Tuesday June 3
7:00 at Blue Hill Public Library

5 Parker Point Road
Blue Hill, Maine 04614

 

co-sponsored by Blue Hill Books & Blue Hill Public Library

 

At age thirty-two, Chris Davis had everything she was told that she wanted: a husband, two children, and a townhouse in the suburbs. The plan had been laid out for her and compliance was expected. A devout Mormon with a stellar reputation in her community, Davis spent a lifetime listening to rhetoric from church leaders that queer people were sinners and needed to repent of their wickedness. She had sworn faithfulness and obedience to God and the church but was faced with an impossible equation. How could she earn blessings from God and eternal life in heaven when she knew she was gay? She decided the only way out was a 17-year plan to raise her children and then take her own life.

In Worthy: The Memoir of an Ex-Mormon Lesbian, Davis tells her story of growing up in a Mormon household in Maine. Her nostalgic and sometimes humorous childhood memories of family and friends provide life lessons that influence her during the traumatic experiences she has as a woman and as a closeted queer person in the church. It isn’t until one of her children comes out that Davis is forced to choose between religion and family. She chooses love.

Davis shares her brave journey from the depths of despair to hope and possibility. She shines a light on the tragedy of exclusion in our churches, in families, and in society, which takes such a toll on youth who struggle with their identities. Her inspiring account shows that it takes courage and fortitude to change one’s beliefs and live an authentic life, but the rewards are immense.

 

Chris Davis was a lifelong devout Mormon who checked all the expected boxes of wife, mother, teacher, leader, follower, and believer until 2020 when she left her family and her church to fulfill her own personal destiny as a gay woman and independent thinker. She remains close with her two adult children, one of whom is a believing member of the church and the other who is a transgender man who has also left the church.

Chris’s other works include contributing the essay Five Stories on Why I Don’t Belong, about her experience of being queer in the LDS church in an anthology called I Spoke to You with Silence: Essays from Queer Mormons of Marginalized Genders, published in 2022 by the University of Utah Press. A local Maine anthology called Rivers of Ink: Literary Reflections on the Penobscot, which includes her essay called Follow the River Home in which she relates a nostalgic story from her childhood in Bangor, Maine, in 1978. And another essay contribution to North Woods At Night, which is titled Hold It: Potty Talk for the Northern Maine Woods Camper.

In 2025, Chris will release the audiobook for Worthy, appear in a documentary about CSA coverup in the Mormon church, and complete the first draft of her next book.

She lives quite happily in her home state of Maine. Her social media links can be found on her website ChrisDavisProud.com