Johnny Townsend

A checklist of human rights must include basic housing, universal healthcare, equitable funding for public schools, and tuition-free college and vocational training. In addition to the fundamentals, though, we need much more to fully thrive. Subsidized childcare, universal pre-K, net neutrality, subsidized high-speed internet, a universal basic income, fare-free public transit (plus more public transit), and medically assisted death for the terminally...

What happens when a High Priest becomes addicted to crack cocaine? Should an unemployed bank teller take in a homeless protester from the Occupy Movement? Who is Salt Lake City's newest superhero, a masked man wearing temple clothes who mysteriously shows up at crime scenes?Is there a way to splice the empathy gene into the genome of every human? Can a schizophrenic woman on anti-delusional drugs keep her belief in an intangible God? Will a childless...

When a homeless man is found murdered a few blocks from Morgan Beylerian's house in south Seattle, everyone seems to consider the body just so much additional trash to be cleared from the neighborhood. But Morgan liked the guy. They used to chat when Morgan brought Nick groceries once a week.And the brutal way the man was killed reminds Morgan of their shared Mormon heritage, back when the faithful agreed to have their throats slit if they ever revealed...

In these stories of gay Mormons, we see a young LDS man stripping to his Mormon underwear in public. We watch as a virginal 70-year-old finally gives in to temptation. A gay couple steals from the rich to support their favorite charities. A "secret combination" plots to put gay men into positions of power within the Church. A celibate 38-year-old dates a promiscuous porn reviewer. A schizophrenic man accustomed to hearing voices suddenly starts to...

In this collection of stories by ex-Mormon author Johnny Townsend, we see a missionary cope with the startling discovery that his companion has been translated off the face of the Earth. A teenage girl pretends to be her brother so she can "hold the priesthood" for at least a day. A young man taught that loved ones watch over family members from the Other Side keeps imagining his grandmother catching him masturbating. A former prostitute, now a faithful...

Todd Tillotson is struggling to move on after his husband is killed in a hit and run attack a year earlier during a Black Lives Matter protest in Seattle.In this novel set entirely on public transportation, we watch as Todd, isolated throughout the pandemic, battles desperation in his attempt to safely reconnect with the world.Will he find love again, even casual friendship, or will he simply end up another crazy old man on the bus?Things don't look...

We don't need "affordable" healthcare. We need universal healthcare. We don't need "access" to education. We need tuition-free college and vocational training. Let's erase the weasel words and get right to the point. The only way any of us can live in a safe, healthy society is if we all do. Freedom and equity aren't free. Neither is a stable society. We must reduce the extraordinary amount we spend on the military and demand that the ultra-wealthy...

Family members and religious leaders often invoke "love" as their justification for making the lives of LGBTQ folks difficult. But we've learned how to nurture one another. In these tales from the author of Mormon Underwear and Gayrabian Nights, a gay man invites two young Mormon missionaries to watch movies on their day off, offering R-rated and eventually X-rated films for their edification. A man receives a substantial inheritance...on the condition...

A gay, partygoing New Yorker unconcerned about the future or the unsustainability of capitalism is hit by a truck and thrust into a straight man's body half a continent away. As Hunter tries to figure out what's happening, he's caught up in another disaster, a wildfire sweeping through a Colorado community, the flames overtaking him and several schoolchildren as they flee.When he awakens, Hunter finds himself in the body of yet another man, this time...

In these short stories by ex-Mormon author Johnny Townsend, parents hire men to pose as the Three Nephites to teach their children the Book of Mormon is true. A shy single woman meets the man of her dreams at an endoscopy party.An anti-Mormon mob threatens a church outing. A deceased sinner plots to break out of Spirit Prison. Aliens visiting the UN reveal that God really does live on the planet Kolob. Mormons survive the zombie apocalypse because...