Gender identity and roles play an important part in Mormon theology which teaches a strict binary of spiritual gender as literal offspring of heterosexual, cisgender Heavenly Parents.[1]: 69–70 [2][3] Part of Sunday church meetings are currently divided by biological sex,[4] and for most of the 1800s church presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young had men, women, and children sit separately for all Sunday meetings.[5]: 410, 413–414 Studies that shape current psychological understanding of expressions and identities for sexuality and gender show strong evidence that gender and sexuality are "separate, but related" aspects of a person[6] and stem from similar biological origins.[7] Church leaders first mentioned "transsexual" people in their official policy book in 1980.[8]: 27
In the past leaders taught that in the premortal life individuals chose whether to live as male or female during mortality, and that poor choices during their time on earth could demote them back to a genderless condition.[9]: 214[1]: 83 For example, church president Joseph Fielding Smith, stated that those who did not reach the celestial kingdom in the afterlife would be "neither man nor woman, merely immortal beings".[10]
Current teachings
Current teachings on gender identity include an official church website on homosexuality which states that "same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria are very different ... those who experience gender dysphoria may or may not also experience same-sex attraction, and the majority of those who experience same-sex attraction do not desire to change their gender. From a psychological and ministerial perspective, the two are different."[11] Other notable teachings on gender have included an official statement made in 1995 by the LDS Church's First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles which states that "gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose".[2]
LDS Church leaders have stated that they have unfinished business[12] in teaching on the difficult and sensitive topic of transgender individuals.[13] Church spokesman Eric Hawkins stated in March 2016 that LDS bishops recognize that "each case is different" and "difficult and sensitive" and that they recognize the "emotional pain" many gender minorities feel. He also reaffirmed the church's views that "gender is part of our eternal God-given identity and purpose" and stated that the Church does not baptize "those who are planning trans-sexual [sic] operations" and that undergoing a "trans-sexual [sic] operation" may imperil the membership of a church member,[14][13] which seems to include gender-affirming surgery like chest surgery (i.e. top surgery).[15]
Baptismal candidates considering gender-affirming surgery are not allowed to be baptized, and those who have already had one need special clearance from the First Presidency through the local full-time mission president before baptism.[16][17]: 145 Subsequent rituals (called ordinances) such as receiving the priesthood and temple endowments, however, are only done according to birth sex.[18][8]: 64 Members that gender express through clothing or a pronoun change differing from their sex assigned at birth will receive membership restrictions and a notation on their membership records.[18][19] All people are allowed to attend church meetings.[18][20]
Many conservative groups within Mormonism have disagreed with the Church's more accepting stance on transgender people who don't transition, viewing it (and LGBTQ rights in general) as a threat to the traditional family unit. The Mormon-affiliated Deseret Nation (#DezNat) community on Twitter, while praised by conservative members of the Church, has been criticized as inciting violence against transgender individuals and the broader LGBTQ community, ex-Mormonapostates (blood atonement), and pornographic film actors.[21]
Criticism
A study at the church's largest university, Brigham Young University (BYU), concluded that due to the explicit discouragement of social and surgical transitioning, it is difficult for trans people to feel seen, valid, or safe even if they want to attend meetings and adhere to church teachings.[22]: 32 Laurie Lee Hall stated that church policies are built on a false premise equating gender and sex at birth, and give no place for trans members like her.[18] Aria Bauman criticized her local church leaders as being exclusionary for banning her from attending church meetings in a dress.[19] Author Charlotte Scholl Shurtz stated that the focus on God as a cisgender, heterosexual couple excludes transgender, nonbinary, and intersex members and enshrines cisnormativity.[1]: 69 She further said that current teachings ignore transgender and intersex people and deny exaltation and godhood to non-cisgender individuals.[1]: 77, 79
While the exact portion of LDS Church-goers who identify as something other than cisgender is unknown, a large 2021 survey of BYU students found that .7% noted their gender identity as transgender or something other than cisgender male or female.[23] Over 98% of BYU students are church members.[24] For nationwide comparison, a 2017 meta-analysis of 20 separate large surveys (with sample sizes ranging from over 30,000 US adults to over 165,000 each) found a conservative estimate of .39% for the portion of US adults who self-identify as transgender.[25]
Several transgender and other gender diverse individuals with Mormon background have received media attention. These include:
Others who have shared some of their experiences include Kimberly Anderson, Alex Autry, Augustus Crosby, and London Flynn[38] as well as former and current BYU students, Jami Claire, Kris Irvin, Cammie Vanderveur, and Andy Winder.[39]
