Mormon Church Announces Conditional Support for LGBT Rights - East Idaho News
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Mormon Church Announces Conditional Support for LGBT Rights

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Thinkstock 012715 SaltLakeTemple?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1422407050610Stock Photo of the Spires of the Salt Lake Temple. Photo Credit: Andriy Kravchenko/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday that it would support legislation that would provide protections for LGBT people in areas including housing and employment.

In the announcement, the church said it would support that legislation “while ensuring that religious freedom was not compromised.” The announcement was made at a news conference featuring three members of the governing Twelve Apostles and one female leader of the church. The call was made for a “fairness for all” approach — one “that balances religious freedom protections with reasonable safeguards for LGBT people.”

In 2009, the church supported Salt Lake City ordinances protecting housing and employment rights for LGBT people. Tuesday’s announcement broadened that position, saying that the church would now support similar ordinances across the state of Utah and the country, “as long as there was a balanced approach to protect constitutional religious exercise and conscience.”

“We are at our best as fellow citizens when the push-pull of different viewpoints, freely and thoroughly aired in national debate, leads ultimately to compromise and resolution and we move on as a nation, stronger than before,” said Sister Neill Marriott.

According to a release from the church, the appeal is not a change in doctrine, but represents “a desire to bring people together, to encourage mutually respectful dialogue in what has become a highly polarized national debate.”

“In this approach,” the church said, “neither side may get all that they want. We must all learn to live with others who do not share the same beliefs or values.”


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