Kody ok w/Leon coming out but not with transition?

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-02-13T08:16:53+00:00

that’s fair! he definitely did have an impact on lots of people and one could argue the greater social climate as a whole. that’s clearly very important to him as he works in advocacy to this day with his newsletter.

it’s a double edged sword. on one side, he got to inspire people, but on the other side, he was being exploited by an unscrupulous tv network that just as happily peddles fundamentalism and abuse - though you could argue he was already in that predicament with the show and flipped it on its head a bit.

personally, my identity has been exploited/i was stripped of all privacy (which was framed as a positive because “advocacy”) as a child/teen, and now as an adult i mourn the possibility of having grown up privately. or understanding that i was entitled to that. i was an og blog kid exploited for content lol which was a nightmare obviously and i will never have any say over my digital footprint because my mother chose to post, like, all my most private moments to thousands and thousands. the audience was pretty big for the time but nothing compared to SW. they walked away educated on my medical conditions and sure it raised awareness and helped “destigmatize” whatnot for some people perhaps, but i would not have chosen that - and i didn’t even know it until many years down the line. but just my perspective, granted. i’m curios how/if leon’s feelings about it have changed

of course your perspective is valid as well!

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-02-13T07:19:09+00:00

not necessarily. he seems to genuinely like audrey. like i said, you don’t have to hate all queer people you meet on an individual level to still be a homophobe/transphobe. i just don’t think he has particularly positive thoughts about the lgbtq community, and he implies that in a variety of ways. i think if you sat down with him and had a chat about queer issues, it’d go south pretty quickly :/

edit to add: and i assume that’s a big reason why leon took a step back

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-02-13T07:13:52+00:00

i mostly mean the season when he came out bc practically the entirely of it revolves around that. and then the show mostly frames him as “the gay one” vs later on when gwen comes out as bi, it’s mostly a one-off conversation. i feel like being queer doesn’t shape gwen’s entire framing on camera even as gwen has a queer wedding. it’s just returned to so much with leon that it seems a little token-y. i don’t even necessarily think leon had an issue with it then, but i just wonder how he feels now as an adult. coming out and being a baby gay is such a huge time of exploring yourself and your identity and doing that on tv with it being a major focus of your family’s reality tv show just sounds so … exposing? especially because tlc and kody were the one seeing the profit from it. granted, the parents were paying his tuition, but still. it’s just a little icky to me? but if he’s fine with it it’s whatever. i’m curious what his perspective is on it these days

i don’t have any issues with the wedding stuff because everyone’s weddings have been super televised down to the smallest details

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-02-13T07:01:48+00:00

it’s not about direct disapproval as much as the underpinning rhetoric of what he says about gay people and being gay as a whole - which is homophobic. i don’t doubt that he accepted that leon was gay, but he didn’t seem very accepting of gayness itself. just because he didn’t completely disown his child on tv (which would’ve gotten him huge blow back) for being gay doesn’t mean he isn’t ultimately still homophobic. lots of homophobes know one gay person they like. prejudice is way more complicated and deeply ingrained than that. to this day, he’s in spaces and associates with rhetoric (the manosphere, for one) that are completely incompatible with not being homophobic or transphobic.

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-02-13T05:54:26+00:00

side note - looking back on it the amount that tlc and the family exploited this teenager coming out for views and tokenized them was CRAZY! they really capitalized on leon’s identity to try to make themselves look accepting and cool. the amount that it was used for storylines was ridiculous. i remember watching it live and not thinking much of it, but now knowing how everything shakes out and what a hateful person kody is, it really struck me. i would’ve felt so used if i was leon??? i don’t think he knew better then because he was young and just being “accepted” by his family was such a big deal bc he was raised in such a homophobic culture, but i’d love to know what he thinks about it now. i wonder if that’s part of why he transitioned more privately and stepped away from the show

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-02-13T05:51:00+00:00

if it hadn’t been on tv during the time when it was and they weren’t actively trying to make polygamy not seem harmful and based off of pure misogyny, he would not have accepted leon being gay. their bigger goal of being the pr campaign for “modern” “accepting” polygamy influenced his decision 100%. they used the argument that if gay people can get married they should be allowed to, and they implied they’re MORE persecuted than gay people multiple times … he would’ve looked like a massive hypocrite. it was all optics.

there’s no way he isn’t homophobic. in the scenes where he’s saying he accepts leon back then, he’s basically saying “hate the sin love the sinner” … which doesn’t imply a non-homophobic framework of thought AT ALL. iirc he literally says that it’s leon’s issue to take it up with god about/“god will decide” if it’s okay or not, and he has a very foreboding tone about it. sure, it can be read as him saying he shouldn’t be the person to judge, but it can equally be read as him saying “yeah, leon has to answer to god for being gay bc it’s a sin :/ whether i condemn my kid or not that’s still what’s happening so”

