What it costs people
LGBTQ Members
Not a sin to be gay. Also, never act on it, for your entire life.
What the Church currently teaches
Be accurate here, because the position is more careful than critics often represent.
From the official page: "Identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual or experiencing same-sex attraction is not a sin and does not prohibit one from participating in the Church, holding callings, or attending the temple."
And: "Sexual relations between a man and woman who are not married, or between people of the same sex, violate one of our Father in Heaven’s most important laws." The official page
So the position is: being gay is fine, and acting on it is among the most serious sins there is. The practical result for a gay member who stays is lifelong celibacy, with no version of the eternal family the entire theology is built around.
That is not a caricature. That is the teaching, stated plainly.
The history
Electric shock aversion therapy was administered to gay men at BYU. This is documented in a 1976 BYU psychology dissertation by Max Ford McBride, describing shock therapy on 17 men run through the BYU Counseling Center. The dissertation itself
The program began after a 1959 meeting between BYU president Ernest Wilkinson and Church apostles, was scaled back in 1969, and persisted into the mid-1990s. ABC News
Be fair about the dispute. FAIR does not deny the program existed. It disputes the coercive framing, saying participation was voluntary and that shocks were applied to arm and leg rather than genitals. Their page Present that.
The research, with its limits stated
A peer-reviewed study by Dehlin and colleagues in the Journal of Counseling Psychology examined sexual orientation change efforts among current and former members. The associated survey data reports that close to 70 percent of LGBT Mormons surveyed attempted to change their orientation, most found it harmful, and active membership correlated with the lowest reported quality of life.
That survey was self-selected, recruited through LGBT-Mormon community channels. It skews toward people already in crisis or already disaffected. It describes that sample, not a prevalence rate for all LGBTQ Latter-day Saints.
And a BYU-affiliated analysis of 86,346 Utah youth found the opposite pattern, with LGBQ Latter-day Saint youth not at higher suicide risk than LGBQ youth of other faiths, attributing protective effects to family connection.
This research area has genuine disagreement depending on sample and institution. Present both. Cherry-picking one gets you dismissed, and rightly.
What is not in dispute
Set the studies aside. These are not contested:
- A gay member who stays faithful is asked to be alone for life.
- The theology’s highest promise, an eternal family, is structurally unavailable to them.
- For three and a half years the Church required children of same-sex parents to disavow their parents’ marriage before baptism.
- BYU removed "homosexual behavior" from the Honor Code in February 2020, students came out believing the rule had changed, and a clarification letter weeks later said it had not. Roughly 1,000 students protested. Coverage
Whatever the aggregate statistics show, those are the facts of the arrangement.
Why this should make you question
Ask what you would conclude about a doctrine if you encountered it in a tradition you had no attachment to. If another church taught that a category of person may exist but may never love anyone, and that the reward it offers everyone else is definitionally out of reach for them, what would you call that?