A Mormon church in Salt Lake City, UT cut the mic of a twelve-year-old girl while she came out as a lesbian to her congregation, Crooks and Liars reports.
Savannah, a member of the church, was speaking before her congregation on Sunday about her believe that “God loves [her] just this way because … he loves all his creations,” when she was abruptly silenced by the church, according to video of the incident.
‘I believe I was made the way I am, all parts of me, by my heavenly parents,” Savannah said in the video. “They did not mess up when they gave me brown eyes, or when I was born bald. They did not mess up when they gave me freckles or when they made me to be gay.”
“God loves me just this way because I believe that he loves all his creations,” she continued. “I do believe he made me this way on purpose, no part of me is a mistake.”
Video of the incident shows members of the church speaking in hushed voices as she discussed this personal detail about her life. She later had her mic shut off.
”I was angry that they chose to hurt her for whatever reason they had,” Savannah’s mom Heather said. “My husband and I both were reluctant to let her share her testimony because of the potential rejection. She asked to do it in January, we finally agreed in May.
“She had worked so hard at perfecting it so that it would portray exactly how she felt,” Heather added. “We decided to let her do it because we thought it would be more harmful to silence her or give her reason to feel she is wrong in any way.”
Watch video of the incident below, via YouTube:
