LGBT Mormon topics |
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been involved with many pieces of legislation relating to LGBT people and their rights (e.g. housing, job discrimination, and same-sex marriage). [1] These include playing an important role in defeating same-sex marriage legalization in Hawaii (Amendment 2), Alaska (Measure 2), Nebraska (Initiative 416), Nevada (Question 2), California (Prop 22), and Utah (Amendment 3). [2] : 2, 65, 69, 71, 78, 85 The topic of same-sex marriage has been one of the church's foremost public concerns since 1993. [2] : 1 Leaders have stated that it will become involved in political matters if it perceives that there is a moral issue at stake and wields considerable influence on a national level. [3] [4] [5] Over a dozen members of the US congress had membership in the church in the early 2000s. [6] About 80% of Utah state lawmakers identied as Mormon at that time as well. [7] [8] [9] [10] The church's political involvement around LGBT rights has long been a source of controversy both within and outside the church. [11] [12] [13] It's also been a significant cause of disagreement and disaffection by members. [14] [15] [16]
LDS Church leaders have stated that the church will become involved in political matters if it perceives that there is a moral issue at stake, such as same-sex marriage, and the church wields considerable influence in the United States. [3] [4] [5] All homosexual or same-sex sexual activity is forbidden by the LDS Church in its law of chastity, and the church teaches that God does not approve of same-sex marriage. [18] Additionally, in the church's plan of salvation, noncelibate gay and lesbian individuals will not be allowed in the top tier of heaven to receive exaltation unless they repent, and a heterosexual marriage is a requirement for exaltation. [19] [20] In 1995 Church president Gordon B. Hinckley read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" in the Fall General Conference which states that marriage between a man and a woman is essential and ordained of God and that gender is an essential part of one's eternal identity and purpose. [21] : 154–155 [22] Gender identity and roles play an important part in Latter-Day Saint teachings which teaches a strict binary of spiritual gender as literal offspring of divine parents. [22] [23] "The Family Proclamation" has been submitted by the church in several amicus briefs as evidence against legalizing same-sex marriages. [17]
From 1976 until 1989 under president Spencer Kimball the Church Handbook called for church discipline for members attracted to the same sex equating merely being homosexual with the seriousness of acts of adultery and child molestation—even celibate gay people were subject to excommunication. [2] : 16, 43 [24] : 382, 422 [25] : 139 Kimball's numerous publications discussing "curing" homosexuality and condemning same-sex attractions (even without action), and his rise to the church presidency in 1973 set the stage for years of harsh treatment of gay church members. [2] : 36–37 Since the first recorded mentions of homosexuality by general LDS Church leaders, teachings and policies around the topics of the nature, etiology, mutability, and identity around same-sex romantic and physical attractions have seen many changes through the decades, [26] : 46 [27] : 45–46 [28] [29] : 13–21 including a softening in rhetoric over time. [30] [21] : 169–170 [31]
In February 2003, the LDS Church said it did not oppose a hate-crimes bill, which included sexual orientation, then under consideration in the Utah state legislature. [32] The church opposes same-sex marriage, but does not object to rights regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference. [33] Following two months of negotiations between top Utah gay rights leaders and mid-level church leaders, [34] the church supported a gay rights bill in Salt Lake City which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in housing and employment, calling them "common-sense rights." The law does not apply to housing or employment provided by religious organizations. [35] [36] Jeffrey R. Holland, of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, stated that it could be a model for the rest of the state. [37] The LDS Church has not taken a position on ENDA. [38]
Many surveys have been conducted on church members and their views on homosexuality and discrimination. In a 1977 Utah poll three-fourths of LDS-identified responders opposed equal rights for gay teachers or ministers and 62% favored discrimination against gays in business and government (versus 64% and 38% of non-LDS respondents respectively). [39] [2] : 15 [40] : 220 A 2017 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey found that over half (53%) of all Mormon adults believed small private business should be able to deny products and services to gay or lesbian people for religious reasons (compared to 33% of the 40,000+ American adults surveyed), [41] : 15, 23 and 24% of all Mormon adults oppose laws that protect LGBT Americans against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. [42] [41] : 20 In a 2007 US poll, only 24% of Mormons agreed that "homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted," less than any other major religious group in the survey except for Jehovah's Witnesses, and 2 out of 3 (68%) latter-day saints said it should be discouraged. [43] In a similar poll seven years later, 36% said homosexuality should be accepted and over half (57%) said it should be discouraged. [44] Additionally, 69% of adherents supported laws that protect LGBT Americans against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, but 53% believed small private business should be able to deny products and services to gay or lesbian people for religious reasons. [41] : 15, 20
Several church employees have been fired [45] [46] [47] or pressured to leave for being celibate but gay, [48] [49] : 162–163 [50] or for supporting LGBT rights. [51] [52] A Church employee described how his stake president denied his temple recommend resulting in him getting fired simply because of his friendship with other gay men and his involvement in a charity bingo for Utah Pride in a 2011 article. [53]
In 1997, then church president Gordon B. Hinckley declared the church would "do all it can to stop the recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States", and apostle M. Russell Ballard has said the church is "locked in" if anything interferes with the principle of marriage only being between a man and a woman. [2] : 73 [55] Beginning in the mid-1990s, the LDS Church began to focus its attention on the issue of same-sex marriages with one scholar citing the church's views of God's male-female union plan, their sense of responsibility in publicly protecting traditional morality, and a fear of government encroachment in church performed marriages as the motivations for this opposition. [56] In 1993, the Supreme Court of Hawaii held that discrimination against same-sex couples in the granting of marriage licenses violated the Hawaiian constitution. In response, the church's First Presidency issued a statement on February 13, 1994, declaring their opposition to same-sex marriage, and urging members to support efforts to outlaw it. Fund-raising assignments were given to stake presidents in Hawaii and the LDS Church contributed $600,000 to pass HB 117. [2] : 64–65 With the lobbying of the LDS Church and several other religious organizations, the Hawaii legislature enacted the bill in 1994 outlawing same-sex marriages.
