September 2003

Scott MacKay, Darren Holman, & Olin Thomas Mormon Leader Trashes Gay Marriage

As members of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons, we are embarrassed and saddened by recent statements made by LDS apostle M. Russell Ballard at Brigham Young University. In an August 21 talk, Elder Ballard stated that "same-gender marriage is being promoted in direct opposition to God's primary purpose for His [sic] children to experience mortality."

It is difficult to understand how LDS leaders, who in the past have been so persecuted and excluded for practicing an alternative family model (polygamous families), could be now so invested in condemning and making illegal another alternative family model (same-sex couples).

Elder Ballard and other LDS leaders view the prospect of same-sex unions as nothing short of apocalyptic. But many of us are already living with same-sex partners, raising children, and providing for our families--and we have been doing it for many years. The sky has not yet fallen!

We do not understand how this aggressive crusade against same-sex unions will help strengthen families, but we do see on a daily basis how the rhetoric of exclusion helps destroy lives. We see it among many of those who are excommunicated from their religious communities and ostracized by their families; we see it among those who undergo horrific so-called "treatments" in order to repress their natural feelings; we see it among those who turn to suicide in a desperate attempt to alleviate their pain and their alienation from the Church.

In the wake of the LDS Church's anti-gay campaign in California in 2000--and shortly before committing suicide--gay BYU graduate Stuart Matis expressed it better than we ever could: "Seek to understand first before you make comments. We have the same needs as you. We desire to love and be loved. We desire to live our lives with happiness. We are not a threat to you or your families."

Elder Ballard, when you condemn gay and lesbian families, you are not addressing some abstract satanic force at play in Canada, or in the Netherlands, or in San Francisco. You are condemning thousands of Mormon families who live here in Utah; you are condemning your neighbors, your children, and your siblings; in a word, you are rejecting your own.

Scott MacKay, Olin Thomas, Darren Holman, and Hugo Salinas
Executive Committee
Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons