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]
Teachings on sexuality and gender identity motivating political involvement
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]
Views on discrimination laws
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 presidentGordon B. Hinckley declared the church would "do all it can to stop the recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States", and apostleM. 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
Criticism and Protests
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:
4 October 1999 – 150 members of Affirmation staged a protest in Salt Lake City over the church's lobbying and funding of anti-same-sex-marriage initiatives in California and other states.[80]
2 November 2008 – Hundreds of people gathered at the Salt Lake City library in a protest of Prop 8 organized by LDS mothers of gay children.[81][82]
6 November 2008 – In Los Angeles over two thousand people protested at the LDS temple over the LDS church's heavy involvement in the recent passing of California's Prop 8 banning same-sex marriage.[83]
7 November 2008 – Three days after Prop 8 passed nearly five thousand protesters gathered at the Salt Lake Temple.[84][85] That evening a candlelight vigil by about 600 mothers of LGBT children was also held at the Salt Lake Temple.[86][87]
Timeline of events and publications around the LDS church and LGBT rights
Below is a timeline of events and publications around LDS Church political involvement around LGBT rights.
1800s
1851 – The church-controlled legislature of the newly formed Utah Territory passed the first law addressing same-sex sexual behavior banning any "man or boy" from "sexual intercourse with any of the male creation" with penalties left to the courts' discretion.[88]: 1200 Brigham Young acted as both Utah governor and church president in the theocratic government and oversaw the selection of the legislators.[89]
1858 – Travelling bishop and later church historian A. Milton Musser wrote that Salt Lake City member Almerin Grow had demonstrated odd behavior and was wearing his wife's clothing in one of the first reported instances of gender non-conforming dress in the Mormon community. Church president Young (who had only recently stepped down as governor of the Utah Territory) subsequently sent Grow south to "never return," so Grow appointed Musser as guardian of his daughter.[90][91]
1897 – During the October General Conference, First Presidency member George Q. Cannon used the media attention on the 1895 conviction and two-year imprisonment of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde as an opportunity to condemn homosexual behavior as an "abominable", "filthy", "nameless crime" that "caused the utter destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah". He continued stating that the only way to stop these "dreadful practices" was "by the destruction of those who practice them" and "for the Lord to wipe them out" noting that "if a little nest of them were left ... they would soon corrupt others".[92][93]
1950s
1952 – An increase in US public discourse around homosexuality in the McCarthyistLavender scare era contributed to the first explicit mention of the term homosexual in general conference. Apostle Clark lamented that homosexuality is found among men and women, and that homosexual people exercise great influence in shaping culture.[94][95]: 146 After this LDS leaders started regularly addressing queer topics in public especially towards the end of the decade.[24]: 375, 377 [40]: v, 3
1955 – A Boise, Idaho, gay witch hunt was launched to hunt down gay men among moral panic over several local arrests of males for same-sex sexual activity. This resulted in nearly 1,500 people questioned, producing hundreds of names of suspected homosexuals[96] including several Mormons.[24]: 436 Author John Gerassi cites an oppressive environment engendered by the predominantly LDS population in his seminal 1966 work Boys of Boise as a contributing factor for the illegal sexual activity and subsequent witch hunts.[97][98] The documentary The Fall of '55 was made about the events in 2006.
1957 – Apostle Clark cited Old Testament punishments for same-sex sexual activity stating, "for homosexuality, it was death to the male and the prescription or penalty for the female I do not know."[99]
1959 – The fictional book Advise and Consent is released featuring the story of a married Mormon US senator named Brigham Anderson from Utah who has an affair with another man. It won a Pulitzer Prize and was later made into a film in 1962.[100][101][102] The novel's plot takes place during the ongoing 1950s McCarthyist Lavender Scare era when thousands of lesbian and gay applicants were barred from federal employment as national security threats under President Eisenhower's Executive Order 10450, and over 5,000 federal employees were fired under suspicions of being homosexual.[103][104]
1960s
1960 – Utah native and LDS-raised R. Joel Dorius (born 1919) would become an unwitting champion of gay liberation after he was arrested in Massachusetts along with two coworkers and fired from his language and visual arts Smith College professorship. His house was raided and beefcake fitness magazines with erotic images of men were found in what is now considered a McCarthyist gay witch hunt.[105][106][107] Along with a coworker, Dorius appealed the verdict of pornography possession to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and all three professors were exonerated as the raid warrants were deemed unconstitutional. The scandal has been dramatized in The Scarlet Professor and the PBS documentary The Great Pink Scare.[108][109][110]
1964 – Apostle Kimball addressed seminary and institute faculty on BYU campus calling homosexuality a "detestable crime against nature" that was "curable" by "self mastery".[2]: 33 [111] He cited one lay bishop (a businessman by trade) assigned by the church to administer a "program of rehabilitation" through which there had been "numerous cures". He said "the police, the courts, and the judges" had referred "many cases directly" to the church.[112][40]: 91
1965 – In a churchwide broadcast address the apostle Mark Petersen cited the movements to remove laws banning same-sex sexual activity in at least two US states as great evidence of apostasy, rejecting God, and society placing itself in the role of anti-Christ.[113]
1969 – Mark E. Petersen cites how homosexuality "was made a capital crime in the Bible" as evidence of the seriousness of same-sex sexual activity. He stated "immorality is next to murder" and "the wage of sin is death" and that a rejection of morality "may bring about [this nation's] fall" as with "Greece and Rome" unless there was repentance.[114][115]
1970s
1970 – Victor L. Brown of the Presiding Bishopric gave a General Conference address in which he called recent media reporting on a same-sex marriage "filth on our newsstands".[116][117]
1971 – In a conference address apostle Kimball called the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual activity a damnable heresy, and the voices speaking in favor of churches accepting homosexuals as ugly and loud.[118][119]: 5
1972 – Idaho laws which barred same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults were reinstated under heavy pressure from the LDS church after being repealed for three months. Mormon state senator Wayne Loveless who spearheaded the effort stated that the previous law would "encourage immorality and draw sexual deviates to the state."[120][121] The reinstated law restored the old wording that "every person who is guilty of the infamous crime against nature committed with mankind ... is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than five years."[122][123][124]
1974 – BYU president Oaks delivered a speech on campus in which he spoke in favor of keeping criminal punishment for "deviate sexual behavior" such as private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity. The speech was later printed by the university's press.[125][126][127]
1975 – LDS member Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was featured on the September 8 cover of Time magazine with the caption "I Am a Homosexual" for his challenging of the U.S. military ban against gay men and lesbian women.[128] He was subsequently discharged from the military for openly stating his sexual orientation[129] and excommunicated from the Church two months after the article was released.[24]: 442 [130]
1976 – BYU music professor Carlyle D. Marsden took his own life[131] two days after being outed by an arrest during a series of police sting operations at an Orem rest stop.[132][133][134]
1977 – The largely LDS Utah House of Representatives passed a bill outlawing same-sex marriages in the state by 71 votes to 3 without floor debate.[2]: 15
1977 – The Relief Society general president sent a telegram to Anita Bryant for her "Save Our Children" campaign which stated, "On behalf of the one million members of the Relief Society ... we commend you, for your courageous and effective efforts in combatting [sic] homosexuality and laws which would legitimize this insidious life style [sic]."[95]: 150 [135][136]
1977 – Under the name Affirmation: Gay Mormons United, the first Affirmation group was organized in Salt Lake City by a group of other Mormon and former-Mormon lesbian and gay people at the conference for the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights.[137][138][139]
1977 – Apostle Mark Petersen wrote in the Church News that every right-thinking should sustain Anita Bryant and should look at their own neighborhoods to determine how "infiltrated" they had become with gay people.[2]: 12 He also wrote that "homosexual offenses" were next to murder in the hierarchy of sins.[2]: 16 [141]
1977 – With an invitation from LDS church leaders, Anita Bryant performed at the Utah State Fair on the 18th.[142] Her presence prompted the first public demonstration from Utah's queer community,[143][144] organized by gay, former-Mormon pastor Bob Waldrop,[145][146] in what gay, former Mormon, and historian Seth Anderson[147] referred to as "Utah's Stonewall."[140]
1977 – At a backstage press conference Church president Kimball praised Anita Bryant's anti-gay "Save Our Children" crusade which sought to bar the passing of nondiscrimination laws which would protect sexual minorities from being kicked out of their homes, fired from their jobs, and banned from restaurants solely for their sexual orientation. He stated that she was "doing a great service."[95]: 150 He continued stating that "the homosexual program is not a natural, normal way of life" and that church bishops and college-educated church counselors can aid those with "homosexual problems."[2]: 12 [148][149]
1978 – The First Presidency released a statement on August 24 outlining reasons for their opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment including "unnatural consequences" like an "increase in the practice of homosexual and lesbian activities".[151]
1979 – Gay former Mormon Bob Waldrop who had served an LDS mission in Australia became a leader in the gay-inclusive Salt Lake Metropolitan Community Church.[146][152][153] In February 1977 his congregation had had its permission rescinded by Utah state Lieutenant GovernorDavid Monson (a Mormon) to hold a queer-inclusive church dance in the public Utah Capitol building.[154][95]: 159
1980 – The Ensign published an article stating that a passing of the Equal Rights Amendment would lead to legalizing same-sex marriage and children being raised in a homosexual home.[150][21]: 151
1981 – Church leaders sent every bishop and stake president a copy of a book on human sexuality and families by Church Welfare Services director[157] Victor Brown Jr. The book stated that equating same-sex relationships with opposite-sex marriage was fallacious and inconsistent, and that homosexual people were less disciplined and orderly in their relationships.[158]: 6 [159]
October – A march of about 15 gay post-Mormons calling themselves "Ethyl and Friends for Gay Rights" was given city permission to protest on public property around Temple Square during the church's general conference with signs like "We are God’s Children." The leader Randy Smith (whose drag performance name was Ethel) had previously undergone electroshock aversion therapy at BYU.[160][161][162]
1984 – Apostle Oaks wrote a church memo that informed church action on LGBT legislation for more than three decades.[2]: 38–39 [163] In it he recommended the church make a public statement to "oppose job discrimination laws protecting homosexuals" unless there were exceptions for allowing employers to "exclude homosexuals from employment that involves teaching ... young people". He also noted "the irony [that] would arise if the Church used [Reynolds v. United States]," the principal 1878 ruling stating that marriage is between a man and a woman, "as an argument for the illegality of homosexual marriages [since it was] formerly used against the Church to establish the illegality of polygamous marriages." Oaks also clarified that the word homosexuality is used in two senses: as a "condition" or "tendency", and as a "practice" or "activity".[163][164]
1986 – Twenty-six-year-old Clair Harward who was dying from complications due to AIDS was banned from church meetings for fear of spreading the disease.[165][166] His story made national headlines[167] and prompted a statement from a church spokesperson.[168][169][170]
1987 – Gordon Hinckley of the First Presidency gave a conference address in which he stated, "marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God .... Marriage should not be viewed as a therapeutic step to solve problems such as homosexual inclinations ...."[171]
1988 – On November 22 a 20-year-old man from a prominent Mormon family in Delta, Utah[172][173] and another Utah man raped, tortured, and brutally murdered Gordon Church—a 28-year-old, gay, Mormon, student—near Cedar City, Utah in an anti-gay hate crime before US hate crime laws existed.[174][175]
1990s
1990 – Church spokesperson John Lyons stated, "Since there is no marriage between homosexuals, then sexual activity between them is not acceptable under our principles."[176]