In society at large, LGBT individuals, especially youth, are at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide.[40][41] A key factor in determining mental health wellbeing is family acceptance and support, and feelings of isolation and rejection are correlated with suicidality.[42] Studies show transgender and other gender diverse (TGD) individuals tend to have much better outcomes when their family members are affirming.[42]
Some transgender LDS individuals have reported their experience with suicidal ideation during their involvement with the LDS Church. Former stake president and church architect Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated by her Utah local leaders in June 2017 for socially transitioning to express her gender identity as a transgender woman. She had experienced years of suicidal ideation and gender dysphoria before being released as a stake president in 2012 due to her identity and had come out to her entire congregation a year prior to her excommunication in July 2016.[29][43] Alison Kluzek reported that she was suicidal during a time after coming out to her LDS parents as a trans woman while they initially refused her request to begin transitioning by hormone therapy. She felt that they would either have a dead son or a new daughter.[44] Transgender individuals are permitted to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to "ease gender dysphoria or reduce suicidal thoughts". If they are "not attempting to transition to the opposite gender" they may still hold callings (assigned church responsibilities), temple recommends, and have the ability to do ordinances.[45][46][47]
One of the first documented instances of a gender-non-conforming church member was in 1858 when 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. Church president Brigham Young subsequently sent him south to "never return", so Grow appointed Musser as guardian of his daughter.[50][51] Another instance of gender non-conforming dress occurred in the 1880s when then apostle (and later church president) Wilford Woodruff wore a dress and sunbonnet as a disguise while hiding in southern Utah from law enforcement over his outlawed polygamous marriages.[52][53]
B. Morris Young, a founder of the church Young Men's program and a son of church president Young, began performing in drag as a Vaudeville female impersonator Madam Pattirini. He sang opera in falsetto throughout Utah into the early 1900s, and his gender-non-conforming act was well-received at church social events. Historical evidence does not point to Young being a sexual or gender minority.[54][5]: 232
In February 2020 the LDS Church issued a new General Handbook of policies, which included a section on individuals born intersex.[18] The new policies and guidelines noted that for persons born intersex, the decision to determine a child's sex is left to the parents, with the guidance of medical professionals, and that such decisions can be made at birth or can be delayed until medically necessary.[55][47]
Prior to the 2020 changes in church policy and guidelines, the LDS Church had no publicly available policy or statements on intersex persons.[56]: 284 The only publicly available policies were around binary transgender persons who were accepted in the church and could be baptized, but could not receive the priesthood or enter the temple if they were considering or had undergone elective sex reassignment surgery with no mention of those who were born with physically ambiguous or biosex-non-conforming physical traits and features, or for non-binary, agender, or genderqueer individuals who did not undergo surgery.[57]
Criticism
Previously, author Duane Jeffery criticized LDS teachings around intersex individuals as falling short on including real-world biological complexity.[58]: 108 He estimated there were hundreds of intersex church members based on conservative estimates of global population rates.[58]: 112 Kimberly Anderson, an LDS intersex person, stated that the existence of intersex people shatters the church's gender-binary hierarchy and plan of salvation.[56]: 286–287 LDS urologist Dr. David Hatch stated that if top church leaders say gender is permanent and eternal then they can't include intersex people which creates a conflict.[56]: 287
Further teachings on gender
Church leaders and scholars have made a number of statements regarding gender. For instance, the apostleDavid A. Bednar has stated that gender defines much of who we are, why we're on earth, and what we do and become since god made male and female spirits different as part of a divine plan.[3] Another apostle, Russell Ballard taught that the mortal natures of men and women were specified by God.[59] Additionally, apostle Harold B. Lee taught that the "so-called 'transsexuality' doctrine" was hellish and false since God didn't place female spirits in male bodies and vice versa.[60]: 232 [61] Church president Spencer W. Kimball addressed the BYU student body in 1974 and stated that sex reassignment surgeries were an appalling travesty.[62]
Members outside of top leaders have also discussed gender. Scholars at the church-owned BYU created a book on the Family Proclamation discussing Mormon views on eternal gender distinctions.[63] In contribution to a work on the Family Proclamation, Robert Millet wrote going against church-taught gender roles would cause unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment before and after death.[64]
Current church stances on gender identity and expression and sexual orientation are that they are different and that there is "unfinished business in teaching on [transgender situations]".[65][12] The official website on homosexuality states that "same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria are very different ... those who experience gender dysphoria may or may not also experience same-sex attraction, and the majority of those who experience same-sex attraction do not desire to [socially or surgically transition]. From a psychological and ministerial perspective, the two are different."[11]
