Timeline of teachings on homosexuality in the LDS Church

Homosexuality has been publicly discussed by top leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church)—Mormonism's largest denomination—since the late 19th century. The frequency of teachings on same-sex sexual activity increased starting in the late 1950s. Most discussion focuses on male homosexuality and rarely mentions lesbianism or bisexuality. Below is a timeline of notable speeches, publications, and policies in the LDS church on the topic of homosexuality.

1890s to the 1950s

1897 – First Presidency member George Q. Cannon used the media attention on the 1895 conviction and two-year imprisonment of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde as an opportunity to publicly condemn homosexual behavior as an abominable, filthy, nameless crime. He continued stating that the only way to stop homosexuals was for God to wipe them out. 1952 – An increase in US public discourse around homosexuality in the McCarthyist Lavender scare era contributed to the first explicit mention of the topic in general conference. The apostle Clark lamented homosexuality was found among men and women, and that homosexual people exercised great influence in shaping culture. 1958 – General authority Bruce R. McConkie published Mormon Doctrine, in which he stated that homosexuality is among Lucifer's chief means of leading souls to hell, and that it is better to be dead clean, than alive unclean. The book was viewed by many both then and now as representing official church doctrine despite never being endorsed by the church.

1960s

1964 – The apostle Spencer W. Kimball called 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 sexual orientation change efforts through which he claimed there had been numerous "cures." He said the police, the courts, and the judges had referred many individuals directly to the church.

1965 – Kimball again addressed homosexuality calling it a gross, heinous, obnoxious, abominable, vicious sin. He stated that those with homosexual desires were like alcoholics and could correct and overcome their desires. In the BYU speech he stated the university will not knowingly enroll nor tolerate anyone with homosexual tendencies who failed to repent, and that it was a damnable heresy for a homosexual person to say God made them that way. He also stated that sometimes masturbation was an introduction to homosexuality. 1965 – Ernest L. Wilkinson, addressed the BYU student body implementing a ban on students with homosexual feelings since he believed they "contaminated" the campus.

1968 – An update to the church handbook contained its first explicit mention of homosexuality, specifying that homo-sexual [sic] acts require a church court. 1969 – Kimball released his book The Miracle of Forgiveness, in which he again taught that masturbation can lead to acts of homosexuality. It became a best-seller in the church and was routinely given to missionaries. His book was quoted in a 1979 church manual where it stated that homosexuality is curable and certainly overcome as long as the person continues knocking at the door to a cure until their knuckles are bloody. Kimball viewed homosexual people as basically good people trapped in sin, and posited that some of them totally conquer their homosexuality in a few months, but sometimes it led to sex with animals.

1970s

1970 – Victor L. Brown of the Presiding Bishopric stated that a normal and healthy 12- or 13-year-old boy or girl could develop into a homosexual if exposed to pornographic literature and other "abnormalities".

1970 – The church produced Hope for Transgressors, in which apostles Spencer W. Kimball and Mark E. Petersen offer ideas to leaders about how to effect a total "cure" and bring the lives of men with homosexual feelings into total normalcy. Suggestions included prayer, cutting off contact with homosexual friends, dating women, marriage, and scripture reading. It called homosexuality a despicable, degraded, dread practice, and a perversion that would doom the world, but stated it was not totally the fault of family conditions and concluded it "CAN be cured" (emphasis in the original).

1971 – Kimball revised and retitled Hope for Transgressors as New Horizons for Homosexuals in which he called homosexuality a ruinous practice of perversion that the church will never condone. It states that the idea that "perverts" are "born that way" was a base lie since Kimball believed homosexuality was curable, and could be overcome until recovery. It also called homosexuality ugly, degenerate, unnatural, vicious, base, a waste of power, a deep sin, and an end to the family and civilization. The publication advised that for a homosexual man to recover he must shun anyone associated with the transgression and pray and read the scriptures. The pamphlet would be reissued in 1978 as a 30-page pamphlet titled A Letter to a Friend.

1973 – The church published a guide for bishops and stake presidents which posited that homosexual behavior begins by being molested (though stating that not all who are molested become homosexual). It also suggested that homosexuality was caused by a domineering mother and a passive father. As far as changing the sexual orientation, the packet says that a lesbian needs to learn feminine behavior, and a gay man must learn the manly, heterosexual, straight way of life. 1974 – Kimball as a recently appointed church president again stated that masturbation and pornography lead to homosexuality. 1975 – The presiding bishop Victor L. Brown stated that a "lack of proper affection in the home" can result in homosexual children.

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