Gay Mormons appeal for higher recognition

While many gay Mormons acknowledge that progress has been made in recent years with top LDS Church leadership addressing their concerns, there is yet progress to be made, says one representative of a group that had hoped to meet with leadership this week.

Micah Bisson, youth services director of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons, was one of several panelists that addressed an audience at the annual Sunstone Symposium on Saturday. He told the Deseret News he's seen "some forward movement and very positive messages relayed to gay and lesbian members."

While the church maintains that sex with someone of the same gender is a sin, "the core being of gay or lesbian is no longer a sin in and of itself," according to recent statements by church leaders, he said.

"A lot of us in Affirmation see that as great progress." He said he sees church members "slowly coming that direction. Change in the smallest form does take time. But I believe members are starting to understand it's not inherently a sin just to be gay."

His own coming out with his family "was a little rough. Over course of time and many, many discussions, my family has come to fully accept me for who I am. It has basically turned into a non-issue with me and my extended family. I'm very, very fortunate," though he knows many who are not, he said.

A couple of issues he and others had hoped to discuss with church leaders this month — before the church postponed the meeting due to a leadership change in its social services division — is the rate of suicide among gay Mormons and the homelessness some young people face when they tell their LDS families they are gay.

At a press conference scheduled Monday morning, Bisson and others will discuss a statement they released to the media on Friday, that says Utah has "one of the highest suicide rates in the United states," and his organization has documented "over 30 suicides of gay Mormons."

"Affirmation leaders believe the LDS leaders have contributed to these tragedies by the way they talk about and to gay people. Tonight a gay teenager will be thrown out onto the street by his or her LDS family, contributing to an above-average homeless rate for adolescents in the Mountain West and Northwest states," the statement says. "Throughout the church, families are being broken apart, often forever, because family members don't know how to deal with a loved one who tells them that he or she is gay."

It quotes Affirmation's senior assistant executive director, David Melson, saying "the items that we had planned to discuss (with the church) all focus on education and toning down some of the rhetoric. Nothing that we will be proposing requires any change in doctrine. The deaths, the homelessness and the grief that occur because of well-intentioned but misguided practices are real, and they must all stop, now," Melson said.

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