1991 – During a case hearing Young Men's president and church Seventy Jack H. Goaslind gave a testimonial and stated on record that "[the church] would withdraw" from the Boy Scouts of America if homosexual youth were allowed to join, implying a current church policy banning youth based on sexual orientation.[177][178] In March 1910 the church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association had adopted the Boy Scouts of America program as the church-wide program for young men in the US.[179]
1992 – Seventy Vaughn Featherstone decried the attempts at legalizing homosexuality during his lifetime as among compromising, drifting philosophies in his general conference speech.[180]
1992 – Then apostle Russell Nelson stated in general conference that the AIDS epidemic was a plague fueled by a vocal few concerned with civil rights and abetted by immoral people.[2]: 13 [181]
1993 – Packer gave a speech in which he identified social and political unrest from gay-lesbian movements as major invasions into the membership of the Church that leads them away.[182]
1993 – Apostle Oaks gave a conference address stating that "there are many political, legal, and social pressures for changes that confuse gender and homogenize the differences between men and women".[183]
1994 – The First Presidency issued a statement encouraging members to contact their legislators in an effort to reject same-sex marriage.[1][184]
1994 – Apostle Boyd K. Packer gave a conference address mentioning that changes in the laws around marriage and gender threaten the family.[185]
1994 – Apostle James E. Faust gave a speech at BYU in which he stated that same-sex marriage would unravel families, the fabric of human society.[186]
1995 – The LDS Church began actions opposing same-sex marriage laws including recruiting members to work with and donate to Hawaii's Future Today in opposition to efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Hawaii.[187] Pamphlets were spread in church meetings and church facilities were used to fax statements to legislative committees.[188] The campaign spanned years and the church reported giving $600,000 in 1998 to the Hawaiian political-action group Save Traditional Marriage '98.[189][190]
1995 – James E. Faust gave a First Presidency message that stated same-sex relationships would help "unravel the fabric of human society" and if practiced by everyone would "mean the end of the human family".[191]
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. It also teaches that gender is an essential part of one's eternal identity and purpose.[21]: 154–155 [22] The document has been submitted by the church in several amicus briefs as evidence against legalizing same-sex marriages.[17]
1995 – Gordon B. Hinckley gave an October General Conference talk in which he stated that "same-sex marriage" is an "immoral practic[e]".[26]: 45–46 [192][193]
1995 – Church Seventy Durrel A. Woolsey stated in general conference that Satan makes powerful and ungodly proclamations like "same-gender intimate associations and even marriages are acceptable."[194]
1996 – In California a letter was read to all congregations from the North American West Area Presidency encouraging members to contact their legislators in support of a California assembly bill (AB 1982) against the recognition of any same-sex marriages.[2]: 72
1996 – Salt Lake City became the only US city to have its Board of Education ban all students clubs after Mormon students Erin Wiser and Kelli Peterson[195][196] formed an East High School club called the "Gay/Straight Alliance" in September 1995. The club had cited a federal law sponsored by LDS Utah Senator Orrin Hatch which forbade school boards from discriminating against clubs, although, Hatch stated that the law was never meant to promote "immoral speech or activity". Four-hundred of Salt Lake's high school students protested the ban.[197][198] One Mormon senior at East High was quoted stating that he would rather all clubs be banned than allow the gay-straight alliance.[199] Additionally, Mormon state representative Grant Protzman[200][201] stated “I think that many legislators have serious concerns about the group’s moving into recruitment of fresh meat for the gay population."[202][203] Club founder Peterson responded that recruitment was not at all what the club is about, stating that it was founded to help her and her LGBT friends deal with a hostile school atmosphere where she faced physical and verbal assault as an out lesbian.[204][205] In response to the gay-straight alliance group, some students at West High formed the Student Against Faggots Everywhere (SAFE) group.[206][207][208]
1996 – BYU Spanish professor Thomas Matthews was reported to a top LDS authority for previously stating that he was gay in private conversations. He stated that BYU did not like that he was out of the closet despite being celibate and keeping BYU codes of conduct, and eventually left the university a few months later.[209] BYU president Lee had stated that it was "simply not comfortable for the university" for him to continue teaching there.[48][49]: 162–163 [50]
1997 – A poll of over 400 BYU students found that 42% of students believed that even if a same-sex attracted person kept the honor code they should not be allowed to attend BYU. The poll's stated 5 percent margin of error was criticized as being too low an estimate because of the cluster sampling in classes, however.[210]
1997 – Church president Hinckley stated at the World Forum of Silicon Valley that the church would "do all it can to stop the recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States."[2]: 73
1997 – Church seventy Bruce C. Hafen presented at the World Congress of Families in the Czech Republic. He stated that one thing that will unbridle societal principles and harm us was legalizing same-sex marriage and that, "if the law endorses everything it tolerates, we will eventually tolerate everything and endorse nothing—except tolerance."[211]
1997 – Church president Hinckley gave an interview in which he reaffirmed the stance that God made marriage for one man and one woman and that essentially gay people must live a "celibate life".[212]
1997 – General authorities Marlin Jensen, Loren Dunn, and Richard Wirthlin gave recommendations to the church Public Affairs Committee that the church's priesthood structure could be used to gather 70% of the required 700,000 signatures and raise up to $2 million to place an anti-same-sex-marriage ballot on California's June 1998 primary election.[2]: 74
1998 – The Church Handbook was updated encouraging members to appeal to government officials to reject same-sex marriage.[213]: 159 [21]: 166
1998 – The church donated a half million dollars[190][189] to oppose efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Alaska.[214][215]
1998 – Church president Hinckley stated again that the church could not support "so-called same-sex marriage".[216][217]
1999 – The Area Presidency of the North America West Area sent a May 11 letter to all area leaders directing members to donate their means and time to pass the Knight Initiative against same-sex marriage in California.[2]: 77 [218] A second letter invited church members to donate money, and a third letter (sent a month and a half before the proposition would pass) asked members to redouble their efforts in contacting neighbors and to place provided yard signs.[2]: 77–78 [219][220]
