Homosexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Political Involvement

Political Involvement

The church gets involved politically if there is a perceived moral issue at stake. M. Russell Ballard says the church is "locked in" if anything interferes with the principle of marriage being between man and a woman, and a very careful evaluation is made to determine what is appropriate and what is not. The church opposes same-sex marriage, but does not object to rights regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference. Following two months of negotiations between top Utah gay rights leaders and mid-level church leaders, the church supported a gay rights bill in Salt Lake City which bans discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing and employment, calling them "common-sense rights". The law does not apply to housing or employment provided by religious organizations. Jeffrey R. Holland argued that it could be a model for the rest of the state.

In 1976, the church officially opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). According to church president Spencer W. Kimball, part of the reason for this opposition was to prevent any constitutional recognition for same-sex marriages. In 1980, the Ensign printed a pamphlet which read: "

Passage of the ERA would carry with it the risk of extending constitutional protection to immoral same-sex—lesbian and homosexual—marriages. The argument of a homosexual male, for example, would be: 'If a woman can legally marry a man, then equal treatment demands that I be allowed to do the same.'

In 1993, Boyd K. Packer called the gay-lesbian movement one of the three areas of danger "where members of the Church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away."

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the church began to focus its attention on the issue of same-sex marriages. In 1993, the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii held that discrimination against same-sex couples in the granting of marriage licenses violated the Hawaiian constitution. In response, the church's First Presidency issued a statement on February 13, 1994 declaring its opposition to same-sex marriage, and urging its members to support efforts to outlaw gay and lesbian marriages. With the assistance of the LDS Church and several other religious organizations, the Hawaiian legislature enacted a bill in 1994 outlawing same-sex marriages.

As other states, including Vermont and Massachusetts, began extending legal protections to same-sex couples, the church continued to take an active role in preventing any legal recognition for families other than heterosexual ones. In 2004, the church officially endorsed an amendment to the United States Constitution banning marriage except between a man and a woman. The church also officially announced its opposition to political measures that "confer legal status on any other sexual relationship" than a "man and a woman lawfully wedded as husband and wife." Although the statement was directed specifically to gay marriage, the statement could also be read to encompass political opposition by the church to recognizing civil unions, common-law marriages, plural marriages, or other family arrangements. Support of an amendment in California has caused Mark Leno to question whether the church's tax-exempt status should be revoked.

The president of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson, has stated church members can disagree politically with the church's opposition to same-sex marriage, but if the disagreement turns into an apostasy situation, that would be inappropriate.

The church also supports the Boy Scouts of America's ban on homosexual conduct. It is the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States and has stated that it will end its nine-decade-long affiliation if homosexual conduct is permitted.