This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1970s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s.[1]: 375, 377 [2]: v, 3 [3]: 170 Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
The apostle Mark E. Petersen was one of the church's primary voices on the topic of homosexuality in the 1970s and 1980s along with Spencer W. Kimball and Boyd K. Packer.[4]: 5
1970 – Church leaders released the Bishop's Training Course and Self-Help Guide for leaders which stated, "[t]hough many have been told [homosexuality] is incurable, that is not true."[5]: 25
1970 – The church produced Hope for Transgressors in which apostles Spencer W. Kimball and Mark E. Petersen offer ideas to leaders about how to effect a "total cure" and "bring the lives of [men with homosexual tendencies] into total normalcy" and "help these people recover" (lesbians are only mentioned once).[6][5]: 25 Ideas include prayer, cutting off contact with homosexual friends, dating women and marriage, and scripture reading.[7][5]: 25–26 He calls homosexuality a "despicable", "degraded", "dread practice", and a "perversion" that would "doom the world" while labeling the person a "generally lonely and sensitive" "deviate" and "afflicted one". The guide notes that Kimball and Mark E. Petersen were designated as the church specialists on homosexuality, and that homosexuality is not "totally" the fault of "family conditions" and concludes it "CAN be cured if the battle is well organized and pursued vigorously and continuously" (emphasis in the original).[8]
March – The First Presidency under Joseph Fielding Smith sent a letter to stake presidents on March 19 which expressed concern over "the apparent increase in homosexuality and other deviations" and mentioned the 1959 assignment of apostles Kimball and Mark E. Petersen to help homosexuals.[9]: 147 [10][7] It was indicated that Kimball and Petersen would "send material and give counsel" as church specialists over "a program designed ... to counsel and direct [homosexuals] back to normalcy and happiness". A follow-up letter to leaders on December 23 asked them to "ask direct questions" about homosexuality when conducting pre-mission interviews.[1]: 380 Within eight years they had counseled over one thousand individuals.[5]: 33
April – Victor L. Brown of the Presiding Bishopric gave a General Conference address in which he stated that a "normal" and "healthy" 12- or 13-year-old boy or girl could "develop into a homosexual" if "exposed to pornographic literature" and "abnormalities". He explains that exposure to the material would "crystallize and settle their habits for the rest of their lives", while calling recent media reporting on a same-sex marriage "filth on our newsstands".[11][12]
April – LDS director of the Salt Lake City police department sex crimes division Max Yospe[13] stated that the problem of homosexuality was growing in Salt Lake City and that lots of bisexual men who were pillars of the community and active in civic and church affairs would go out every few months and "get involved with homosexual activity" which was a felony. He also noted that homosexual women have an easier time avoiding detection or legal issues.[14]
May – Yospe also stated that, "homosexuality is against the law and we've sworn to uphold the law." Though he did not believe they had the staffing "to really clamp down on the thing as we should," occasionally plain-clothes officers would impersonate homosexual men to entrap them.[15]
May – An anonymous Salt Lake, Mormon-raised lesbian woman stated in the University of Utah newspaper that she had never seen such terror and hysteria as when her mother had confronted her one time over suspicions that her daughter was gay.[16]
August – Church president Harold B. Lee taught that the "so-called 'transsexuality' doctrine" was hellish and false since God did not place female spirits in male bodies and vice versa.[17]: 232 [18]
September – The church's newspaper published an editorial defending the ban on consensual same-sex sexual activity arguing that removing the ban, along with other restrictions would be "dangerous" and contribute to far greater problems in the future.[19]
October – Apostle Howard W. Hunter asked "what will be the result of universal free love, abortions at will, homosexuality?" in reference to his fears about the future of family, the economy, community, and the "deterioration of morality" in a General Conference address.[20]
Booklet revisions of Kimball's influential 1970s discourse on homosexuality (from the top: 1970, 1971, 1978)[9]: 147
1971 – The church published a 34-page letter from Kimball to homosexual men titled New Horizons for Homosexuals.[5]: 25 In it Kimball called homosexuality "a ruinous practice of perversion" that the church "will never condone" that begins with "curiosity" and "an unholy practice" like "an octopus with numerous tentacles to drag [the person] down to [their] tragedy". He states that saying "perverts are ... born 'that way'" is a "base lie" since homosexuality is "curable" and "can be overcome" and "recover[ed]" from.[5]: 25 The letter asserts "God made no man a pervert" or "evil" and that "[t]o blame a weakness ... upon God is cowardly." It also calls homosexuality "ugly", "degenerate", "unnatural", "vicious", "base", a "waste of power", a "deep sin", and "an end to the family and ... civilization". The publication advises for the homosexual to recover they must "shun" anyone "associated with the transgression" and pray and read the scriptures.[21]
February – The church's newspaper reported on a Salt Lake City company that gave polygraph tests to job applicants for over 130 local companies. One administrator stated a standard question was "designed to catch homosexuals or lesbians, considered unemployable by many employers".[22]
February – LDS Idaho state representative Wayne LaMar Loveless[23][24] criticized Idaho's proposed decriminalization of consensual adult same-sex sexual activity as an invitation to "come out into the open" whereas the previous ban "at least ke[pt] them hidden from the public." Previously there had been no convictions for homosexuality in the state for years.[25] The ban was removed by January of next year but was restored within three months after controversy, however.[26]
April – In general conference presiding bishopric counselor Victor L. Brown stated that God created masculine and feminine traits, and if gendered appearance and behavioral traits are ignored, it can lead to the "reprehensible, tragic sin of homosexuality".[27]
April – In another conference address apostle Kimball called the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual activity a damnable heresy, and the voices speaking in favor of churches accepting homosexuals as ugly and loud.[28][4]: 5
