Homophobia on Site Map subfolders
"Is LDS
Church taking a step back on gay issues?" By Rosemary
Winters, The Salt Lake Tribune, 09/25/2009
LDS general authority Bruce C. Hafen's speech last week
about homosexuality sounded like a throwback.
He told those assembled at a conference for Mormons trying
to "overcome" same-sex attraction that being gay is "not in
your DNA." He talked about the 1970s, when psychology manuals
listed homosexuality as a mental disorder and gay-rights
activists were working just to get anti-sodomy laws off the
books. ... "It was a big step backwards," said Gary Watts, a
Provo physician who, for decades, has watched the church's
position on homosexuality evolve. "The church has a long way to
go to get into the 21st century. They're making incremental
movements. What Hafen has done is take them back 25 years."
How Hafen's speech stacks up: Source:
www.ldsnewsroom.org
Here's how statements made by Bruce C. Hafen, a member of the
LDS First Quorum of the Seventy, last week compare with some
made in 2006 by LDS apostle Dallin H. Oaks and a 2008 church
statement.
Hafen » "Having same-gender attraction is
not in your DNA."
Oaks » "The church does not have a position
on the causes of any of these susceptibilities or inclinations,
including those related to same-gender attraction. Those are
scientific questions -- whether nature or nurture -- those are
things the church doesn't have a position on."
Hafen » "Evidence that people have indeed
changed [their sexual orientation] threatens the political
agenda of the activists, because actual change disproves their
claim that homosexuality is a fixed condition that deserves the
same legal protections as those fixed conditions like race and
gender."
Church statement » "The church does not
object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization
and medical care, fair housing and employment rights or probate
rights."
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