From Signature with Pride
June is globally recognized as Pride month, marking the Stonewall protests in New York City that began on June 28, 1969, igniting the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. Signature Books offers a variety of books on LGBTQ+ history and culture at their intersection with Mormonism: Our latest is Salt Lake Tribune columnist Eli McCann’s wildly popular We’re Thankful for the Moisture: A Gay Guy’s Guide to Mormon Faith, Family, and Fruit Preservation. McCann’s book is a humorous and heartfelt look at what it’s like to grow up in and become a husband and father as a Gay man in Utah. Laurie Lee Hall, memoirist of Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman, recently published an article, “Eternal Identity Misunderstood: A Transgender Woman’s Journey Through Faith, Revelation, and LDS Policy,” in the Spring 2026 issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. She also appeared on Dialogue’s podcast. One of Mormonism’s earliest and strongest LGBTQ+ allies, Carol Lynn Pearson, shares her intimate journal entries behind her landmark 1986 memoir, Goodbye, I Love You, in The Diaries of Carol Lynn Pearson, Volume 1: 1956–1990. The second volume of her diaries, covering the years 1990–2002, is now available for preorder.
Signature Books at MHA in Vegas
Going to the Mormon History Association conference in Las Vegas this year? We’re excited that eighteen Signature authors and soon-to-be authors will be speaking at the conference. We’ll have their published books available at our exhibitor’s table for them to sign for you, and you’ll feel even luckier when you pick out a free Signature book with every purchase! Consider attending author-meets-critic sessions for Brian Cannon’s Building a Global Zion: The Life and Vision of David O. McKay (previous McKay biographer Greg Prince is one respondent) and for Matt Bowman and Wayne LeCheminant’s Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball. Finally, don’t miss Ben Park’s MHA Presidential Address based on his biography of Cleon Skousen, forthcoming from Signature.
Other Signature authors and contributors appearing at MHA include Clair Barrus, Cheryl Bruno, Alice Faulkner Burch, Judy Shell Busk, Mary Ann Clements, Todd Compton, Martha Bradley Evans, Ignacio Garcia, Kate Mower, Katie Ludlow Rich, Heather Sundahl, Nancy Ross, George D. Smith, and John Turner.
Hot Takes
On the Salt Lake Tribune’s Mormon Land podcast, Matthew Harris spoke about former LDS First Presidency member Hugh B. Brown’s concern about the emerging gerontocracy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brown (unsuccessfully) pushed for a policy to give emeritus status at age seventy to all apostles, including members of the First Presidency. Listen to the podcast here, or read the corresponding article here. Harris’s fascinating biography of Brown is coming soon from Signature Books!
Based on his latest documentary history, Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, historian Gary Bergera spoke on Mormon Stories about Wilkinson’s role in making BYU what it is today, including his controversial tactics like monitoring faculty members’ tithing contributions, creating a student “spy ring” of professors’ lectures, and blending of LDS theology and conservative politics. Bergera also gave his take on which Signature titles have been the most influential over the years.
