2025 LDS LGBTQ Anniversaries
I'm in charge of the stake calendar where I live. In addition to stake meetings and activities, I also add significant anniversaries of LDS history that happened 200, 150, 100, 75, 50, 25, 10, and 5 years ago.
For 2025, I found 2 anniversaries:
Oct 8 - Conference Center dedicated 25 years ago
Oct 16 - BYU founded 150 years ago
The past few years I also look for anniversaries of Queer LDS history, and 2025 is loaded with such anniversaries (some of which may not seem today like a big deal, but were important at the time)
January 1975 - Under the direction of President Dallin H. Oaks, BYU began a purge of homosexual students which included pulling all male drama & ballet students from their classes to interrogate them in the hallway, searching the dorms of suspected gay students, and surveillance of Salt Lake City gay bars by BYU security.
May 30, 1975 - The First Presidency sent a letter to church leaders encouraging them not to label people as homosexual because that sounds like they wouldn't be able to "conquer the habit." Thus began the decades-long church tradition of insisting the words "homosexual" and "gay" are adjectives used to describe behavior, not people.
September 8, 1975 - LDS member Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was featured on the cover of Time magazine with the caption "I Am a Homosexual" for challenging the U.S. military ban against gay men and lesbian women. He was subsequently discharged from the military for openly stating his sexual orientation and excommunicated from the Church two months after the article was released.
February 25, 2000 - Stuart Matis commits suicide on the steps of the Los Altos, California stake center where Elder Holland was scheduled to speak later that day. His death came during the LDS Church's fight to ban same-sex marriage in California by way of Prop 22, also known as the Knight Initiative. Right before his death Stuart wrote a note stating, "The church has no idea that...there are surely boys and girls on their calloused hands and knees imploring God to free them of their pain. They hate themselves...God never intended me to be straight. Hopefully, my death might be a catalyst for some good." His death receives much attention inside the LDS Church.
October 8, 2000 - In General Conference, Elder Boyd K. Packer says that homosexuality can begin as an "innocent curiosity" which leads to a "pattern" leading to an "addiction." He said the idea that "God created them with overpowering, unnatural desires" is "not true," further saying that "He can cure and He can heal."
January 11, 2015 - TLC airs the show My Husband's Not Gaywhich is about the lives of LDS men in Utah who are attracted to men but dating or married to women. Over 100,000 signatures against the show are gathered and national LGBTQ leaders denounce the program. In response to media inquiries, LDS Church spokesperson Eric Hawkins said the church "does not promote marriage as a treatment method for same-sex attraction" and that religious couples in a mixed-orientation marriage should have our "support and respect".
January 13, 2015 – Andrew White was a BYU student & employee at the Missionary Training Center. He was physically assaulted by his roommates after he told one of them that he was gay. Andrew had bruised ribs after being dragged from his room amid gay slurs. The situation results in a lawsuit
March 11, 2015 - Utah passes the "Utah Compromise," which is an amendment to the state's nondiscrimination law based on an agreement struck between the LDS Church and LGBT advocates. The amendment granted housing and employment protections for queer people while including religious exemptions for the church from the law.
March 13, 2015 - Elder D. Todd Christofferson does an interview with Salt Lake City television channel KUTV in which he said members who support same-sex marriage on social media or hold political beliefs different from official church stances would not lose their temple recommends. He also said the church would never accept same-sex marriage.
March 2015 - The church released Ministering Resources–Same-Sex Attraction for local leaders, which included the advice to "avoid offering overly simplified responses, such as the idea that ... missionary service will eliminate same-sex attraction."
March 2015 - A survey of 1,612 LGBT Mormons and former Mormons found that 73% of men and 43% of women had attempted sexual orientation change, usually through multiple methods across many years. It also found that the 51% of the respondents who had entered a mixed-orientation marriage ended up divorcing, and projected that 69% of all these marriages would ultimately end in divorce. The study also found that engaging in mixed-orientation marriages and involvement in the LDS church were correlated with higher rates of depression and a lower quality of life for LGBT people.
June 25, 2015 - Michael Ferguson, a gay LDS man, wins his case when a New Jersey court rules that conversion therapy is consumer fraud. Life coach Alan Downing, who is LDS, is ordered to refund thousands of dollars paid by former clients and is prohibited from engaging in any form of conversion therapy in New Jersey.
June 29, 2015 - Three days after the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, the First Presidency sent a letter to be read to every US & Canadian congregation which says that "Changes in the civil law...cannot change the moral law that God has established." The letter clarified that leaders should not perform same-sex marriages and that any church property cannot be used for any activities "associated with same-sex marriages".
August 2015 – Courtney and Rachelle received media attention for choosing to get divorced in order to join the LDS church. Their story was celebrated by the church while others noted how sad these ladies are at the dissolution of their marriage and how cruel for a church that centers families to breakup Courtney & Rachelle's family.
August 26, 2015 - Emmett Presciado starts a YouTube channel where he documents his transition, from first testoterone shot to top surgery. Emmett gets a lot of media attention from local & national press for risking his church membership by being so public
September 2015 - Elder Rasband, who was in the Presidency of the Seventy, gave an address at a BYU devotional and lamented how a person marginalized at work for being Mormon would get less sympathy than a person fired for being gay
October 2015 - Church spokesman Doug Andersen confirms that Family Services no longer offers any sexual-orientation change efforts.
November 5, 2015 - An update to Church Handbook 1 was leaked. This update became known as the Policy of Exclusion. It denied membership to the children of gay couples. It also said gay married couples are apostates and face mandatory church discipline. Due to the media firestorm, Elder Christofferson appears in a video to say the policy is about love and protecting children. Each subsequent year, many would post on social media "Remember, remember, the fifth of November"
November 14, 2015 - Around 1,500 church members gathered across from the Church Office Building to submit their resignation letters in response to the policy change with thousands more resigning online in the coming weeks
November 2015 - April Hoagland & Beckie Peirce, a same-sex couple in Utah, were denied guardianship for a foster child because of their sexual orientation by Judge Scott Johansen. The judge is a BYU grad, former member of a stake presidency and bishop, and receives so much media attention for the decision that he retires.
November 2015 – Seattle couple Celeste Carolin and Kathleen Majdali receive media attention because their wedding would put them at risk for excommunication
November 15, 2015 - A BYU-Idaho event on “overcoming” homosexuality through therapy was advertised in church meetings, but ended up being canceled when it received media attention
January 15, 2020 - The BYU Office of Student Success and Inclusion hosts a panel focused on LGBTQ+ topics at BYU, making it the first-ever BYU-sponsored LGBTQ event.
February 19, 2020 - The church released the new version of its General Handbook and made it available online. It defines gender as "biological sex at birth" and states that any kind of gender transition will bring about "Church membership restrictions" until the person ceases their gender transition. The handbook removed the 2015 Policy of Exclusion and now allows children of same-sex couples to be blessed and baptized without limitations that previously existed.
February 20, 2020 - BYU’s honor code is updated to align with the church's new handbook. It removed the section about "homosexual behavior" which prohibited hand-holding and kissing between same-sex couples. BYU's Honor Code Office confirms that gay students can date each other.
March 4, 2020 - The Church Education System clarified that removing "homosexual behavior" from the BYU Honor Code did not mean public displays of romantic affection towards a same-sex partner or same-sex dating are allowed, they are still forbidden. This reversal sparks outrage and protests at BYU, BYU-I, and Church Headquarters. The COVID-20 shutdown is what ends the protests
July 2020 – Same-Sex Attracted, a documentary by queer BYU students about queer BYU students, debuted at the Salt Lake City LGBTQ film festival.
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