Kate Kelly

Kathleen Marie Kelly (born ) is an American activist, human rights lawyer, and Mormon feminist who founded Ordain Women, an organization advocating for the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Kelly was excommunicated from the church in 2014. She is also a nationally known advocate for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and abortion access. Kelly came out as queer in 2019 and began a same-sex relationship with a Catholic writer pushing for similar goals within the Catholic Church. Early life and education Kelly was born in Arizona to Jim and Donna Kelly. One of five siblings, she grew up in Hood River, Oregon. Her mother is an attorney and her father a retired newspaper publisher and university administrator. Both parents were converts to the LDS Church, and her father at one time served as the bishop of a local congregation, known as a ward. Kelly graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 2006. While at BYU, she organized a campus free speech protest of nearly 100 students concerning the firing of a university employee for criticizing student elections. While at BYU, and for a time after she graduated, Kelly wrote for The Mormon Worker, a Mormon left-leaning publication modeled after the Catholic Worker newspaper founded by Dorothy Day. In 2010 Kelly founded "Mormon May Day" as a day for liberal or radical Mormons to hold a collective fast and make their voices heard within Mormonism on progressive themes.