Homosexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[29][30][4] These current teachings and policies leave homosexual members with the options of attempting a mixed-orientation opposite-sex marriage,[3]: 27 [31]: 108 or living a lifetime of celibacy without any sexual expression.
[34] Since the first recorded mentions of homosexuality by top church leaders, teachings and policies around the nature, etiology, mutability, and identity around same-sex romantic and physical attractions have seen many changes through the decades.
[41] For example, global church leaders (called general authorities) in the past unambiguously pronounced over 30 purported causes of homosexuality (e.g. addiction,[42][43] contagion, recruiting, domineering mother,[44] selfishness[45][45]: 36–38 ) and denied biological explanation.
Though the church's position of homosexual behavior as sinful has remained the same, the tone in rhetoric from top leaders has gone from confrontational condemnation to sympathetic concern for those "afflicted" with same-sex attraction.
[91]: 381 [24]: 377 That same year the church's largest school Brigham Young University (BYU) began its on-campus electroshock aversion therapy program attempting to eliminate or diminish homosexual attractions which lasted over three decades into the mid-1990s.
[99]: 114 However, one man's heterosexual misconduct (coupled with forsaking a ministry) was described in the Book of Mormon as the "most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost.
[24]: 4, 8 [104] For example Mormon Tabernacle Choir director Evan Stephens never married a woman but had intimate relationships and shared a bed with a series of male domestic partners and traveling companions.
[24]: 125 Additionally, LDS-raised sociologist Kimball Young cited the early church's practice of sealing men to each other as evidence of latent same-sex romantic desires.
[111] During the early days of the church, when same-sex sexual activity by a member was suspected, the accused was sometimes disfellowshipped or excommunicated, and from 1852 on, under the church-controlled Utah Territory legislature, any sex between males was punished by the courts.
[113] One of the more prominent instances of same-sex erotic activity by a Mormon man in the early 20th century was that of the presiding patriarch Joseph Fielding Smith.
[6] According to church teachings, after their deaths non-celibate gay and lesbian individuals will not be allowed in the top tier of heaven to receive unless they repent, and a heterosexual marriage is a requirement for exaltation.
[10][11] In the LDS Church's cosmology God the Father is a heterosexual man married to at least one Heavenly Mother, and reproduction for exalted beings is an important element of the afterlife.
[127] In order to receive church ordinances such as baptism, and to participate in temple rites, adherents are required to abstain from same-sex relations or any sexual activity outside a legal marriage between one man and one woman.
[136][137][14] These policies also barred such couples' children—either adopted or biological—from being baptized, confirmed, ordained, or participating in mission service until reaching adulthood or obtaining parental consent and permission from the First Presidency.
"[85][148] In the church's plan of salvation noncelibate gay and lesbian individuals will not be allowed in the top tier of heaven to receive what's called exaltation to become like God unless they repent, and a heterosexual marriage is a requirement.
[154] Another instance was a Church employee who described in a 2011 article how his stake president denied his temple recommend (resulting in him getting fired from his job) simply because of his friendship with other gay men and his involvement in a charity bingo for Utah Pride.
[154] One former LDS bishop and temple ordinance officiator Antonio A. Feliz said that his Peruvian mission was directed in the early 1960s[155] by South American area authorities to not teach known homosexuals.
[165]: 15, 20 However, half (53%) of church members said small private business should be able to deny products and services to gay or lesbian people for religious reasons.
[177] According to current church policy, transgender and other gender diverse members who have undergone an “elective transsexual operation” are banned from temple rites or receiving priesthood authority.
[187] Prominent LGBT former members include writer Dustin Lance Black, singer Tyler Glenn, historian D. Michael Quinn, gay rights activist Leonard Matlovich, and attorney Kate Kendell.
[206][207][16] A 2011 online survey of over 3,000 individuals who no longer believe church truth claims found that around ten percent would consider returning if (among several changes) LGBT persons were accepted and treated equally.
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%.
[215] Historians Michael Quinn and Connell O'Donovan have argued these comments "essentially advocated anti-Gay violence",[77] and that the church itself endorsed such behavior by continuing to publish Packer's speech in pamphlet form.
[217] The policies and treatment of LGBTQ individuals have prompted several protests and mass resignations including the following: Because of its ban against same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage the LDS Church has a long history of teaching that its adherents who are attracted to the same sex can and should attempt to alter their feelings through righteous striving and sexual orientation change efforts (also called conversion therapy or reparative therapy).
[23]: 13–19 While the LDS Church has somewhat softened its stance toward LGBTQ individuals in recent years, leaders continued to communicate into 2015 that changing one's sexual orientation was possible through personal righteousness, prayer, faith in Christ, psychotherapy, and group therapy and retreats.
[31]: 108 [243][244] The study found that engaging in mixed-orientation marriages and involvement in the LDS Church were correlated with higher rates of depression and a lower quality of life for LGBT people.
For instance, in 1851 under Brigham Young's theocracy over the newly formed Utah Territory in the western US,[248] the church-selected legislature passed a law banning any man from "sexual intercourse with any of the male creation" with penalties left to the courts' discretion.
[108]: 1200 Church 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.
[255][165]: 20 In society at large LGBT individuals especially youth are at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide[257][258] due to minority stress stemming from societal anti-LGBT biases and stigma, rejection, and internalized homophobia.
[263][264][265] In January 2016 the LDS Church mourned over reported suicides of LGBT Mormons and stated that leaders and members are taught to "reach out in an active, caring way to all, especially to youth who feel estranged or isolated.
