Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

Sheri Dew

Sheri Dew Rails Against Same-sex Marriage
She calls procreation “the highest priority of a husband and wife”

by Lisa Hansen
August 2006

Sheri Dew, president of LDS-owned Deseret Book, rails against same-sex marriage in her new book and says she cannot compare same-sex marriage to opposite-sex marriage. "I can never defend the proposition that a relationship between two men or two women should be equated with a moving relationship between a man and a woman who marry," writes Dew in her new book If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard. "That is because I cannot betray or trifle with the law of God" (p. 91).

Dew, who never married or had children, writes that "any attempt to redefine [God's pattern for marriage] is simply not something covenant-making men and women can support." "Our Father did not send two men or two women into the Garden," writes the 52-year Dew. "He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden and said, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth' (Moses 2:28), thus delineating the order of things as well as the highest priority of a husband and wife-to procreate."

Refusing the courtesy of calling them "gay" or "lesbian," Dew claims in her book that she has a number of friends who, as she puts it, "grapple with same-sex attraction" and admits that "some of those living an openly gay lifestyle have adopted children." "They love their children, and their children love them," adds Dew.

In a controversial 2004 speech, Dew likened those who do not oppose gay marriage to those who did nothing to oppose Hitler's rise to power. Dew also showed a picture of a same-sex couple with infants which she saw in Newsweek magazine and said, in disgust, "I just can't stomach this-the thought of those girls being raised in that kind of a setting."

Dew Spins Republican Convention Controversy

In her new book Dew mischaracterizes her controversial participation in 2004 Republican National Convention. "Because one media report implied that I was a Democrat," writes Dew, "I got blasted by both appalled Republicans (that I could possibly be a Democrat) and insulted Democrats (that I had prayed at a Republican event)" (p. 48).

In her account of the controversy, Dew neglects to mention the primary reason why she was criticized, i.e. that she was one of three Republican Convention speakers who had made deeply offensive comments about gays and lesbians. The Human Rights Campaign sent a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to repudiate Dew because of her infamous comparison between the rise of gay rights and the rise of Hitler. Days after the letter was released, Sheri Dew's controversial "Hitler" speech was removed from the Meridian Magazine website.