1999 – Prop 22 fundraising quotas were given for some stakes and wards (e.g. one stake had a goal of $37,500 and one ward's goal was $4,000).[2]: 77 Some local leaders wrote letter to members soliciting specific amounts.[2]: 77 [221]: 28 In some instances lawn signs were passed out in the church building after church meetings.[2]: 77 An estimated half of pro-Prop 22 money raised came from LDS members.[2]: 78 This direct involvement around same-sex marriage laws led certain groups to request the IRS reconsider the LDS Church's tax-exempt status.[221]: 28
1999 – Church president Hinckley stated in general conference that, "so-called same-sex marriage ... is not a matter of civil rights; it is a matter of morality. ... There is no justification to redefine what marriage is."[2]: 79 [222]
1999 – Some members of Affirmation staged a protest in Salt Lake City over the church's lobbying and funding of anti-same-sex-marriage initiatives in California and other states.[80]
1999 – Director of BYU's World Family Policy Center Kathryn Balmforth addressed the World Congress of Families in Geneva.[223][224] In her speech she stated that gay rights activists are part of an anti-family movement that is hijacking human rights by legal force to gain power and "curtail the freedom of most of humanity."[225]
2000s
2002 – With heavy influence from the LDS Church, Nevada state's Question 2 on amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage passed on the 5th after also winning a majority vote in the general elections two-years prior. A Nevada Mormon newspaper Beehive first reported the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage's intent to file an initiative petition in December 1999. The coalition raised over $800,000 by October 2000 from mostly Mormon-owned businesses and LDS individuals.[226] Mormon leaders had strongly encouraged members through letters with church letterhead to do campaign work and post yard signs distributed at church buildings.[227][228]
2004 – In May the church spokesperson stated the church had no position on Utah's proposed anti-same-sex-marriage amendment.[229][2]: 84 Polls showed 68% of Utah Latter-day Saints supported the amendment.[230][2]: 84 Then the First Presidency issued a July 7 statement saying the church favors a constitutional amendment barring the legal status of any marriage outside one between one man and one woman, but did not mention any amendment by name.[2]: 84–85 [231][232] A few months later on October 19 they expounded this stance to reference a national amendment.[233] The letter states that the church reaches out with understanding and respect for homosexual persons and realizes there may be great loneliness in their lives, but defend their stance.[1][234]: 10
2004 – Church president Gordon Hinckley gave an interview in which he did not support same-sex civil unions and spoke against same-sex marriage. He also stated that gay people have a problem that the church wants to help them solve, though, he said he did not know if they were born with this problem.[235]
2005 – The church published an article tying the term gender confusion to homosexuality stating, "If governments were to alter the moral climate by legitimizing same-sex marriages, gender confusion would increase, particularly among children, and this would further blur the line between good and evil."[236]: 123, 138 [237]
2005 – Shortly after Provo High School students started the first gay-straight alliance in the nearly 90% Mormon Utah County,[238] LDS state Senator Chris Buttars[239] announced a controversial bill to ban gay-straight alliances in Utah public schools.[240]
2006 – The church published an extensive April interview[241] with Oaks and Lance B. Wickman to clarify the church's stance on homosexuality.[241][242] In the interview, Wickman states that giving even same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships the same government rights given to opposite-sex marriage would not be appropriate.[53][217]
2006 – In April Apostle Russell M. Nelson signed a letter with other religious leaders urging the US government to pass an amendment banning same-sex marriage. On May 25 the First Presidency released another statement supporting the amendment and urging members to contact their senators.[243][234]: 10–11
2007 – Seventy Bruce C. Hafen addressed the 4th World Congress of Families in Poland on same-sex marriage.[247][248] Additionally, BYU Law professor Lynn D. Wardle presented and compared his warnings "tragic consequences" and "dangers of legalizing same-sex marriage" as the warnings of a Hungarian man warning Elie Wiesel's town about the dangers the incoming Nazis posed to the Jewish population there. He also stated that if same-sex marriages were legalized there would be no basis to deny polygamous or incestuous marriages, and a decreased ability to "protect their children from exposure to gay propaganda."[249][250]
2008 – The First Presidency again urged California members to do all they can by giving effort and time to help pass a state amendment banning same-sex marriage in a June 29 letter.[111][251] A few months later Apostles Ballard and Cook and L. Whitney Clayton gave an October 8 satellite broadcast[252] to all California members titled "The Divine Institution of Marriage Broadcast." In the broadcast they asked members to donate four hours per week and to set aside Saturdays morning to calling people and other efforts supporting the passage of Prop 8. They clarified that tolerance does not mean tolerating transgression, and noted the existence of temple-worthy members attracted to the same sex. Additionally, a video[253] of Apostle Bednar answering youth's questions was shown from the church's official website PreservingMarriage.org.[254] Members were directed to register on the coalition website ProtectMarriage.com.[255][256][257]
November – The Courage Campaign produced a controversial California-aired television ad depicting Mormon missionaries invading a lesbian couple's house and taking their rings and marriage license.[258][259][260] The ad elicited a statement from a church spokesperson.[261] The group also created a petition asking the LDS church to stop funding and advocating for Prop 8 which gained over 16,000 signatures.[262]
2008 – After the 4 November 2008 close passing of California's Prop 8 banning same-sex marriage in which the LDS church was heavily involved, over two thousand protesters gathered at the Los Angeles LDS temple on November 6. The next day nearly five thousand protesters gathered at the Salt Lake Temple.[84][85][83][263] That evening a candlelight vigil by about 600 mothers of LGBT children was also held at the Salt Lake Temple.[86][87]
2008 – Seventy L. Whitney Clayton stated that the church does not oppose benefits like health insurance and property rights for same-sex civil unions or domestic partnerships.[264]
2008 – A chapter of an activist group called for vandalizing LDS meetinghouses in response to their political involvement with Prop 8.[265][266] Some Bash Back! members spray painted slogans chapels and put glue in the locks.[266] More moderate gay rights groups condemned the actions of the Bash Back! group.
