Part 1: Who is Robert S. Boylan?
Robert S. Boylan is an Irish member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his late 30s. He is an apologist who has worked for B.H. Roberts Foundation at Mormonr, and has also been affiliated with various apologetic groups. Robert Boylan has been talking about Mormonism online since at least 2009, but it wasn’t until 2014 that he set up his blog, Scriptural Mormonism (which just celebrated its 13,000th post), and it wasn’t until 2017 that his youtube channel began posting content (which now has dozens of hours of content)
I have been quite active in the Mormon and ExMormon world for about a decade at this point, and have heard of, talked to, and met many people during that time. Despite this, I had never heard about Robert Boylan until he harassed Steve Pynakker earlier this year.
To no one’s surprise, that wasn’t Robert Boylan’s first time saying Queerphobic things; a simple search on his public Twitter and Facebook accounts came up with a slew of results. Most disturbingly, he has treated the execution of transgender people not as a tragedy but as a punchline on multiple occasions.
However, his controversies don’t end there; Boylan has been accused of doxxing a person suffering from Alzheimer’s, forcing the family to intervene with Blogspot to have the post taken down.
However, this polemicist’s bark seems to be worse than his bite. When Catholic theologian Matt Fradd extended an open invitation to Mormons to come onto the Pints With Aquinas podcast, Boylan first threatened harassment if he was not allowed on, only to back down and delete his comments, apparently hoping the internet would forget. Presumably, this is because the debate would have pitted Robert Boylan against Jimmy Akin, a Catholic apologist that has done quite a bit of research into Mormonism.
His erratic behavior has drawn public criticism from multiple sources. The Facebook page Mormon Myths wrote:
“Once again, Robert Boylan (aka – Scriptural Mormonism) demonstrates he lacks control of his tongue & ought not be taken seriously as a sound Christian theologian or an apologist.
‘If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless.’
– James 1:26”
Boylan’s habits appear to have caught up with him professionally. On August 22, 2024, he posted a video claiming someone at Dialogue tried to have him fired from the B.H. Roberts Foundation. That video has since been deleted, but an archived clip of it has circulated on Reddit. By September 7, commenters on that post confirmed that Boylan was no longer employed by the B.H. Roberts Foundation. Its hard to say who this person at Dialogue was, because he has had run-ins with at least a couple of the people over there.
Part 2: My statement on Robert Boylan
I understand the allure of polemics. During my early years on the ExMormon subreddit, I often fell into the same trap of anger and reactionary rhetoric, and believed it made me intellectually superior to others. Eventually, I realized it was only preventing me from developing healthy connections to others, so I stepped away from it. I don’t intend to take up that nasty habit again, but nevertheless, a statement on my part is warranted considering the following circumstances.
On July 12, 2025, Robert Boylan released a paid-subscriber-only video (priestcraft much?) about me titled “Transphobe Steven Pynakker Misgenders Transwoman.” The description read:
“If a believing LDS podcaster did this, ex-Mormons, prog-Mos, etc., would try to get them fired from their jobs and “cancel” them. Here is a test of consistency: be consistent and cancel Pynakker or be inconsistent (and transphobic) and give him a pass.”
Based on the thumbnail of the video, Boylan was referring to a 2023 interview I did with Steve Pynakker. During this part of the conversation, Steve almost misgendered me, beginning to say “him” before quickly correcting himself and using my name instead. As a transgender woman, I know mistakes happen, but it’s the intention and correction that matter to me.
If someone were to know that I am a transgender woman who uses she/her pronouns, but make the conscious choice to use he/him when referring to me, that would show that their intention was malicious towards me. This simply was not the case with Steve. Steve made a slight mistake with no malice behind it. I was clearly able to recognize this and we moved on, and I have been on his show several other times since then. Steve and I have known each other since before my transition, and I often joke that my appearances on his show are a great gender timeline!
If Steve had made some dramatic apology and drawn attention to the misstep and begged for forgiveness, that would have derailed the conversation and made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Instead, Steve’s quick, quiet adjustment was exactly how I prefer such moments to be handled.
Steve continues to behave the same way with me behind closed doors, which is to say as a good friend. I recently had to flee the state of Idaho due to my transgender identity, and Steve made a point to reach out to me to ask how I was doing more than once. This was not an isolated incident; Steve has always been a kind, supportive, and encouraging friend, and I video call him to catch up at least once a month.
So when Robert Boylan weaponized my identity in an effort to smear Steve, I was furious. His attempt to drag me into his polemics crossed a line.
In the Book of Mosiah God’s people are called to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light: … mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort… even until death” (Mosiah 9:9 (RefMo) | 9:39-40 (RLDS) | 18:8-9 (LDS)). Boylan does the opposite: he makes burdens heavier, mocks those who mourn, and disturbs those who are in need of comfort. Christ himself declared: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40).
If Robert Boylan ends up reading this post, these are the 4 things I want you to take away from this:
- You weaponizing my transness to hurt my friends is weird as fuck.
- You feigning being my white knight – when you yourself have long history of contempt toward transgender people, ranging from mockery to veiled endorsements of violence – is weird as fuck.
- Take the beam out of your own eye before you lecture Steve Pynakker about the speck of dust in his.
- I want you to LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE