LGBT Mormon topics |
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Because of its ban against same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) 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 (or SOCE, also called conversion therapy or reparative therapy). [3] 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.
The LDS Church's statements and actions have overwhelmingly focused on male homosexuality and rarely mention lesbianism or bisexuality. [4] : 20 These current teachings and policies leave homosexual members with the option of potentially harmful attempts to change their sexual orientation, entering a mixed-orientation opposite-sex marriage, or living a celibate lifestyle without any sexual expression (including masturbation). [5] [6] : 11 [7] : 20–21
While the LDS church has somewhat softened its stance toward LGBTQ individuals in recent years leaders continued to communicate into 2015 that changing one's sexual orientation was possible through personal righteousness, prayer, faith in Christ, psychotherapy, and group therapy and retreats. [8] From 1976 until 1989 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. [4] : 16, 43 [9] : 382 Church publications now state that "individuals do not choose to have such attractions", its church-run therapy services no longer provides sexual orientation change efforts, and the church has no official stance on the causes of homosexuality. [10] [11] [12] A 2016 article on a church website states that, "While shifts in sexuality can and do occur for some people, it is unethical to focus professional treatment on an assumption that a change in sexual orientation will or must occur." [13]
Stances towards the mutability of homosexuality by church leaders have softened over the years. [8] In the 1960s and 1970s Church leaders taught that homosexuality was a curable disease and they encouraged self-help attempts by homosexual members to change their sexual orientation and cultivate heterosexual feelings. [14] : 13–19 To assist in this, leaders developed an aversion therapy program on BYU campus for gay adolescents and adults from 1959 [9] : 379 to the mid-1990s [4] : 90 since simply being attracted to people of the same sex was an excommunicable sin under church president Kimball. [14] : 2 Teachings later changed as it became clear these self-help and aversive techniques were not working and, thus, from the 1980s to the 2000s reparative therapy (also called conversion therapy) became the dominant treatment method. [4] : 89 It was often recommended by Evergreen in an attempt to help homosexual members "unchoose" or "unlearn" their attractions. [4] : 94
In a 2010 survey of 625 Utah individuals 55% of Mormons believed sexual orientation could be changed, [15] and a 2015 survey of 1,612 LGBT Mormons and former Mormons found that 73% of men and 43% of women had attempted sexual orientation change, usually through multiple methods across many years. [16] : 5 Counselor-led sexual orientation change efforts dwindled among members around 2015 [14] : 17–20 as church teachings evolved with leaders explicitly stating in 2012 that same-sex sexual attractions were not a choice [14] : 21 and affirming in 2016 that therapy focusing on a change in sexual orientation was unethical. [17] [11]
A table summarizing some of the major shifts in official dialogue is found below.
Topic | Earlier teachings | Transitional teachings | Current teachings |
---|---|---|---|
Sexual orientation change efforts | Electroshock aversion therapy recommended, [18] [19] reparative therapy encouraged, [20] curable disease, [21] [22] should be overcome [23] | Conversion therapy may be appropriate, [24] denounces any abusive practices [25] | Reparative therapy and other sexual orientation change efforts no longer practiced [26] [11] |
Heterosexual dating & marriage | As a therapeutic step [27] [28] [29] [30] | Not to be seen as a therapy or solution [31] [32] |
In 1959 BYU began administering "aversion therapy" to "cure," "repair," or "reorient" homosexual feelings or behavior among Mormon males. [9] : 377, 379 The on-campus program lasted through the 60s and 70s, and faded out over three decades later in the mid-1990s. [33] : 155, 157 [4] : 90 BYU mental health counselors, LDS bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents, general authorities, and the BYU Standards Office (equivalent to today's Honor Code Office) all referred young men to the BYU program. [9] : 377–379 Gerald J. Dye, who was over the University Standards Office from 1971 to 1980 [34] (renamed the Honor Code Office in 1991), stated that part of the "set process" for homosexual BYU students referred to his office for "less serious" offenses was to require that they undergo therapy to remain at BYU and that in special cases this included "electroshock and vomiting aversion therapies." [33] : 155 From 1975 to 1976 Max Ford McBride, a student at BYU, conducted electroshock aversion therapy on 17 men (with 14 completing the treatment) and published a dissertation on the use of electrical aversive techniques to treat ego-dystonic homosexuality. [35] Participant in the 1975–76 BYU study Don Harryman wrote that he experienced "burns on [his] arms and ... emotional trauma." [36] [37] In 2011 BYU admitted to the past use of electroshock therapy. [38]
