Content area
Full Text
I am the father of a gay son who is now in his freshman year in college. I am also a Mormon. Over the past couple of years my wife and I along with several of our children have spoken out on the damaging propagation of homophobic myth that forms the foundation for the LDS Church leadership's policies and practices toward our gay children.
After taking this forbidden issue on in this community through public appearances, published articles, press conferences and radio interviews, we were, to be honest, a little overwhelmed and burned out, and decided to "sit down and shut up" for a while. However, the circumstances surrounding the recent suspension of two gay students by BYU pulled me back up out of my chair.
All we have ever asked is that the LDS church leadership be consistent in their public pronouncements and distributed written materials about our gay children. Each time we have raised a clear inconsistency and asked for a direct answer, we have been met with the official church media response: "President Hinckley has said before that we love these people and welcome them" or words to that effect. Taking the church leadership at its word, it is interesting in light of the recent dismissal of two gay students by BYU -- one a senior on a full academic scholarship -- to determine exactly who the "these people" are that the Church publicly loves and welcomes.
Apparently it is not young gay men and women who adhere to the same standards of chastity required to be met by heterosexual young men and women in the church. Although President Hinckley has often publicly stated that all the church requires is that young gay men and women live the same moral standards required of other church members, it was reported that these young LDS students were dismissed from BYU for being seen holding hands and kissing, and were instructed that they would not be readmitted unless they could get a church-approved professional counselor to attest that they were refraining from, among other things, dating, holding hands, and association with homosexual men. For those of you who wonder what that last item might prohibit, it would apparently encompass being my son's friend. This...