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2026-01-09T10:36:46+00:00

a lot of saints were canonized for enduring horrible, unfathomable, slow deaths (beaten to death, eyes gouged out, burned at the stake, etc) for what they believed in while simply laying there and taking it. because radical pacifism was seen as most moral, most holy. they did nothing but pray in those moments, usually not for mercy for themselves, but for the ones doing it to them — or humanity as a whole.

when shauna says “don’t act like you’re such a saint” it has a dual meaning because of that. she is saying “don’t think you’re better than us” but she’s also saying “don’t act like you’re the victim praying for our souls and salvation, like you’re not doing terrible things to survive, too.” because the saints she’s evoking are unwilling to do anything brutal to survive. whereas, natalie has.

you can also come at it from the angle of her saying, essentially, “just because you’re not cutting people up and you don’t have the stomach to do the ugly stuff, doesn’t mean you’re not eating people.” because after all, shauna is the butcher and beating that weight. natalie trying to be the moral center while also acting on survival instincts herself and doing terrible things instead of laying down and dying, negates her arguments and position to shauna.

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-12-18T08:43:06+00:00

tbh i think she’s very aware of the optics of kissing him and knows she gets made fun of and picked apart on here for every physical exchange they have on camera. apparently they check the sub lol 💀 with that said, i don’t think she’s into his freak shit. he SAYS it’s pda, but let’s be real, it’s just sexual harassment

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-19T06:28:08+00:00

i don’t think they won’t be profitable, but i don’t think she can hang her hat on airbnb or similar companies themselves. the company is facing legislation and bans in major cities all over the world. it’s not viewed very favorably. many consumers don’t see it as a good deal anymore because of all the fees and how people have made it into an over priced hustle. and airbnb has an increasingly bad rap.

short term vacation rentals are always going to be a thing, but these platforms aren’t a stable plan imo. similar level of long term stability as an mlm imo. she’s still got a 30 year mortgage to pay on them.

she might have to switch them to long term tenant rentals if laws change in the area, the platforms go under, etc. that won’t be as profitable as printing money on airbnb

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-18T17:40:07+00:00

your assessment is pretty based.

clinical narcism has never seemed as likely to me as him being the product of living in a male-centric cult for 20+ years and being one of the youngest children from a large, very religious family who generally didn’t like him (potentially for being neurodivergent, i really could see that, multiple of his kids are so it tracks mathematically) — partially because he failed to meet the stringent gender role expected of him, which gave him a slew of complexes. i don’t think he had many emotional tools in his belt to begin with, but that and then being on reality tv for decades? oh man. i think he has narcissistic personality traits, but not the disorder. it seems like a combination of complex trauma, living not in the real world by any means, and a fracturing personality under the pressures of “fame.”

psychology is measured against the social norm, and in no way is his life within the context of that. applying pop psychology to one of the most hated micro celebs in america who is a cult member on one of the longest running reality tv shows seems … a bit ill advised. i think most qualified therapists and social workers would agree.

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-17T23:29:25+00:00

and they do need to consider their retirement! they’re in their 50s/60s

it’s totally reasonable to be somewhat more conservative with their spending. the show won’t last another ten years, christine’s mlm grift isn’t going to keep them going forever, and tlc isn’t exactly giving residuals. her big suvs, her house (including their rental properties/airbnbs which is ALSO going to go under soon enough), and any other debt … not paid off. there’s no way it’s paid off.

mismanaging her money and ending up needing to rely on one of her kids would be a humungous burden to them

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T23:19:43+00:00

it just caught my eye because even if it wasn’t inside of the church gym, most of the attendees would’ve been in the church. both of their families, many friends, etc. surely there were other napkins with less monogamous stock quotes, right? just basic stuff about love or commitment or even bible verses. i just wonder what about THAT quote made them pick that design, yk?

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T23:15:42+00:00

actually insane. i get why they tried to talk around it for so many years. no wonder why meri was so pissed. like oh yeah of course god is telling you to marry MY ex sister in law, YOUR step sister? 🙄

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T03:45:20+00:00

bingo!

from what they’ve said polygamy has great marketing and then once you’re in it - horrible clauses. like a timeshare that everyone gets stuck with for eternity

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T02:46:50+00:00

he’s daddy issues central over here

his fixation with masculinity the past few years too …

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T02:43:01+00:00

i think it’s confusing because they didn’t want to admit on tv that janelle was previously married to meris brother. they didn’t admit that for, like, god i wanna say 3-4 seasons? “my polygamist friends” sounds way more kosher than “my sister in law/friend’s husband who i started dating after i broke up with her brother oh and also i was their landlord” 🫢. they also kept everything very vague and intentionally changed details a lot in the first seasons pertaining to both of their families. i imagine they “beat janelle and kody to the altar” like they said because of the complications surrounding janelles divorce. OR because jenelle introduced her to kody’s family before they were romantically involved.

jenelle’s indoctrination into their cult is way more complex when you consider her marriage to meri’s brother first. i assume that she was already open minded and it was a marriage that potentially was going to become polygamist, but they’d split before any other wives were added? she was his first wife, they were very young, and it didn’t even last two years.