In the past the church taught that homosexuality was caused by gender non-conformity or confusion about gender roles, and the vast majority of allusions to gender minorities were made from the perspective of discussing the etiology and mutability of minority sexual orientations rather than non-cisgender gender identities and expression per se.[9]: 7, 11–12, 52, 92 [66]: 164–165 [67] On several occasions while discussing homosexuality, church leaders have alluded to their belief that the homosexual individual may be confused about their gender identity or gender roles.[8]: 31, 36 [67][68][66]: 164–165 Examples of this include the following:
1971 – Presiding BishopVictor L. Brown stated in general conference, "men should look and act like men and that women should look and act like women. When these differences are ignored, an unwholesome relationship develops, which, if not checked, can lead to the reprehensible, tragic sin of homosexuality."[66]: 164 [69]
1973 – A guide for bishops and stake presidents titled "Homosexuality: Welfare Services Packet 1" stated that homosexuality was related to gender confusion and that the man or woman must learn proper behavior for their respective sex.[9]: 80 [70]
1976 – A general conferenceaddress by apostle Boyd K. Packer stated that gay attractions are not inborn or permanent since "there is no mismatching of bodies and spirits" and boys are meant to be "masculine, manly men".[9]: 99 [66]: 164 [71] The speech was later printed in a widely distributed pamphlet from 1980 to 2016.[72]
1978 – The apostle Packer further stated that same-sex sexual behavior is often rooted in the desires of an insecure woman or man to try and become more feminine or masculine respectively.[9]: 90 [73]
1981 – In the April general conference, church seventyHartman Rector Jr. stated that homosexual people were not born that way because "[t]here are no female spirits trapped in male bodies and vice versa."[9]: 100 [74][75]
1981 – A church guide for LDS Social Services employees instructed that "the homosexually oriented man ... does not fully understand how a masculine man is supposed to think and act."[9]: 92 [76]
1993 – Packer gave his May 18 "Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council" (composed of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, and the Presiding Bishopric)[77] in which he stated that a man who self-identifies as a homosexual has "gender disorientation".[78][79]
1995 – The church's Family Services manual advised practitioners that "in the homosexual male this core gender identity has become confused".[80]
2006 – The apostle Jeffrey R. Holland was interviewed by PBS in March during which he used the phrase "struggling with gender identity" and "gender confusion" as synonyms for homosexuality.[81]
2006 – In an interview, Lance B. Wickman of the Seventy used the term "gender orientation" five times as a synonym for "sexual orientation".[66]: 165 [82]
^Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops. Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church. 2010. Archived from the original on November 15, 2017 – via Internet Archive. The mission president must conduct an interview and receive authorization from the First Presidency before a prospective convert may be baptized and confirmed if the person ... Has undergone an elective transsexual operation. ... A person who is considering an elective transsexual operation may not be baptized or confirmed. ... However, [persons who have already undergone an elective transsexual operation] may not receive the priesthood or a temple recommend.
^"Report on the Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault". BYU. March 2022. p. 2. this report represents responses from students who completed the survey in Spring 2021. Email invitations were sent to 32,141 BYU students; ... 13,451 completed the survey, for a response rate of 42%. ... Key demographics include the following: ... Gender: 45% male, 54% female, and 0.7% transgender or other. ... Sexual orientation: 92% straight, 5% bisexual, 2% gay/lesbian, 1% other sexual minority
^Meerwijk, Esther L.; Sevelius, Jae M. (February 2017). "Transgender Population Size in the United States: a Meta-Regression of Population-Based Probability Samples". American Journal of Public Health. 107 (2): e1–e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303578. PMC5227946. PMID28075632. [O]ur final analysis included 20 samples. Table 1 describes each of these samples in more detail. Among them, 6 samples (30%) were drawn from the general population and 14 (70%) from college and university students and adult inmates. ... The estimated proportion of transgender individuals based on surveys that categorized transgender as gender identity was 0.39% (95% confidence interval [between 0.16% and 0.62%]). ... A conservative estimate extrapolating our meta-regression results ... suggests that the proportion of transgender adults in the United States is 0.39% ... and almost 1 million adults nationally. Our estimate of 0.39% is not quite as high as the 1% that was posited on the basis of a qualitative review.
^Brown, Jennifer (September 25, 2015). "Alison's Story". The Denver Post. It was a crisis of faith that left Alison open to feel and to discover her identity. Half a year before she considered that she was transgender, Alison began questioning her belief in the Mormon Church. ... Alison now says that 'being trans and being in the church is like being in an abusive relationship.'
