In December 2001, Sarah and I travelled to Salt Lake City to write about and photograph women of the Mormon faith who don't fit the stereotype images so commonly presented in the mass media.

The culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ("LDS"), a paradoxical mix of 19th-century noncomformist religion and 21st-century conservative politics, is puzzlingly opaque to most outsiders, and the distinctive features of Mormon theology, such as celestial marriage and the plurality of gods, have been devalued by church authorities in an effort to integrate the LDS into the mainstream of American society.

What we encountered in conversations with radical scholars and religiously observant lesbians, traditional wives and independent-minded daughters, was a wide range of opinions and lifestyles that characterizes the diversity of Mormon women. Because of the social pressures that are exerted against dissenters in the church, with one exception, the women asked not to be identified by name.