May – The Salt Lake City University of Utah held its first official LGBT campus event and began hosting meetings for students in the Utah Gay Liberation Front drawing criticism from a local conservative newspaper.[29][30]
December – Church News reported on LDS student body president Brent Romney at California State College at Fullerton who vetoed an official recognition of the Gay Student Union, despite it being overwhelmingly approved by the student senate.[31]
December – BYU religion professor and conservative writer Cleon Skousen[33]: 220–221 published an article in Law and Order magazine (of which he was editor) and The Utah Independent stating that "the corruption and subversion of free world governments by homosexual infiltration" is a problem of great concern, and their "object is not only to penetrate the diplomatic corps of government but also the armed services". He additionally stated that Soviet agents are "train[ed] in homosexual practices in order to penetrate the free world diplomatic services!"[34]
April – Idaho laws which barred same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults were reinstated on the 1st under heavy pressure from the LDS church after being repealed since January 1. Mormon state senator Wayne Loveless who spearheaded the effort stated that the previous law would "encourage immorality and draw sexual deviates to the state."[35] The reinstated law restored the old wording that "every person who is guilty of the infamous crime against nature committed with mankind ... is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than five years."[36][26][37]
A 1973 church publication which taught that a passive father and domineering mother can cause homosexuality and that conforming to gender norms will change it
1973 – The church published its first leaders guide on homosexuality for bishops and stake presidents titled "Homosexuality: Welfare Services Packet 1".[5]: 18 It posited that "homosexual behavior" begins by being "molested" while also stating "not all who are molested become homosexual".[38] Additionally, it said homosexuality was a learned behavior and not inborn, and that members should flee from other gays.[5]: 18, 26 [2]: 211 It also suggested that homosexuality is caused by "a domineering mother and a passive father" and that "misunderstandings of sexuality among LDS people can contribute to homosexuality." As far as changing the sexual orientation of the person, the packet says that the lesbian "needs to learn feminine behavior", and the gay man "must be introduced to and learn the heterosexual or 'straight' way of life ... and what a manly priesthood leader and father does".[38] The guide was written by BYU psychology professor Allen Bergin and LDS Social Services Personal Welfare director Victor L. Brown Jr. (the son of Presiding Bishop Victor L. Brown).[38][39][40]: 11, 14–15
January – In an address to all students the president of BYU Dallin H. Oaks stated that the apostle Paul had listed those who participate in homosexual activity among his condemnation of the lawless and disobedient.[41][42]
February – An update to church policies was published as a "Statement on Homosexuality" in the Correlation Department's Priesthood Bulletin saying "homosexuality in men and women run counter ... to divine objectives."[43][1]: 382
Mormon psychologist Allen Bergin's publications were influential in shaping Mormon thought on homosexuality.
July – The July Ensign contained an article by BYU psychology professor Allen Bergin on agency. The article portrays some homosexuals as "psychologically disturbed persons" who are "compulsively driven to frequent and sometimes bizarre acts". He cites two clients with "compulsive or uncontrollable homosexuality" caused by intense fear for the opposite sex, a lack of social skills for normal male-female relationships, and seeking security exclusively from the same sex. Bergin discusses the behavioristsexual orientation change efforts he used to treat these individuals.[44]
August – Four months before his death Church President Lee gave an address in which he warned young men to guard against the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah since homosexuality and adultery were both equally grievous sins second only to murder. He also noted the increasing acceptance of homosexuality.[17]: 232 [45]
October – Presiding bishop Victor L. Brown gave a conference address in which he called homosexuality a weapon in the battle for Satan's legions to enslave mankind and destroy the family.[46]: 299 [47]
November – An Ensign article stated that the homosexuality in the Canaanite's religions was part of what provoked God to have the Israelites "utterly destroy"[48] the peoples of the region of Canaan.[49]
March – BYU president Oaks delivered a speech on campus in which he spoke in favor of keeping criminal punishment for "deviate sexual behavior" such as private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity. The speech was later printed by the university's press.[50][51][52]
June – While acting as the Church Commissioner of Health James O. Mason wrote the document "Attitudes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Toward Certain Medical Problems" approved of by the First Presidency which stated that homosexual acts were a physical perversion and church leaders were advised to use love and understanding to persuade and assist those who committed this transgression to repent and receive forgiveness.[53]
July – The church's July edition of the Ensign magazine published the article "I Have a Question", in which a Mormon medical doctor states that homosexuals have "chosen this way of life" but "can be helped". Dr. Lindsay M. Curtis continues saying that "homosexuals and lesbians seldom are happy people" and their relationships are "unnatural", full of "emotional problems" and "promiscuity", and lacking in "fidelity, trust, or loyalty". Additionally, they try to recruit "others into their practice ... in their tender, impressionable years".[54]
July – On July 10 church president Kimball gave a modified version of his "Love vs. Lust" address previously given in 1965. In this version he states that "homosexuality and other forms of perversion are from the lower world". He also calls the use of the word "love" by homosexual persons as a "prostitution" of the term citing homosexual behavior as taking and exploiting.[55]
September – Kimball addressed the BYU student body stating that sex reassignment surgeries were an appalling travesty.[56]
October – Kimball gave his October "God Will Not be Mocked" speech at general conference as the church's president in which he again stated that masturbation leads to homosexuality. He also said "[e]very form of homosexuality is sin. Pornography is one of the approaches to that transgression."[57]
November – First presidency member Eldon Tanner stated in the November Ensign that homosexuality was permitted and practiced to such an extent that the world was "truly following the ways of Sodom and Gomorrah".[58]
1975 – Advocate owner David B. Goodstein hired several gay Utah Mormons onto his San Francisco newspaper staff referring to them as the "Mormon Mafia".[59] This included bisexual trans man Patrick Califia and gay male Robert Isaac McQueen as editor. McQueen had ceased involvement with the LDS church in 1964 shortly after his mission in Austria and was excommunicated in 1979 after publishing several church-critical articles on the LGBT-LDS intersection. He died from complications due to AIDS on 8 October 1989.[60][61][62]
January – The church-operated university BYU began a purge in January to expel homosexual students under the direction of president Oaks.[33]: 126 The purge included interrogations of fine arts and drama students and surveillance of Salt Lake City gay bars by BYU security. These activities were noted in the Salt Lake Tribune[63] and the gay newspaper Advocate.[1]: 442
April – Utah's first gay newspaper Gayzette was published without a title for the first issue[1]: 442 by the recently opened Gay Community Service Center, Utah's first gay resource center.[64] It was later renamed, Salt Lick in January 1976. After a year without a Salt Lake City queer paper the Open Door was started in December 1977, and was later run by gay former Mormon Bob Waldrop from 1979[65] until it shut down in 1981.[66][67][9]: 159
May – The First Presidency sent a letter on May 30 to church leaders about the "unfortunate problem of homosexuality" encouraging them to not label people as homosexual because it makes the seem beyond solving to "conquer the habit".[1]: 442
June – The Ensign published an article by Presiding bishop Victor L. Brown which addressed parents stating that the "lack of proper affection in the home can result in unnatural behavior in their children such as homosexuality."[68]
Sergeant Matlovich was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for heroic service in the Vietnam War, but was discharged from the military and excommunicated from the LDS church for being gay.
September – LDS member Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was featured on the September 8 cover of Time magazine with the caption "I Am a Homosexual" for his challenging of the U.S. military ban against gay men and lesbian women.[69] He was subsequently discharged from the military for openly stating his sexual orientation[70] and excommunicated from the Church two months after the article was released.[1]: 442 [71]
October – Apostle Gordon B. Hinckley told the story in the October general conference of a "tragic" young man involved in "deviant moral activity" leading him to a bleak future without hope and preventing him from ever having a son. Hinckley described asking the homosexual young man about the influence of the media he consumed and of his male friends "in similar circumstances".[72]
Members of LDS Social Services (renamed in 1995, then again in 2019) were tasked with treating homosexual Mormons in 1972[73]: 15 and produced several important publications on homosexuality in 1973, 1995, and 1999.
October – Robert Blattner of LDS Social Services (which had been tasked by the church to treat homosexual members since 1972)[73]: 15 gave an address at the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists (AMCAP) annual conference. Blattner served as a special assistant to the LDS Commissioner of Personal Welfare Victor Brown Jr.[73]: 15 In the address Blattner states that the causes of homosexuality in men are a "disturbed family background" of an "absent father" and "usually" a "controlling mother" and a "lack of relationship with peers", while for women he only says "we don't have much information". He also says homosexual behavior and alcoholism are similar. He is asked what "the church's feelings are about electric shock ... behavior modification" and answered the church had "never made a statement on it" but that "most people coming to us can be helped by it" in reference to BYU's aversion therapy research.[74][75]
October – LDS psychologist Robert D. Card presented his research on changing sexual attractions on Mormon men and women using shock aversion and hypnosis techniques at the AMCAP conference.[76] The goal of his treatment was eliminating same-sex sexual behavior and having his clients enter an opposite-sex marriage as was common among the Mormon approach to homosexual individuals before the 80s.[73]: 17 Card was a prominent proponent of aversion therapy and held a patent on the penile plethysmograph for measuring male sexual arousal to determine when to administer vomit-inducing drugs or electric shocks while showing his clients gay pornography.[77][75][78] He had clients referred to him by Utah judges and bishops.[79][80]
1976 – A version of the Church Handbook was released changing the 1968 reading of "homo-sexual acts" being grounds for a church court to "moral transgression" like "homosexuality".[81][82] This change seemed to make Mormons vulnerable to church punishment for having a homosexual orientation alone even without sexual activity.[1]: 382 From 1976 until 1989 under president Kimball the Church Handbook continued to call for church discipline for members attracted to the same sex even if they were celibate, equating merely being homosexual with the seriousness of acts of adultery and child molestation.[5]: 16
1976 – A 20-year study was published showing that 10% of BYU men and 2% of BYU women indicated having had a "homosexual experience".[1]: 442–443 In 1950, 1961, and 1972 BYU Sociology professor Wilford Smith conducted a survey of thousands of Mormon students at several universities including many from the BYU sociology department as part of a larger survey.[83]: 45 He found that "the response of Mormons [at BYU] did not differ significantly from the response of Mormons in state universities".[84]
March – BYU music professor Carlyle D. Marsden took his own life[85] two days after being outed by an arrest during a series of police sting operations at an Orem rest stop.[86][87][88]
September – Top church leaders on the BYU Board of Trustees approved then BYU president Dallin H. Oaks's Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior dedicated most heavily on research for evidence supporting church views on homosexuality.[75]: 73–74 The primary assignment was writing a church-funded book on homosexuality to be published by a non-church source (in order to boost the book's scientific credibility).[89] BYU psychologist Allen Bergin acted as the director,[90][91] and book author. Institute member and church Social Services director Victor Brown Jr.[92] wrote, "Our basic theme is that truth lies with the scriptures and prophets, not with secular data or debate."[93] Several dissertations were produced by the Values Institute[94][95] before it closed in 1985.[96]
October – President Spencer W. Kimball stated in conference that homosexuality can begin by viewing "sex- and violence-oriented programs" on network television and that homosexuality (among other sexual behaviors) will "corrode the mind, snuff out self-esteem", and cause unhappiness.[97]
Packer's conference address published here has been criticized of condoning anti-gay violence.[9]: 150 [83]: 38–39
October – Apostle Packer gave the sermon "To Young Men Only" in the priesthood session of general conference. The sermon counseled against the "perversion" and "wicked practices" of men "handling one another" and having physical "contact ... in unusual ways". In the sermon, Packer commended a missionary who was upset after he "floored" his assigned male companion in response to unwanted sexual advances, saying "somebody had to do it".[7] He further asserts that it is a "malicious and destructive lie" that "some are born with an attraction to their own kind". The sermon was published as a pamphlet by the church from 1980 to 2016.[98][99]
1977 – A gay BYU student and a gay BYU instructor[100] coauthored an open letter to refute the anti-gay teachings of BYU professor Reed Payne known as the "Payne Papers" pamphlet (later titled "Prologue").[101][102] This was anonymously mailed to all high-ranking LDS leaders and most BYU and Ricks College faculty causing a controversy[103] and eliciting a response from apostle Boyd K. Packer in the form of his "To the One" 1978 BYU address on homosexuality[104][9]: 157–159 [105] and an article from the recently formed BYU Values Institute.[106]
1977 – Deseret Book published then apostle Ezra Taft Benson's book which stated, "Every form of homosexuality is wrong."[107][108]: 280
1977 – The largely LDS Utah House of Representatives passed a bill outlawing same-sex marriages in the state by 71 votes to 3 without floor debate.[5]: 15
April – In the April general conference presiding bishopric member J. Richard Clarke told a story of a young man who claimed to have "developed into a homosexual" as part of attention-seeking rebellion against his distant father. In the address homosexuality was called a "vitiating disease" and "prison".[109]
April – Another mention of homosexuality occurred in the April general conference when church president Spencer W. Kimball asked, "Is this a time to terminate adultery and homosexual and lesbian activities, and return to faith and worthiness?"[110]
June – The Relief Society general president sent a telegram to Anita Bryant for her "Save Our Children" campaign which stated, "On behalf of the one million members of the Relief Society ... we commend you, for your courageous and effective efforts in combatting [sic] homosexuality and laws which would legitimize this insidious life style [sic]."[9]: 150 [111][112]
Affirmation's logo
June – Under the name Affirmation: Gay Mormons United, the first Affirmation group was organized on 11 June[113] in Salt Lake City by Stephan Zakharias (formerly Stephen James Matthew Prince) and a group of other Mormon and former-Mormon gays and lesbians at the conference for the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights.[114][115][116] Stephan organized the group in response to the suicides of two BYU friends who had undergone shock aversion therapy on the campus.[117] The original organization struggled to survive until 1978, when Paul Mortensen, inspired by an article on the group in The Advocate formed the Los Angeles chapter, and in 1980 the name was changed to Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons. Through the influence of the Los Angeles chapter, Affirmation groups began appearing in many cities around the US.[118][119]
Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign visit to Salt Lake City, applauded by LDS church leaders,[9]: 150 sparked the first public protest by Utah's LGBTQ community.[120]
July – Apostle Mark Petersen wrote an editorial in the Church News stating that every right-thinking should sustain Anita Bryant and should look at their own neighborhoods to determine how "infiltrated" they had become with gay people.[5]: 12 He also wrote that "homosexual offenses" were next to murder in the hierarchy of sins.[5]: 16 [121]Deseret News editorials were sent to top church leaders for approval before publication.[122] Within the span of two years after that first article Petersen penned five more Church News editorials attacking the gay rights movement:[9]: 150–151
January 1978: "The homosexuals claim that God made them that way and hence are powerless to change, which is a complete fabrication and a deep delusion, for it was the Lord who provided the death penalty for these people in ancient times."[123]
March 1978: "Every right thinking person should wholeheartedly battle the tendency to make unclean things and habits appear to be clean and respectable ... the homosexual issue is but one example."[125]
December 1978: "Since homosexuals ... have come out of hiding ... many of them claim that they are what they are because they were born that way and cannot help it. How ridiculous is such a claim. It was not God who made them that way, any more than He made bank robbers the way they are."[126][83]: 40
July 1979: "The persistent drive to make homosexuality an 'accepted' and legal way of life should disgust every thinking person ... Homosexuality is a menace ... it should be classed not only as a threat to the rest of the population but as a crime."[127][3]: 152 [9]: 150
September – With an invitation from LDS church leaders, Anita Bryant performed at the Utah State Fair on the 18th.[128] Her presence prompted the first public demonstration from Utah's queer community,[129][130] organized by gay, former-Mormon pastor Bob Waldrop,[131][66] in what gay, former Mormon, and historian Seth Anderson[132] referred to as "Utah's Stonewall."[120]
October – Church president Spencer W. Kimball gave an October conference address in which he spoke out against the "insidious" and "ugly" sins of homosexuality and lesbianism. He called homosexuality a "sin of the ages" that contributed to the downfall of ancient Greece, Rome, and Sodom and Gomorrah.[133]
