Anti-Gay LDS Activities     

July 14, 1999

In asking their California members to donate their "means and time" to see that the Knight initiative – which would outlaw same-sex marriages – passes, the LDS Church is unwittingly creating a dilemma for all its families with gay and lesbian members. LDS family members of gays and lesbians are being placed in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between support for the civil rights of their gay family members or a church policy bent on denying those rights.

The church justifies its opposition to same-sex marriage as necessary to protect the sanctity of the family. We, too, are interested in maintaining the sanctity of our family but current church policy makes it more and more difficult.

Are our gay children's "straight" siblings really supposed to oppose civil rights for their own brothers and sisters? Church efforts to deny civil rights to gays and lesbians add significantly to the struggle for the family solidarity, mutual love and support that we all cherish.

Does the integrity of our family and other non-traditional families have to be sacrificed or demeaned in an effort to support the traditional nuclear family?

In our view, society would be best served by encouraging gays and lesbians to pursue committed monogamous relationships. It seems ironic to us that an institution supporting "the family" would take a public policy position that tears at the very fabric of every family with a gay member and denies the right of this small minority to form their own families.

– Gary and Millie Watts, Provo