It's official: Mormons can be gay!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865665577/Mormon-and-Gay-LDS-Church-launches-page-on-official-website-to-help-members-leaders.html


So have you seen this? 

Almost four years ago, the Mormons posted its website mormonsandgays.org and invited LGBT church members to "Stay with us." Stay in the church they meant. Stay while we figure this whole thing out.

How many have, I wonder? 

Well, I have. Of course, I was staying right here way before the invite. That was a decision I made an awful long time ago.

Today, LDS leaders have added to that thought. The site has been re-launched to "provided greater clarity and emphasis on the sensitive issues related to sexual orientation complete with changes to its name and location and significant new content."

The "new and improved" site can be found on the official church website, lds.org.

"The site is part of the official website of the church and what is on it is just as official as everything else that is on that website, and that's a change," said Elder Von G. Keetch, a general authority and executive director of the church's public affairs department.

From the Salt Lake Tribune: The site is "really good," says Ty Mansfield, a marriage and family therapist in Utah County. LDS officials "were trying to walk a sensitive balance between doctrinal fidelity [the teaching that heavenly sanctioned marriage is only between a man and a woman] and trying to convey a sense of empathy, compassion and outreach."

What he likes about this new mormonandgay.org is that the personal narratives are not just about a single individual, but include other voices with each video — parents, siblings, friends, bishops.

"These are broader stories that encompass a constellation of people, a network," Mansfield says. "It provides a nice sense of the community and relationships we each need."

This is being heralded as a huge step forward.  In reality, I don't know how big it is.  But, for me personally it is significant. There is no way I am going to condemn it for not being bigger -- more of a "lengthened stride" kind of thing.

"The 'Mormon and Gay' title makes clear that someone can be both Mormon and feel same-sex attraction or identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Mormon and gay," said Elder L. Whitney Clayton, senior president of the Quorums of the Seventy.

Yes it does.  And that has been my push for years.  There is such thing as a gay Mormon. There will be no more of this "you have to choose" crap that we have been dealing with both in and out of church.

I am gay.  And I am every bit as Mormon as the next guy. 

"We're going to give an example of what people can do as a parent, as a sibling, as a loved one, as a church leader or ward member to support and love and encourage people who deal with same-sex attraction to keep the commandments and find the peace the gospel brings." - Elder Clayton

I appreciate the continued effort by my church to state that fact publicly. We, on this site, have been saying the same thing for years. Years.

Still, it kinda feels more than a little bit good to hear it from above.