Publications
Book
For most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its theology is only ever viewed through the authorized lens of Church Correlation. In Queer Mormon Theology, author Blaire Ostler offers a fresh look at the basic tenets of the religion as seen through the eyes of a queer church member. The discoveries she reveals may surprise, captivate, and simultaneously invite the reader to explore new perspectives on living and worshiping as an inclusive community of Saints.
Queer Mormon Theology: An Introduction, BCC Press, June 2021.
Peer Reviewed Journals
The Spring 2022 issue is a special one. “Heavenly Mother in Critical Context” begins with Art Editor Margaret Olsen Hemming on "The Divine Feminine in Mormon Art" and continues with Margaret Toscano's "In Defense of Heavenly Mother: Her Critical Importance for Mormon Culture and Theology." Other highlights include, “Guides to Heavenly Mother: An Interview with McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding. And love the cover? It was carefully curated by Andi Pitcher Davis. The issue is full of other fascinating scholarship, as well as personal essays and poetry all in honor of Heavenly Mother.
“I Am a Child of Gods,” (article) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 54.4 (Spring 2022). 99-118.
The Winter 2021 issue includes a 10-year retrospective with Editor Taylor Petrey on his famous "Post-Hetrosexual Mormon Theology." Also get excited for Grant Adamson's "Joseph Smith, Thomas Paine, and Matthew 27:51" and Roger Terry's "Getting the Cosmology Right." Also not one, not two, but three fiction pieces and four thought-provoking poems. And see what fascinating books were reviewed!
“Queer Bodies, Queer Technologies, and Queer Policies,” (article) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 54.4 (Winter 2021). 99-109.
The Fall 2021 issue begins with Michael MacKay's "The Secular Binary of Joseph Smith's Translations." This fascinating piece is followed by Cristina Rosetti's intriguing "The Development of Joseph Smith Deification in Woolleyite Mormonism." Also includes many reviews, poetry, a new fiction piece and gorgeous art. Plus "An Open Letter to Bishops" from a bishop.
“Young Gods,” (poem) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 54.3 (Fall 2021), 170.
The Summer 2020 Issue begins with an article from Lawrence Foster on "Why the Prophet is a Puzzle," and includes some lovely Personal Voices essays including a personal essay by Blaire Ostler called "Hug a Queer Latter-day Saint." Also includes poetry by R.A. Christmas and finishes with a sermon on the "Second Coming" by Kim McCall.
“Hug a Queer Latter-day Saint,” (essay) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 53.2 (Summer 2020), 161-168.
Spring Issue carefully considers the temple as women discuss recent changes in beautiful and profound ways. Includes Kathryn Knight Sonntag discussing "The Mother Tree: Understanding the Spiritual Root" and Jody England Hansen considering "Women and the Temple." It also presents a special interview with Maxine Hanks. This issue also includes nine poets such as Rachel Steenblik, Mette Harrison, Linda Kimball, and Teresa Wellborn.
“Queer Polygamy,” (article) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 52.1 (Spring 2019), 33-43.
Fiona Givens beautifully begins the issue with musings "On Solace," which is companionly followed by Terryl Givens' article "Heretics in Truth: Love, Faith and Hope as the Foundation for Theology, Community, and Destiny." Blair Ostler's Personal Voices takes a personal, philosophical view on "Heavenly Mother: The Mother of All Women." And Mette Harrison takes seriously a LDS view of the "Resurrection" in a fiction piece about a young person who wants to be perfected in the body that is truly theirs. And so much, much more.
“Heavenly Mother: the Mother of all Women,” (article) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 51.4 (Winter 2018), 171-181.
Contributions to Books
The story of queer Mormons is one that some might not expect to be joyful. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has traditionally asserted that queerness is counter to God’s plan and that gender as determined at birth is eternal. But queer Mormons tell different stories—stories filled with joy. This collection includes essays by queer Mormons across the LGBTQ spectrum who, when they looked inside themselves, found divinity rather than sin. Stories by people who are made exactly as they are meant to be, and live accordingly.
“Worthy of Love,” (featured essay) The Book of Queer Mormon Joy, ed. Kerry Spencer Pray, (Signature Books, 2024), 169.
This collection of essays gives voice to queer Mormons. The authors who share their stories—many speaking for the first time from the closet—do so here in simple narrative prose. They talk about their identities, their experiences, their relationships, their heartbreaks, their beliefs, and the challenges they face. Some stay in the church, some do not, some are in constant battles with themselves and the people around them as they make agonizing decisions about love and faith and community. Their stories bravely convey what it means to be queer, Mormon, and marginalized.