Past leaders' teachings on reparative therapy and the origins of homosexuality have been criticized. In the late 90s psychiatrist Jeffery R. Jensen, a University of Utah alumnus, [39] criticized church reparative therapy modalities and etiological theories around homosexuality in multiple presentations as lacking scientific integrity as he believed they were dictated from top church leaders rather than drawn from actual empirical observation by trained professionals. He also stated that current church publications on the subject were condescending, dehumanizing pontifications using caricatures and stereotypes of gay men and lesbians to distort knowledge and facts in order to justify oppressive standards and norms. He continued asserting that "far too many of our lesbian and gay youths kill themselves because of what you say about them" since gay men and lesbians cannot be made heterosexual, and "those who believe your false promises and remain celibate in the hopes of eventual 'cure' are consigned to a misery." [40] [41] Soon after, The American Psychiatric Association disavowed therapy trying to change sexual orientation as ineffective and destructive. [42]
LDS church leaders explicitly promoted therapy attempts to change sexual orientation in the past, but have recently shifted away from those previous views. [14] : 17–20 Some events and publications around reparative or conversion therapy and the LDS church are shown below:
The law of chastity is a moral code defined by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the church, chastity means that "sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife." Therefore, abstinence from sexual relations outside of marriage, and complete fidelity to one's spouse during marriage, are required. As part of the law of chastity, the church teaches its members to abstain from adultery and fornication.
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.
Evergreen International, Inc. was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the whose stated mission was to assist "people who want to diminish same-sex attractions and overcome homosexual behavior". It adhered to Christian and particularly LDS teaching and supported the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The organization stated this task could be accomplished with the help of the Lord and, in some cases, psychological counseling. Evergreen was founded in 1989 as a grassroots organization by men who were seeking to deal with their homosexual feelings in ways congruent to the teachings of the LDS Church.
Sexuality has a prominent role within the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which teaches that gender is defined in the premortal existence, and that part of the purpose of mortal life is for men and women to be sealed together, forming bonds that allow them to progress eternally together in the afterlife. It also teaches that sexual relations within the framework of opposite-sex marriage are healthy, necessary, and ordained of God.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adheres to the Law of Chastity meaning all homosexual sexual activity is condemned by the church. The church teaches that God does not approve of same-sex marriage but affirms the dignity, divine potential, and right to kind treatment of all people. Members engaged in premarital sexual activity or same-sex marriage cannot participate in some religious ceremonies. 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. There are many devout gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members including those who do and do not follow the Law of Chastity.
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 oft cited reason for these higher risks is minority stress stemming from societal anti-LGBT biases and stigma, rejection, and internalized homophobia. A 2016 empirical study found a correlation between the percentage of members of Mormonism's largest denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a U.S. state and the suicide rates of that state, stating the reason was due to the church's stance on same-sex sexual relations. However, the study could not examine what percentages of the deaths were LGBT persons or the percentage that were Latter-day Saints. A 2002 research report found a negative correlation in suicide between LDS Church youth members and nonmember youth in Utah, finding higher levels of religiosity appear to be inversely associated with suicide, though the study does not take into account sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
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 norm.
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.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been involved with many pieces of legislation relating to LGBT people and their rights. These include playing an important role in defeating same-sex marriage legalization in Hawaii, Alaska, Nebraska, Nevada, California, and Utah. The topic of same-sex marriage has been one of the church's foremost public concerns since 1993. 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. Over a dozen members of the US congress had membership in the church in the early 2000s. About 80% of Utah state lawmakers identied as Mormon at that time as well. The church's political involvement around LGBT rights has long been a source of controversy both within and outside the church. It's also been a significant cause of disagreement and disaffection by members.
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.
