SALT LAKE CITY, November 21, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) ─ For the third week in a row, hundreds of supporters of the LGBT community rallied in Salt Lake City protesting changes to LDS Church policy aimed at members of same-sex households and their children.
The group of about three hundred demonstrators gathered on the steps of the Utah State Capitol Saturday afternoon, where organizers of the ‘Utah Rally for Love, Equality, Family and Acceptance,’ decried the policy changes as vindictive and anti-family.
.
The changes, which were introduced in early November, labeled same-sex marriages and relationships as acts of apostasy, and declared children in a home with two gay parents would not be allowed to participate in church rites, including baptism, until they reached the age of 18 and renounced their parents’ homosexual relationship.
.
Scott Fausett, one of the rally’s organizers, said the Church’s policy changes are having a devastating impact on same sex households, especially those with teens who will have to choose between living LGBT households and LDS Church membership. “It’s very difficult on many of us. It’s very difficult on our children, tearing families apart.”
.
“It’s unacceptable,” Fausett said. “This is a state where we should be building our families and caring for them. There should be people pushing back. As well you know, the LDS Church came out with policy November 5th and then the Church reacted to part of the outcry. They tried to make a policy explanation and there was further outcry. And then you saw the First Presidency again a week later doing another clarification. And I think it is because the people spoke out; people reacted. I don’t believe the Church was expecting that.”
Sentiments of this weekend’s rally mirrored those of the last few weekends, including one event which saw 1,500 disenfranchised Mormons officially submit their resignations to the LDS Church as part of a mass demonstration in downtown Salt Lake City.
Listen to Scott Fausett’s full interview here:
