LGBTQ advocates say Mormon church's new transgender policies marginalize trans members

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has disheartened LGBTQ+ activists after issuing a slew of new policies this week that would significantly restrict the role of its transgender members.

The guidelines were released Monday as part of updates to the General Handbook of the denomination known widely as the Mormon church. Its new rules, in addition to expanding on an existing rule that prevents transgender people from being baptized, also prohibit transgender people from working with children or serving as priests or teachers.

The church's handbook states that those “who transition away 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 confer with local leaders regarding their church participation. The new guidelines, however, significantly limit such participation.

The policy now states that members who have transitioned in any way — whether that transition is social, medical or surgical — cannot stay at youth camps overnight and may only use single-occupancy restrooms at church meetinghouses. Alternatively, a “trusted person" must be stationed outside the restroom to keep others from entering when a transgender person uses a restroom that aligns with their personal gender identity.

The latest edition of the General Handbook while defining and reaffirming gender as one's biological sex at birth, also states that the faith does not “take a position on the causes of” gender dysphoria.

Previously, the interpretation of the church's policies on this matter were left open to local congregations, their bishops and lay leaders. These new guidelines clarify most of those gray areas.

Church spokesperson Doug Andersen pointed to a statement released by the denomination, which says the updated guidelines were issued “to help local leaders minister more effectively to individuals who identify as transgender and their families.”

It states that the changes, in addition clarifying guidance on baptism, confirmation, priesthood and temple ordinances, aims to “ensure consistency in policies while allowing local leaders flexibility to minister based on each person’s needs.”

“Handbook updates seek to help Latter-day Saints follow Jesus Christ’s example of ministering with love, patience and respect,” Andersen said.

LGBTQ+ advocates within the faith say these stringent guidelines further marginalize transgender people who already feel like outsiders in church. Laurie Lee Hall, a transgender woman who was excommunicated in 2017 after she transitioned, said the new guidelines make it challenging for people like her to keep the faith.

“The door seems shut and bolted,” she said Friday.

Hall, who lives near Louisville, Kentucky, said she has been participating in a local Mormon church that has been welcoming and inclusive by even allowing her to participate in classes and activities with women.

“While I've had some separation from the church in terms of my membership and beliefs, I've enjoyed at least a social connection with the women at church,” Hall said. “Now, none of that is going to be possible.”

The new guidelines would require her to attend classes with men.

“I'd attend church in dress, shoes and makeup and be required to site with a bunch of men wearing suits,” Hall said. “It would put a target on me as someone who is severely off-script.”

What offends Hall more than that is the church's policy that transgender people won't be allowed to work with children or youth, or that they need chaperones to use a bathroom of their choice.

“It implies that a trans member is somehow a danger to others,” she said. “It's dehumanizing and far too toxic to handle for members who are still in the process of reconciling their gender identity with their faith.”

The new guidelines surfaced even as the denomination, over the past decade-plus, has tried to stake out a more compassionate approach on LGBTQ+ issues while reaffirming its doctrinal opposition to intimacy between people in same-sex relationships. The one detour from that path was in 2015 when the church issued rules that banned baptisms for children of gay parents and that labeled same-sex couples as sinners eligible for expulsion. Those were repealed in 2019.

Matthew Bowman, who is the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, said the new transgender guidelines are “unsurprising" and have been a long time coming.

“This has been a real struggle for members for a long time since the 1970s and 1980s when the church took a conservative stance on homosexuality,” he said. “Those members are accustomed to the church being unwilling to accommodate and being reluctant to adapt. But, having it spelled out like this is painful.”

Hall says she still hopes the church will change direction as it did when it rescinded a ban on ordination of African Americans. She also worries that if this trajectory of exclusion continues, more people could leave the faith.

“It's going to be a while before a legitimate social policy change occurs in the church,” she said. “If that continues, there is going to be generational loss because young people are not going to accept these draconian policies. All of this is completely avoidable if only the church can simply say we love you and we'll find ways to include you.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - This image made with a fisheye lens shows people attending the twice-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on April 7, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.

“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.

The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.

“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”

After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.

Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.

The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.

Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.

“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”

James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”

Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)