A Mission of Reconciliation

With the passing of Proposition 8 weighing heavily on their minds, current and former members of the Mormon Church thought of a new message to bring door-to-door and monitor-to-monitor.

LDSapology.org hosts the names of homosexual Mormons who have committed suicide and a petition with the names of others who ask the church to revise its paradigm and to stop fundraising for bans on same-sex marriage.

Connell O'Donovan, who helps site creator Cheryl Nunn, said, "LDS people and others often asked me, 'Well, what do you want the church to do?' After much prayer and thought about this question, I realized that really my only response could be for the church officials to repent of the wrongdoing that had been done in the name of God."

He cited exorcisms, "bizarre and torturous" experiments on LGBT members at Brigham Young University, coerced mixed-orientation marriages, sexual reorientation therapies and the church's alleged climate "where suicide can feel like a welcome escape."

Founding members of the site include Mormons, former Mormons and non-Mormons -- women and men both gay and heterosexual.

Their common message is self-described as a proud resistance to church leaders who took a stance and asked congregants to support them and remain unquestioning.

Clark Pingree, an advocate for LGBT issues in the Mormon community, said The Church of Latter Day Saints was once open to a dialogue on homosexuality, albeit limited. He said Prop. 8 killed it.

After Prop. 8 passed, the site's founders experienced varied degrees of despair, betrayal and resolve.

"I really felt that once the state Supreme Court had affirmed that same-sex marriage is a guaranteed right in our state constitution that the Mormons and evangelical Christians would back off and not punch a hole in that dike. Once one group is legally discriminated against, the floodgates are open to do the same to any other group." O'Donovan said. "But watching the tyranny of the majority eliminate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of a minority was horrendous in itself."

He felt the church's approach was illogical and immoral.

"LDS leaders and members often criticize the LGBT community for our 'promiscuity' and lack of stable, long-term relationships. Yet when we try to solemnize our relationships and have them civilly, politically recognized, they deny us that right," he said. "This amounts to putting out our eyes and then making a parade of our blindness."

In response, the site is pushing against long-held beliefs on homosexuality to make room for themselves or people they know.

Peter Danzing, who signed the site's petition, said, "from a historical perspective all successful religions manage to evolve and improve."

He said while African-Americans were once excluded from holding the priesthood and are now accepted, "the acceptance of homosexual unions clearly presents a more challenging reworking of perspectives toward the Church's core doctrines, and shakes the root of deeply ingrained prejudices, however I believe that someday, once it becomes clear in society at large that there is no danger to society presented by such unions that it will be accepted," he said.

"The doctrinal challenges in the LDS church may make it impossible for them to accord homosexual unions the same status as heterosexual unions, but I see no doctrinal reason why they could not accept homosexual unions as an earthly necessity for members who are homosexually oriented and wish to commit to a monogamous relationship with each other."

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, all young, unmarried men between the ages of 19-25 years old must volunteer as missionaries. Young and older women and retired couples are required to do the same.

LDSapolgy.org is in many ways a new mission for these other activists.

Danzing said that if his started tomorrow, it would be a door-to-door apology.

"I would apologize for my church's stance on the issue and tell them I am working from within to make changes to my church so it is more Christ like and accepting. I would apologize for any harm my church had done to them or others in the name of God, and I would probably get called in by my mission president after this and sent home unless I recanted. That is the sad truth of it."