video essay!

Utahn here, the state is changing. Im a deug using hippie and that crowd is getting more and more present here. There is a massive underground culture in SLC