Because of its ban against same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has a long history of teaching that its adherents who are attracted to the same sex can and should attempt to alter their feelings through righteous striving and sexual orientation change efforts (or SOCE, also called conversion therapy or reparative therapy). Reparative therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual, or their gender identity from transgender to cisgender using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions. There is no reliable evidence that such practices can alter sexual orientation or gender identity, and many medical institutions warn that sexual orientation change efforts are ineffective and potentially harmful. In 2019, the church's tacit endorsement of conversion therapy was announced as overturned when a spokesperson for the church stated, "We are opposed to conversion therapy and our therapists do not practice it."
The LDS Church's statements and actions have overwhelmingly focused on male homosexuality and rarely mention lesbianism or bisexuality. Current teachings and policies leave homosexual members with the option of entering a mixed-orientation opposite-sex marriage, or lifelong celibacy without any sexual expression (including masturbation).
While the LDS church has somewhat softened its stances toward LGBTQ individuals in recent years, leaders continued to communicate into 2015 that changing one's sexual orientation was possible through personal righteousness, prayer, faith in Christ, psychotherapy, and group therapy and retreats. Local church leaders sometimes used church funds to pay for conversion therapies into at least 2015. From 1976 until 1989 the Church Handbook called for church discipline for members attracted to the same sex, equating merely being homosexual with the seriousness of acts of adultery and child molestation—even celibate gay people were subject to excommunication. Church publications now state that "individuals do not choose to have such attractions", the church opposes conversion therapy, its church-run therapy services no longer provides sexual orientation change efforts, and the church has no official stance on the causes of homosexuality.
History Stances towards the mutability of homosexuality by church leaders have softened over the years. In the 1960s and 1970s Church leaders taught that homosexuality was a curable disease and they encouraged self-help attempts by homosexual members to change their sexual orientation and cultivate heterosexual feelings. Video of the presentation. To assist in this, leaders developed an aversion therapy program on BYU campus for gay adolescents and adults from 1959 to the mid-1990s since simply being attracted to people of the same sex was an excommunicable sin under church president Kimball. Teachings later changed as it became clear these self-help and aversive techniques were not working and, thus, from the 1980s to the 2000s reparative therapy (also called conversion therapy) became the dominant treatment method. It was often recommended by Evergreen in an attempt to help homosexual members "unchoose" or "unlearn" their attractions.
In a 2010 survey of 625 Utah individuals 55% of Mormons believed sexual orientation could be changed, and a 2015 survey of 1,612 LGBT Mormons and former Mormons found that 73% of men and 43% of women had attempted sexual orientation change, usually through multiple methods across many years. Counselor-led sexual orientation change efforts dwindled among members around 2015 as church teachings evolved with leaders explicitly stating in 2012 that same-sex sexual attractions were not a choice and affirming in 2016 that therapy focusing on a change in sexual orientation was unethical.
A table summarizing some of the major shifts in official dialogue is found below. + Summary of changes in teachings on sexual orientation change efforts Topic Earlier teachings Transitional teachings Current teachingsSexual orientation change efforts Electroshock aversion therapy recommended, reparative therapy encouraged, curable disease, Quoted on page 31 of "Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons." should be overcome Conversion therapy may be appropriate, denounces any abusive practices Church opposed to it, and church therapists no longer practice itHeterosexual dating & marriage As a therapeutic step Quoted on page 31 of "Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons." Not to be seen as a therapy or solution See also the Salt Lake Tribune archived transcript here.
Aversion therapy at BYU
In 1959, BYU began administering "aversion therapy" to "cure," "repair," or "reorient" homosexual feelings or behavior among Mormon males. The on-campus program lasted through the 60s and 70s, and faded out over three decades later in the mid-1990s. BYU mental health counselors, LDS bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents, general authorities, and the BYU Standards Office (equivalent to today's Honor Code Office) all referred young men to the BYU program. Gerald J. Dye, who was over the University Standards Office from 1971 to 1980 (renamed the Honor Code Office in 1991), stated that part of the "set process" for homosexual BYU students referred to his office for "less serious" offenses was to require that they undergo therapy to remain at BYU and that in special cases this included "electroshock and vomiting aversion therapies." From 1975 to 1976 Max Ford McBride, a student at BYU, conducted electroshock aversion therapy on 17 men (with 14 completing the treatment) and published a dissertation on the use of electrical aversive techniques to treat ego-dystonic homosexuality. Participant in the 1975–76 BYU study Don Harryman wrote that he experienced "burns on [his] arms and ... emotional trauma." In 2011 BYU admitted to the past use of electroshock therapy.
