Kate Kelly (feminist)

Biography

Kelly was born in 1980 to Jim and Donna Kelly as the first of four children. She grew up in Hood River, Oregon, with both her parents working outside the home. Both parents were converts to the LDS Church, and her father at one time served as bishop of a local congregation.

Kelly graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a bachelor of arts in political science in 2006. She took an 18-month hiatus from school to serve an LDS mission in Barcelona, Spain. While at BYU, she organized a campus protest of nearly 100 students concerning the firing of a university employee for criticizing student elections. Kelly went on to study law at American University, graduating in 2012.

Kelly married J. Neil Ransom in the Salt Lake Temple in 2006. The couple were "childless by choice," and they divorced in 2015. In September 2015, Kelly joined Planned Parenthood as a strategic advocate and policy counsel.

Ordain Women

In May 2013, Kelly 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 encouraged by local church leaders to cease her campaign, once in December 2013 and again in March 2014. Kelly subsequently protested on Temple Square during the church's April 2014 General Conference, after which she was ultimately excommunicated in June 2014 in absentia after failing to attend a disciplinary council.

In the weeks before and after her excommunication, Kelly urged followers to stay in the church and "raise hell" if they could do so while maintaining their mental and emotional health, but later she appealed her excommunication, first to her stake president, then to the First Presidency, all of whom rejected the appeal.

Kelly no longer claims any religious affiliation, but she participated in the ordination of a Roman Catholic female priest in October 2015, and she officiated a same-sex marriage in May 2016.