Other states were considering legislation against recognizing same-sex marriages, but Utah acted first in 1995. [2] : 67 With its large majority Latter-day Saint legislature it passed a law forbidding the recognition of same-sex marriage that was drafted by a Brigham Young University BYU law professor. [2] : 67 In 1995, the LDS Church released "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" reaffirming its stance that marriage is between one man and one woman. [57] [2] : 53 However, this monogamous stance has been strongly criticized as hypocritical given the church's historical disagreement with this legal definition which bars polygamy. [58] : 618 In 1998, the church donated $500,000 towards banning same-sex marriage in Alaska (Measure 2). This made up nearly 80% of the entire budget of the coalition lobbying for the measure. [2] : 70 The same year in Nebraska, church members collected about half of the 160,000 signatures gathered to place Initiative 416 on the ballot in order to ban same-sex marriage there. [2] : 71 For Nevada's Question #2 members played a key role in passing it by collecting the necessary petition signatures with many collected by making use of the church directories and venues. [2] : 71
In 2004, the church officially endorsed a federal amendment to the United States Constitution as well as Utah Constitutional Amendment 3 banning any marriages not between one man and one woman and announced its opposition to political measures that "confer legal status on any other sexual relationship" than "a man and a woman lawfully wedded as husband and wife." [1] This statement seemed to also oppose civil unions, common-law marriages, plural marriages, or other family arrangements. This political involvement elicited the criticism of California Senator Mark Leno who questioned whether the church's tax-exempt status should be revoked. [59]
On August 13, 2008, the church released a letter explaining why it believed that same-sex marriage would be detrimental to society and encouraging California members to support Proposition 8 [33] which would bar anything but opposite-sex marriages. The letter asked members to donate time and money towards the initiative. Church members would account for 80 to 90 percent of volunteers who campaigned door-to-door and as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised during the campaign. [60] In November 2008, the day after California voters approved Proposition 8, the LDS Church stated that it does not object to domestic partnership or civil union legislation as long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches. [61] Soon after, L. Whitney Clayton, a church general authority, stated that members who opposed Proposition 8 may be subject to discipline from local church leaders. [62] In a special meeting for some Oakland, California members it was reported that Marlin K. Jensen, Church Historian and general authority, apologized to straight and gay members for their pain from the Proposition 8 campaign and some other church actions around homosexuality. [63] [64] [65] In 2010 the LDS Church was fined for failing to properly report about $37,000 in contributions in 2008 towards Prop 8. in violation of California state's political contribution laws. [66] [67] The whistleblower Fred Karger went on to found the organization Mormon Tips seeking information on further political involvement that may violate the LDS church's tax-exempt status. [68]
On December 20, 2013, the topic of same-sex marriage and the LDS Church was raised again when U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby struck down the Utah ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. [69] In response, the church released instructions to leaders regarding same-sex marriage in Utah. [70] These included the stance that, while the church disagrees with the court ruling, those who obtain same-sex marriage should not be treated disrespectfully. [70] Additionally, it stated that church leaders were prohibited from employing their authority to perform marriages, and that any church property could not be used for same-sex marriages or receptions. [70]
In November 2015, a new policy was released stating that members who are in a same-sex marriage are considered apostates and may be subject to church discipline. [71] Additionally, the children of parents who are in same-sex relationships must wait until they are 18 years old and then disavow homosexual relationships before they can be baptized. [72] In April 2019, the church's First Presidency announced a revelation reversing the policy, but still affirming that same-sex marriage was a "serious transgression." [73] Russell M. Nelson had previously characterized the 2015 policy as direction from God in 2016, stating "Each of us during that sacred moment felt a spiritual confirmation. ... It was our privilege as apostles to sustain what had been revealed to President Monson." [74] Shortly after the change, Nelson said in a press release that the reversal was, "revelation upon revelation." [75]
A 2017 PRRI survey found that over half (52%) of Mormon young adults (18–29) supported same-sex marriage while less than a third (32%) of Mormon seniors (65+) did. [41] : 11 [42] Overall, 40% of LDS adults supported same-sex marriage, and 53% were opposed. [41] : 10
The church's political involvement around LGBT rights has long been a source of controversy both within and outside the church. [11] [12] [13] It's also been a significant cause of disagreement and disaffection by members. [14] [15] [16] A 2003 nationwide Pew Research Center survey of over 1,000 LGBT Americans found that 83% of them said the LDS church was "generally unfriendly towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people" surpassed only by "the Muslim religion" at 84%. [76] Additionally, in May 2008 a Georgia Tech gay-rights manual referred to the LDS Church as "anti-gay." After two students sued the school for discrimination, a judge ordered that the material be removed. [77] [78] [79] The church's political involvement around LGBTQ rights has sparked critical media and protests. This includes the 2010 documentary film 8: The Mormon Proposition , the play "8" and the following protests:
Below is a timeline of events and publications around LDS Church political involvement around LGBT rights.
Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families, & Friends is an international organization for individuals who identify as gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, queer, intersex, or same-sex attracted, and their family members, friends, and church leaders who are members or former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Teachings on Sexuality in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply rooted in its doctrine. In its standards for sexual behavior called the law of chastity, top LDS leaders bar all premarital sex, all homosexual sexual activity, the viewing of pornography, masturbation, overtly sexual kissing, sexual dancing, and sexual touch outside of a heterosexual marriage. LDS Leaders teach that gender is defined in premortal life, and that part of the purpose of mortal life is for men and women to be sealed together in heterosexual marriages, progress eternally after death as gods together, and produce spiritual children in the afterlife. The church states that sexual relations within the framework of monogamous opposite-sex marriage are healthy, necessary, and approved by God. The LDS denomination of Mormonism places great emphasis on the sexual behavior of Mormon adherents, as a commitment to follow the law of chastity is required for baptism, adherence is required to receive a temple recommend, and is part of the temple endowment ceremony covenants devout participants promise by oath to keep.
All homosexual sexual activity is condemned as sinful by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its law of chastity, and the church teaches that God does not approve of same-sex marriage. Adherents who participate in same-sex sexual behavior may face church discipline. Members of the church who experience homosexual attractions, including those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual remain in good standing in the church if they abstain from same-sex marriage and any homosexual sexual activity or sexual relationships outside an opposite-sex marriage. However, all people, including those in same-sex relationships and marriages, are permitted to attend the weekly Sunday meetings.
Students identifying as LGBTQIA+ have a long, documented history at Brigham Young University (BYU), and have experienced a range of treatment by other students and school administrators over the decades. Large surveys of over 7,000 BYU students in 2020 and 2017 found that over 13% had marked their sexual orientation as something other than "strictly heterosexual", while the other survey showed that .2% had reported their gender identity as transgender or something other than cisgender male or female. BYU is the largest religious university in North America and is the flagship institution of the educational system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —Mormonism's largest denomination.
In society at large, LGBT individuals, especially youth, are at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Though causes of mental health risk are complex, one often cited reason for these higher risks is minority stress stemming from societal anti-LGBT biases and stigma, rejection, and internalized homophobia.
Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to LGBT individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings, and estimates of the number of LGBT former and current Mormons range from 4 to 10% of the total membership of the LDS Church. However, it wasn't until the late 1950s that top LDS leaders began regularly discussing LGBT people in public addresses. Since the 1970s a greater number of LGBT individuals with Mormon connections have received media coverage.
Transgender people and other gender minorities currently face membership restrictions in access to priesthood and temple rites in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —Mormonism's largest denomination. Church leaders have taught gender roles as an important part of their doctrine since its founding. Only recently have they begun directly addressing gender diversity and the experiences of transgender, non-binary, intersex, and other gender minorities whose gender identity and expression differ from the cisgender majority.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 19th century, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the first half of the 20th century, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 2020s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Because of its ban against same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a long history of teaching that its adherents who are attracted to the same sex can and should attempt to alter their feelings through righteous striving and sexual orientation change efforts. Reparative therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual, or their gender identity from transgender to cisgender using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions. There is no reliable evidence that such practices can alter sexual orientation or gender identity, and many medical institutions warn that conversion therapy is ineffective and potentially harmful.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1950s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1960s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1970s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1980s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1990s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the first decade of the 2000s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 2010s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Below is a timeline of major events, media, and people at the intersection of LGBT topics and Brigham Young University (BYU). BYU is the largest university of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Before 1959 there was little explicit mention of homosexuality by BYU administration.
Homosexuality has been publicly discussed by top leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —Mormonism's largest denomination—since the late 1800s. The frequency of teachings on same-sex sexual activity increased starting in the late 1950s. Most discussion focuses on male homosexuality and rarely mentions lesbianism or bisexuality. Below is a timeline of notable speeches, publications, and policies in the LDS church on the topic of homosexuality.
