Circling the WagonsWhom are Circling the Wagons Conferences for?
Circling the Wagons Conferences are for anyone who values engaging with diverse opinions, beliefs, feelings, and experiences at the heart of LDS/Mormon LGBT/SSA experience in a constructive environment. We especially invite all who will embrace authenticity, empathy, and vulnerability side by side with people from various sides of deep divides to build understanding and better serve those seeking help. Many past participants have told us the disciplined approach and personal connection has instilled a desire to speak more carefully, check assumptions, cut through muddy public discourse to clarify differences and similarities, discover the people and relationships within the issues, and build strength and skills to make difficult conversations richer and more constructive.
The opportunity for those who accept it is to see if these conversations can meaningfully bridge rifts to improve the environment and welfare of the vulnerable among us who are so often lost in the din or caught in the crossfire of misunderstanding, name-calling, and accusations between their valued relationships and communities. The diversity of voices is our strength and also our challenge. Circling the Wagons does not promote any particular life path or belief system but invites individuals, including some with influential (and sometimes controversial) voices, to both speak for themselves and hear for themselves. This can 
sometimes be overwhelming for those who are new to the conversation or who have been deeply wounded. Those who would feel inevitably unsafe or who are unwilling/unable to maintain standards of engagement should bear no negativity for choosing not to attend. We’re working together to build a constructive and inclusive environment, but we also accept that this process may not be for all people at all times.
If you value this approach and are willing and able to authentically participate in this process and maybe even forge some unlikely friendships in the process, we’d love for you to join us Saturday, 20 February for the Circling the Wagons Salt Lake City 2016 Conference: Can I Hear You Now?.