Past and current attitudes & policies

Past LDS attitudes towards homosexuality:

Homosexuality is not mentioned in the three uniquely Mormon religious texts which are considered inspired by God and authoritative: the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants (D&C), or the Pearl of Great Price . ₁

D. Michael Quinn is gay, an ex-member of the church, and ex-professor of history at Brigham Young University. He was excommunicated in 1993. Now an independent researcher, he has suggested that Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), was relatively accepting of gay and lesbian relationships. ₂ He published a book titled: "Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans - a Mormon Example." in 1996. In 2001, it was popular enough to be printed in paperback. ₃

Reviews of his research are mixed:

"With the meticulous record keeping of of the Mormon Church and its members, a lot of evidence is presented suggesting remarkable tolerance of homoeroticism until the mid-1950s both within the Mormon Church and Utah. Citing evidence from Mildred J. Berryman's earliest community study of Lesbians and Gay Men in America, that took place in Salt Lake City between 1916—1938, personal diaries, articles from official Mormon Church publications and other sources, one gets the idea that Salt Lake City was never as straight nor as straitlaced as some would have the world believe." ₄

"Quinn carefully sets the theoretical parameters of his work in the first chapters and then demonstrates, with thorough documentation, several examples of long-term relationships among Mormon same-sex couples and the environment in which they flourished. His extraordinary accomplishment is especially notable for the subtlety of his claims and the nuanced interpretation he gives them, all supported by exhaustive documentation."

"Excellent read, and hits the history of Mormon attitudes regarding same-sex dynamics right on the nail's head. As one who has had first hand experience with both Mormonism and same-sex dynamics, I can assure you this book covers the these topics with astounding factual evidence and is devoid of any biasing, or personal agendas."

"Quinn has offered his readers quotations that are sometimes obviously wrenched out of context and paraphrases that often distort the meaning of crucial texts." ₅

Additional information about same-sex couples in the LDS can be found in Rocky O'Donovan's essay: "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature: A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980." ₆

Current LDS attitudes towards homosexuality:

The LDS church is currently very strongly opposed to equal rights for gays and lesbians. They maintain that their position has remained unchanged through their history.

They teach that a member cannot be excommunicated simply because they have a homosexual orientation, as long as they remain celibate.

Daniel Peterson, a professor at Brigham Young university and the author of many books and articles on church doctrine said in an interview:

"To be a practicing homosexual is something that will bring you into contact with the church court. To be a homosexual as such, to be of that inclination, there's nothing excommunicable about that and there are lots of them in the church. It must be a terribly difficult road to walk." ₈

However, church policies are not always interpreted consistently; ex-members are occasionally seen on Usenets describing how they were excommunicated from the church because news of their sexual orientation became public, even though they have never been sexually active.

The church expects the same behavior among heterosexuals, bisexuals, gays and lesbians. Daniel Peterson said:

"... the standard for a homosexual is the same as the standard for a heterosexual. No sexual relations except within [opposite-sex] marriage. And if you violate that, that is one of the most serious things the church will look at. In that sense, there's no discrimination; there's a single standard that if a heterosexual male violates his marriage covenants, he's likely to be disciplined, whether it's with a man or a woman." ₈

Current LDS beliefs about homosexuality:

Mormons refer to homosexuals as being "same-sex attracted." Their current beliefs are similar to that of most other conservative Christian churches. They believe that:

The church's teachings could conceivably be altered at any time, as the LDS church believes in continual revelation from God. In the past, they have been able to adapt to two major upheavals of their social policy. The first revelation occurred in 1890. It suspended, at least temporarily polygyny as the preferred lifestyle. They received a second revelation in 1978 which reversed their racist policies against African-Americans. However, Harold Brown, the church's official spokesman on homosexuality, said that no amount of press coverage or activism is going to influence God to change the rules about homosexuality. Brown said: "Being black is not a sin...Being immoral is." ₇

Abandonment of gays and lesbians by Mormon families:

D. Michael Quinn commented in a PBS interview about the special problems of gays and lesbians within a Mormon family. According to Mormon theology, if a family is righteous enough, they will be together after death. Many Mormons try to conform to the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church so that they will remain a unit in Heaven. Unfortunately, this pro-family belief system can be profoundly destructive to those families that include a child who happens to have a homosexual or bisexual orientation.

Quinn said:

"... when you're gay you realize you don't fit that picture. And when you come out to your parents as gay, their fear is indescribable, because it's not just that they've lost their image of you in terms of this heterosexual perception they have of you. Their fear is beyond the fear of other parents, because their fear is that they have the opportunity of having you with them for eternity, and now they've lost it because you are a disgusting homosexual, and nothing disgusting can be in the presence of God." ...

"LDS families are in this double bind, because they're told when they have gay children, [to] follow that which is true. Avoid even the appearance of evil, and homosexuality is evil. So there has been almost a kind of expectation that if your child will not conform, then you should abandon them. ... And yet many families find this extremely difficult to do -- not only the physical abandonment, but to give up the faith that this child, this homosexual child, and maybe his partner or her partner for life may want to be with that family eternally. And it creates this huge faith disjunction." ...

"You have to develop a private faith, which I have, that God accepts all loving relationships. But this separates you from the orthodoxy of the Mormon Church, and many gays and lesbians cannot make that step. They accept themselves as inferior eternally, because they've never been taught otherwise, and they don't have the individual testimony that I do. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is my faith. So for the mass of Mormon families this is an unresolvable tragedy." ₈

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Cindy LeFevre, "Homophobia as a Weapon of Patriarchy", 1993 Affirmation Conference. Online at: http://www.affirmation.org/
2. Jeff Ofstedahl, "Their tithing dollars at work; a look at Mormon influence in America's gay political scene -a history of hypocrisy (Parts I & II)," Echo Magazine, Phoenix, AZ, 1996-SEP and OCT.
3. D. Michael Quinn, "Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example," University of Illinois Press, (1996) A book review is available at: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s The book can be ordered from: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/
4. Duane E. Jennings, "Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example - Book Review," at: http://www.affirmation.org/
5. G.L. Mitton & R.S. James, "A response to D. Michael Quinn's homosexual distortion of Latter-day Saint history," FARMS review of books, 10/1 (1998), 141-263.
6. Rocky O'Donovan, "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature": A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980," at: http://www.affirmation.org/
7. Katherine Rosman, "Mormon Family Values," The Nation, 2002-FEB-25, at: http://www.thenation.com/
8. "The Mormon Church and Gays," PBS, 2007-APR, at: http://www.pbs.org/
9. Jennifer Dobner, "Activists contend Mormon attitudes are a factor in struggles of gay members," Canadian Press, 2010-OCT-25, at: http://www.google.com/

Copyright © 1998 to 2010 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2010-OCT--25
Author: B.A. Robinson