LGBT
Mormon
News

More than 100 people gathered here to talk about a problem they say is not talked about enough: the bullying of gay youth that can sometimes leads to suicide.

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Many people who spoke to the crowd described themselves as “married, straight and Mormon.” But they said they wanted to express their love to their neighbors and family members who are gay. One woman said she didn’t know if any of her children were gay, but she would not care if they were — she would love them.

Evergreen thinks people can overcome their homosexual behavior. The international group is not affiliated with the LDS Church but espouses its teachings.

“How they work that out in their life varies dramatically from person to person,” says Evergreen spokesman David Pruden. “One person may simply manage those feelings, may choose to live a celibate life. Other people find the diminishment of those attractions dramatic and many times may actually have some heterosexual feelings start to arise and they may marry, they may have children.”

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“These organizations are consumer fraud because they’re making promises they can’t deliver and causing disasters they never promised,” said [Wayne Besen, the founder of “Truth Wins Out”].

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“We believe it is fraud — when you offer people a product that’s fake that doesn’t work, that’s faulty, that’s the very definition of fraud and the ex-gay ministries and the reparative therapies fits under that rubric,” said Besen.

The first day of the 182nd annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints saw some changes in leadership, including one of the most influential men in Utah.

Bishop H. David Burton, who has been in charge of some of the biggest decisions made in Utah in the last 16 years, was released from his calling on Saturday.

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Burton was seen as central in the LDS church’s political issues, from gay rights to immigration, and as the lead of the LDS welfare programs.

Supporters of the non-discrimination ordinances say that everyone deserves a roof over their head and the right to work without being discriminated against.

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When Salt Lake City passed an anti-discrimination ordinance in 2009, the LDS Church endorsed the new law. That persuaded some American Fork council members to push similar legislation. But if passed, there are exceptions for non-profit groups, charities and religious organizations.

The conservative Sutherland Institute opposes the proposed laws.

“The proposed non-discrimination ordinances create an unnecessary imbalance of rights among residents of American Fork,” said Sutherland Institute’s Stan Rasmussen to the council. “Exempting various institutions from threatened claims of discrimination on one hand, while not exempting individual people of conscious in their sincerely held religious beliefs on the other.”