2009 – After anti-gay comments he made in a documentary interview became public, LDS bishop and state senator Chris Buttars was removed from a Senate committee for breaking an agreement with Senate leaders not to publicly speak on LGBT topics.[267][268][269] He stated gay marriage was a "combination of abominations" that would never come to Utah because of his power and influence, and that he had consulted with other states on using Utah as a model for blocking "protection for the gays".[270][271][272]
2009 – Church PR director Michael Otterson gave a statement at a Salt Lake City Council hearing in support of a proposed city anti-discrimination ordinance which would protect LGBT individuals.[275]
2010 – In a special meeting for some Oakland, California members it was reported that church Seventy and historian Marlin K. Jensen apologized to straight and gay members for their pain from the California Prop 8 campaign and some other church actions around homosexuality.[63][64][65]
2010 – Boyd K. Packer delivered an October conference address stating that The Family: A Proclamation to the World "qualifies according to the definition as a revelation", and described same-sex marriage as one of "Satan's many substitutes or counterfeits for marriage".[12][278][279]
2011 – A BYU law student published the book Homosexuality: A Straight BYU Student’s Perspective[281][282][283] containing arguments in favor of same-sex marriage for which he stated he was threatened with expulsion.[284][285][286]
2011 – Celibate gay Mormon Drew Call was denied his temple recommend renewal and fired from his LDS church printing office job for refusing to give up his gay friends.[45][287][53]
2011 – BYU fired a gay broadcasting department faculty member. The employee stated that BYU had become an increasingly hostile work environment[47] and that being gay played into his being fired.[46]
2012 – The apostle Oaks stated that members should assume that children of same-sex couples face the same disadvantages of single and unmarried parents.[288][289]
2013 – Apostle Russell Nelson gave a speech discussing the controversy around same-sex marriage and church teachings. He admonished members to gain understanding of the church's position through prayer, pondering, and listening to conference.[290]
2013 – On the 20th same-sex marriages became legally recognized in Utah and within two hours the first same-sex couple was married. They were two former Mormons, medical researcher Michael Ferguson[291] and historian Seth Anderson.[147][292][293]
2013 – On Christmas Eve Leisha and Amanda LaCrone became the first same-sex couple married in San Pete County, Utah, after being illegally denied the day before.[294] They came from LDS backgrounds, and later reported being harassed by LDS leaders over a disciplinary council in 2016.[295][296][297]
2013 – Apostle Russell M. Nelson gave a CES devotional discussing the debate around same-sex marriage.[290]
2013 – On the 20th of December same-sex marriages became legally recognized in Utah and within two hours the first same-sex couple was married. They were two former Mormons, medical researcher Michael Ferguson[291] and historian Seth Anderson.[147][292][293]
2014 – A letter on same-sex marriage was sent to all congregational leaders to be shared with members. The letter reiterated church stances and urged members to review the Family Proclamation and called for "kindness and civility" for supporters of same-sex marriage.[298]
2014 – An amicus brief was filed by the church with the US Tenth Circuit Court in defense of Utah's recently overturned Amendment 3 banning same-sex marriage in the state. The brief summarized the church's stance on marriage while stating that the church held no "anti-homosexual animus".[299][300][301]
2014 – A former bishop Kevin Kloosterman, who had received media attention for speaking out for LGBT Mormons while a current bishop,[302][303][304] received further coverage for being denied entrance to the temple by his bishop as directed by a church seventy in part because of his support of same-sex marriage.[305]
2014 – BYU student Curtis Penfold who had been at the university for over two years was kicked out of his apartment, fired from his job, and expulsed from BYU after disagreeing with LDS teachings on LGBT rights.[308][309][310]
2014 – The apostle Eyring stated at an international colloquium on marriage in the Vatican that "We want our voice to be heard against all of the counterfeit and alternative lifestyles that try to replace the family organization". His statement was quoted in the April 2015 general conference by Apostle Tom Perry.[311]
2015 – Church leaders held a "Fairness for All" news conference on January 27 supporting LGBT non-discrimination laws for housing and employment that would also protect religious individuals.[312] Apostle Christofferson called for a balance between religious freedom and LGBT rights. Apostle Oaks followed stating that the church rejects persecution based on gender or sexual orientation and called for legislation protecting religious freedoms and LGBT citizens in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Apostle Holland closed outlining the church's stance on religious freedom.[313][314][315]
2015 – In early March the church released a public statement[316] and employed its lobbyists[317] to garner support for a proposed nondiscrimination and religious rights bill which would grant housing and employment protection for LGBT persons in Utah. Though similar bills had failed 6 times before,[318] SB 296 was passed on March 11 and another statement of church approval was released.[319] the new law (nicknamed the "Utah Compromise")[320] passed and was praised by many.[321][322]
2015 – Prominent gay member Josh Weed (who received media attention when he came out in 2012) and his wife stated their support for same-sex marriage when quotes from them were used without permission in an amicus brief opposing it ahead of the oral arguments in the Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges case.[323][324][325]
2015 – After a disciplinary council on February 10, John Dehlin was excommunicated from the LDS church in part because of his visible advocacy for same-sex marriage,[326][327][328] and his stake president had previously stated that, "if you come out openly in support of [same-sex marriage] that is a problem."[329] An appeal was denied by the church's highest authority.[330]
2015 – The apostle Christofferson gave an interview in which he acknowledged the diversity of sociopolitical views among church members and stated that advocating for same-sex marriage on social media or holding political beliefs differing from official church stances would not threaten a member's standing in the church, though, he said the church would never accept same-sex marriage.[331][332][333]
2015 – The church filed an amicus brief with the Sixth Circuit Court on a pending consolidated same-sex case stating that allowing same-sex marriage would "impede the ability of religious people to participate fully as equal citizens".[334][335][336]
2015 – Three days after the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage the First Presidency sent a letter to be read to every US congregation affirming changing US law would not change God's moral law. The letter clarified that leaders should not perform same-sex marriages, and that any church property cannot be used for activities related to same-sex marriages.[337][338]
2015 – D. Todd Christofferson stated that members who openly supported LGBT marriage would not be excommunicated.[339]
2015 – Top church leaders sent out another letter to be read in all US congregations reaffirming the church's position on marriage and calling for civility.[340]
2015 – A church statement is released saying leaders are "deeply troubled" and re-evaluating its scouting program, as a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) policy change permits openly gay scout leaders.[341] A later announcement said the church will stay in the BSA program, despite the change.[342]
2015 – Presidency of the Seventy member Rasband gave a BYU address (later reprinted in the Ensign)[343] in which he addressed concerns about the church's involvement in politics. He shared hypothetical stories of a man fired for being gay and a woman marginalized at work for being Mormon and bemoaned that it is less politically correct to empathize with the religious woman. He invited listeners to discuss LGBT rights and religious freedom and to write comments on his Facebook post.[344][345]
2015 – An update letter to leaders for the Church Handbook was leaked banning a "child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship" from several ordinances. The policy update also added that entering a same-sex marriage as a type of "apostasy", mandating a disciplinary council.[348][13] A few days later around 1,500 members gathered across from the Church Office Building to submit their resignation letters in response to the policy change with thousands more resigning online in the weeks after[349][350][351][15]
2015 – Utah married couple April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce were denied guardian rights over their foster child because of their sexual orientation by BYU graduate,[352] former stake presidency counselor,[353] and Mormon bishop[354] judge Scott Johansen, leading to calls for his impeachment and resulting in his retirement.[355]