What about 'Turn It Off?' In this show-stopper for Tony-nominated supporting actor Rory O'Malley as Elder McKinley, some missionaries share their approach to confusing thoughts or bad feelings. ... [W]hen you have gay thoughts for your best friend, well, 'Turn it off!' Non-believers hear hypocrisy and an absurdly simplistic solution to difficult issues: 'Turn it off/ Like a light switch/ Just go flick/ It's our nifty little Mormon trick.' ... It's not an official approach by any faith, as such, but numerous fundamentalist faiths acknowledge that some men are inherently gay. They want those men to simply tamp down these bad feelings and marry a woman anyway, because with prayer and the proper spouse and God's love you can be alright.
On the show-stopper 'Turn It Off,' sung by a closeted missionary struggling with his sexuality. 'I'm one of the few missionaries who actually was out to myself as a gay person on my mission and out to some of my mission companions—the ones who asked. [The Book of Mormon song] 'Turn It Off' is such an insightful view into the psychology of a homosexual missionary in particular, but also into all Mormons. In the church, you don't say you're gay, you say you have homosexual tendencies, because gay is this label they want you to hopefully outgrow, which I tried to do. It didn't work.
The LDS church claims the Holy Bible as scripture and, through traditional Biblical interpretations, has historically both condemned same-sex sexuality as sinful and explicitly encouraged its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) members to attempt sexual orientation change.
With substantial evidence of serious harms associated with exposure to [sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (SOGICE)] particularly for minors, 21 states (and multiple cities and counties) have passed bipartisan laws or regulations prohibiting SOGICE. ... Furthermore, compared with LGBTQ youths with no exposure, those exposed to SOGICE showed 1.76 times greater odds of seriously considering suicide, 2.23 times greater odds of having attempted suicide, and 2.54 times greater odds of multiple suicide attempts in the previous year.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)The LDS church claims the Holy Bible as scripture and, through traditional Biblical interpretations, has historically both condemned same-sex sexuality as sinful and explicitly encouraged its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) members to attempt sexual orientation change. While the LDS church has somewhat softened its stance toward LGBTQ individuals in recent years, it continues to communicate to its LGBTQ members that sexual orientation change is possible through various means including prayer, personal righteousness, faith in Jesus Christ, psychotherapy, group therapy, and group retreats. In these respects, the LDS church's approach to SSA has closely paralleled other religious traditions including Orthodox Judaism, evangelical Christianity, and Roman Catholicism.
Today, [LDS] Family Services says it offers the following: 'We assist individuals and families as they respond to same-sex attraction. Our therapists do not provide what is commonly referred to as 'reparative therapy' or 'sexual orientation change efforts'.'
The Church does not have a position on the causes of any of ... same-gender attraction. Those are scientific questions ....
While shifts in sexuality can and do occur for some people, it is unethical to focus professional treatment on an assumption that a change in sexual orientation will or must occur. Again, the individual has the right to define the desired outcome.
Shortly after that 1959 meeting of the Church Board of Education, BYU began 'aversion therapy' to 'cure,' 'repair,' or 'reorient' the same-sex desires of Mormon males. These young men were referred to this program by BYU's mental health counselors, by LDS bishops and stake presidents, by BYU's office to enforce student standards, or by referrals from outside BYU (such as mission presidents and general authorities).
What is the church's feeling about electric shock and other forms of behavior modification? ... Our experience so far has been that most people coming to us can be helped with it.
Most Church leaders seem to agree that professional counselors can play an important role in helping individuals experiencing problems with homosexuality. ... The Church has supported efforts of the LDS Social Services and other consulting professionals to research the issues and to offer a reparative therapy approach which assumes that homosexual behavior can be changed.
We know such a disease [homosexuality] is curable.
[Homosexuality] is curable and forgivable. ... Certainly it can be overcome .... [T]o those who say that this practice ... is incurable, I respond: 'How can you say the door cannot be opened until your knuckles are bloody ...? It can be done.'Quoted on page 31 of "Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons."
[S]uch thoughts and feelings, regardless of their causes, can and should be overcome and sinful behavior should be eliminated. ... Change is possible.
