Mormons

SALT LAKE CITY -- For a second straight year, a large group of Mormons took part Sunday in the Utah Pride Parade in a show of support for the gay community. [ Read more → ]

SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of members of the Mormon church are planning on Sunday to duplicate a powerful message they sent last year by marching in the Utah Gay Pride Parade in downtown Salt Lake City. [ Read more → ]

POCATELLO, Idaho — Pocatello city officials met with an attorney for a Washington, D.C.-based conservative group brought in by the Mormon church a few weeks before councilors rejected an ordinance intended to protect LGBT people from discrimination. [ Read more → ]

The Mormon church surprised many last week with its announcement supporting the proposed Boy Scout policy allowing gay scouts but not gay leaders. Having spent most of my life as a Mormon and having served in its local leadership, I wasn’t surprised at all. Here’s why. Though not true until relatively recently, the Mormon church does allow gay people to be members and even to have some local leadership jobs, as long as they stay strictly celibate... [ Read more → ]

SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon church says it welcomes the Boy Scouts of America's latest proposal to lift the gay ban for youth members but continue to exclude gays as adult leaders. [ Read more → ]

SALT LAKE CITY -- A survey finds that that 83 percent of Boy Scout leaders, parents and representatives from troops in the greater Salt Lake City area oppose lifting a ban on openly gay scouts and gay and lesbian scout leaders. [ Read more → ]

There was a time, not so long ago, when religion was a unified front against LGBT equality. However, over the years, we have seen that paradigm change, and 2012 witnessed religious people and organizations at the forefront of LGBT advancement ... By the end of the year, we saw several religious leaders stepping out and speaking up, with support coming from some pretty surprising places... [ Read more → ]

I was one of the lucky ones. When I came out to my mom at the age of 22 (in a moving car no less), her first reaction to my stammered, “I’m gay mom,” was to reach out, hold my hand and say, “honey, the only thing that matters to me, is that you are happy.” Everything that happened since, and everything that I now am, can be traced to that moment... [ Read more → ]

SALT LAKE CITY -- More than 300 members of the Mormon Church joined the thousands of participants Sunday at Salt Lake City's gay pride. The group, Mormons Building Bridges, said they wanted to send a message of love to the state’s LGBT community, a message they believe is compatible with their faith, reported the Salt Lake Tribune. [ Read more → ]

A group of Mormon parents are defending their gay children in a new "It Gets Better" video which challenges the Mormon church's disapproval of homosexuality and same-sex relationships. [ Read more → ]

Actor/playwright Steven Fales first came to my attention with his groundbreaking solo play, Confessions of a Mormon Boy, which was a hit off-Broadway and in cities around the world. The play chronicles Fales’ heartbreaking journey from being a devoted sixth-generation Mormon and father of two, to coming out as gay and being excommunicated from his church. [ Read more → ]

LGBT students and straight allies at Utah's Brigham Young University on Friday released an "It Gets Better" video, adding their voice to the tens of thousands of video messages aimed at preventing depression and suicide among gay youth. [ Read more → ]

Members of the Mormon Church in Maryland are working to overturn the state’s recently passed marriage equality law, according to an email obtained by the Washington Blade. [ Read more → ]

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Mormon bishop on Sunday apologized for the way gays are treated and perceived by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, calling it "an atrocity." [ Read more → ]

Bryan Michael Egnew, 40, spent the last decades of his life building up the courage to come out to his family and Mormon church. Once he did his life, family and religion were stripped away from him, and he committed suicide within a matter of weeks. [ Read more → ]

Peter Vidmar, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics and devout Mormon, stepped down Friday as the chief of mission for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in the wake of growing criticism of his public opposition to gay marriage. [ Read more → ]

More than 100 WalMart stores are stocking a new children's book -- Chased by an Elephant: The Gospel Truth About Today’s Stampeding Sexuality -- that counsels truth and accepting Jesus as the path to over coming homosexuality. [ Read more → ]

The Mormon Church is trying to perform some sleight of hand, and hoping no one notices. On their online version of Boyd K. Packer’s hate-speech, they’ve changed some of the most critical words -– possibly in response to the national outrage against them. [ Read more → ]

An estimated 4,500 gay rights advocates gathered outside the headquarters of the Mormon church Thursday evening to protest recent remarks from a church leader that homosexuality is an immoral condition that can and should be overcome. [ Read more → ]

Updated 7/26/10: Last week, Todd Ransom, a 28 year-old gay man from Orem, Utah, committed suicide. While it is unclear why exactly Ransom took his life, friends report that he struggled to reconcile his sexual orientation with his Mormon upbringing. [ Read more → ]