October – A poll of Utah residents found that 75% of LDS respondents opposed equal rights for gay teachers or ministers and 62% favored discrimination against gays in business and government (versus 64% and 38% of non-LDS respondents respectively).[134][5]: 15 [2]: 220
November – At a backstage press conference Church president Kimball praised Anita Bryant's anti-gay "Save Our Children" crusade which sought to bar the passing of nondiscrimination laws which would protect sexual minorities from being kicked out of their homes, fired from their jobs, and banned from restaurants solely for their sexual orientation. He stated that she was "doing a great service."[9]: 150 He continued stating that "the homosexual program is not a natural, normal way of life" and that church bishops and college-educated church counselors can aid those with "homosexual problems."[5]: 12 [135][136]
1978 – The church reissued Spencer W. Kimball'sNew Horizons for Homosexuals as a 30-page pamphlet titled A Letter to a Friend.[9]
Cover to the pamphlet containing apostle Boyd K. Packer's 1978 BYU speech on homosexuality
March – Packer delivered a sermon at BYU on March 5 which went on to be published by the church as a pamphlet called "To The One."[137] Packer characterized homosexual activity as a perversion and posited that it had its roots in selfishness and stated that gay feelings could be "cured" with "unselfish thoughts, with unselfish acts".[137]: 6 He further stated that the church had not previously talked more about homosexuality because "some matters are best handled very privately"[137]: 3 and "we can very foolishly cause things we are trying to prevent by talking too much about them".[137]: 19 He called same-sex sexual activity as "the ugliest and most debased" human action.[5]: 19
April – Church president Spencer W. Kimball stated in the April conference that without the restraints of family life and real religion there would be an "avalanche of appetites" leading to an increase in homosexuality.[138]
May – San Francisco PBS station KQED funded and aired a 16-minute documentary by Andrew Welch featuring interviews of gay Mormons in Salt Lake City and Provo and BYU psychologists administering the electroshock aversion therapy program in attempt to make gay students straight. It aired on PBS stations in Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles, and was the subject of controversy in Utah as KUED general manager Robert Reed refused to air it in July 1978.[139][140] Additionally, BYU's KBYU refused to air the documentary after Reverend Bob Waldrop of the Salt Lake Metropolitan Community Church petitioned to have it aired in response to the recent of showing of Packer's "To the One" speech on homosexuality.[141][2]: 238–240
August – The First Presidency released a statement on August 24 outlining reasons for their opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment including "unnatural consequences" like an "increase in the practice of homosexual and lesbian activities".[142]
December – In a Church News article apostle Mark Petersen stated that "it was not God who made [homosexuals] that way" since "He gave all mankind free agency."[143]
1979 – Stephen Holbrook opened a Salt Lake community radio show featuring lesbian and gay voices while serving in the Utah State House of Representatives after his first election in 1975. The hour-long show called "Gayjavu" eventually became "Concerning Gays and Lesbians," which lasted until 2003 as one of the nation's longest continually running queer radio programs.[144][145] He had served an LDS mission in Hong Kong before disaffiliating from the LDS church, though, he did not come out as gay publicly.[146]
1979 – Gay former Mormon Bob Waldrop who had served an LDS mission in Australia[147] became the publisher and editor of Salt Lake's queer newspaper The Open Door as well as a leader in the gay-inclusive Salt Lake Metropolitan Community Church.[66][67][9]: 159 In February 1977 his congregation had had its permission rescinded by Utah state Lieutenant GovernorDavid Monson (a Mormon) to hold a queer-inclusive church dance in the Utah Capitol building.[148]
February – The LDS Welfare Services Department offered a video-recorded, several-day training seminar to LDS Social Services employees on "homosexual therapies".[149]
February – LDS psychologist Ed D. Lauritsen presented a paper written under the direction of BYU's Values Institute to LDS Social Services which stated that a nurturing father "almost always serves as a form of psychological immunization against homosexuality in most cases" and that by improving his relationship with his children a father will "reduce the possibility of homosexuality among his children". He also stated that all LDS clinicians have a duty to "labor for the prevention of homosexuality."[9]: 157 [150]
February – In a BYU devotional church seventy Vaughn Featherstone stated "the homosexual cannot be exalted" and that homosexual members envy "normal" members of the church while hiding their perversion and believing God made them different and it is not their fault they are gay.[151][152]
April – BYU's newspaper published a series of articles in April quoting church leaders and gay BYU students on homosexuality.[153][151] A BYU counselor estimated that 4% of BYU students (or around 1,200 students) were homosexual[151][154][155] and commissioner of LDS Social Services Harold Brown stated that homosexuality is not biological or inborn,[156] and that church leaders just want to help them overcome their problem.[157] LDS Social Services Personal Welfare director Victor Brown Jr. compared it to an alcoholic's addiction that can be cured.[156]
Gay Mormon marchers with Affirmation at the 1979 Los Angeles Pride parade
July – Signs saying "BYU alumni" and "Gay Mormon" were held aloft by the Affirmation group at the Los Angeles Pride Parade in what was called the first out gay Mormon presence at a pride parade.[158]: 48 [159] One of the participants was interviewed on camera wearing a BYU jersey.[160]
Gay Mormons at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on 14 October 1979
^Wolf, Sheila M. (May 21, 1970). "The People: Homosexuals and the Self". Daily Utah Chronicle. University of Utah. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. But all my life I had the feeling I was different from other girls, going through a period of time when I felt like the only one in the world. ... I have a feeling the suicide rate among homosexuals is high just from personal knowledge. In the last five years, ten acquaintances have committed suicide. ... I'm an only child, raised as a Mormon by liberally-minded people. My parents don't know about me. My mother had an inkling about it one time. I've never seen such terror and hysteria, but a convinced her it was all a mistake.
^ abPainter, George (2001). "The Sensibilities of Our Forefathers: The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States". glapn.org. Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. In 1971, the Idaho legislature passed a new criminal code that abrogated common-law crimes and repealed the sodomy law. This law technically made Idaho only the third state in the nation to decriminalize consensual sodomy, but the repeal did not last long. The new code became effective January 1, 1972, but officials in the Mormon and Catholic Churches did not care for liberalization of laws against sex. After an outpouring of opposition, the Idaho legislature passed a law to repeal the new code, without passing a replacement, effective April 1, 1972. What finally came out of the legislature was a code reinstating the status quo. The law was passed only five days before the liberalized code's repeal date (and, thus, only five days before the state would have been without any criminal code). The repressive code reinstated common-law crimes and the felony 'crime against nature' law with the minimum five-year penalty and no maximum.
^"Idaho Repeals New Consenting Adult Code". The Advocate. May 10, 1972. p. 3. The new penal code enacted by the Idaho Legislature, with its liberal provisions on sexual conduct, has been repealed as a result of heavy pressure from right-wing groups and the Mormon church. Rep. Wayne Loveless (D-Pocatello), who spearheaded the repeal drive ... conten[ded] that the new code would encourage immorality and draw sexual deviates to the state. Loveless, ... is active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [sic] Saints (Mormon) ....
^Oaks, Dallin. "Be Honest In All Behavior". byu.edu. BYU. In his condemnation of the lawless and disobedient, the apostle Paul listed murderers, whoremongers, those that defiled themselves with mankind (an obvious reference to homosexuality), and 'liars and perjured persons' (1 Tim. 1:9–10).
^Brown, S. Kent; Meservy, Keith H. "I Have a Question". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS Church.
^Oaks, Dallin (March 27, 1974). The Popular Myth of the Victimless Crime (Speech). Commissioner’s Lecture. BYU.
^Oaks, Dallin (1974). "The Popular Myth of the Victimless Crime". The LDS Church Educational System Commissioner's Lecture Series. BYU Press: 8. I believe in retaining criminal penalties on sex crimes such as adultery, fornication, prostitution, homosexuality, and other forms of deviate sexual behavior. I concede the abuses and risks of invasion of privacy that are involved in the enforcement of such crimes and therefore concede the need for extraordinary supervision of the enforcement process. I am even willing to accept a strategy of extremely restrained enforcement of private, noncommercial sexual offenses. I favor retaining these criminal penalties primarily because of the standard-setting and teaching function of these laws on sexual morality and their support of society's exceptional interest in the integrity of the family.
^"I Have a Question". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS Church. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
^Kimball, Spencer. "Love vs. Lust"(PDF). byui.edu. BYU-Idaho. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 9, 2013. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
^Be Ye Therefore Perfect. byu.edu. LDS Church. September 17, 1974. Event occurs at 24:24. [I]t is hard for me to understand why men wish to resemble women and why women desire to ape the men. ... Then we're appalled to find an ever-increasing number of women who want to be sexually men and many young men who wish to be sexually women. What a travesty! I tell you that, as surely as they live, such people will regret having made overtures toward the changing of their sex. Do they know better than God what is right and best for them? Alternative youtube.com and archive.org links.
^Peterson, Robert W. (November 7, 1989). "Robert McQueen Dies: Former Advocate Editor Oversaw Transition". Advocate. p. 3.
^"Mormons Excommunicate Editor of Advocate". Advocate. August 9, 1979. pp. 10–11.
^""Mormon Mafia:" David Goodstein and the LDS Team Who Helped Build The Advocate". Affinity. Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons. March 1982. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. The speaker at the general meeting of the Affirmation Los Angeles Chapter, last month, was David Goodstein, gay activist, writer, publisher and president of Liberation Publications, Inc. which publishes the nation's leading newsmagazine, The Advocate. 'I am really moved by your being willing to join a group of other gay Mormons. The Advocate, which I have the privilege of owning, is sometimes known as 'The Mormon Mafia' and I have been compared with Howard Hughes about my having Mormons around me.'
^"Davis Man Found Dead in Vehicle". Ogden Standard Examiner. March 10, 1976. p. 11A – via Newspapers.com. Carlyle D. Marsden was found in his car along Nichols Road dead from a pistol wound of the chest.
^Weist, Larry (March 16, 1976). "Homosexual Suspects Arrested in Utah County". Daily Herald. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Eight men were arraigned in the Pleasant Grove Precinct Justice Court Mondy afternoon on charges of lewdness and sodomy stemming from alleged homosexual activity at the two rest stops on I-15 north of Orem. ... Two of the suspects were arrested and charged with an act of sodomy. One of them, a 54-year-old Salt Lake County man, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest two days after his arrest, according to Serge Moore, state medical examiner.
^Weist, Larry (March 16, 1976). "Homosexual Suspects Arrested in Utah County". Daily Herald. p. 4. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Funeral services for Carlyle D. Marsden, 54, of 1388 Nichols Road, Fruit Heights, who died Monday, March 8, 1976, will be Friday at 10 a.m. in the Kaysville 11th-14th LDS Ward Chapel ... Mr. Marsden was a music teacher at Eisenhower Junior High School and at Brigham Young University.
^Swedin, Eric (Spring 1999). "Integrating the modern psychologies and religion: Allen E. Bergin and the Latter-day Saints of the late twentieth century". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 35 (2): 157. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6696(199921)35:2<157::AID-JHBS3>3.0.CO;2-L.
^"LDS Scene". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS church. December 1979.
^"An Overview of Church Welfare Services". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS church. October 1975. Social Services is now part of Personal Welfare Services, with Brother Victor Brown Jr., as director.
^"B.Y.U. Students Dispute L.D.S. Doctrine". The Open Door. 1 (9). University of Utah Marriott Library Microfilm Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah: 1, 14–15, 17. September 1977.
^Williams, Ben. "The Payne Papers". gaysaltlake.com. QSaltLake Magazine. Later that summer, Salt Lake City gay activist Ken Kline ... who knew a gay man who worked in the church office building's mail room, also managed to get the pamphlet mailed to all the General Authorities, TV and radio stations, and most of the LDS church faculty at BYU and Ricks College. Doing this made it look as though the pamphlet was a BYU publication and that the church had approved it. Needless to say, LDS leaders were pissed.
^Williams, Ben. "The Payne Papers". gaysaltlake.com. QSaltLake Magazine. The 'pro-homosexuality' pamphlet flustered church officials to such a degree that in August, Allen Bergin, director of the Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior at BYU, was directed by LDS Social Services and BYU Comprehensive Clinic to prepare a response to 'The Payne Papers.' It was entitled 'A Reply to Unfounded Assertions Regarding Homosexuality.' It was dismal. ... The Presiding Bishop Office of the LDS Church financed BYU's Value's Institute attempts to rebut 'The Payne Papers' through the tithing funds that church members contributed for 'humanitarian projects.' ... Victor L. Brown of the Values Institute decried 'the fallacious claims in the Payne Papers' as the 'opposition's attempts to indoctrinate our people.' ... By the beginning of 1980, BYU's Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior hadn't succeeded in achieving its directive to refute 'The Payne Papers.'
^ ab"Gay Mormons Organize". The Advocate. November 2, 1977.
^ abDobner, Jennifer (June 2, 2017). "Salt Lake City's hidden LGBT history documented in new book". The Salt Lake Tribune. Among the other historical treasures pictured in Anderson's book: ... Several pictures from the 1977 protest march and candlelight vigils held when former beauty queen Anita Bryant brought her Save Our Children campaign—to protect children from homosexuality—to Utah for a rally. 'I consider that Utah's Stonewall,' Anderson said, referencing the 1969 riots outside a New York bar, the Stonewall Inn, that was a haven for gays. 'This is the first time the [Utah] community gathered to protest in public ... the first time the community thinks of itself as having rights and fighting back.'
^Petersen, Mark (July 9, 1977). "Unnatural, without Excuse". Church News. LDS Church. Deseret News. p. 16.
^Swenson, Paul (Spring 1977). "Nostrums in the Newsroom: Raised Sights and Raised Expectations at the Deseret News". Dialogue. 10 (3): 50.
^Petersen, Mark (January 14, 1978). "The Strong Delusions". Church News. LDS Church.
^Petersen, Mark (February 4, 1978). "On the Safe Side". Church News. LDS Church: 16.
^Petersen, Mark (March 18, 1978). "Calling the Kettle Clean". Church News. LDS Church: 16.
^Petersen, Mark (December 16, 1978). "Sin Is No Excuse". Church News. LDS Church: 16.
^Petersen, Mark (July 29, 1979). "Is It a Menace". Church News. LDS Church: 16.
^O'Donovan, Connell (May 27, 2007). Affirmation: Singing the Songs of our Redemption, 1977 to 2007 (Speech). Affirmation 30th Anniversary Conference. Holladay, Utah United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. The LDS Church later invited Ms. Bryant to come to Utah for the Utah State Fair, and both Spencer W. Kimball, and the General Relief Society President, Barbara B. Smith, held news conferences praising Anita Bryant and her work to save America from 'the homosexual menace.'
^Briscoe, David (September 19, 1977). "Gay, Anti-Gay Pickets Parade at Anita's Show". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. p. 6A. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. The lead marcher in the gay group carried an American flag. He was followed by The Rev. Bob Waldrop, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church, who said demonstrators were grateful for Anita because she has made homosexuals 'come out of the closet.'
^"Tear Gas Used to Disperse Utah Anita Bryant Protesters". The Daily Herald. United Press International. September 19, 1977. p. 10. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. A crowd of 200 people attending a candlelight vigil to protest the appearance of singer Anita Bryant at the Utah State Fair Sunday night was dispersed by teargas but it was not known who released the gas. ... 'We want the right to live, work, love and contribute to society without being harassed,' he [Bob Waldrop] said.
^Wetzel, Paul (September 19, 1977). "Both Sides 'Greet' Anita Bryant". The Salt Lake Tribune. pp. 19, 28. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. The Rev. Bob Waldrop, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church, led picketers opposed to Miss Bryant outside the fairgrounds. The demonstration was sponsored by a group called the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights. The Rev. Mr. Waldrop said. 'We want the right to live, work, love and contribute to society without being harassed. As long as Anita Bryant and her followers say we can't have that and call us perverts, then we'll have to continue our movement.' Pastor Waldrop led a vigil at 8:30 p.m. at Memory Grove which was attended by about 200 persons. The vigil commemorated the slaying of three homosexuals last June. The vigil included speeches by Rev. Waldrop, Bob Kunst, a gay rights activist from Miami. Fla., Shirley Pedier, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and Rep. Jeff Fox, D-Salt Lake. The meeting ended at 9:30 p.m. with a candlelight ceremony. It was marred only by teargas, apparently from a cannister which dispersed those near the speakers platform shortly after the meeting ended. First part available here and second part also archived here.