^Levin, Sam (October 25, 2016). "Mormon and gay: church says you can be both, but activists say it isn't enough". The Guardian. Ann Pack, a transgender woman who has tried to stay active in the church, said the website 'is a step forward, albeit a very small step forward'. She said that although she supports the message that 'we need to love everyone', the church should not exclude people in same-sex relationships. 'They should be included and welcomed, not just the people who choose to be celibate,' she said.
^Greene, David. "Misty Snow Aims To Be The Nation's First Transgender Senator". KUER-FM – via NPR. Snow: You know, I was raised LDS myself so I kind of know that culture. Most of my family's LDS. A lot of my friends are LDS. ... I didn't, like, have a lot of support to transition when I was younger, so I ended up doing it kind of more, like, a more - like, over the last few years. ... Yeah. When I was, like (unintelligible) I didn't have support from my mother to transition and, you know, so I put that off for a long time.
^Christensen, Jen (June 28, 2023). "Transgender people face significantly higher suicide risk, Danish study finds". CNN. Retrieved February 10, 2024. The study of more than 6.6 million people found that those who identified as trans had 7.7 times the rate of suicide attempts and 3.5 times the rate of suicide deaths than the broader Danish population.
^Brown, Jennifer (September 25, 2015). "Alison's Story". The Denver Post. Their initial response to hormones was unequivocal: no way. ... Alison, meanwhile, became a recluse. It was the summer of long, solitary walks, of curling up in a ball, crying into her pillow. ... The pain was unbearable, and I just wanted it to end. I saw two endings to this.' In one of them, she did not survive. It came down to this question, ringing in Erik's head: 'Do you want a dead son who committed suicide, or do you want a new daughter?' ... It was a crisis of faith that left Alison open to feel and to discover her identity. Half a year before she considered that she was transgender, Alison began questioning her belief in the Mormon Church. ... Alison now says that 'being trans and being in the church is like being in an abusive relationship.'
^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.
^Smith, Daymon Mickel (2007). The last shall be first and the first shall be last: Discourse and Mormon history (PhD). University of Pennsylvania. p. 77. ProQuest304833179 – via ProQuest. [Wilford] Woodruff often hid in southern Utah, though his notoriety led to suspicions cast on anyone nearby. ... Seemingly benign requests for eggs or flour became, once Woodruff was around, indicators that the neighbors were potential spies. Yet [Emma] Squire does not report any action which verified this assumption; instead, Woodruff concealed himself in a 'mother hubbard' dress, and avoided anyone he did already trust.
^"Early LDS prophet goes undercover in dress, sunbonnet". The Spectrum. St. George, UT. Gannett. July 12, 2006 – via Newspapers.com. Emma Squire made him a 'Mother Hubbard' dress and sunbonnet, similar to the ones she wore. He put them on when he went back and forth from the house so people passing could not recognize him. ... Years later, Emma met one of Woodruff's granddaughters and learned that they still had the 'Mother Hubbard' dress and bonnet in the family. They had often wondered who made them for him. They knew the items had been used for many years when he was in hiding.
^Ballard, M. Russell (April 2002). "Women of Righteousness". Ensign. LDS Church. pp. 66–69. The premortal and mortal natures of men and women were specified by God Himself. ...[Sometimes women] ask: 'Is a woman's value dependent exclusively upon her role as a wife and mother?' The answer is simple and obvious: No. ...Every righteous man and woman has a significant role to play in the onward march of the kingdom of God.
^Be Ye Therefore Perfect. LDS Church. September 17, 1974. Event occurs at 24:24 – via BYU. [I]t is hard for me to understand why men wish to resemble women and why women desire to ape the men. ... Then we're appalled to find an ever-increasing number of women who want to be sexually men and many young men who wish to be sexually women. What a travesty! I tell you that, as surely as they live, such people will regret having made overtures toward the changing of their sex. Do they know better than God what is right and best for them? Alternative YouTube and Internet Archive links.
^Brown Jr., Victor L.; Bergin, Allen E. (1973). Homosexuality: Welfare Services Packet 1. LDS Church. The guide stated that lesbians "needs to learn feminine behavior", and the gay men "must be introduced to and learn the heterosexual or 'straight' way of life ... and what a manly priesthood leader and father does".
^Packer, Boyd K. (1978). To The One. LDS Church. [O]ne cannot increase masculinity or femininity by deviate physical contact with one of his own gender. ... When one projects [him or herself] in some confused role-playing way with those of the same gender in an effort to become more masculine or more feminine, something flips over and precisely the opposite results ... a female can become, in her emotions, less feminine and more masculine and confused ... because the body cannot change, the emotional part may struggle to transform itself into the opposite gender [sending the individual] on a hopeless, futile quest for identity where it can never be achieved.
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