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Executive director Olin Thomas (right) and assistant director David Melson (left) answer questions from the media

Photo: The Deseret News

Affirmation Leaders Hold Press Conference, Ask LDS Church for Dialogue
"The Church could do better to educate its local leaders"

11 August 2008

In a press conference that received wide media attention, Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons asked LDS leaders one more time to open up a dialogue that could find ways to help gay and lesbian Latter-day Saints.

"Being gay doesn't automatically equate to being promiscuous," said Olin Thomas, Affirmation's executive director. "We would like the Church to recognize the worth of our committed relationships and help correct the perception some Church members have that being gay is a disease or a defect."

George Cole, Affirmation's Young Adults Program director, said, "We believe the [LDS] Church could do better to educate its local leaders, to preserve our families, to preserve us as members of the Church, and to allow us to serve the Church."

Also present at the event were Senior Assistant Director Dave Melson, Reconciliation President David Nielson, Youth Concerns Director Micah Bisson, and Salt Lake Chapter co-directors Duane Jennings and Brian Benington. All of them spoke with the media following the formal part of the press conference.

The press conference was held in Salt Lake City on August 11, the day when LDS Family Services director Fred Riley was supposed to meet with Affirmation for a previously scheduled appointment. Two weeks before the meeting, Fred Riley was re-assigned to another position within the Church and was therefore unavailable to meet with Affirmation. Church leaders asked Affirmation to wait until a new Director of LDS Family Services was appointed but provided no one to serve as a point of contact in the meantime.

"We were told that it is expected to take several months to appoint a new director," explained David Melson. "It was too late to change our travel plans."

"Taking the admonition of an earlier prophet to heart, that it is better for a thing to be underway than under consideration, we felt that the public presentation was the best means of moving the conversation forward," Melson added. "Affirmation looks forward to meeting with whomever President Monson appoints as his representative on this issue."

The event was held to offer the presentation that LDS Church officials would have heard had they attended the meeting as originally scheduled. In its own press release, the Church acknowledged Affirmation and the event, and Affirmation has since responded with a private communication to Church leaders.