Criticisms Past leaders' teachings on reparative therapy and the origins of homosexuality have been criticized. In the late 90s psychiatrist Jeffery R. Jensen, a University of Utah alumnus, criticized church reparative therapy modalities and etiological theories around homosexuality in multiple presentations as lacking scientific integrity as he believed they were dictated from top church leaders rather than drawn from actual empirical observation by trained professionals. He also stated that current church publications on the subject were condescending, dehumanizing pontifications using caricatures and stereotypes of gay men and lesbians to distort knowledge and facts in order to justify oppressive standards and norms. He continued asserting that "far too many of our lesbian and gay youths kill themselves because of what you say about them" since gay men and lesbians cannot be made heterosexual, and "those who believe your false promises and remain celibate in the hopes of eventual 'cure' are consigned to a misery." Transcript available here. Transcript at affirmation.org. Soon after, The American Psychiatric Association disavowed therapy trying to change sexual orientation as ineffective and destructive.
Timeline of LDS actions and discussions around preventing and changing homosexuality
LDS church leaders explicitly promoted therapy attempts to change sexual orientation in the past, but have recently shifted away from those previous views. Some events and publications around reparative or conversion therapy and the LDS church are shown below:
1930s 1930s – Newspapers in the largely LDS Utah cities of Salt Lake and Ogden discussed ways of altering sexuality such as hormone treatment, by educating young children in mixed-sex schools, and by one attempting to wean oneself from same-sex attractions via an opposite-sex romantic relationship. Another article stated that one woman's homosexuality stemmed from a traumatic witnessing of her mother in a painful delivery of a sibling, and that increased divorces and decreasing young marriages contributed to an increase in homosexuality. The article added "it is possible" but, "very difficult to change an adult homosexual into a normal man or woman", and "they must be determined individuals."
1940s 1948 – Gay BYU students Kent Goodridge Taylor and Richard Snow, who were in love, went to visit with church president George Albert Smith, who told them to "live their lives as best they could" in their companionship. Smith wrote the words "Homo Sexual" in his appointment book. Earl Kofoed, who went from BYU from 1946 to 1948, similarly reported a "live and let live" attitude of leaders towards LGBT Mormons, and described a thriving gay community of friends at BYU. He stated that there were no witch hunts, excommunications, or pressure to change one's sexual orientation at BYU like there would be in later decades.
1950s 1959 – Church leaders begin their electroshock aversion therapy program on BYU campus in an attempt to change the sexual orientation of gay teens and men. The on-campus program lasted over three decades into the mid-90s.
1960s 1960 – The church newspaper printed an article on homosexuality based on a speech from a Salt Lake City psychiatrist. The article said male homosexuality was an illness caused by an absent father and a domineering mother in early adolescence which caused the child to identify more with the female. It added homosexuality could be cured by psychiatric treatment, and prevented by fathers "wear[ing] the pants in the family" and working and playing with their boys. 1961 – An editorial in the church newspaper by apostle Mark Petersen used the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in American Fork, Utah to characterize homosexual people as child rapists and "deviates pose[ing] a danger to children on every street in every community". He added, "homosexuals ... are emotionally sick and disabled creatures. ... They are waiting. They are hunting. They are seeking .... The deviates prowl that jungle." 1961 – Apostle Lee gave a lengthy anecdote about a woman in love with another woman stating that the ugly practice and unpardonable sin of homosexuality is more common than we realize. He had her promise to never return to homosexuality and pray to become what he termed a normal, natural woman.
1964 – Apostle Kimball addressed seminary and institute faculty on BYU campus calling homosexuality a "malady", "disease", and an "abominable and detestable crime against nature" that was "curable" by "self mastery". He cited one lay bishop (a businessman by trade) assigned by the church to administer a "program of rehabilitation" through which there had been "numerous cures". He said "the police, the courts, and the judges" had referred "many cases directly" to the church. 1965 – Kimball again addressed homosexuality in a January 5 BYU speech. He called it a "gross", "heinous", "obnoxious", "abominable" "vicious" sin. The text states that those with homosexual "desires and tendencies" could "correct" and "overcome" it "the same as if he had the urge toward petting or fornication or adultery", but that "the cure ... is like the cure for alcoholism, subject to continued vigilance". In the speech he stated BYU "will never knowingly enroll ... nor tolerate ... anyone with these tendencies who fails to repent", and that it is a "damnable heresy" for a homosexual person to say "God made them that way". He also stated that sometimes masturbation is an introduction to homosexuality.. Transcript reprint with permission by the Mental Health Resource Foundation at mentalhealthlibrary.info. Note: References to homosexuality were removed in the reprinted version of the speech in the 1972 book compilation of Kimball's speeches "Faith Precedes the Miracle".