There are three levels to the heaven in which Mormons believe, and to make it to the highest level, one must be married. Perhaps the most sacred church ordinance is the temple marriage, a "sealing" between a man and a woman that is believed to be eternal, according to Richley Crapo, a Utah State University professor. There is no place for homosexuality in Mormon marriages, and no place for noncelibate homosexuals in the top level of Mormon heaven, unless that person has repented accordingly in the afterlife.
In the Mormon cosmos, as presently understood, there is simply no room for same-sex relationships. For Mormons, the afterlife consists of heterosexual pairs of divinized men and women. Often church leaders have counseled Mormons who experience same-sex attraction that their unwelcome feelings will disappear in the afterlife. ... [T]he very structure of heaven can only accommodate opposite-sex marriages.
Three-quarters of Jehovah's Witnesses (76%), about six-in-ten Muslims (61%) and roughly two-thirds of Mormons (68%) and members of evangelical churches (64%) say homosexuality ought to be discouraged.
When asked about whether Latter-day Saints who publicly opposed Prop. 8 would be subject to some kind of church discipline, Elder Clayton said those judgments are left up to local bishops and stake presidents and the particular circumstances involved.
During the one-hour meeting, thirteen gay and straight Mormons came to the microphone. ... Gay Mormons recalled years of prayer and fasting, attempted heterosexual marriages promising to 'cure' them, and Church-prescribed aversion therapy. Gay and straight Mormons spoke of how their families and neighborhoods had been divided by the Yes on 8 campaign. ... According to attendee Carol Lynn Pearson, a Mormon author and longtime advocate of LGBT concerns, Elder Jensen said, 'To the full extent of my capacity, I say that I am sorry... I know that many very good people have been deeply hurt, and I know that the Lord expects better of us.'
Young created a Mormon theocracy in the Utah territory: his 'word was law in matters both religious and secular.' He established a separate legal system and oversaw the selection of representatives to the territorial legislature.
Almerin Grow has given me his daughter now twelve years old to raise. He has appointed me as her guardian guardian. Pres[ident] Young has given him a mission "to go south and never return." Though naturally smart, [Grow] has become immeasurably insane striking tokens of which are seen in his acts ... wearing his wife's clothing, etc.
... [T]he crimes for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed–we have coined a softer name for them than came from old; we now speak of homosexuality, which, it is tragic to say, is found among both sexes. ...Not without foundation is the contention of some that the homosexuals are today exercising great influence in shaping our art, literature, music, and drama.
According to the late journalist John Gersassi—whose 1966 book, 'The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City,' chronicles the scandal—the police questioned nearly fifteen hundred Boise citizens and gathered the names of hundreds of suspected homosexuals by the time the investigation ran its course the following year. All told, sixteen men were arrested on charges ranging from 'lewd and lascivious conduct with minor children under the age of sixteen' to 'infamous crimes against nature.' Of the sixteen, ten went to jail, including several whose only crime had been to engage in sex with another consenting adult male.
'Of course, in Boise there's the extra element of the power of the Mormons ... The atmosphere is stifling, and the pressure to conform enormous. The city fathers or bigwigs take it upon themselves to impose standards for everyone else.' ... 'Of the sixty-five kids, thirty-five were Mormons ....' Butler did interview thirty-two of the sixty-five kids who were thought to have been involved in some way with the homosexuals. ... 'Most of the kids who had participated had done for a combination of kicks and rebellion against parental authority.'
1959 – Political thriller 'Advise and Consent' features fictional Utah Sen. Brigham Anderson driven to suicide when political enemies threaten to expose a gay affair from his youth.
The man who turns out to almost unwillingly stand in the way of confirmation is an unflinchingly honest young senator from Utah who has concealed a wartime homosexual tryst. ... Drury's most appealing character is Brigham Anderson, the young senator from Utah. When Otto Preminger brought 'Advise and Consent' to the screen in 1962, the senator's homosexuality is called a "tired old sin.' But in Drury's book, Brigham Anderson is candid and unapologetic to those closest to him. 'It didn't seem horrible at the time,' he says, 'and I am not going to say now that it did, even to you.'
In 'Advise and Consent,' the handsome young senator with a gay secret (Don Murray) is from Utah—a striking antecedent of the closeted conservative Mormon lawyer in Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America.' For a public official to be identified as gay in the Washington of the 1950s and 1960s meant not only career suicide but also potentially actual suicide. Yet Drury, a staunchly anti-Communist conservative of his time, regarded the character as sympathetic, not a villain. The senator's gay affair, he wrote, was 'purely personal and harmed no one else.'
From 1947 to 1961, more than 5,000 allegedly homosexual federal civil servants lost their jobs in the purges for no reason other than sexual orientation, and thousands of applicants were also rejected for federal employment for the same reason. During this period, more than 1,000 men and women were fired for suspected homosexuality from the State Department alone—a far greater number than were dismissed for their membership in the Communist party. The Cold War and anti-communist efforts provided the setting in which a sustained attack upon gay men and lesbians took place. The history of this 'Lavender Scare' by the federal government has been extensively documented by historian David Johnson. Johnson has demonstrated that during this era government officials intentionally engaged in campaigns to associate homosexuality with Communism: 'homosexual' and 'pervert' became synonyms for 'Communist' and 'traitor.' LGBT people were treated as a national security threat, demanding the attention of Congress, the courts, statehouses, and the media.
