From stake president and temple designer to excommunicated trans woman | Episode 376

Mormon Land

In 2017, Laurie Lee Hall publicly shared her remarkable journey as a transgender Latter-day Saint.

It took her through joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving a two-year mission, marrying and having children, being called as a bishop and stake president, and becoming head architect for the faith’s sacred temples.

Transitioning to her “authentic self,” she said, caused her to lose her job, her marriage and her church membership. Yet, she is more at peace with herself than she has ever been.

On this week’s show, Hall details the twists and turns her life took as she moved inexorably toward acceptance of her true identity, discusses her new memoir, “Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman,” and the stricter limitations her former faith has imposed on its transgender members.