Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

Church Leaders Issue Offensive Statement about Gays and Lesbians
The real purpose of this interview is not to help gay and lesbian people and their families, but to deny the accusation of being homophobic

by Lisa Hansen
September 2006

In a interview calculated to spin facts and deny the accusation of being homophobic, two high-ranking leaders of the LDS Church compared gays and lesbians to people with mental retardation and claimed that "thousands of years of human experience" prove that heterosexual marriage is the only form of marriage people should approve of.

"There are people with physical disabilities that prevent them from having any hope — in some cases any actual hope and in other cases any practical hope — of marriage" said Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve. "The circumstance of being currently unable to marry, while tragic, is not unique."

"I happen to have a handicapped daughter," added Elder Lance B. Wickman form the First Quorum of the Seventy. "She's a beautiful girl. She'll be 27 next week. Her name is Courtney. Courtney will never marry in this life, yet she looks wistfully upon those who do… Courtney didn't ask for the circumstances into which she was born in this life, any more than somebody with same-gender attraction did."

"Frankly, I am utterly appalled at Elder Wickman's exploitative use of his disabled daughter in order to make a case against same-sex marriage," responded Mike Kessler, who is married to Affirmation member Buckley Jeppson. "I pray that, in private, she is afforded more dignity than he has shown her in public, and not unknowingly trotted out in the future as a sacrificial lamb."

A careful reading of the Oaks-Wickman "interview," which is actually a statement carefully crafted with the help of the LDS Public Affairs Department, suggests that the real purpose of this document is not to help gay and lesbian people and their families, but deny the accusation of being homophobic.

"Elder Oaks chose to emphasize that it was important because church policy was being criticized and was receiving 'unrelenting pressure from advocates of that lifestyle to accept as normal what is not normal,'" said Family Fellowship co-founder Gary Watts. "I would have preferred to hear him say that it was important because so many of our good church families with homosexual children were hurting and were having a difficult time reconciling the reality of their lives with a church policy that, too often, seemed to divide, rather than unite their family members. I know so many gay people in committed relationships that I think are every bit as moral as any straight person's. That's the healthiest thing for gay people to do."

"In their interview, Elders Oaks and Wickman seem to be more concerned about protecting the church's public image than in helping homosexuals," commented Affirmation's associate director Hugo Salinas. "Apostle Oaks seems more lawyerly than prophetic. Instead of condemning those who have been created with homosexual orientation, I would invite Elders Oaks and Wickman to contemplate God's unconditional love for all people, Jesus's all-encompassing embrace, and the awesome diversity of God's creation."

The LDS statement can be found at www.lds.org/newsroom. To read Hugo Salinas' response, visit www.affirmation.org/media/2006_08.shtml. Mike Kessler's response can be found at www.affirmation.org/media/2006_09.shtml.

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