Tag Archives: Mormon Church

Two positive Utah stories today but now this. Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: Mayor Michelle Kaufusi has signed a new agreement with America’s Freedom Festival that includes a non-discrimination clause, but it apparently does not mean that LGBTQ groups will be allowed to march in the July 4 parade. Five LGBTQ groups that asked to be …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Three years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court made gay marriage legal in every state, but the LDS Church still hasn’t listed same-sex couples in its massive genealogy databank. Not surprising, perhaps, given the Utah-based faith’s opposition to same-sex marriage. But change is coming to the genealogy resource — and soon. The church’s genealogical …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is ending its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America and will create new youth programs for its members. The church said the move will be effective Dec. 31, 2019, according to a news release. The announcement comes soon after the Boy Scouts of America changed their …

The Associated Press reports: Thomas S. Monson, the 16th president of the Mormon church, has died after overseeing the religion for nine years. He was 90. Monson died Tuesday night at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils — making him a well-known …

Newsweek reports: The Mormon church hates self-love. Masturbation should be strictly banned because it can turn young people into homosexuals and criminals, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes, according to a leaked guidebook issued to members. The 1981 guidebook, released this week by the transparency group MormonLeaks, provides some insights into what many young Mormons have been …

The Deseret News reports: Gov. Gary Herbert slammed Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, as a “Mormon bigot” Wednesday after Bannon accused Mitt Romney of hiding behind his LDS faith to avoid serving in Vietnam. The governor called it “a low blow because of politics” that was disappointing. “This smacks of good old-fashioned Mormon bigotry. I think …

Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: Nearly all of the Utah State Senate has signed on in support of a Colorado shop who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in a case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah [photo], …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: A prominent gay-rights activist and former U.S. presidential candidate hopes to build “the biggest, loudest and most comprehensive” legal case ever mounted for revoking the tax-exempt status of the Mormon church. Republican political operative Fred Karger, a longtime critic of LDS Church involvement in California’s 2008 Proposition 8 campaign, said Thursday he has amassed a …

Rolling Stone reports: For Neon Trees’ Tyler Glenn, his solo debut is as political as it is personal. Two years after the singer came out to Rolling Stone and declared himself equally proud of being both gay and a practicing Mormon, his song “Trash” and its accompanying video clearly denounce the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ restrictive, conservative …

 The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Rusty Andrade was prepared to lose. But it still felt like a punch to the gut Wednesday as he watched, from a seat on the Senate floor, lawmakers vote to kill a proposal to bolster Utah’s hate-crime laws. “It totally feels like a revictimization,” said Andrade, 35, whose 2014 beating by two men shouting gay …

For real. He said that. The Huffington Post reports: A top Mormon leader made some eyebrow-raising claims about the gay community during a visit to Chile last week. During a Feb. 23 meeting, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) Elder David A. Bednar claimed that he and his fellow Mormons “do not discriminate” against gay and lesbian …

White Jesus has apparently delivered a personal message to the president of the Mormon Church. The Salt Lake Tribune reports: After same-sex marriage became legal in several countries, including the United States, the LDS Church’s top 15 leaders wrestled with what to do, weighed all the ramifications, fasted, prayed, met in the temple and sought God’s guidance on the issue. Balancing …

Two-time 1984 Olympics gold medalist Peter Vidmar has resigned his chairmanship at USA Gymnastics to become a missionary for the Mormon Church. You may recall that Vidmar resigned from directing the United States gymnastics team at the 2012 London Games following media furor over his participation at anti-gay rallies and his donations to Proposition 8. USA Gymnastics has issued a …

The Associated Press reports: Several hundred people with roots in the Mormon faith gathered in Salt Lake City on Saturday to renounce the church’s new policies targeting gays and their children in an event that marked the latest illustration of the fervor the rule changes have caused. Billed as a mass resignation by Mormons, people filled out paperwork and dropped …

National Center for Lesbian Rights head Kate Kendell has quit the Mormon Church over its recent policy statement on gay couples and their families. From her op-ed in the Washington Post: I just did something I thought I would never do. I resigned my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and asked that my …

In a statement that will surely incite evangelical outrage, the head of the Mormon Church has denounced Kim Davis. The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, cannot use her Christian faith as a justification for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gays, a high-ranking Mormon authority said Tuesday. Public officials “are not free to apply …

The Mormon Church has made its first-ever donation to an LGBT organization. Ben Winslow reports for Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: The LDS Church quietly made a $2,500 donation to the non-profit Utah Pride Center to help its efforts with LGBT homeless and youth. The money, coming in the form of access to the Bishop’s Storehouse, will provide food for …

As you can see in the tweet above, there were two pieces of good news out of Utah last night as the “license to discriminate” bill is dead for this legislative session. The clip below was posted to Gov. Herbert’s official YouTube channel.

Miranda Blue writes at Right Wing Watch: Next week, American Religious Right leaders including the Southern Baptist Convention’s Russell Moore, pastor Rick Warren, Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput, and Latter-Day Saints official Henry Eyring will be joining opponents of LGBT equality from around the world at an interfaith conference on the “complementarity of man and woman in marriage” hosted by …

The Mormon Church has finally formally acknowledged that its founder Joseph Smith married as many as 40 women, one of whom was only 14 years old at the time. Elder Steven E. Snow, the church historian and a member of its senior leadership, said in an interview, “There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we …