Mormon.ish16 Mar 2025

The 1980's BYU Gay Witch Hunt: Five Alumni Share Their Heartbreaking Stories

(Mormonish has had many people reach out and ask about this episode since I mentioned it on The Mormon Newscast. Because of renewed interest, we're reposting it a year and a half later.)

A favorite Mormonish returning guest, Rob Lauer, told us about his experiences as a theater major at BYU in the early 1980s.

The late 1970s and 1980s were a difficult time for LGBT students who were attending BYU. They were hunted down and entrapped and forced to live a hidden life or be removed from school.

Rob described an off campus house, affectionately called, "The Beaver Cleaver" house, where several LGBT theater majors lived together and dealt with the difficult environment that existed at BYU during that time. The bright spot in this whole era was their connection with each other and the life long friendships they formed.

We asked Rob if he thought his former roommates might ever consider coming on our podcast to share their experiences. Rob told us he was in contact with these wonderful men, but they had never spoken publicly about that era at BYU. But he would ask them.

Unbelievably, the roommates felt ready to tell their stories and we are so honored to have them on Mormonish Podcast as they reconnect with each other, reminisce, work through some difficult trauma, and share their wonderful humor and positive outlook today even as they look back on the pain they experienced.

You will be forever changed by this episode, I know we were.

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