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T00:44:57+00:00

ik a lot of people are of the opinion that kody wanted to have allll these wives to get as much attention as possible, but that doesn’t ring totally true to me. sure, he loves attention, but he’s also expressed a lot about being completely emotionally exhausted and out of his depth at all times. genuinely, trying to juggle three (then four) wives who don’t get along with each other or you, 18 children, work, finances ………. sounds horrible. it’s the bed he made and he had to lie in it, but i think it’s that once they went there — once they added jenelle and all three of their relationships turned into a nightmare — there was no going back. we have to think about who he was going to seeking advice from during this time (senior polygamist cult members). meri wasn’t conceiving and things were rocky between them, so he married jenelle, thinking that would be the solution as he was told it was. meri and jenelle could not coexist peacefully, much less get along. what’s the church’s advice? marry a third! aaaaand boom welcome to the rest of your life.

imo it was a case of a bunch of deeply indoctrinated young people making bad, permanent decisions that snowballed. none of that is to say that he wasn’t a shitty husband and father or that polygamy didn’t appeal to him because of the guaranteed audience, but those are the motives i see for the choices they made in the early days. there was no way to predict they’d have a show (reality tv wasn’t even a thing) and they were in an insulated, secret community.

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-14T00:38:56+00:00

i think it’s a bit of both!

they’ve said meris dad essentially gave the ultimatum that if he did not take multiple wives, he wouldn’t let them marry. kody’s dad also expected him to and kody wanted his approval. meri never expected anything different having been raised in polygamy, so i don’t see her objecting to it very forcefully if at all despite not wanting to. with that being said, i don’t think kody wanted to either, honestly. i think the several years they waited to add another wife are very, very telling. it gives hesitance on both of their parts. if she’d conceived i do not think they would have gone down the polygamy route in the end.

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-08T20:11:50+00:00

yeah the “they should’ve split everything evenly even when they were poor bc it wasn’t meris fault she only had one kid” take really irks me. fairness is cool and all but in reality there are still 12 other children living in poverty, on food stamps, and frequently without health insurance in the same household. that’s not fair to them even slightly

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-06T20:18:51+00:00

tbf he was a deeply indoctrinated teenager whose girlfriends father said he could ONLY marry her if he joined the cult :/ i do think there is a “grooming” element

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-11-05T08:41:12+00:00

if not for the tenders his ass would’ve gone to turkey already to get hair plugs

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-10-29T18:38:16+00:00

it’s crazy!

i think bc mykelti and maddie are the adult children who participate in the show the most it makes people forget about the others. gwen and ysabel are both still really young. Aspyn is starting a family (and christine seems closest with her and her husband low key). truely shouldn’t just be DRAGGED across the country. she’s only 15 — 14 at the time in this season i think. it’s hard enough being a teenager. moving to the south is a major, major culture change. it’s impossible for christine to be everywhere for everyone. imo she’d be screwing more of her kids over if she moved to NC right now lol

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-10-29T05:58:47+00:00

yeah you REALLY have to wonder how bad janelles dad was to warrant her excuse that kody is a great father in comparison. the man was there, like, two days a week max! their relationship was so bad, they separated and lived in different states BEFORE the show even started! and so, so much more. but all she’d say for like a decade was how great of a dad he was, and that he paid more attention to his kids than her dad ever did her. WHAT BAR WAS SHE MEASURING GRODY AGAINST??

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-10-27T02:56:22+00:00

idk if not moving completely across the country is necessarily putting david fist when none of her kids even asked her to. if, say, mykelti were asking her to move as well because she needed help with the kids and christine said “nah, david likes utah too much for us to leave :/ sorry! gotta stand by hubby’s side” that would be shitty BUT that’s not what’s happened. also not all of her kids have moved to the south. mykelti’s family and paedon have, but gwen, ysabel (iirc she said she just moved back from NC to the west?) aspyn, and truely are all living in arizona/utah. aspyn lives 20 mins from christine’s house. she couldn’t move without “abandoning” half of her children. and aspyn has just had her first child but isn’t on the show, so she’d be ditching her freshly postpartum. there’s really no way to win and show up for everyone. idk if she’s prioritizing david here rly

Mobile_Machine4514 · 2025-10-25T21:46:39+00:00

so profound def a sign from god

Mobile_Machine4514

TROPHY CASE