{"id":16570,"date":"2019-05-25T20:08:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T20:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16570"},"modified":"2019-05-25T22:17:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T22:17:31","slug":"gays-cheered-at-brigham-young-university-millennial-mormons-are-increasingly-tolerant-of-same-sex-attraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/gays-cheered-at-brigham-young-university-millennial-mormons-are-increasingly-tolerant-of-same-sex-attraction\/","title":{"rendered":"Gays cheered at Brigham Young University \u2013 millennial Mormons are increasingly tolerant of same-sex attraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Petrey<\/a>, Kalamazoo College<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

During a recent valedictorian graduation speech, student Matthew Easton came out saying he is \u201ca gay son of God.\u201d<\/a> His admission was met with loud applause from the audience. <\/p>\n

What makes this unusual is that Easton is a student at Brigham Young University, the flagship educational institution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which forbids any form of same-sex intimacy. <\/p>\n

What does this coming out as gay mean for the church and modern-day Mormonism?<\/p>\n

Coming out at BYU<\/h2>\n

In recent times, coming out at BYU has been increasingly accepted, if not always cheered. <\/p>\n

Charlie Bird, who wore BYU\u2019s cougar mascot costume \u201cCosmo\u201d from 2015 to 2018 and became the face of Brigham Young University, came out<\/a> just a few months ago. <\/p>\n

Last year one of BYU\u2019s official Instagram accounts was turned over to student Kyle Manwaring for one day, who talked about<\/a> what it was like to be gay at BYU.<\/p>\n

A student group at BYU<\/a>, \u201cUnderstanding Sexuality, Gender and Allyship,\u201d has become a resource for many LGBTQ students there.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of Mormonism and sexuality<\/a>, I would argue that what made this possible was a change in the honor code in 2007<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The honor code at BYU since 2007 explicitly states<\/a>: \u201cBrigham Young University will respond to homosexual behavior rather than to feelings or attraction and welcomes as full members of the university community all whose behavior meets university standards\u2026.One\u2019s stated same-gender attraction is not an honor code issue.\u201d <\/p>\n

While still prohibiting homosexual \u201cbehavior,\u201d this revised code is accepting of same-sex attraction. <\/p>\n

Under this code, students could take on LGBTQ identities but not kiss, date or show other forms of physical intimacy that are allowed for straight members. <\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t say gay\u2019 policy<\/h2>\n

That the church has become accepting of LGBTQ labels needs to be seen in its historical context to understand how big a change this is from a previous era.<\/p>\n

Historian Gregory Prince<\/a> writes in his book \u201cGay Rights and the Mormon Church\u201d<\/a> that starting in the 1960s, LDS church leaders believed that homosexuality could be \u201ccured\u201d and that it had certain social and psychological causes.<\/p>\n

By the 1970s, the gay rights movement was gaining a lot of ground nationally<\/a>, and LDS leaders were afraid of its impact on the Mormon community. <\/p>\n

Around this time, LDS church leaders came to believe that the use of the terms \u201cgay,\u201d \u201clesbian\u201d and \u201chomosexual\u201d could contribute to same-sex sexual attractions. A 1981 church handbook<\/a> advising local church leaders on how to counsel with young people advised: \u201cBe careful not to label people \u2018homosexual.\u2019 This both discourages them and tends to make them feel that they cannot solve their problems.\u201d <\/p>\n

These ideas held sway for a long time. In 1995, church leaders began to regularly speak in terms of a psychological condition that they called \u201csame-gender attraction<\/a>.\u201d That was their alternative to the sociopolitical labels of \u201cgay\u201d and \u201clesbian.\u201d <\/p>\n

Change and resistance<\/h2>\n

Along with the BYU honor code change in 2007 came a better acceptance of Latter-day Saints identifying as gay, lesbian and queer. In fact, the church too uses these labels actively. <\/p>\n

An official church website organized in 2012, MormonsandGays.org<\/a>, and its update in 2016 MormonandGay.lds.org<\/a> prominently featured Latter-day Saints who adopted these identities. <\/p>\n

Not all church leaders, however, have welcomed these changes. In 2009, high-ranking church leader Bruce Hafen warned<\/a> that \u201cyou feed the angry dog\u201d of same-sex attraction when you \u201clabel yourself as gay.\u201d <\/p>\n

And in 2014, another top church leader, David A. Bednar, responded to a question about how to welcome homosexuals in the church, saying<\/a>: \u201cthere are no homosexual members of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mormon millennials and change<\/h2>\n
\n \"\"
\n Protests in Salt Lake City in 2015 against the Mormon Church position on same sex couples.<\/span>
\n AP Photo\/Rick Bowmer, File<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even though same-sex erotic behavior is still forbidden at BYU, I argue that the cultural and policy shifts that allow for identifying as LGBTQ at BYU are important signals of larger shifts in Mormonism. <\/p>\n

Scholar Jana Reiss\u2019<\/a> new book \u201cThe Next Mormons\u201d<\/a> documents that more than half of Mormon millennials support same-sex marriage. <\/p>\n

A recent protest against the Brigham Young honor code has also called for changes to the way<\/a> it treats LGBTQ students. <\/p>\n

Indeed, LGBTQ BYU students still report<\/a> alienation, loneliness and judgment. But, at the same time, the cheers for Matthew Easton\u2019s graduation speech show that a significant change is happening.\"The<\/p>\n

Taylor Petrey<\/a>, Associate Professor of Religion, Kalamazoo College<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor Petrey, Kalamazoo College During a recent valedictorian graduation speech, student Matthew Easton came out saying he is \u201ca gay son of God.\u201d His admission was met with loud applause from the audience. What makes this unusual is that Easton is a student at Brigham Young University, the flagship educational institution of the Church of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[4583,1803,2335,2071,6367],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16571,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16570\/revisions\/16571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}