“Love and Change,” (featured essay) I Spoke to You with Silence, ed. Kerry Spencer Pray and Jenn Lee Smith, (University of Utah Press, 2022), 73-75.
The question “What is doctrine?” opens the door for theologians and historians to wrestle over the answer, and to do so thoughtfully and insightfully. In Continuing Revelation, editor Bryan Buchanan has compiled essays that seek greater understanding about what doctrine is and why it matters.
“Heavenly Mother: the Mother of All Women,” (featured article) Continuing Revelation, ed. Bryan Buchanan (Signature Books, 2021), 141-150.
Modern humanity with some 5,000 years of recorded history has been experiencing growing pains, with no end in sight. It is high time for humanity to grow up and to transcend itself by embracing transhumanism. Transhumanism offers the most inclusive ideology for all ethnicities and races, the religious and the atheists, conservatives and liberals, the young and the old regardless of socioeconomic status, gender identity, or any other individual qualities. This book expounds on contemporary views and practical advice from more than 70 transhumanists.
“A Transhumanist God,” (featured essay) The Transhumanism Handbook, ed. Newton Lee, (Springer Publishing, 2019), 823-828.
A collection of blessings and poetry written by Mormon women responding to the announcement of Gina Colvin's Disciplinary Council. This work of love features the voices of established authors like Carol Lynn Pearson and Joanna Brooks, as well as first time poets and visual artists. It is designed to lend comfort and courage to those who feel unwanted by their religious community, and was written specifically for those facing excommunication from the Mormon church.
“We Were Rebuked,” (featured poem) We Hold Your Name: Mormon Women Bless Mormons Facing Exile, ed. Kalani Tonga and Joanna Brooks (Feminist Mormon Housewives, 2019), 13.
Dove Song is an anthology of poetry and art centered on the Mormon concept of Heavenly Mother. It includes 138 poems from 80 poets and artists from the early church, to the late 20th Century to today.
“The Priestess,” (featured poem) Dove Song: Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry, ed. Tyler Chadwick, Dayna Patterson, Martin Pulido (Peculiar Pages, 2018), 301-303.
Magazines
Exponent II is a quarterly, print magazine containing visual art, poetry, interviews, fiction, and personal essays from Mormon feminists. Claudia Lauper Bushman, the founding editor of Exponent II, once compared the magazine’s arrival in her mailbox to “receiving a letter from a friend.” Each themed issue celebrates the writings and art of novice and expert contributors, bringing editors, writers, and artists together in a community of women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum.
“Redeeming Queerness,” (article) Exponent II Magazine, Issue Fall 2021, 30-33.
Exponent II is a quarterly, print magazine containing visual art, poetry, interviews, fiction, and personal essays from Mormon feminists. Claudia Lauper Bushman, the founding editor of Exponent II, once compared the magazine’s arrival in her mailbox to “receiving a letter from a friend.” Each themed issue celebrates the writings and art of novice and expert contributors, bringing editors, writers, and artists together in a community of women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum.
Ostler, Blaire. Firework. 2016, (oil painting) Exponent II Magazine, Issue Fall 2016, 12.
Ostler, Blaire. Adventure of a Lifetime. 2016, (oil painting) Exponent II Magazine, Issue Fall 2016, 15.
Featured
The Mormon faith may seem so different from aspirations to transcend the human through technological means that it is hard to imagine how these two concerns could even exist alongside one another, let alone serve together as the joint impetus for a social movement. Machines for Making Gods investigates the tensions between science and religion through which an imaginative group of young Mormons and ex-Mormons have found new ways of understanding the world.
Machine for Making Gods, Fordham University Press, March 2022.
Through the power of storytelling, former YSA bishop Richard Ostler brings to life the experiences of LGBTQ Latter-day Saints, fulfilling President M. Russell Ballard's 2017 challenge to listen to and understand what our LGBT brothers and sisters are feeling and experiencing. Richard is supportive of the Church, its leaders, and doctrine. This book is for all Latter-day Saints and is an extension of the Listen, Learn & Love podcast. It brings together hundreds of stories in a comprehensive review of the many topics around being LGBTQ and a Latter-day Saint.
Listen, Learn, and Love : Embracing LGBTQ Latter-day Saints, Cedar Fort Inc., September 2020.
About three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon used to remain in the LDS Church, but in recent years, this number has dropped to about half. This book draws on survey research and interviews to explain why so many young adults are leaving the faith, placing the Mormon story in the broader context of rising secularism in America. Along the way it gives personal stories of Mormons' missionary and temple experiences, unpacks changing understandings of the family, and explores the generational fallout of the religion's political conservatism.
The Next Mormons, Oxford University Press, March 2019.