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LDS officials to meet with gay Mormon group
"What we would like is a change of attitude"

April 2008
From a story by the The Salt Lake Tribune

After receiving repeated requests, LDS officials have agreed to discuss church policies on homosexuality with representatives of Affirmation, a support group for gay Mormons.

Affirmation officially requested the meeting in February, shortly after Thomas S. Monson became president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Dave Melson, Affirmation's assistant executive director, who lives in Maryland.

Last week, the group received a reply from Fred Riley, LDS Family Services commissioner, saying Monson had authorized him and former commissioner Harold Brown to set up the meeting.

LDS spokesman Scott Trotter confirmed the meeting, but Riley and Brown declined to be interviewed.

"We are not looking for doctrinal changes right now," Melson said Monday. "What we would like is a change of attitude."

He pointed to what he sees as troubling problems for LDS gays who are kicked out of their homes for divulging their orientation, told to marry someone of the opposite sex as a solution to their "problem," or expelled from Brigham Young University for kissing, holding hands or going to gay clubs.

Melson also wants the LDS Church to stop describing homosexuality "as a disease or a lifestyle choice," teaching "homophobia as a family value," or supporting anti-gay policies, such as the Federal Marriage Amendment.

"If we can counsel church members more effectively and reduce some of the anti-gay rhetoric, it will be easier for gay men and women in the church to live their lives and to make celestial choices," Melson said. "And it will be easier for the church to get on with activities it should be concentrating on."

Melson is "cautiously optimistic" about the meeting, which is scheduled for early August and which does not yet include any Utah Affirmation representatives.

Other Utah groups that support gays praised the church's move.

"I'm pleased there's communication at any level with anybody about this issue; I think that's helpful," said Bill Bradshaw, who, with his wife, Marjorie, leads Family Fellowship, a support group for families of LDS gays. "It's a topic we don't talk about openly. It's such a personal thing for families involved and an uncomfortable subject for many other Latter-day Saints."

Yana Walton of the Utah Pride Center believes the meeting will be historic.

"I see this as the beginning of a dialogue," Walton said. "I hope both parties come to the table with open hearts and minds. I hope they can do the best for LDS gays."

The center has not been invited to the meeting, she said, but would welcome the "chance to participate in that conversation."