In a continuation of our interview with Jennifer, Steph, and Katie, we now turn our attention to Steph and Katie’s journey. In these episodes we focus on:
- How Steph came to understand and accept her gender identity after being raised a devout Mormon and married to Katie
- How the marriage suffered prior to Steph’s revelation
- How Katie processed this new reality, and how accepting Steph’s gender identity impacted their marriage
- The faith journey that resulted from this experience
- How Steph and Jennifer rekindled a relationship after years of separation
The first part of this interview that focuses on Jennifer’s story may be found here:
Part 1 – Steph describes how she came to understand and accept her gender identity:
Part 2 – Steph and Katie expound on how accepting this new reality impacted their marriage:
Part 3 – Steph shares how she and Jennifer rekindled their parent-child relationship after years of separation:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Loving this interview! So eye opening. Thank you!
This interview and the previous one with Jen’s story is just amazing! So stunning and heartwarming. I am so grateful that all parties were so open to share their experiences. Just love this! Thank you!
So happy that you found value in it, Laura!
John Dehlin, I hope some day you will receive a Nobel peace prize for the work you are doing. These interviews do so much to promote understanding about so many things. Transgenderism and gayness are so little understood by the hetero-normative majority out here. There is no other podcast or program I know of that goes so in depth into these issues. Giving the time to people, to let their stories and feelings unfold, is not replaceable by any scholarly speech or investigative article, any statistics or trends.
Just WOW! :) :) :) What inspirational and amazing people Jennifer, Steph and Katie are! I learned so much in watching this interview. I love, love, love that Katie was there for Steph – she truly saw and heard her beloved. Such Christlike love there! Best wishes to each of you as your lives continue to unfold!
I think this is such a valuable podcast to help us all better understand the subject of transgender. What a great way to foster and encourage love and understanding. THANK YOU to all 4 of you for taking the time to share such an emotionally moving story.
This was very moving and educational for me. It also helped me get more insight into my own experience as a queer, cis-gender female. You are all so beautiful, inside and out. Thank you for sharing from your hearts. Thank you for existing. May you be happy and have all the causes for happiness. May you not be separated from the joy you already experience. May you be free from the suffering you experienced in the past and find fulfillment and continued connection and growth! Sending much Love.
This interview is epic! Thank you so much for sharing. Jen, Steph and Katie, thank you so much for sharing your stories. I have learnt so much from your openness and willingness to share. I’m so ashamed of the closed minded individual I once was. Thanks to people like you I have changed how I view things. You are wonderful, amazing people. My life is richer for hearing and learning about people like you.
So I once imagined that my slow motion crisis of faith between 1968 and 1974 as a cisgender white male living in a small northern Utah farming community was the loneliest experience on earth. Jenn’s remarkable journey proves that I was only off by a factor of, oh, let’s say, a factor of one thousand. Add to that the impossible fact that Steph stepped up to protect her biological mother at the age of 16 by doubling down on her embrace of the thing that made it all so unhealthy in the first place, i.e., the church, and the complete rejection of her biological father only to discover that her own journey through this existence would lead her back to her other mother and I’m thinking, “Wow, maybe there really is a God after all.* Add to that Katie, who is proof positive that there are indeed people on this planet who serve as living examples to the rest of humanity about how good we could be if we would only learn to love one another, and I’m convinced that there probably was once a Rabbi named Jesus who made a pretty big impression on people.
Thank you John for facilitating this. Thank you Jenn, Steph and Katie for stepping forward and sharing this incredible story of heartbreak, love and redemption. This story needs to be heard. This story needs to be heard. This story needs to be heard. I have considered myself an lgbtq advocate since before that acronym was coined but the T part of the riddle is the part I have always been the least educated about. Thank you for helping me understand a little better. This story needs to be heard!
*Whenever some serendipitous series of events tempts me to give credit to the gods it is quickly quashed by my lived experience where keeping my fingers crossed works every bit as well without all the cognitive dissonance.
I was very moved by all that was shared by this beautiful family. Jennifer, Steph, and Katie are lovely heroines! I would get pedicures and philosophize with you gals any day, and I echo all of the gratitude expressed here– thank you for sharing your astonishing story, it strengthened and quickened my soul. Please keep sharing. Please keep shining bright. xo -jenni sturman
Loving these episodes! So impressed by the emotional intelligence of all of you. Katie you have inspired me to handle boring cis things in my own marriage better. I was listing to a Brene brown podcast this week, the one where she interviews glennon Doyle about her new book untamed. I would encourage you all the listen. There is a part where glennon says how hard it was for her to come out, and be true to her self. Fast forward years later and her son comes out. It’s a beautiful story about paving the way for the ones we love. Listen please I’m sure you all will relate to that part (it’s near the end of the podcast). Jen your bravery paved the path for future generations, a modern Mormon pioneer story in my eyes. Proud of you all. Grateful to be included in the sharing of this ❤️❤️
Is there an update on Steph and Katie and how they are doing now, nearly three years later? It was so new and fresh when they were interviewed, I’d like to know how they are doing in 2023.