Anti-Gay LDS Activities     

By Carol Ness: Examiner Staff
San Francisco Examiner, N1
July, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- Two days after a San Francisco Examiner article on a San Francisco man's effort to leave the LDS Church without being excommunicated, his bishop has called-off a disciplinary court scheduled for Sunday. Owen Edwards asked to have his name removed from the Church's rolls in February, saying he was gay and took offense at the Church's position on California's Knight Initiative. He decided to make his case public after he received notice of the disciplinary court on July 8th.

"It's a done deal. There will be no hearings or proceedings or discipline of any sort," LDS Church spokesman Jay Pimentel told the Examiner on Wednesday, two days after the Examiner's front page story appeared. Owen Edwards was pleased at the decision, "I got what I wanted. It's over, it's done, we won."

According to Pimentel, Edwards' bishop decided to cancel the court before he was contacted by the Examiner last Thursday. Bishop Bryan Earl made the decision after consulting with "higher authorities," according to Pimentel. Edwards says that he sent a certified letter both to Earl and to LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, which was delivered on Thursday. In the letter, Edwards says he told both Earl and the Church that he planned to seek publicity and legal help.

In any case, Earl's decision to drop the court has frustrated efforts by ex-Mormon activists such as Salt Lake City-based activist Kathy Worthington, to file a lawsuit against the Church's procedures when a member asks to have his name removed.