The Lavender Scare helped fan the flames of the Red Scare. In popular discourse, communists and homosexuals were often conflated. Both groups were perceived as hidden subcultures with their own meeting places, literature, cultural codes, and bonds of loyalty. Both groups were thought to recruit to their ranks the psychologically weak or disturbed. And both groups were considered immoral and godless. Many people believed that the two groups were working together to undermine the government.
The new penal code enacted by the Idaho Legislature, with its liberal provisions on sexual conduct, has been repealed as a result of heavy pressure from right-wing groups and the Mormon church. Rep. Wayne Loveless (D-Pocatello), who spearheaded the repeal drive ... conten[ded] that the new code would encourage immorality and draw sexual deviates to the state. Loveless, ... is active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [sic] Saints (Mormon) ....
In 1971, the Idaho legislature passed a new criminal code that abrogated common-law crimes and repealed the sodomy law. This law technically made Idaho only the third state in the nation to decriminalize consensual sodomy, but the repeal did not last long. The new code became effective January 1, 1972, but officials in the Mormon and Catholic Churches did not care for liberalization of laws against sex. After an outpouring of opposition, the Idaho legislature passed a law to repeal the new code, without passing a replacement, effective April 1, 1972. What finally came out of the legislature was a code reinstating the status quo. The law was passed only five days before the liberalized code's repeal date (and, thus, only five days before the state would have been without any criminal code). The repressive code reinstated common-law crimes and the felony 'crime against nature' law with the minimum five-year penalty and no maximum.
I believe in retaining criminal penalties on sex crimes such as adultery, fornication, prostitution, homosexuality, and other forms of deviate sexual behavior. I concede the abuses and risks of invasion of privacy that are involved in the enforcement of such crimes and therefore concede the need for extraordinary supervision of the enforcement process. I am even willing to accept a strategy of extremely restrained enforcement of private, noncommercial sexual offenses. I favor retaining these criminal penalties primarily because of the standard-setting and teaching function of these laws on sexual morality and their support of society's exceptional interest in the integrity of the family.
Carlyle D. Marsden was found in his car along Nichols Road dead from a pistol wound of the chest.
Eight men were arraigned in the Pleasant Grove Precinct Justice Court Mondy afternoon on charges of lewdness and sodomy stemming from alleged homosexual activity at the two rest stops on I-15 north of Orem. ... Two of the suspects were arrested and charged with an act of sodomy. One of them, a 54-year-old Salt Lake County man, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest two days after his arrest, according to Serge Moore, state medical examiner.
Funeral services for Carlyle D. Marsden, 54, of 1388 Nichols Road, Fruit Heights, who died Monday, March 8, 1976, will be Friday at 10 a.m. in the Kaysville 11th-14th LDS Ward Chapel ... Mr. Marsden was a music teacher at Eisenhower Junior High School and at Brigham Young University.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Among the other historical treasures pictured in Anderson's book: ... Several pictures from the 1977 protest march and candlelight vigils held when former beauty queen Anita Bryant brought her Save Our Children campaign—to protect children from homosexuality—to Utah for a rally. 'I consider that Utah's Stonewall,' Anderson said, referencing the 1969 riots outside a New York bar, the Stonewall Inn, that was a haven for gays. 'This is the first time the [Utah] community gathered to protest in public ... the first time the community thinks of itself as having rights and fighting back.'
The LDS Church later invited Ms. Bryant to come to Utah for the Utah State Fair, and both Spencer W. Kimball, and the General Relief Society President, Barbara B. Smith, held news conferences praising Anita Bryant and her work to save America from 'the homosexual menace.'
The lead marcher in the gay group carried an American flag. He was followed by The Rev. Bob Waldrop, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church, who said demonstrators were grateful for Anita because she has made homosexuals 'come out of the closet.'
A crowd of 200 people attending a candlelight vigil to protest the appearance of singer Anita Bryant at the Utah State Fair Sunday night was dispersed by teargas but it was not known who released the gas. ... 'We want the right to live, work, love and contribute to society without being harassed,' he [Bob Waldrop] said.
The Rev. Bob Waldrop, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church, led picketers opposed to Miss Bryant outside the fairgrounds. The demonstration was sponsored by a group called the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights. The Rev. Mr. Waldrop said. 'We want the right to live, work, love and contribute to society without being harassed. As long as Anita Bryant and her followers say we can't have that and call us perverts, then we'll have to continue our movement.' Pastor Waldrop led a vigil at 8:30 p.m. at Memory Grove which was attended by about 200 persons. The vigil commemorated the slaying of three homosexuals last June. The vigil included speeches by Rev. Waldrop, Bob Kunst, a gay rights activist from Miami. Fla., Shirley Pedier, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and Rep. Jeff Fox, D-Salt Lake. The meeting ended at 9:30 p.m. with a candlelight ceremony. It was marred only by teargas, apparently from a cannister which dispersed those near the speakers platform shortly after the meeting ended.First part available here and second part also archived here.
