Mormons Respond to Jacob Hansen’s LGBTQ Bigotry | Ep. 1858

Jacob Hansen built his platform defending orthodox Mormonism. The conservative YouTuber behind "A Thoughtful Faith" has spent years parsing doctrine to prove the Church never changes. Yet in January 2024, Hansen published a video confessing bewilderment at his own religion. The Church had baptized a transgender woman and recorded her as female. Leaders had hired a bishop known for LGBTQ advocacy as the new communications director. Hansen called it confusion. Critics call it the sound of cognitive dissonance echoing through Mormon conservatism.

Background: The Conservative Crack-Up

Hansen's distress centers on a specific case he detailed in his video, later analyzed on the Mormon Stories Podcast. A transgender woman completed legal and medical transition before requesting baptism. Local leaders, following current handbook procedures, processed her as female. For Hansen, this violates the Proclamation on the Family's teaching that gender is eternal. He frames his objection as loyalty to prophetic counsel, yet he spends twenty minutes questioning whether Church leaders have lost their way.

This is not an isolated tantrum. Hansen represents a growing faction of conservative Latter-day Saints who sense the ground shifting beneath their feet. Where previous decades featured Church-backed legislation against gay marriage and transgender rights, recent years have brought a quieter institutional pivot. The handbook now instructs leaders to respect members' preferred pronouns. Transgender members may receive