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Nathan Kitchen (he/him) served as president of Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends from 2019 through 2022. Before his term as president, he sat on Affirmation’s board of directors and co-founded Fathers in Affirmation, a peer support group for queer fathers. In 2024, he received the Mortensen Award, the highest honor Affirmation can bestow on an individual member for leadership and service within the queer Latter-day Saint community. He is currently the chair of the board of directors for Flourish Therapy, a leading nonprofit that provides culturally competent and affordable care for LGBTQIA+ individuals, families, and friends.
Nathan served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Alabama, graduated with a B.S. in Zoology from BYU–Provo, earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine from Southern Illinois University, and completed a general practice residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He is currently in private practice in Mesa, Arizona. He has been a speaker at BYU–Provo, Utah Valley University, and Eastern Illinois University about the queer/Latter-day Saint intersection and how to better support the queer Latter-day Saint experience. He is also a certified QPR suicide prevention trainer.
Nathan is the proud father of five children and grandfather of four grandchildren. He lives in Gilbert, Arizona with his husband, Matthew Rivera. In his free time, Nathan likes to travel with his husband, read a wide variety of books, and, of course, hold his grandbabies!
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
In The Boughs of Love, author Nathan Kitchen shares a deeply personal and powerful memoir about faith and queerness within the Latter-day Saint tradition. Through a mix of personal stories, public advocacy, and reflections on theology, he explores what it means to be LGBTQ+ while trying to stay true to both identity and spirituality. From his own experience of coming out to his leadership role in Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends, Kitchen offers a perspective that is both honest and hopeful. He doesn’t shy away from the struggles, but he also shows the joy and strength that come from self-acceptance and community.
Author Nathan Kitchen writes in a way that is real and heartfelt, making you feel like you’re sitting down with someone who truly understands what it’s like to wrestle with faith and identity. The way his journey mixes with the fight for inclusion made this book especially powerful to me as it shows how small moments can make a big impact later down the line. He shares stories that are sometimes painful, sometimes uplifting, but always totally relatable. Something else that stuck with me was how he doesn’t just talk about the hard parts but also about the moments of hope, love, and belonging. His thoughts on spirituality offer a new way of looking at things but he never makes it feel like he’s trying to push an answer or a magical solution on anyone. Instead, he leaves space for readers to reflect on their journeys. The way he brings in different voices and experiences makes the book even more meaningful, showing just how diverse and complex the LGBTQ+ Mormon community is. Overall, The Boughs of Love is an important and moving book that adds so much to the conversation about faith, identity, and belonging today, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