If a young man says, 'Look, I really want these [homosexual] feelings to go away… I would do anything for these feelings to go away,' is it legitimate to look at clinical therapy of some sort that would address those issues? Well, it may be appropriate for that person to seek therapy. Certainly the Church doesn't counsel against that kind of therapy.
The Church denounces any therapy that subjects an individual to abusive practices.
[I]t is unethical to focus professional treatment on an assumption that a change in sexual orientation will or must occur.
Some have ... convinced themselves that they ... have no desire toward the opposite sex. ... [L]et this individual repent of his perversion, force himself to return to normal pursuits and interests ... with the opposite sex, and this normal pattern [heterosexual dating] can become natural again.Quoted on page 31 of "Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons."
The entrenched homosexual has ... moved all of his interests and affections to those of his own sex ... and herein is another step. When you feel he is ready he should be encouraged to date and gradually move his life toward the normal. ...[G]radually they can move their romantic interests where they belong. Marriage and normal life can follow.
Homosexual orientation problems ... are often a reflection of poor interpersonal relationships with ... peers. ... Discuss dating and dating practices. Give female interaction assignments. ...[S]peaking to a girl may be considered a task, as may inviting her to a movie. However, to actually meet her, escort her to the movie, escort her home, and say goodnight is an experience cycle ... designed to meet a predetermined goal.
Encourage the member to be in appropriate situations with members of the opposite sex, even if he has to force himself. ... Encourage him (if single) to begin dating and gradually increase its frequency.
President Hinckley, faced with the fact that apparently some had believed [marriage] to be a remedy, and perhaps that some Church leaders had even counseled marriage as the remedy for [homosexual] feelings, made this statement: 'Marriage should not be viewed as a therapeutic step to solve problems such as homosexual inclinations or practices.'See also the Salt Lake Tribune archived transcript here.
We definitely do not recommend marriage as a solution for same-gender feelings. No, it's not a therapy. In times past, decades ago, there were some practices to that effect. We have eradicated them in the Church now.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)... 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.
In 'Homosexuality: Cause for Concern?' DU [Daily Universe], 10 April 1979, Maxine Murdock of the [BYU] Counseling Center conservatively estimated that 4 percent of the student body (approximately 1,200) is homosexual.See footnote 71.
According to local psychologists who are working on homosexuality research, anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of the BYU male population have homosexual tendencies. Dr. Ford McBride, a psychologist at Timpanogos Community Mental Health Center, and Dr. Maxine Murdock, licensed psychologist at the BYU Counseling Center who works with homosexual students, estimate the figure at 4 percent. McBride said his estimate is based on extrapolation of the old Kinsey report.
Masters and Johnson, world-renowned sexologists, approvingly describe "ambisexuals" who, because of their technical skill and very lack of emotional involvement, achieve orgasm 100 percent of the time in their sexual encounters. These researchers concluded that such physical success gave ambisexuals the advantage over heterosexual men or women because this "absence of sexual preference" also means an absence of "sexual prejudice" which, they claim, is "a cornerstone that supports any number of other social biases." These "privileged" individuals, according to Masters and Johnson, may be pointing the way for society at large. Such messages are disturbing.
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 [LDS Church's] semiannual conference.
About 15 'Friends of Ethyl' braved cold temperatures to March from the Federal Building to Temple Square in protest of the [LDS Church's] 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 ....
Recognition of inadequate treatment regimens regimes regimens may account for erroneous but widespread beliefs such as that male homosexuality is not changeable. ... Change was embedded in an accepting evaluative and loving non-erotic social milieu that provided expectations ideology and actual interpersonal experiences leading to the extinction of homosexual impulses and behaviors. ... Warren was discovering that he was not the odd man out he had believed all his life and as his gender security increased his homosexual desires decreased.
