Margaret Merrill Toscano

As I have been contemplating religion, Mormonism, feminism and my place (or lack thereof) in all three of those areas, I have discovered a Mormon history I never knew about. This history includes Margaret Merrill Toscano. She is a wonderfully intelligent and well-spoken woman whose strength of testimony and character is admirable. I'll let you find out about her yourself if you feel so inclined but I wanted to share some of her words that resonated with me.

First is a talk of hers given at the Sunstone Symposium in August 2006:
"Are Boys More Important Than Girls? The conflict of gender difference and equality in Mormonism"
This quote from about halfway through the entire talk is one of the problems I see in Mormonism that I can never fully articulate to my member friends and sisters:

Men define doctrine, policy, and practice. They define normative behaviors. They create the moral context for all departments of Mormon life. They literally hold the keys of the kingdom on earth and in heaven.

The second thing I wanted to share is an interview she gave to PBS for the documentary "The Mormons."
I think the interview is a good summary of her history with the LDS Church and her subsequent excommunication.

I wonder how I never knew there were (and are!) people -- women more specifically -- that had the same concerns I do now. It is a comfort to find them. But the question I struggle with is how to act and react, and where to turn in the future. This is a troubling mess of its own and one too big for me to get into right now, so I'll save it for another day.