The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has disheartened LGBTQ+ activists after it issued a series of new policies this week that would significantly limit the roles of its transgender members.
The guidelines were released Monday as part of an update to the General Handbook of the denomination commonly known as the Mormon Church. The new rules not only expand an existing rule banning transgender people from baptism, but also prohibit transgender people from working with children or serving as priests or teachers.
The Handbook of the Church states that those “who change from their biological sex at birth are welcome to attend sacrament meetings” and participate “in many other ways.” It also encourages these individuals and their families to consult with local leaders about their Church participation. But the new guidelines significantly limit that participation.
The policy now states that members who have undergone any type of gender reassignment surgery – whether social, medical or surgical – are not allowed to stay overnight at youth camps and are only allowed to use single-occupancy restrooms in church meetinghouses. Alternatively, a “trusted person” must be stationed outside the restroom to prevent others from entering when a transgender person uses a restroom that corresponds to their personal gender identity.
While the latest edition of the General Handbook defines and affirms gender as a person’s biological sex at birth, it also states that the faith “takes no position on the causes” of gender dysphoria.
Until now, the interpretation of church guidelines on this issue was left to local congregations, their bishops and parish leaders. However, the new guidelines provide clarity in most of these gray areas.
A spokesman for the religious community declined to comment on Friday.
LGBTQ+ advocates within the church say these strict policies further marginalize transgender people who already feel like outsiders in the church. Laurie Lee Hall, a transgender woman who was excommunicated in 2017 after her gender reassignment surgery, said the new guidelines made it difficult for people like her to maintain their faith.
“The door appears to be locked and bolted,” she said Friday.
Hall, who lives near Louisville, Kentucky, said she is a member of a local Mormon church that has welcomed her warmly and openly toward women, even allowing her to participate in women-focused classes and activities.
“Although I had some separation from the church in terms of my membership and my faith, I at least had a social connection with the women in the church,” Hall said. “All of that is no longer possible now.”
According to the new guidelines, she would have to attend courses together with men.
“I would go to church in a dress, shoes and makeup and have to sit with a group of men in suits,” Hall said. “That would make me a target and portray me as someone who was going way off script.”
What upsets Hall even more is the church’s policy that prohibits transgender people from working with children or young people and requires them to have a supervisor to use a restroom of their choice.
“It implies that a transgender member is somehow a danger to others,” she said. “It’s dehumanizing and far too damaging to members who are still trying to reconcile their gender identity with their faith.”
The new guidelines came despite the denomination’s efforts over the past decade to take a more compassionate approach to LGBTQ+ issues while reaffirming its doctrinal opposition to intimacy between people in same-sex relationships. The only departure from that path came in 2015, when the church issued rules banning baptisms for children of gay parents and labeling same-sex couples as sinners eligible for disfellowshipping. These were repealed in 2019.
Matthew Bowman, Howard W. Hunter Chair in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, said the new transgender guidelines were “not surprising” and were long overdue.
“This has been a real struggle for members since the 1970s and 1980s, when the church took a conservative stance on homosexuality,” he said. “These members are used to the church being unwilling to adapt and hesitant to adapt. But to hear it so clearly is painful.”
Hall still hopes the church will change course, as it did when it lifted the ban on the ordination of African-Americans, but she also fears that if this trend of exclusion continues, even more people could leave the faith.
“It will take a while for there to be real sociopolitical change in the church,” she said. “If this continues, there will be a generational loss because young people will not accept these draconian measures. All of this would be completely avoidable if the church could simply say: We love you and we will find ways to include you.”
___
The Associated Press’s coverage of religion receives support from the Cooperation with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