... President Kimball said adding the church has 8,000–10,000 bishops ready to counsel members with homosexual problems. The spiritual leader of almost four million Mormons worldwide said the church also has 'young men who have gone to college' who can provide professional aid to gays.
Bob Waldrop, a young convert and missionary recently returned from Australia, moved to California where he came out in 1975 and then became affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church (or MCC) an evangelical church with a specific ministry for Gay people) in San Jose and decided to train for the ministry. About that time, Rev. Alice Jones of MCC Salt Lake decided to leave Utah and she invited Bob Waldrop to move to Salt Lake and take over her ministry, since he had an LDS background. He arrived in Utah in February 1977 and became the worship coordinator for MCC Salt Lake.
Leaders of a Salt Lake City church Friday criticized Lt. Gov. David S. Monson for denying their use of the Capitol rotunda for a dance. The lieutenant governor-secretary of state replied that his information indicated the church has a number of homosexual members, and it would not be in the best interest of the state to grant the request. ... Asked if it was not obvious discrimination to refuse the facility to the Metropolitan Community Church, the lieutenant governor said, 'We have some obligation to see public buildings are used for purposes that meet the approval of a majority of the community.'
This fashionable equation of homosexual liaison with heterosexual marriage is sophistry and contains its own fatal inconsistency. ... The temporary and fragile relationships of the ironically nicknamed gay subculture ... were interpreted as superior to the more disciplined, orderly lives of the heterosexual subjects.
4 October ... 1981 Ethyl (Randy Smith) and Friends for Gay Rights picket Temple Square during the LDS Conference after receiving permission to parade through downtown Salt Lake City.
A local organization of Mormon Gay rights activists have received permission to parade through downtown Salt Lake City, Sunday and protest LDS Church's policies opposing homosexuality. Albert Haines, Salt Lake chief administrative officer authorized a parade permit for a group calling itself Ethyl and Friends for Gay Rights which plans to picket Temple Square during the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints semiannual conference.
About 15 'Friends of Ethyl' braved cold temperatures to March from the Federal Building to Temple Square in protest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints stand on homosexual rights. 'Ethyl', a drag performer whose real name is Randy Smith said ... he went through Brigham Young University's aversion therapy program and that 'it hurt.' ... The group displaying signs reading, 'We are God's Children', marched up state street to South Temple and then to Temple Square ....
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)When Ogden resident Clair Harward confessed to his bishop in 1985 that he was gay and dying from AIDS, the bishop excommunicated him and told him not to return to church for fear he would spread AIDS in the congregation. ... Harward passed away in March 1986 at the age of 26.
Mormon Church officials excommunicated him from the religion after learning about his lifestyle. The Mormon Church views homosexuality as a sin in the same degree with adultery and premarital sex, said church spokesman Jerry Cahill.
Retired Salt Lake City advertising executive Arthur Anderson was enlisted into the fight last November with a phone call from Mormon Elder Loren C. Dunn, president of the church's North America West Area. At Dunn's behest, Anderson and his wife embarked on months of volunteer work in Honolulu, mostly answering phones for Hawaii's Future Today, a group set up to lobby against legislative attempts at legalizing gay wedlock, gambling and prostitution. ... According to a statement from the Mormon Church's Salt Lake City headquarters, church members such as Anderson are responding to a plea by the ruling First Presidency to get involved as citizens. ... "The Church is indeed, politically neutral when it comes to parties and candidates and most issues," said the LDS statement. "However, when a political issue has moral overtones, the Church has not only the right but the responsibility to speak out and become involved." ... Pamphlets circulated at select Mormon Church meetings throughout the Pacific islands, urging members to support anti-gay marriage legislation pending in the Hawaii Legislature. Key statements were faxed to legislative committees, from LDS Church facilities.
The church gave $600,000 to the political-action group Save Traditional Marriage '98 between Sept. 12 and Oct. 24 ... The church has also given $500,000 to a similar effort in Alaska, or 500 percent more than either side in that state's campaign had previously raised. The $1.1 million in church donations to political causes seems to be unprecedented.
In 1995, Erin Wiser was a 16-year-old student at East High School. Wiser, who today is a transgender man living in Portland but identified as a lesbian in high school, wanted to start a club for gay students along with his then-girlfriend Kelli Peterson. The two had attended a lecture at the local Pride center and were inspired after seeing Candace Gingrich speak. With the help of a supportive teacher, Wiser and Peterson formally applied for an East High School Gay-Straight Alliance club that September. In response, the Salt Lake City school district voted in February 1996 to ban all extracurricular student clubs—becoming the only city in the country to do so. ... Gay rights scared people. But how could anyone hate a couple of sweet-faced Mormon girls from Utah who just wanted to carve out a place to belong in high school?
