Church's Instagram and Facebook Accounts (but not Twitter)

[smac97]

Church Comms Dept. Features Man Who Sells Merch Mocking Church

Quote

Key Takeaways

• The official LDS Church social media accounts featured fashion designer Pono Skousen, focusing on his career and vague faith concepts.
• Skousen is the co-founder of 'Church of Martin,' a brand that actively mocks LDS culture, songs, and doctrines with irreverent merchandise.
• This marks the second time in three months that the Church Communication Department has faced significant backlash from members over social media content.

This seems rather odd.

LDS Living has a 2023 profile of Bro. Skousen here.  No reference to his sexual orientation in it.

A video commentary from a few days ago:

A longer YouTube vid here.  From the description:

Quote

On the last day of Pride Month, the official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Facebook account published a member spotlight featuring Pono Skousen — a fashion designer who spoke about learning to sew with Relief Society sisters and not having to choose between creativity and discipleship. It's a beautiful story. And it's only the first page.

Two taps from the church's official post and you arrive at @church.ofmartin — the fashion brand he co-founded. The brand has produced a Pride capsule collection featuring two men in an intimate embrace, shoots featuring men in women's clothing posed in front of a portrait of Christ, and content clearly aimed at gay and ex-Mormon audiences. The brand name itself is a deliberate play on LDS church aesthetics.

The temple recommend interview asks members whether they actively support or promote teachings, practices, or doctrines contrary to the church. That's not our standard — that's the church's own.

Tonight we're not asking whether Pono meets it. We're asking whether anyone at the church's social media team checked the second page before publishing. Because a 14-year-old who follows the official church account just got a two-tap path to content that contradicts everything the church teaches — delivered with the church's implicit endorsement.

Back to the first article:

Quote

On Monday, the official Instagram and Facebook accounts for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posted a story from a man named Pono Skousen, a fashion designer who lives in New York City. This was notably not posted onto X, formerly known as Twitter. 

In the post, Pono talks about how he grew up around female spaces, which influenced his desire to go into the fashion industry and design womenswear. He says that he loves to help women feel “strong, confident, and true to who they are,” and that there is a “real spiritual power in femininity.” Pono vaguely discusses how faith influences him in his career as a designer, and says that he doesn’t have to choose between “being a creative and being a disciple of Jesus Christ.” This is the only time Christ is mentioned in the post. Vague notions about identity, power, and telling stories appear more. 

What this post fails to inform anyone is that Pono is a gay man who makes and promotes products which openly mock the values of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Any Latter-day Saint doing this is troubling.  One whom is being featured on the Church's social media outlets is more so.

Quote

Pono and another gay man, Charles Robertson, founded a fashion brand called the “Church of Martin.” This brand’s targeted demographic is gay people, more specifically gay members/ex-members of the LDS Church. On their official Instagram account, they have promoted themselves and their brand in videos, posted in May and June, which mock Church and Utah culture, often using Primary songs. 

In a Church of Martin apparel review video made by a personal friend of Pono [WARNING: partial nudity at 0:43], she notes that the brand is “ran by two gay Mormons,” and states that both of them are “definitely” openly gay. It is unclear whether the two are in a relationship. 

Just recently, in June of 2026, they released a collection based on the Boy Scouts of America. This includes a CoM-branded handkerchief, styled after the BSA’s, and a t-shirt/hoodie with a drawing of two Boy Scouts kissing, with the caption “Gay Scouts of America” under it.

They sell a shirt featuring a white and a black woman kissing enclosed in a heart with the phrase “Love one another,” which twists the words of Jesus Christ to condone homosexuality; scripture cases, with some Boy Scout theming on it; a shirt that says “I Love My Mormon Boy,” which is similar to shirts we’ve seen sold at pride festivals in Utah; many shirts based off the outfits of female Mormon pioneers, which feels very disrespectful to the “real spiritual power of femininity” that Pono holds to heart; and a shirt that says “Currently struggling with same-sex attraction,” which seems to mock Church rhetoric. 

I'm reminded of Chad Hardy, who also made money creating commercial products which sexualized things pertaining to the Church (scantily-clad Latter-day Saint women and former missionaries).

I wonder what is going on here.

Thanks,

-Smac

[longview]

At the very least, he has powerful artistic expressions. He appears to have great vim and vigor. His brain may be wired differently. He has great joy in crafts and fashion projects.

If he is faithful to the Law of Chastity, will he consider partnering with a "faithful" lesbian just to take on the commandment for having a biological family reared in love?

[ZealouslyStriving]

And instead of pulling it from the Facebook page, it has been followed up with a post clearly designed to make people feel guilty for pushing back against the Pono post.

[SeekingUnderstanding]

A lot of ark steadying going on here. 

[ZealouslyStriving]

58 minutes ago, SeekingUnderstanding said:

A lot of ark steadying going on here. 

I was unaware that I sustained the Church PR Dept.

[The Nehor]

14 hours ago, longview said:

At the very least, he has powerful artistic expressions. He appears to have great vim and vigor. His brain may be wired differently. He has great joy in crafts and fashion projects.

The artistic things is a gay stereotype but it is sometimes true.

