The Mormon Church is at a crossroads over LGBTQ+ folks. There’s only one right way to go.

Mormons for Marriage Equality, San Francisco Pride 2013
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Despite assertions of immutability and consistency, the positions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) on sexuality and gender have proven fragile and changeable across time.

Throughout much of the 19^th century, for example, plural marriage between a man and multiple women was taught as an “everlasting covenant” that would never be abolished. Under intense scrutiny and pressure from the US government, the Church officially abandoned the practice in 1890 and currently teaches that only marriage between one man and one woman is ordained by God.

Another fundamental shift in LDS sex and gender teachings is its discourse around homosexuality. Since the 1950s, LDS elites consistently framed homosexuality as an evil and viral contagion that would destroy individual, familial, and societal well-being. They demonized and condemned homosexuals, implementing policies that promoted conversion therapy and made identifying as homosexual, gay, or lesbian an excommunicable offense. Today, the Church allows people to…

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