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Brad is a young Mormon starting to attend Bloomsburg University. His parents and the local bisihop have put increasing pressure on him to go on a mission as is expected of a good, young Mormon boy. Brad has only recently begun to admit to himself his own feelings about his identity. Currently, Grace is only a construct that lives inside Brad, but sooner or later he will come out. Having recently confessed his sin to the Bishop, Brad was given pamphelets from a repairative therapy group. His meeting with his former CTR teacher at a local coffee shop will cause him to further explore his religion with a new questioning bent.
Church Status: True Believing Mormon, but with doubts about Baptism for the Dead and Patriarchal Blessings
Lara's Song for the Character: The Impression that I Get by The Mighty Mighty Bosttones
Che's Song for the Character: Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz
Lori Rockwell
Originally from Provo, Utah. Lori was born Orim Porter Rockwell. Lori was named after her famous descendant, Mormonism's "Avenging Angel." She is a post operative transsexual in her mid-40s. She attended Brigham Young University from 1978-1982 and made the mistake of confessing to her bishop that she really was a girl. The Bishop an older gentleman not familiar with Gender Identity Disorder referred her to a group that could help her with her "same sex attraction." Unfortunately for Lori, BYU was engaged in aversion therapy at the time and she had electrodes connected to her genitals. Not only was same sex attraction not her problem, but the the experience left her bitter and she devoloped Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of her experience at BYU. In the early 80s she moved to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and found a therapist who diagnosed her true problem and several years later she underwent gender reassignment surgery.
Before undergoing surgery however, she had her name removed from the church rolls. Lori feels that the surgery was the right decision for her, but wonders if she might have been too hasty in her decision to leave the church despite the harsh treatment received. Lori makes a modest living on Ebay and doing odd jobs. She lives at a residential hotel.
Church Status: Ex-Mormon but wondering if a more liberal form of Mormonism might have worked for her. Sadly, the nearest Community of Christ building to her present location is in Philadelphia.
Lara's Song for the Character: Isn't it Ironic by Alanis Morisette
Che's Song for the Character: If it Makes You Happy by Cheryl Crow
Virginia Prescott
Virginia is in her mid-20s. She truly believes in the church and its teachings, and tries to live by most of them, but she's a lesbian. So far she has managed to keep her secret safe from the gossiping sisters of her ward. She is a graduate student at Bloomsburg University studying to be a social worker. Her father is putting increasing pressure on Virginia to undergo a temple marriage and hints that he might not be willing to pay for further education for an unmarried girl who is putting her "eternal future" in jeopardy. Virginia has tried to repress her same-sex attraction and is on anti-depressants at the start of the comic. She ultimately hopes to hold the priesthood like her male counterparts but for now is tryhing to scheme her way up the ranks of the Relief society. Virginia takes the avoiding laughter and light mindedness phrase in the Doctrine and Covenents way too seriously and has no discernible sense of humor. Her encounter with Leah will change her life in completely unexpected ways.
Virginia also owns two cars. A new Beetle that's a lemon with an intermittend fuel problem and a 1973 Super Beetle that she bought and keeps in good repair, but that she only drives when she knows she won't get caught.
Church Status: True Believing Mormon.
Lara's Song for the Character: The Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin
Che's Song for the Character: Meet Virginia.
Leah Steen
Leah is a lesbian who is twenty years old. She works at the Latte With the Rat Pack Coffee shop run by its proprietor, Fat Tony. Leah is a Lesbian who athough intelligent can be a little ditzy at times. He encounter with Virginia Prescott has drawn her into Mormon culture. In order to better understand her friend, who she has a crush on, Leah has started to study Mormon culture. Unfortunately, much of what she has learned has confused and bewildered her and she has not yet learned to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources of information
on the Internet.
Chruch Status: Non-Mormon Athiest but tagged by the missionaries as an "investigator."
Lara's Song for the Character: Someday I Suppose by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Che's Song for the Character: Helpless by K.D. Lang
Angus MacClean
The Bishop of the Bloomsburg Ward and the spiritual leader of the Mormon characters in this comic. Angus is a local obstetrician and often gives people the impression that if the 1890 ban on Polygamy were reversed by the leaders of the church, he would snap up multiple wives. Angus has a wife and four children who is verbally and emotionally abusive to, but often appears as quite freindly in public. His wife and children are often seen in shoddy clothes and have been the but of jokes because of it. It is not that he cannot afford better clothes for his family, but he insists that his wife shop at discount clothing stores like the Salvation Army and Goodwills. Unknown to Angus and he would likely blame it on his wife if he did know, Susan McClean suffers from severe depression despite the happy face she tries to put up.
Church Status: Active True Believing Mormon and Common Judge of Israel
Lara's Song for the Character: Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones
Che's Song for the Character: Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones
Fawn MacClean
Fawn was born in Pennsylvania but raised in the Mormon church. Her only ambition in life was to be a homemaker and mother and she has achieved the latter recently with the birth of her first child. Fawn has married one of the bishop's sons and he has become an angry and tempermental person after the marriage, at least from her perspective. Fawn dotes on her daughter and an American Foxhound that had been through 3 shelters before ending up with the young MacClean family. Both Fawn and her husband live in a house owned by Angus.
Fawn has one problem though that she often lies to the bishop about during her temple recommend interviews. Fawn drinks coffee. No, Fawn drinks a lot of coffee. But the addiction is okay as the burning in her bosom she receives when drinking cofee tells her that the holy spirit approves. It's possible that Fawn merely might be drinking the coffee a little too fast.
Church Status: True Believing Mormon
Che's Song for the Character:
Lara's Song for the Character: The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel