We are delighted to hear from Paul Nephi Price, a married gay man who is an active member of the church. We hope you can join us to hear Paul share his journey.
As an active member of the Berkeley 1st Ward, Paul Price uses his time in Sacrament Meetings to remember and acknowledge his profound love and gratitude for our Savior and to remember those in his life who accepted and loved him unreservedly as a gay Latter-day Saint, particularly his late parents.
Paul has been with his husband Bruce for 29 years, and a member of the local Berkeley ward since 1998. For several years after moving into the ward, his attendance was mostly in the shadows, enjoying the hymns and taking the Sacrament but not engaging in any way with his fellow ward members, in an attempt to preserve and protect his membership in the church.
In 2009, in order to heal the wounds left by Proposition 8 the previous year, President Dean Criddle of the Oakland Stake was inspired to reach out to those who had left or become less active. The Berkeley 1st Ward under Bishop Matt Marostica befriended Paul and with loving encouragement brought him into the Ward family as a fully active member. For over 10 years Paul has been choosing and conducting the hymns for Sacrament Meeting, one way to contribute to this most important time of every week.
Paul was born and raised in the Bay Area, his baptism in Menlo Park in 1966 remains to this day the happiest moment of his life so far. Coming of age in the 1970's, Paul was aware and appreciative of the political leaders in nearby San Francisco who were working to end discrimination against gay people. During the same era, he was hearing some beloved church leaders express condemnation against homosexuality. Early on Paul learned how to respectfully disagree with his leaders on this issue, and continued to admire and to love them.
Paul attended BYU and in 1978 transferred to UC Berkeley, where he met his first partner, Steve, who sadly passed away from AIDS in 1992. Paul's parents did everything possible to comfort Paul in this time of grief, as they had before with the loss to AIDS of several of his friends in the 1980's. When Bruce and Paul became a couple in late 1993, the entire Price family was thrilled and supportive in every way.
For over 40 years Paul has worked in retail near Union Square, always enjoying the variety and beauty of San Francisco and its incredible diversity of people.
Paul’s testimony has always been intact throughout his life, but being able to openly attend church and be part of a wonderful ward family has brought him a perfect brightness of hope, which will be with him for the rest of his life.
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