'A lot of men are forced to marry, and they play around on the side,' said Davyd Daniels, a former Mormon ... William Blevins, 40, a former librarian at the Mormon Church's genealogical center, said the church put pressure on him to marry at 24 in belief 'it would cure me' of homosexual leanings. It did not, he said, adding that 'I still had my feelings' and that after he fathered four children the church discharged him, then excommunicated him and forced him to disclose the identities of several other employees at the church's headquarters with whom he had had sexual relations. He said his wife left him and remarried and he no longer has custody of the children.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)As part of a project for their English class, Sam Clayton, Dale Franklin and Melanie Dinger conducted the school-approved survey to 420 students in randomly selected classes on campus. Respondents had four choices to answer the question 'What statement do you think best describes the church's stand?' Thirty-three percent chose 1. 'Accepts in full fellowship homosexually-oriented persons who live the Church's law of chastity.' Forty-one percent chose 2. 'Accepts homosexually-oriented persons as long as they change their sexual orientation?' Ten percent believe 3. The LDS Church excommunicates homosexuals regardless of sexual activity, and 10 percent marked 4. 'other.'
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Josh Weed came out to his LDS bishop for the first time when he was 16-years-old during the mid-1990s. He recalls his feelings being quickly dismissed as 'confusion' or 'admiration for other men.' From there he said he went to LDS Family Services where he began undergoing reparative therapy.
Professor Judd is currently a professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University (1994-present) where he has served as a department chair ....
"[T]he gospel of Christ has power to change those who appear unchangeable. For several years I worked with an individual who was trying to overcome his problems related to homosexuality. Not long ago we were having a conversation about the origins of his problems and he said to me, 'I do not fully understand the arguments of those who say, 'I was born this way,' but what I do know is that I have been born again' and 'have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.' This individual isn't simply 'coping' with his problems, but is truly free. He has come to know the truth and the truth has set him free.
The [LDS Church] accepts gays on one condition: that they renounce their sexual orientation. "Everything we do in the church is to offer them the help, the support, and the structure that will point them to happiness and joy," said Elder Jay E. Jensen who took part in a "healing" workshop here in September designed to help gays and lesbians become straight.
Elder Jay E. Jensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy ... speaker at the 7th Annual Evergreen conference, September 12–13, 1997.
'Education is one of our major goals, and to just try to get the parents and siblings to love their gay child and keep their gay child under their wing, not kick them out of the house like happens so many times with gay children,' said Millie Watts in an interview with KUED for Friends and Neighbors: A Community Divided, a 1999 documentary about the families and friends of gay and lesbian Utahns.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)In the year 2000 LDS Family Services surveyed 381 clients desiring change from homosexual thoughts, feelings and behavior. 72% reported 'significant progress' in therapy.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)In fact, the members of the board—who include James O. Mason, Joe J. Christensen, Ardeth Kapp, and other prominent Latter-day Saints ....
Through the Hidden Treasures Foundation [Richard D.] Hawks said the church is opening some of its own resources that 'have been developed over the years but never used.' That information includes volumes of material produced for LDS Social Services and stored in a large library that has heretofore been accessible only to professionals dealing with mental illness ... Those and other materials are now being assembled for distribution via a Web site set up by the foundation—www.mentalhealthlibrary.info.
It began his junior year at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah: Michael Ferguson wanted desperately to rid himself of the sexual feelings he had toward men. His Mormon faith and his loving family would never understand. So he began to try to pray the gay away. Thus began a seven-year journey through nine gay conversion therapy programs, also called reparative therapy, which included hypnotherapy, physical psychotherapy, evangelical spiritual groups, and a 12-step addiction recovery program. Such treatments were designed to "cure" homosexuality by changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. ... [W]hile enrolled at Brigham Young University, a bishop advised me to begin conversion therapy with a professional psychologist at the university's counseling center. ... I started in 2004 at BYU and was involved in various conversion therapy attempts through 2011.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Foundation for Attraction Research was founded by Dennis V. Dahle, JD; A. Dean Byrd, PhD, MBA, MPH; and Shirley E. Cox, DSW, LCSW in 2005 for the purpose of developing resources and conducting research supportive of traditional Judeo-Christian standards of morality. ... The members of the Foundation's board of directors, all of whom served as editors of Understanding Same-Sex Attraction, follow: A. Dean Byrd, PhD, MBA, MPH; Shirley E. Cox, DSW, LCSW; Dennis V. Dahle, JD; Doris R. Dant, MS, MA; William C. Duncan, JD; John P. Livingstone, EdD; M. Gawain Wells, PhD
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Instead, the authors of this book assert the unpopular opinion, backed by scientific research, that same-sex attraction can be lessened or eradicated in those who desire change and are willing to try. Readers who empathize with the Church's position on homosexuality will likely find hope and useful ideas in this five-hundred-page compilation ... Here essayists recount how they emerged from homosexual lifestyles to find satisfaction in rejoining the Church mainstream, some even finding success in heterosexual marriages ... As some professional and state organizations frown on therapists who believe in reorientation therapy—seeking to ban their practice, in some cases—this book fills a void.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Instead, the authors of this book assert the unpopular opinion, backed by scientific research, that same-sex attraction can be lessened or eradicated in those who desire change and are willing to try. Readers who empathize with the Church's position on homosexuality will likely find hope and useful ideas in this five-hundred-page compilation ... Here essayists recount how they emerged from homosexual lifestyles to find satisfaction in rejoining the Church mainstream, some even finding success in heterosexual marriages ... As some professional and state organizations frown on therapists who believe in reorientation therapy—seeking to ban their practice, in some cases—this book fills a void.