2016 – BYU and church policies on LGBT persons got the spotlight[356][357] as these served as a deterrent in their football team being considered as a Fall addition to the Big 12 Conference,[358][359][360] a consideration which was ultimately denied.[361][362]
2016 – Church spokesperson Dale Jones spoke against passing any LGBT-related laws which could affect the balance of religious liberty and gay rights.[363] The statement was in reference to proposed Utah hate crime bill SB107 which would add sexual orientation to the current list of characteristics protected from hate crimes in Utah.[364] The bill failed as it had in past years and its Mormon Republican sponsor criticized his church for its opposition to the bill citing the church's press release as the reason for its failure.[365][366]
2016 – In June the Mexican area authority presidency had a letter read in congregations around the country urging members to oppose the national legalization of same-sex marriage and pointed them to the political organization Conciencia Nacional por la Libertad Religiosa.[367][368]
2016 – After a court ruling, the parent company over one of the largest LDS dating sites, LDSsingles.com, was required to allow same-sex dating as an option.[369][370]
2016 – Young Women's General President Bonnie L. Oscarson gave a conference speech in which she stated that Mormons shouldn't avoid speaking boldly against Satan's lies like same-sex marriage out of fear of offending gay people.[371][372]
2017 – The Boy Scouts of America announced in January[373] that transgender boys can join their troops prompting a wait-and-see response from the church.[374][375][376] The church withdrew its support of the program for older teens four months later, though it denied any link to the policy changes around LGBT people.[377][378]
2017 – SB 196 was signed into law which overturned the "no promo homo" laws which had banned "advocacy of homosexuality" while allowing for negative discussions in public schools. Former Mormon Troy Williams of Equality Utah was a driving force behind the change, and he stated that they had worked together with the LDS Church and the majority Mormon legislature to change the laws. One paper stated that the LDS Church was largely behind the reasoning for the laws and anti-gay culture of Utah.[381][382][383] Similar laws were still enforced in seven conservative states mostly in the Southern US as of 2017.[384]
2017 – An Ensign article by Seventy Larry Lawrence stated that "same-sex marriage is only a counterfeit" and quoted a canonized LDS scripture where Jesus[385] warns that a counterfeit "is not of God, and is darkness".[386][387]
2017 – A Fourth of July parade in the over 75% LDS town of Provo, Utah,[388] reportedly gave permission then denied entry the day before the parade to the new Provo LGBT Mormon resource center Encircle garnering national attention.[389][390][391]
2017 – An instructor at the church's BYU-Idaho reported being fired after refusing to take down a post on her private Facebook page in support of LGBT rights.[392][393]
2017 – Minutes from a February 2014 Layton, Utah meeting for stake leaders were released without authorization in which the apostle L. Tom Perry stated that supporting same-sex marriage would "incriminate" members seeking to renew their temple recommend. The importance of opposite-sex marriage was stressed with the statement that Jesus and the prophets believed in it and that allowing evil like same-sex marriage to grow would destroy the basic family unit and bring calamities.[394][395][396]
2017 – The Pacific area presidency sent a letter to be read in September in all Australian congregations which reemphasized the church's position against same-sex marriage and parenting and urged members to "vote their conscience" in the upcoming national referendum on the issue.[397]
2017 – The LDS Church signs an amicus brief supporting wedding cake bakers discriminating against same-sex couples in a Colorado court case.[398][399][400]
2017 – The apostle Oaks lamented the increase in public acceptance of same-sex marriage and acknowledged the conflicts with friends and family that opposing this acceptance could cause. He further stated that despite the conflict church members should choose God and the LDS Church's plan and way.[401][402]
2017 – Apostle Dallin H. Oaks speaks in General Conference about "The Plan and the Proclamation". He states that "Converted Latter-day Saints believe that the family proclamation is the Lord's reemphasis of the gospel truths we need to sustain us through current challenges to the family like same-sex marriage and cohabitation without marriage.[403]
2017 – In response to a question about LGBT young single adults in the church, apostle Ballard tells BYU students in a campus-wide event that church leaders believe "core rights of citizenship should be protected for all people — for LGBT people, for people of all faiths," and that "reasonable compromises" should be found "in other areas when rights conflict."[404][405][406]
2018 – BYU Student Life hosted the first church-university-hosted LGBT campus event.[407][408] It featured a panel of four students answering student-submitted questions.[409][410][411]
2018 – After a controversy over BYU's policies around LGBT people, a conference for the US Society for Political Methodology was moved off of campus citing a "long-strained relations between the LGBTQ community and BYU"[412] and concerns over the university's ban on homosexual behavior which the Society repudiated along with "the intolerance it represents."[413][414][415]
2018 – Hours after agreeing to a non-discrimination clause in order to receive local tax funds the Provo Freedom Festival board denied LGBTQ groups a spot in the parade for the second year in a row sparking public outcry and criticism from Provo's mayor and Utah County Commissioner. One of these groups included a float of local Mormon LGBTQ veterans representing Mormons Building Bridges.[418] After negotiations, the festival leaders decided to allow the groups to march.[419][420][421] However, the day before the parade one LGBT group was almost forced out of the grand parade, and the groups were told they could not have rainbow flags.[422][423]
2018 – Church leaders' continued denial of BYU LGBT students' years of requests to form a club on campus received national coverage.[424][425]
2018 – The documentary Church and State—which highlighted the events surrounding the battle for same-sex marriage in Utah—debuted at the Broadway Theatre in Utah.[426]
2019 – The November 2015 policy was changed to say same-gender marriage by a church member will no longer be considered "apostasy" for purposes of church discipline, although it would still be considered "a serious transgression".[427]
2019 – Church president Nelson acknowledged that many countries, including the United States, had legalized same-sex marriage, but stated that God has not changed His definition of marriage.[428]
2019 – The apostle Oaks stated the teachings of the Family Proclamation would not change, and that it's reference to gender meant "biological sex at birth" and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.[429] A few days later he stated, "our knowledge of God's revealed plan of salvation requires us to oppose current social and legal pressures to retreat from traditional marriage and to make changes that confuse or alter gender or homogenize the differences between men and women." and that leaders of the Church must always teach the unique importance of marriage between a man and a woman.[430][431]
2020s
2021 – In an address to faculty and staff at BYU, Apostle Holland called for "a little more musket fire from this temple of learning" in "defending marriage as the union of a man and a woman."[432]
2021 – Businessman Jeff Green publicly announced he was leaving the LDS Church and donating $600,000 to the LGBT rights organization Equality Utah. Writing to the president of the Church, Green said, "I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women's rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights."[433]
2021 – The U.S. Department of Education began a civil rights investigation of BYU to determine if the university's discipline of LGBTQ students violated the scope of the university's Title IX exemptions.[434][435]
2022 – The U.S. Department of Education dismisses the civil rights investigation of BYU regarding the university's discipline of LGBTQ students, determining that the university was acting within its rights under its approved Title IX exemptions and that the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights lacked jurisdiction to investigate further.[436]
2022 – The church released a statement in support of the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill which would require the states and the federal government to recognize legally performed same-sex marriages.[437][438]
^Beaver, Michelle (March 11, 2011). "Mormon church has a fractured history with gays". The Mercury News. San Jose, CA: MediaNews Group, Inc. Bay Area News Group. 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.
