No Sides, Only Love
- Ivana Martinez
- Mar 7, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: May 1, 2019
Salt Lake City welcomes Encircle's New Home
On February 8th, Encircle, the LGBTQ+ family and youth resource center, opened their second house at 331 S. 600 East in Salt Lake City. Large crowds gathered around back, huddling together under the heat lamps trying to keep warm against the cold winter evening, as the ribbon ceremony was about to begin.
Members from all around the community came to celebrate the grand opening of the John Williams House. Performers and politicians attended the opening such as VINCENT, Parson James, the San Francisco Gay Men's Choir, and Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox.
Two years ago, the non-profit organization opened its first house in Provo, UT as a way to combat youth suicide and help foster an inclusive community for the LGBTQ youth.
Suicide is the leading cause of death within Utah, ranking fifth in the nation. According to
National Association of Mental illness, “LGBTQ youth are 4 times more likely and questioning youth are 3 times more likely to attempt suicide, experience suicidal thoughts or engage in self-harm than straight people. Between 38-65% of transgender individuals experience suicidal ideation.”
Since opening Encircle, CEO Stephenie Larsen has established a bridge of communication between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the LGBTQ community. Encircle is changing the conversation and culture within Utah.
Board member of the John Williams house, Lakshan Lingam said, “Just facilitating discussion between parties like I don’t think there's ever been an outlet so closely aligned with both the church and LGBTQ youth that can facilitate the discussion as effectively as Encircle has.”
The call to action for founder Stephenie Larsen came when she moved back to Utah after working at Capitol hill in Washington D.C. Prior to leaving Utah, many of Larsen’s personal views were conservative and centered around the traditional family. However, that changed after leaving Utah as she began to experience different cultures and met her husband’s uncle John Williams.
“He gave a lot to the arts and to universities, quietly donated and he was just an extremely kind and giving individual," Larsen said. "So getting to know him, a lot of my beliefs started to fall apart because this person who I was suppose to see as a sinner was one of the most Christ-like people I’d ever met. And I watched him for twenty years really making the world a better place.”
The Encircle John Williams house has a special importance for Larsen because of her relationship to her husband’s uncle. John Williams had originally been involved in creating Encircle after Larsen had called him a few months after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had announced it’s 2015 November policy to exclude children of gay parents from being baptized.
Larsen said, “I called John and said, ‘John will you help me do something?’ He said, ‘Sure what are we going to do?’ And we ended up finding a house in Provo we knew it needed to be a home for people who didn’t feel at home anywhere else. And so we bought this home and we considered, well should it be a homeless shelter? And we decided that no, it would be better to approach this problem earlier and help people as soon as their children came out. Help kids as soon as they realized who they were and wanted help. And so that was how it all of it started.”
John Williams was a renovationst, restaurateur and an ally to LGBTQ community. He passed away in 2016. Williams’ legacy continues throughout Salt Lake City in many ways, beginning with the work being done at Encircle.
Encircle provides both educational and health resources for both youth and families who are learning about the LGBTQ community. Josie Holbrook, an Encircle attendee talks about how Encircle is incorporating parents into these discussions.
“It's not about forcing someone to see your side it’s about helping people just get over their own, you know, stereotypes and misconceptions and just loving their children,” Holbrook said. “And also how it doesn’t directly contradict what the church says, because the demographic here is so LDS. It’s not really like anti-church propaganda, it’s about bringing in all sorts of communities together to help our youth. Which is very important.”
The non-profit organization has hosted an array of events for the LGBTQ community. Last winter they hosted Ignite, a youth summit where workshops, friendship circles and educational resources were provided for LGBTQ youth and families.
Lingam spoke about his experience at the summit, how he learned about diverse queer experiences within the community. “They said, that if you’d gone your entire life like thinking you are a male, and feeling like a male and presenting as a male, so like me a cis person and that everyone misgendered you and called you a female like how would that feel?”
He continued, “And I think that was the first time I acknowledged the importance of pronouns like I really felt it, like I had been using pronouns and doing my best. But that moment I think really hit me in how important they were.”
The LDS Church recently overturned their 2015 policy this spring, but that hasn't changed Encircle mission. CEO Larsen comments, "You know sadly, the same kids who showed up before the policy will still be coming. The same parents will still struggle. There’s so much work to be done even before the policy, there was so much work to be done because anytime you make a group of people second class, those people never completely thrive.”
She said, “And our communities don’t completely thrive until everyone is equal and accepted and loved for who they are. And so you know as much as I wish that policy really had a huge impact, the job is still the same at Encircle and I think for many years to come we’ll need to be educating the community and people on how to better love and understand people different from themselves.”
For more information about Encircle and the events they host, please visit their website at encircletogether.org
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