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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 (LDS Church). 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. [1] : 375, 377 [2] : v, 3 [3] : 170 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 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.
The Restoration Church of Jesus Christ (RCJC), based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a church in the Latter Day Saint movement that catered primarily to the spiritual needs of LGBTQ Latter Day Saints. It was founded in 1985 and was dissolved 25 years later in 2010.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
But all my life I had the feeling I was different from other girls, going through a period of time when I felt like the only one in the world. ... I have a feeling the suicide rate among homosexuals is high just from personal knowledge. In the last five years, ten acquaintances have committed suicide. ... I'm an only child, raised as a Mormon by liberally-minded people. My parents don't know about me. My mother had an inkling about it one time. I've never seen such terror and hysteria, but a convinced her it was all a mistake.
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.
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 his condemnation of the lawless and disobedient, the apostle Paul listed murderers, whoremongers, those that defiled themselves with mankind (an obvious reference to homosexuality), and 'liars and perjured persons' (1 Tim. 1:9–10).
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.
[I]t is hard for me to understand why men wish to resemble women and why women desire to ape the men. ... Then we're appalled to find an ever-increasing number of women who want to be sexually men and many young men who wish to be sexually women. What a travesty! I tell you that, as surely as they live, such people will regret having made overtures toward the changing of their sex. Do they know better than God what is right and best for them?Alternative youtube.com and archive.org links.
The speaker at the general meeting of the Affirmation Los Angeles Chapter, last month, was David Goodstein, gay activist, writer, publisher and president of Liberation Publications, Inc. which publishes the nation's leading newsmagazine, The Advocate. 'I am really moved by your being willing to join a group of other gay Mormons. The Advocate, which I have the privilege of owning, is sometimes known as 'The Mormon Mafia' and I have been compared with Howard Hughes about my having Mormons around me.'
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)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.
Social Services is now part of Personal Welfare Services, with Brother Victor Brown Jr., as director.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Later that summer, Salt Lake City gay activist Ken Kline ... who knew a gay man who worked in the church office building's mail room, also managed to get the pamphlet mailed to all the General Authorities, TV and radio stations, and most of the LDS church faculty at BYU and Ricks College. Doing this made it look as though the pamphlet was a BYU publication and that the church had approved it. Needless to say, LDS leaders were pissed.
The 'pro-homosexuality' pamphlet flustered church officials to such a degree that in August, Allen Bergin, director of the Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior at BYU, was directed by LDS Social Services and BYU Comprehensive Clinic to prepare a response to 'The Payne Papers.' It was entitled 'A Reply to Unfounded Assertions Regarding Homosexuality.' It was dismal. ... The Presiding Bishop Office of the LDS Church financed BYU's Value's Institute attempts to rebut 'The Payne Papers' through the tithing funds that church members contributed for 'humanitarian projects.' ... Victor L. Brown of the Values Institute decried 'the fallacious claims in the Payne Papers' as the 'opposition's attempts to indoctrinate our people.' ... By the beginning of 1980, BYU's Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior hadn't succeeded in achieving its directive to refute 'The Payne Papers.'
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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.
In 1979 KRCL's first GLBT program was an hour-long show called "Gayjavu." The program evolved over the next few years into "Concerning Gays and Lesbians" which was one of the nation's longest, (if indeed not the longest) continuous local gay and lesbian radio program in the nation.
Utah was especially unique in that the newly organized KRCL FM 91 had a local gay program from the beginning called Gayjavu which would become Concerning Gays and Lesbians for the next 20 years. Stephen Holbrook, a gay man who founded KRCL, was dedicated to Utah's gay minority having a voice.
While not identified publicly as gay, Stephen Holbrook as a gay man was committed to the gay community having a voice over the KRCL airwaves. For over 26 years KRCL has provided the [LGBT] communities of Utah with local informational programming.
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.'
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.
The year 1979 was a year of significant growth for Affirmation and gay LDS people. It was the year that Affirmation decided to proclaim itself. In June of that year, for the first time ever, Gay Mormons marched in a Gay parade in Los Angeles. In September, 14 members participated in the "March on Washington for Gay Rights." Now there would never be any turning back. It was the first national mainstream coverage Gay Mormons had ever received and it raised our goals and spirits.