^Petrey, Taylor G. (February 4, 2015). "My Husband's Not Gay: Homosexuality and the LDS Church". Religion & Politics. Washington University in St. Louis. John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. 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.
^Moore, Carrie A. (November 6, 2008). "California's Prop. 8". Deseret News. LDS Church. 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.
^ abBrooks, Joanna (September 28, 2010). "Mormon Leader: 'I'm Sorry' For Hurtful Legacy of Prop. 8". Religion Dispatches. University of Southern California Annenberg. Archived from the original on June 4, 2014. 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.'
^Oakes, Amy (October 3, 2012). Diversionary War: Domestic Unrest and International Conflict (1st ed.). Stanford University Press. p. 125. ISBN978-0804782463. 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.
^Musser, Amos Milton (April 17, 1858). "Papers of Amos Milton Musser: Private Journal". heritage.utah.gov. Utah State Historical Society. 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.
^Cannon, George (October 6, 1897). Sixty-Eighth Semi-Annual Conference. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Publishing Company. pp. 65–66. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
^Clark, J. Reuben (December 1952). "Home and the Building of Home Life". Relief Society Magazine. 39 (12): 793–794. ... [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.
^Marcus, Eric. "Morris Foote". makinggayhistory.com. Pineapple Street Media. 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.
^Barclay, Donald (April 22, 1981). "Coming Out in Boise". University News. Boise State University. p. 9.
^Gerassi, John G. (November 1, 2001). "The Boys". The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City (Reprint ed.). Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 30, 31. ISBN0295981679. '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.'
^Clark, J. Reuben (April 1957). Sexual Sin(PDF). Scriptures.BYU.EDU: LDS Church. p. 87. Archived from the original(PDF) on July 1, 2015. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^Tapper, Jake (October 6, 2006). "A Brief History Of Gays In Government". ABC News. 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.
^Simon, Scott (September 2, 2009). "At 50, a D.C. Novel With Legs". The Wall Street Journal. 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.'
^Rich, Frank (May 15, 2005). "Just How Gay Is the Right?". The New York Times. 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.'
^Sears, Brad; Hunter, Nan D.; Mallory, Christy (September 2009). Documenting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in State Employment(PDF). Los Angeles: The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA School of Law. pp. 5–3. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 6, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2022. 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.
^"An interview with David K. Johnson author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government". press.uchicago.edu. The University of Chicago. 2004. 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.
^Kimball, Spencer W. (July 10, 1964). A Counselling Problem in the Church. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University. pp. 1–21. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
^"Idaho Repeals New Consenting Adult Code". The Advocate. May 10, 1972. p. 3. 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) ....
^Painter, George (2001). "The Sensibilities of Our Forefathers: The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States". glapn.org. Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. 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.
^Oaks, Dallin (1974). "The Popular Myth of the Victimless Crime". The LDS Church Educational System Commissioner's Lecture Series. BYU Press: 8. 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.
^"Davis Man Found Dead in Vehicle". Ogden Standard Examiner. March 10, 1976. p. 11A – via Newspapers.com. Carlyle D. Marsden was found in his car along Nichols Road dead from a pistol wound of the chest.
^Weist, Larry (March 16, 1976). "Homosexual Suspects Arrested in Utah County". Daily Herald. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^Weist, Larry (March 16, 1976). "Homosexual Suspects Arrested in Utah County". Daily Herald. p. 4. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^ abDobner, Jennifer (June 2, 2017). "Salt Lake City's hidden LGBT history documented in new book". The Salt Lake Tribune. 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.'
^Petersen, Mark (July 9, 1977). "Unnatural, without Excuse". Church News. LDS Church. Deseret News. p. 16.
^O'Donovan, Connell (May 27, 2007). Affirmation: Singing the Songs of our Redemption, 1977 to 2007 (Speech). Affirmation 30th Anniversary Conference. Holladay, Utah United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. 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.'
^Briscoe, David (September 19, 1977). "Gay, Anti-Gay Pickets Parade at Anita's Show". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. p. 6A. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. 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.'
^"Tear Gas Used to Disperse Utah Anita Bryant Protesters". The Daily Herald. United Press International. September 19, 1977. p. 10. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^Wetzel, Paul (September 19, 1977). "Both Sides 'Greet' Anita Bryant". The Salt Lake Tribune. pp. 19, 28. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^"LDS Leader Hails Anti Gay Stand". The Salt Lake Tribune: D3. November 3, 1977 – via Newspapers.com. ... 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.
^"Kimball Praises Bryant". The Daily Herald. United Press International. November 6, 1977. p. 17. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^O'Donovan, Connell (May 27, 2007). Affirmation: Singing the Songs of our Redemption, 1977 to 2007 (Speech). Affirmation 30th Anniversary Conference. Holladay, Utah United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. 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.
^"Rotunda Denied To S.L. Church". The Salt Lake Tribune. February 19, 1977. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. 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.'
^Brown Jr., Victor (1981). Human Intimacy: Illusion & Reality. Parliament Publishers. pp. 21–22. ISBN9780884944416. 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.
^Williams, Ben (October 12, 2005). "This Week in Lambda History". Metro. 2 (21): 16. 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.
^"Gay Activists to Picket LDS Temple". The Salt Lake Tribune. October 2, 1981. p. D6 – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^"Group Marches for Gay Rights". The Salt Lake Tribune. October 5, 1981. p. B6 – via Newspapers.com. 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 ....