14 hours ago, longview said:

If he is faithful to the Law of Chastity, will he consider partnering with a "faithful" lesbian just to take on the commandment for having a biological family reared in love?

You’re seriously suggesting a lavender marriage as a potential solution? Wow…..just wow.

16 hours ago, smac97 said:

Church Comms Dept. Features Man Who Sells Merch Mocking Church

This seems rather odd.

LDS Living has a 2023 profile of Bro. Skousen here.  No reference to his sexual orientation in it.

A video commentary from a few days ago:

Back to the first article:

Any Latter-day Saint doing this is troubling.  One whom is being featured on the Church's social media outlets is more so.

I'm reminded of Chad Hardy, who also made money creating commercial products which sexualized things pertaining to the Church (scantily-clad Latter-day Saint women and former missionaries).

I wonder what is going on here.

LOL

 

I kind of want that “I am currently struggling with same sex attraction” t-shirt. The “I love my Mormon boy” one is cute too.

Sadly I spent most of my Pride clothing budget on some gay Star Trek shirts.

[The Nehor]

If Church PR needs most things to post along these lines may I suggest this::

A good melding of yaoi and yuri. Warning: Google these terms at your own risk.

Edited Saturday at 08:18 AM by The Nehor

[longview]

5 hours ago, The Nehor said:

You’re seriously suggesting a lavender marriage as a potential solution? Wow…..just wow.

I actually did read of a homosexual male married to a straight woman. Both are LDS and committed to making the "basic unit" work. Yes, just WOW!

With God nothing is impossible. The transformative power of the Atonement does reach BEYOND the carnal limitations of the fallen world and lead to the joyful fulfilment of the Plan of Happiness. And its endless generations forever.

[The Nehor]

3 hours ago, longview said:

I actually did read of a homosexual male married to a straight woman. Both are LDS and committed to making the "basic unit" work. Yes, just WOW!

This happpens all the time. Usually while the guy is closeted or with a lesbian woman who is closeted. The long-term success rate is not very high.

3 hours ago, longview said:

With God nothing is impossible. The transformative power of the Atonement does reach BEYOND the carnal limitations of the fallen world and lead to the joyful fulfilment of the Plan of Happiness. And its endless generations forever.

This is the same reasoning that encouraged gay men and women to marry and just hope it works out which is often damaging to themselves and to their partners. Not being desired by a romantic partner is often a horrible experience. There is a reason the Church no longer encourages this and it is not because it used to work so well.

[The Nehor]

I should say I have seen lavender marriages work. One of my girlfriends in college had a gay dad and a lesbian mother. They entered that relationship in the 60s but (this is important) they both knew what they were doing. They ran it on friendship and shared goals and the reality that at the time marriage would advance opportunities in both of their careers. They were also both seeing people they were attracted to on the side with the full consent of their marriage partner. My gf was bisexual and she joked she got a mix of their sexualities and learned how to pick up guys from her dad and how to pick up women from her mom.

I have also seen two asexual and aromantic best friends marry in order to help each other long term and have a kind of shared life. There are other variations where marriages form with a lack of sexual attraction on one or both sides that can work. Most of the successful ones form with both knowing and deliberately choosing what they are getting into.

The problem isn’t the lack of attraction in these proposed marriages by itself. It is that those entering them are often enticed by promises that God will fix things somehow and if that doesn’t happen (and it almost never does) disappointment and disillusionment follow.

[Calm]

17 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

I should say I have seen lavender marriages work. One of my girlfriends in college had a gay dad and a lesbian mother. They entered that relationship in the 60s but (this is important) they both knew what they were doing. They ran it on friendship and shared goals and the reality that at the time marriage would advance opportunities in both of their careers. They were also both seeing people they were attracted to on the side with the full consent of their marriage partner. My gf was bisexual and she joked she got a mix of their sexualities and learned how to pick up guys from her dad and how to pick up women from her mom.

I have also seen two asexual and aromantic best friends marry in order to help each other long term and have a kind of shared life. There are other variations where marriages form with a lack of sexual attraction on one or both sides that can work. Most of the successful ones form with both knowing and deliberately choosing what they are getting into.

The problem isn’t the lack of attraction in these proposed marriages by itself. It is that those entering them are often enticed by promises that God will fix things somehow and if that doesn’t happen (and it almost never does) disappointment and disillusionment follow.

It does seem odd to me that biological sex is so focused on as if that is the only relevant attraction in determining viability of relationships variable when there are others that are just as impactful for many, especially when it comes to marriage.  I dated a guy who was an inch or two taller than I was and it just felt wrong (my dad was 6’2, Mom was 5’4).  My brother married a woman who was 12 or 13 inches shorter, I love her, they make a great couple, but visually it looks mismatched to me.  I don’t know why this matters to me, but I know I would be uncomfortable in a relationship where the guy was my height or shorter or I was way shorter than he was.  I would also not be physically comfortable with someone whose build was more slender than my own at my healthy weight.  My husband and my build and appearance are close enough that someone mistook us for siblings once when we were first married.  Apparently I need to coordinate my husband as much as I do my clothes and home.  I know women who were repulsed by hairy chests, others who were attracted by them.   Besides shapes and textures, there’s smells and colors and sounds that affect attraction and repulsion.