Contents:
- “MORMONS N BE GAY, THEY JT N’T DO GAY”: DENSTCTG SEXUALY AND INTY OM AN LDS PERSPECTIVE
- MORMON AND GAY: CHURCH SAYS YOU N BE BOTH, BUT ACTIVISTS SAY ISN'T ENOUGH
- CAN YOU BE BOTH MORMON AND GAY?
- RISG NUMBERS OF YOUNG ADULT MORMONS THE US ARE GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
- ‘MORMON AND GAY’? THE CHURCH’S NEW MSAGE IS THAT YOU N BE BOTH.
- THE MORMON CHURCH ANNOUNC PRO-HOMOSEXUALY POLICY — BUT GAY PARISHNERS SLAM AS NOT ENOUGH
“MORMONS N BE GAY, THEY JT N’T DO GAY”: DENSTCTG SEXUALY AND INTY OM AN LDS PERSPECTIVE
Now he and his wife Elizabeth are featured promently on “Mormon and Gay,” discsg how they have grown together as the new materials gave them the tools for “a healthy dialogue.”. As public opn – and scientific unrstandg – on sexualy has shifted wh remarkable speed, many nomatns, cludg Mormon lears, have had to grapple wh a difficult qutn: How do they mata tradnal doctre that homosexual acts are sful, while acceptg and misterg to gay and lbian Mormons who scerely wish to rema part of their church?
Senr church lears ll the new materials “simply an update” om the webpage “Mormons and Gays,” released 2012 on a doma unaffiliated wh the church’s official webse.
MORMON AND GAY: CHURCH SAYS YOU N BE BOTH, BUT ACTIVISTS SAY ISN'T ENOUGH
“Church Teachgs” is loted on a separate page; roughly 1,700 words and five vios on “lovg one another” prece the first direct statement that “homosexual activy is a s.”. Fulmer, who self-intifi as a gay Mormon and is featured on the new webse, said the new materials “give a steppg stone to have more open munitn about this and to te others on how to help and how to rpond to somebody who is gay.”.
Trevor Johnson, a gay man who was raised Mormon but rigned his membership after gettg engaged, said, “When I first me out, the most damagg thg was feelg like people didn’t believe me that I was attracted to men. Keetch both say they have bee more ted on homosexualy through their volvement producg the materials — a two-year procs which volved the church learship, LGBT advocy groups and mental health profsnals.
In a church found on the ncept of ntual revelatn, many members qutn what those “future updat” uld be — cludg whether the church will revoke s ntroversial policy on the children of gay parents.
CAN YOU BE BOTH MORMON AND GAY?
Prr to 1950Homosexualy regard by church as “s that dare not speak s name” 1952“Homosexualy” is ed publicly by a senr church lear for the first time, lled an “abomatn” parable to masturbatn and btialy1969Homosexualy regard as “curable” by a senr church lear; beg “forced” to heterosexual relatnships is enuraged 1976Church-sponsored Brigham Young Universy nducts electroshock therapy for 14 gay Mormons1978-81Church fac public backlash for opposg Equal Rights Amendment, argug uld extend legal protectn to “lbian and homosexual marriag” 1990sLears beg referrg to homosexualy as same-genr attractn, acknowledgg the realy of sexual attractn while nmng the s of actg on those feelgs 2008-09Church attempts to balance “relig liberty and nondiscrimatn” polil advocy, mpaigng agast legalizatn of gay marriage California and supportg a nondiscrimatn ordance Salt Lake Cy2012Church “gay” for the first time public munitns.
RISG NUMBERS OF YOUNG ADULT MORMONS THE US ARE GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
In a seri of vios on “Mormons and Gays,” lears ask members to “fd mon ground” while “beg te to relig beliefs”2015“Handbook of Instctn” for church lears is updated wh a new policy barrg children of same-sex upl om church baby blsgs and baptism. Same-sex marriage is regard as apostasy and grounds for exmunitn2016Church lnch new “Mormon and Gay” sectn on s official webse, which Mormon lears ll for creased dialogue about homosexualy, and gay Mormons share their experienc as active, celibate church members.
But none of the top church lears ordaed to the hight level of the prithood have mented on the new materials, somethg Mayne said is ditive of a wars towards a perceived “gay agenda” at the hight levels of the church. He hop the church’s top learship will speak wh homosexual married upl to unrstand that “a gay uple is really two Mormon people hopg to e as close as possible to everythg that we value and hold ar as a relign: fai, mted relatnships, lovg one another. This exchange reveals the pable tensn faced by a church attemptg to both nmn same-sex marriage and clu gay members — all while navigatg a ti of creasgly antagonistic public opn.
For example, the recent “Strangers Zn” effort enuragg Latter-day Sats to requt church disciple “ solidary for other wrongfully exmunited and otherwise discipled Latter-day Sats”1 was -iated by the father of a gay-intified son and was partly rponse to the proposed disciplary actn of John Dehl, which is purportedly related to his LGBT advocy efforts. To beg, I chose as the tle of my talk a statement that ptur nicely a trifecta of social nstctn, rctnism, and ntroversy: “Mormons say you n be gay, you jt n’t do gay. When we tegorize people rctively as “gay, ” “straight, ” or “bisexual, ” or as simply a pot along the Ksey Sle, assum that sexualy is one-dimensnal and that exists upon a sgle lear ntuum.
‘MORMON AND GAY’? THE CHURCH’S NEW MSAGE IS THAT YOU N BE BOTH.
The popular cultural myths that eher people are “born gay” or that they chose to be homosexual or that their homosexualy is ed by parental nurturg (or lack thereof) are all rctnistic and nnot expla much, if anythg, about the velopment of sexualy and sexual sire.
The Amerin Psychologil Associatn’s official pamphlet addrsg sexual orientatn nces this pot, notg that ultimately, “There is no nsens among scientists about the exact reasons that an dividual velops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lbian orientatn.
”8 Some rearchers have postured that there is no such thg as “homosexualy, ” but rather “homosexuali”—that there are multiple sub-populatns wh different etlogi makg for qualatively different experienc of sexualy that all lay wh a broad and diverse umbrella we ll “homosexualy” or “same-sex attractn. Anyone who is “heterosexual” knows they are not attracted to all or even most people of the oppose sex, and those who are “homosexual” know they are not attracted to all or even most people of the same sex.
THE MORMON CHURCH ANNOUNC PRO-HOMOSEXUALY POLICY — BUT GAY PARISHNERS SLAM AS NOT ENOUGH
Given the diversy of experience, and the varied persistence of that experience, for whom might homosexual behavr bee a s and for whom is simply unfair, as some would characterize, to require dividuals who experience homosexual attractn to live the standards guidg sexual behavr and relatnship as articulated by Church lears?
Also, while there has likely been homoerotic attractn, sire, behavr, and even relatnships, among humans as long as there have been humans, the narrativ through which sexualy is unrstood and rporated to one’s sense of self and inty is subjective and culturally fluenced.