^Anderson, J. Seth (May 29, 2017). LGBT Salt Lake: Images of Modern America. Arcadia Publishing. p. 61. ISBN9781467125857. Retrieved May 21, 2017. 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.
^"Died Sunday of AIDS". Orlando Sentinel. March 18, 1988. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2022. 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.
^Semerad, Tony (June 9, 1996). "A Mormon Crusade In Hawaii Hawaii: Church Aims to End Gay Union". Salt Lake Tribune: B1. 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.
^O'Hara, Mary Emily (May 11, 2015). "How Utah's Schools Went From Homophobic War Zones to Crowning a Trans Prom Queen". The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast Company LLC. 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?
^Brooke, James (February 28, 1996). "To Be Young, Gay and Going to High School in Utah". The New York Times. p. B8. 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.
^"Dispute began at East High in 1995". Deseret News. LDS church. March 20, 1998. 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.
^Collins, Lois M. (August 8, 1997). "Panelists say church, state separate in Utah". Deseret News. LDS church. 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.'
^Dockstader, Julie A. (June 20, 1992). "Serving the community". Church News. LDS church. Grant Protzman, Young Men president of the Ben Lomond Stake, said it was hard work in a hot sun.
^Florio, Gwen (February 23, 1996). "In Utah, School Clubs Banned to Stop Gay Meeting". The Philadelphia Inquirer – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^Florio, Gwen (February 23, 1996). "In Utah, School Clubs Banned to Stop Gay Meeting". The Philadelphia Inquirer – via Newspapers.com. 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.
^Sahagun, Louis (February 22, 1996). "Utah Board Bans All School Clubs in Anti-Gay Move". Los Angeles Times. '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.'
^Florio, Gwen (February 25, 1996). "School-Club Access Law Comes Back to Haunt". Tallahassee Democrat. p. 7A. 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 ....
^Mims, Bob (October 5, 1998). "Church Funds Initiative to Ban Same-Sex Marriages in Alaska". The Salt Lake Tribune – via Newspapers.com. 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
^Balmforth, Kathryn. "Hijacking Human Rights". Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society. Archived from the original on February 13, 2016. 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.'
^McBride, Dennis (2002). "Question 2". outhistory.org. The New School. 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
^McBride, Dennis (April 1, 2017). "Wholesome Hate". knpr.org. National Public Radio. 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.
^Arave, Lynn; Hardy, Rodger L. (February 10, 2003). "88% of Utah County is LDS". Deseret News. LDS church. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
^McGregor, William C. (January 30, 2006). "Buttars shames LDS Church". Deseret News. LDS church. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
^ abOaks, Dallin H.; Wickman, Lance B. (September 2006). "Same-Gender Attraction". Newsroom (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by LDS Church Public Affairs staffers. Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church. See also the Salt Lake Tribune archived transcript here.
^Wardle, Lynn D. "The Attack on Marriage As the Union of a Man and a Woman". worldcongress.org. Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. 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.
^"Excerpts from the Broadcast". LDS Church. October 8, 2008. Archived from the original on November 7, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2016.((cite news)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Bednar, David A. "Elder Bednar Speaks With Youth". PreservingMarriage.org. LDS Church. Archived from the original on November 7, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2016.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Duffy, John-Charles (2010). "Elders on the Big Screen: Film and the Globalized Circulation of Mormon Missionary Images". Peculiar Portrayals: Mormons on the Page, Stage and Screen. University Press of Colorado. pp. 140–141. doi:10.2307/j.ctt4cgr9g.8. ISBN9780874217735. JSTORj.ctt4cgr9g.8. 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.
^"Prop. 8 foes criticized for Mormon missionary home invasion ad". Catholic News Agency. November 4, 2008. 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.'
^Grigsby Bates, Karen (October 30, 2008). "Mormons Divided On Same-Sex Marriage Issue". NPR. 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.
^"Prop 8 Protesting Turns Ugly". KXTV. Sacramento, California. November 10, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2009. 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.
^Winslow, Ben; Norlen, Clayton (February 22, 2009). "Buttars broke vow of silence, senator claims". Deseret News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2022. 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.
^Abplanalp-Cowan, Reed (February 2, 2016). "Utah's Gay Marriage Ban. Worth it?". Huffington Post. ... 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.'
^Winters, Rosemary (January 27, 2010). "Filmmaker says photographer wore BYU jacket in Buttars interview". The Salt Lake Tribune. 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.')
^Rivero, Daniel (May 2, 2016). "Law student says he was almost expelled for writing in favor of gay marriage". Fusion. Yahoo! - ABC News Network. Fusion Media Network, LLC. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. 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.
^Zavadski, Katie (March 31, 2015). "Lose Your Faith, Get Expelled at BYU". Daily Beast. [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.
^ abDicou, Natalie (November 28, 2016). "This Is Your Brain on God". University of Utah Health Sciences. University of Utah. Archived from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022. [L]ead author Michael Ferguson, Ph.D. ... carried out the study as a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Utah.
^Laurie, Goodstein (June 18, 2014). "Mormons Say Critical Online Comments Draw Threats From Church". The New York Times. 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 ....
^Fortenbury, Jon (September 28, 2014). "The Health Effects of Leaving Religion". The Atlantic. 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.
^Goodstein, Laurie (January 15, 2015). "Mormon Church Threatens Critic With Excommunication". The New York Times. 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.
^Goodstein, Laurie (February 10, 2015). "Mormon Church Expels Outspoken Critic: John Dehlin Says He Was Ousted for Backing Gay Marriage and Gender Equality". The New York Times. 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.
^"New stake presidents". Church News. LDS church. March 17, 2012. Price, Utah YSA Stake: (Feb. 26, 2012) ... Counselors — ... Scott Nixon Johansen, 61, judge for the State of Utah; wife, Laurel Sitterud Johansen.
^Oscarson, Bonnie (October 2016). "Rise Up in Strength, Sisters in Zion". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS Church. 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.
^"LGBT students at BYU speak out about lack of inclusion". Seattle Times. Associated Press. March 19, 2018. 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 .
^"Tribune Editorial: It's time for BYU to welcome gay and transgender students with open arms". The Salt Lake Tribune. March 17, 2018. 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.