For the nearly 200 years that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been in existence, it has held to a view that marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and, therefore, crucial to one’s happiness in this life and one’s final status in the afterlife. Inextricably linked to this heteronormative framework is a condemnation of homosexuality on the grounds that it confuses gender roles and fundamentally defies God’s plan.

Rhetoric from LDS leaders around homosexuality became increasingly harsh and public during the 1950s and 1960s, in large part as a reaction to prominent lesbian and gay liberation groups gaining increased political momentum. Frequently citing sodomy as an abomination and a sin just shy of murder, they framed homosexuality as a viral contagion and serious threat to individual, familial and societal well-being, one that required urgent treatment and forceful eradication. This way of thinking paved the way for the widespread practice of conversion therapy (also known as reparative therapy). Under the guise of “healing” and “helping” homosexuals “overcome their same-sex attractions,” the LDS Church justified decades of inhumane and sometimes torturous methodologies.

The church implemented its first large-scale conversion therapy programs in 1959 at church-owned Brigham Young University. Church leaders and mental health professionals oversaw electroshock therapy programs, nausea-inducing chemical treatments and a host of other dehumanizing methods in an attempt to change the sexual orientation of homosexual students. Church leaders and BYU administrative officials grounded these practices in psychodynamic theories of sexual malleability and fluidity, leveraging a host of “homosexuality causes” that often had to do with poor parenting, masturbation, pornography and a confusion of gender roles, among many others. BYU officials also conducted regular “purges,” which were large-scale interrogations of students suspected of homosexual activity.

As mental health professionals grew increasingly critical of the harmful emotional and psychological effects of conversion therapy (let alone its ineffectiveness), the Church adopted a more ambiguous stance in the late 1990s and early 2000s. LDS general authority and spokesperson Lance Wickman said in a 2006 interview that they “can’t endorse the aversive therapies recommended in the past to fix this affliction,” but the Church “does not counsel against it.” In the same interview, prominent leader Dallin Oaks supported this position by stating that it “may be appropriate for an individual to use clinical therapy to seek to diminish or eliminate homosexual feelings.” Church leaders like Wickman and Oaks were still holding on to a view of sexual malleability from their predecessors that created the possibility for “saving” the homosexual. A decade later in 2016, the Church was less ambivalent and began collaborating with suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ civil rights organizations, calling for an end to “any therapy that subjects an individual to abusive practices.” This shifting stance contributed to the eventual passing of legislation in January 2020 banning licensed mental health therapists in Utah from practicing any form of conversion therapy on minors.

Although the LDS Church officially disavows conversion therapy, current rhetoric from LDS leaders maintains the viewpoint that homosexuality is a pathology, an affliction and a potential sin (if “acted upon”). Within this framework, same-sex relationships are still deemed as less valid in God’s eyes than heterosexual relationships and unfit for the celestial kingdom (the highest degree of heaven in LDS theology). Thus, it is still assumed and sometimes said directly that people with same-sex desire will be “cured” or “fixed” by God in the next life. For example, President of the Church, Russell M. Nelson said:

“But what of the many mature members of the Church who are not married? Through no failing of their own, they deal with the trials of life alone. Be we all reminded that, in the Lord’s own way and time, no blessings will be withheld from His faithful Saints.”

This notion that unmarried members who stay faithful will have all the blessings of heaven, including heterosexual marriage, has been echoed by LDS leaders for decades. (And for gay and lesbian members, staying faithful means choosing celibacy or a mixed-orientation relationship). A more explicit version of this idea is in a 2007 pamphlet created for people who “struggle with same-sex attraction” called “God Loveth His Children:”

“The perfect plan of our Father in Heaven makes provisions for individuals who see to keep his commandments, but who, through no fault of their own, do not have an eternal marriage in mortal life. As we follow Heavenly Father’s plan, our bodies, feelings, and desires will be perfected in the next life so that every one of God’s children may find joy in a family consisting of a husband, wife, and children.”

Embedded in this statement is the notion that God will root out same-sex desires from people in heaven and allow them to fully experience his blessings, which consists of a heterosexual marriage and children. This belief explains why so many LDS members continue to speak of homosexuality as a temporary affliction, a trying temptation and an unfortunate condition that will one day be lifted from the individual who “struggle” with it. While the Church may officially condemn conversion therapy on earth, many members and leaders continue to imply (and sometimes state explicitly) that it takes place in heaven.

So why did the Church officially distance itself from conversion therapy in recent years, while maintaining a theological framework that involves converting people from gay to straight in heaven? Perhaps it is more about public relations and preserving the Church’s image, as it would be nearly impossible in today’s culture for the Church to maintain an explicitly affirming stance of conversion therapy. If it were truly about embracing lesbian and gay individuals and identities, LDS authorities would also condemn conversion therapy in heaven. They would acknowledge that the depression, anxiety and self-hatred so often linked with its practice on earth would similarly exist in heaven. For the emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of sexual minority church members, LDS leaders must create an actual theological space for the existence and validation of lesbian and gay individuals, one in which heavenly glory does not hinge upon one’s sexual identity and romantic relationships.

Keith Burns is a graduate student at Sarah Lawrence College who specializes in Mormonism & Sexuality.

Newsletter