I’m joined by my friend Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, nonprofit comms pro, and dad to a trans kid—for a conversation that starts with his powerful public testimony opposing Utah’s anti–gender-affirming-care bills.

Blair unpacks what it’s like raising a trans child in a “blue dot” city under a hostile state supermajority, and how the so-called “Utah Way” pairs polite PR with targeted cruelty—from flag bans to efforts to rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in the centre of town.

We also trace Blair’s journey from Mormon priesthood culture to trans advocacy: how missionary life cracked his worldview open, how Mormon theology hardens into cis-hetero supremacy, and how real relationships—and research—changed his mind.

Part two (now on Patreon) goes deeper on Mormon masculinity, authoritarian parenting, children’s rights, and why protecting his kid ultimately mattered more than reforming an institution from within.

PS from Blair!

On Mormons not being considered white, see W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (Oxford University Press).The best current one-volume history of the church in its American context, its political realignments, etc., see Benjamin E. Park, American Zion: A New History of Mormonism (W.W. Norton). The best history of Mormon thought on sexuality and gender is Talor G. Petrey, Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism (UNC Press). For a firsthand account of the church's chief architect overseeing its temple building program who came out as trans and subsequently lost her job and church membership, see Laurie Lee Hall, Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman (Signature Books). I interviewed her about the book on Relationscapes, "Trans In the Latter Days."

Notes: 

Relationshapes: Blair Hodges

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
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Chapters

• (00:00:59) - Blair Hodges at the Utah State House
• (00:07:49) - Utah's anti-LGBTQ policies
• (00:11:07) - Mormons on Their Mission
• (00:17:15) - Mormons' perspectives on minority rights
• (00:18:42) - Mormons on Gender and the Family
• (00:24:20) - Mormon theology of the nuclear family
• (00:28:47) - What Started to Break Down The Mormon Gendered Experience