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.'
This event was originally planned to use a [BYU-Idaho] campus classroom ....
The changes in the church's rhetoric are small but profound. 'Many people pray for years and do all they can to be obedient in an effort to reduce same-sex attraction, yet find they are still attracted to the same sex,' the website reads. 'A change in attraction should not be expected or demanded as an outcome by parents or leaders.' This statement is a reference to conversion therapy, the widely condemned practice of seeking to 'change' the sexuality or gender identity of LGBT youth.
One thing that distresses me is to see people classify themselves, often as early as age 12, as being lesbian, bisexual, or homosexual. That is a self-defeating characterization because it changes the way people relate to you, it inhibits your growth, and it stands in contrast to saying to a circle of people that love you and will understand, 'I am troubled by same-gender attraction.' ... Don't label yourself. ... I have letters in my file from people who classified themselves once as homosexual, and after a lot of life experiences they ceased to have those feelings, they repented of some transgressions along the way, married, and had children.
And over the years that have passed, I have rebuilt myself but it's been a long road to recover from dangerous messaging. I really did try, but the Church didn't love me as I was, as I am. And then Elder Perry's words cut again. ... He said it was like every other temptation. If it was like every other temptation, then why did my hours of praying, my days upon days of tears and anger produce no results in diminishing my attractions? I tried to surround myself with good male role models, but then I found myself gayer than before.
Two documentaries set at the intersection of the gay community and Utah's Mormon-dominated culture will get big launches at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
The documentary asserts that due to Utah's heavily religious culture, the Beehive State was slow to accept the reality of this national problem at home. According to the film, stigmas attached to AIDS victims and uncertainty and fear surrounding the nature of the illness left physicians unwilling to treat patients.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, the religious monoculture severely complicated the AIDS crisis, where patients received no support from—or were cast into exile by—the political, religious, and medical communities. Further, Mormon culture encouraged gay men to marry women and have a family to cure themselves of their "affliction," counsel which led to secret affairs and accidental marital transmissions of HIV. In the entire state and intermountain region there was only one doctor to serve all HIV/AIDS patients. This is the story of her fight to save the lives of a maligned population everyone else seemed willing to just let die.
The fear of contracting AIDS—at the time a savage and inevitable death sentence—was eclipsed for Mormons by the fear of being outed as homosexual in a context where the Church condemned homosexuality to the point of mothers disowning their children, and AIDS as God's vengeance on sinners.
Other voices include Kim Smith, a Mormon mother who lives with HIV .... The film explores the reaction to the AIDS crisis from Catholic nuns who worked as nurses at Holy Cross, as well as the institutional response by [the LDS Church].
In Utah, the presence of HIV/AIDS deepened the fear and anxiety amongst residents, particularly those devoted to the Mormon faith. 'The religious monoculture severely complicated the AIDS crisis, where patients received no support from—or were cast into exile by—the political, religious, and medical communities,' states Quiet Heroes' website film synopsis. 'Further, Mormon culture encouraged gay men to marry women and have a family to cure themselves of their 'affliction,' counsel which led to secret affairs and accidental marital transmissions of HIV.'