For Kelli Peterson, a 17-year-old senior at East High School here, ... her primary concern was intensely personal—easing the loneliness she felt as a gay student. ... 'I came out that year, and immediately lost all my friends. I watched the same cycle of denial, trying to hide, acceptance, then your friends abandoning you.' So last fall, she and two other gay students formed an extracurricular club called the Gay/Straight Alliance. ... Ms. Peterson, who is herself Mormon, says she is taking steps to formally leave the church.
Feb. 23, 1996: East and West students walk out of school in protest. West students march on the Capitol; en route, a 16-year-old girl is pinned under a car and seriously injured. Students ask school officials to reconsider action.
Grant Protzman, former state representative, LDS Church member and Democrat, described LDS Church efforts to affect policy as 'measured' and 'very limited.' The church does make a public statement on what it sees as key moral issues. And it does ask questions, which may 'seem like a red flag' to some lawmakers. But the dialogue is good, Protzman said. What some perceive as church control of the state could be chalked up to social norms, Protzman said. Because so many people in the state are LDS Church members, there's a strong sense of shared values and that does influence public policy. And Protzman acknowledged that much has been said in the name of the church by those who present 'an individual's private interpretation of doctrine applied to public policy.'
Grant Protzman, Young Men president of the Ben Lomond Stake, said it was hard work in a hot sun.
But some Utah residents were aghast when they found out in the last few weeks that the law also applied to groups such as the Gay/Straight Alliance. 'I think that many legislators have serious concerns about the group's moving into recruitment of fresh meat for the gay population," said Grant Protzman, minority whip for the state House of Representatives.See also this clipping.
That's not at all what the club is about, protested Kelli Peterson, the 17-year-old East High School senior who founded the alliance to help her and her friends deal with a school atmosphere she found 'horrifying on the best days. ... I was getting beat up and harassed verbally.'See also this clipping.
'Going to high school when you are gay or lesbian is a miserable, lonely experience,' said 17-year-old Kelli Peterson, who founded the club at East High School in December. 'I know, I've been beat up twice.'
A group called SAFE—Students Against Faggots Everywhere—has since formed at West High School, one of three schools that will be affected by the new ban ....
We have 24,000 members of the church based in Alaska. It's a matter that members of the church in Alaska and people who share their views about the importance of traditional marriage as an institution feel strongly about. ... The church has always reserved the right to speak out on moral issues.... You don't become disenfranchised in our democratic process just because you happen to represent a religious viewpoint. - Church Spokesperson, Michael Otterson
Kathryn Balmforth, J.D., Director, World Family Policy Center
Kathryn Balmforth, executive director, World Family Policy Center
The radical feminists, population control ideologues, and homosexual rights activists who make up the anti-family movement know as well as we do that they speak for only a small minority of the world's people. ... Therefore, homosexual rights activists are again bypassing the democratic process and going from court to court, hoping to find a judge who will take it upon himself to create a 'right' to 'gay marriage,' which can then be forced on the citizens of the United States. ... The anti-family faction has targeted the human rights system because it is a direct path to power. The power they seek is the power to curtail the freedom of most of humanity and to do it, ironically, in the name of 'human rights.'
By October 25, ERN had collected just $35,077, while the CPM [Coalition for the Protection of Marriage] had raised another $865,931.41, most of which had come from Nevada Mormons, which it used to saturate the media with its message and to raise billboards across the state
But it was the Mormon Church that fueled the Question 2 campaign. The most effective way the church accomplished this was through direct solicitation, on church letterhead, of its members. One such letter from the Reno Stake Presidency read, "Prayerfully consider supporting this cause in one or more of the following ways: Campaign Worker/Volunteer, Yard Sign, Walk Neighborhoods, Contribution ..." The church also told its members to pick up yard signs as they left services, signs stockpiled outside the church or in nearby parking lots.
If same-sex marriage is legalized on the principle of personal choice, there is no principled basis to deny those who want to call incestuous relationships 'marriages,' or polygamous relationships marriages, or polyamorous unions 'marriages.' ... In Massachusetts since same-sex marriage has been legalized there already have been numerous controversies about ... parents' rights to protect their children from exposure to gay propaganda. ... Although Elie Wiesel was one of the Jews who refused to believe the warnings [about the Nazis], yet he remembered gratefully Moishe's attempt to warn the people. ... We too must speak up and get involved. ... Unless we persuade them now of the dangers of legalizing same-sex marriage, then they will naively adopt laws and policies that will cause tragic consequences.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Another instance of Mormon missionaries as emblems of opposition to same-sex marriage is a controversial television ad produced during the Proposition 8 debates by the Courage Campaign, an organization lobbying against the proposed ban on same-sex marriage. The ad depicts two young men in white shirts and ties knocking on the door of a suburban lesbian couple. ... The missionaries then muscle their way into the couple's home, confiscate their wedding rings, and rip up their marriage license.
Scott Trotter, a spokesman with the LDS Church, responded to the advertisement: 'The Church has joined a broad-based coalition in defense of traditional marriage. While we feel this is important to all of society, we have always emphasized that respect be given to those who feel differently on this issue. It is unfortunate that some who oppose this proposition have not given the Church this same courtesy.'
Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign, presents the almost 17,000 signatures he gathered requesting that the Mormon Church stop funding and advocating passage of Proposition 8.
The Mormon church (just like most churches) is a cesspool of filth. It is a breeding ground for oppression of all sorts and needs to be confronted, attacked, subverted and destroyed.
Controversial Sen. Chris Buttars was stripped of his Senate committee posts not because he went on an anti-gay tirade in an interview with a documentary filmmaker but because the West Jordan Republican broke a deal with Senate leaders not to talk about gay issues.
... Senator Buttars told me that day on camera that gay marriage would never come to Utah because of his power and influence. With the Book of Mormon sitting atop his desk, Buttars bragged about his consulting with other states seeking to use Utah as a model for blocking so-called 'protection for the gays.'
Cowan is showing his documentary, "8: The Mormon Proposition," about the LDS Church's role in banning gay marriage in California ... ([Chris Buttars] also called gays 'the meanest buggers' and gay families 'combinations of abominations.')
... [M]arriage is between a man and a woman and that's changed. Look around, look at all these combinations. Combinations of abominations as far as I'm concerned.
Elder Nelson said that any attempt to expand the definition of marriage outside the traditional family 'weakens the institution of marriage as God defined it.'[ permanent dead link ]
He expected he would have to make minor changes—not rewrite the book. ... 'I was basically threatened with removal from the university if I went forward and took a public stance in favor of gay marriage,' [Brad] Levin, 33, told Fusion, citing conversations he said he had with senior school officials. 'I was told that I had to change the contents of my book to be on the right side of the church.' After calculating how far back in life such an expulsion would set him, Levin relented, changing key parts of his book. Years earlier, he remembered, his brother was expelled from the school after leaving the Mormon faith, and it cost him severely.Republished at Splinter News.
[Brad] Levin began to doubt as he wrote a book about church doctrine and homosexuality. When it became clear to him that the church's top officials, whose words guided his life for so long, were wrong on the science of sexual orientation, 'something snapped' inside him. And the research and critical thinking skills the university taught him? They were getting him in trouble. His academic conclusions did not adhere to church doctrine. He felt like roommates could turn him in at any moment. He ultimately published his book without the most provocative conclusions because of the difficulty of transferring graduate school work.
[L]ead author Michael Ferguson, Ph.D. ... carried out the study as a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Utah.
Mr. Kloosterman, who was a bishop from 2007 to 2012, attracted headlines and scrutiny for an emotional talk he gave at a conference in Salt Lake City in 2011 apologizing to gays rejected by their Mormon families. He also lobbied for same-sex marriage in his state. But there were no consequences until March of this year, when, at a meeting, his bishop cited a Twitter post by Mr. Kloosterman congratulating the first gay couple to be married in Utah. 'Jesus would never do that,' the bishop said, according to Mr. Kloosterman. He said his bishop informed him that an Area Seventy church leader had weighed in on his case (Mr. Kloosterman declined to name him), and that leaders had been monitoring his Internet activity and knew he supported groups that disagree with church teaching. The bishop revoked Mr. Kloosterman's temple recommend ....
Curtis Penfold got kicked out of his apartment, fired from his job, and left Brigham Young University all in the same week. ... "I felt so hated by this community I used to love," Penfold said. Penfold originally went to BYU to be around fellow Mormons. But over the course of the two-and-a-half years he spent there, he started to find the lack of LGBT rights in the church distasteful and was unable to reconcile the idea of a loving God with the evil he saw in the world.
The threat of excommunication did not come as a surprise to Mr. Dehlin .... In recent years, he has become an increasingly vocal critic of the church's prohibition on gay relationships and its opposition to same-sex marriage. He has conducted research on how church teachings have affected gay Mormons, and given a TED talk on being an ally to gay people.
John P. Dehlin ... announced on Tuesday that a 15-member church disciplinary council had unanimously decided to excommunicate him for apostasy. ... Mr. Dehlin said the reason the church expelled him now, after years of monitoring his 'Mormon Stories' podcast and Facebook page, was his outspoken advocacy for same-sex marriage and the ordination of women as priests.
Price, Utah YSA Stake: (Feb. 26, 2012) ... Counselors — ... Scott Nixon Johansen, 61, judge for the State of Utah; wife, Laurel Sitterud Johansen.
I worry that we live in such an atmosphere of avoiding offense that we sometimes altogether avoid teaching correct principles. ... We avoid declaring that our Heavenly Father defines marriage as being between a man and woman because we don't want to offend those who experience same-sex attraction. And we may find it uncomfortable to discuss gender issues or healthy sexuality. ... If we don't teach our children and youth true doctrine—and teach it clearly—the world will teach them Satan's lies.
Addison Jenkins, who spoke at the first LGBT campus forum last year, said the school took a step forward Thursday by hosting the panel, the Salt Lake Tribune reported .
On Thursday afternoon, BYU hosted a school-sanctioned panel discussion, with more than 600 people spilling out into aisles and overflow rooms, featuring four gay and transgender students who were willing to frankly talk about their experiences.