^"LDS Leader Hails Anti Gay Stand". The Salt Lake Tribune: D3. November 3, 1977 – via Newspapers.com. ... President Kimball said adding the church has 8,000–10,000 bishops ready to counsel members with homosexual problems. The spiritual leader of almost four million Mormons worldwide said the church also has 'young men who have gone to college' who can provide professional aid to gays.
^"Kimball Praises Bryant". The Daily Herald. United Press International. November 6, 1977. p. 17. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Petersen, Mark (December 16, 1978). "Sin Is No Excuse". Church News. LDS Church: 16.
^Williams, Ben (November 21, 2014). "Steve Holbrook and 35 years of KRCL". qsaltlake.com. QSaltLake Magazine. In 1979 KRCL's first GLBT program was an hour-long show called "Gayjavu." The program evolved over the next few years into "Concerning Gays and Lesbians" which was one of the nation's longest, (if indeed not the longest) continuous local gay and lesbian radio program in the nation.
^Williams, Ben (May 25, 2014). "The beginning of Utah's gay community". qsaltlake.com. QSaltLake Magazine. Utah was especially unique in that the newly organized KRCL FM 91 had a local gay program from the beginning called Gayjavu which would become Concerning Gays and Lesbians for the next 20 years. Stephen Holbrook, a gay man who founded KRCL, was dedicated to Utah's gay minority having a voice.
^Williams, Ben (July 1, 2006). "Lambda History: Stephen Holbrook". QSaltLake. Salt Lick Publishing, LLC: 11. While not identified publicly as gay, Stephen Holbrook as a gay man was committed to the gay community having a voice over the KRCL airwaves. For over 26 years KRCL has provided the [LGBT] communities of Utah with local informational programming.
^O'Donovan, Connell (May 27, 2007). Affirmation: Singing the Songs of our Redemption, 1977 to 2007 (Speech). Affirmation 30th Anniversary Conference. Holladay, Utah United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Bob Waldrop, a young convert and missionary recently returned from Australia, moved to California where he came out in 1975 and then became affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church (or MCC) an evangelical church with a specific ministry for Gay people) in San Jose and decided to train for the ministry. About that time, Rev. Alice Jones of MCC Salt Lake decided to leave Utah and she invited Bob Waldrop to move to Salt Lake and take over her ministry, since he had an LDS background. He arrived in Utah in February 1977 and became the worship coordinator for MCC Salt Lake.
^"Rotunda Denied To S.L. Church". The Salt Lake Tribune. February 19, 1977. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Leaders of a Salt Lake City church Friday criticized Lt. Gov. David S. Monson for denying their use of the Capitol rotunda for a dance. The lieutenant governor-secretary of state replied that his information indicated the church has a number of homosexual members, and it would not be in the best interest of the state to grant the request. ... Asked if it was not obvious discrimination to refuse the facility to the Metropolitan Community Church, the lieutenant governor said, 'We have some obligation to see public buildings are used for purposes that meet the approval of a majority of the community.'
^Vaughn, Featherstone (February 27, 1979). "Charity Never Faileth". speeches.byu.edu. BYU. Archived from the original on August 31, 2020.
^Murphy, Barbara; Tate, Alice; Long, David; Welker, Joseph (April 11, 1979). "LDS Views of Homosexuality". The Daily Universe. BYU. p. 16.
^Bergera, James; Priddis, Ronald (1985). Brigham Young University: A House of Faith. Signature Books. ISBN0941214346. In 'Homosexuality: Cause for Concern?' DU [Daily Universe], 10 April 1979, Maxine Murdock of the [BYU] Counseling Center conservatively estimated that 4 percent of the student body (approximately 1,200) is homosexual. See footnote 71.
^Murphy, Barbara; Tate, Alice; Long, David; Welker, Joseph (April 10, 1979). "Homosexuality: Cause for Concern?". The Daily Universe. BYU. p. 1. According to local psychologists who are working on homosexuality research, anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of the BYU male population have homosexual tendencies. Dr. Ford McBride, a psychologist at Timpanogos Community Mental Health Center, and Dr. Maxine Murdock, licensed psychologist at the BYU Counseling Center who works with homosexual students, estimate the figure at 4 percent. McBride said his estimate is based on extrapolation of the old Kinsey report.
^ abMurphy, Barbara; Tate, Alice; Long, David; Welker, Joseph (April 11, 1979). "Homosexuality Stirs Controversy". The Daily Universe. BYU. p. 1.
^Murphy, Barbara; Tate, Alice; Long, David; Welker, Joseph (April 12, 1979). "Homosexuality: 'Change Possible'". The Daily Universe. BYU. p. 3.
^"Our History". Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends. Affirmation: LGBT Mormons, Families & Friends. The year 1979 was a year of significant growth for Affirmation and gay LDS people. It was the year that Affirmation decided to proclaim itself. In June of that year, for the first time ever, Gay Mormons marched in a Gay parade in Los Angeles. In September, 14 members participated in the "March on Washington for Gay Rights." Now there would never be any turning back. It was the first national mainstream coverage Gay Mormons had ever received and it raised our goals and spirits.
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