Guest post by Jen Morrison
Through countless lines upon lines, precepts upon precepts, prayers and fasts, this scripture can be every member’s litmus test for truth and righteousness. The recent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints policy updates requiring supervised bathroom trips of transgender people left me aghast with its unfairness and deliberate cruelty. For those already on the defensive, let me explain.
Below is a sex offender email notification regarding a fellow ward member who pled guilty to sex abuse of a young child:
Brother Bond was a sex offender in my former ward who lived 4 doors down from the park and a couple blocks from the chapel. He’d pled guilty to unlawful sexual activity with a minor under 12 years old and received probation instead of any time behind bars. Do you know what else he received? He received a ride to church every Sunday morning by the Bishop of our ward. He’d sit in the same row as the Bishop’s family, a wife and 3 young daughters. Until the bishop’s wife caught him hugging one of her children. Then he sat a row behind.
Do you know what Brother Bond didn’t get? I bet you can guess. He didn’t get supervised trips to the bathroom. No, in fact, as countless potential victims ran the halls alone to get a drink, use the restroom, or visit one of the many classrooms with no windows in the doors Brother Bond got to enjoy his Sunday services like many other convicted sex offenders. When I moved to Utah from California, I was distressed at seeing the many doors in the church building that didn’t have windows. Two deep leadership doesn’t prevent pedophiles from luring a child who went for a drink of water into a dark classroom or prevent them from fooling trusting members in the ward to get access to their children. When I reached out to my priesthood authorities, I was met with a dead end.
Despite proven cases of children being abused at church, precious few resources have been used to protect them. In fact, at the discretion of the bishop, sex offenders may hold callings as long as the person has “made progress in genuine repentance.” Stake presidents can even request that an annotation on an offender’s membership record be removed. With no background checks completed, annotations allowed to be removed, repentance being prioritized over safety, the church gives many sex offenders free access to the ward’s children. Meanwhile, they demand an escort for transgender individuals to use the bathroom? How can this grievous difference in treatment be justified?
On Wednesday, October 29, 2008, the LDS church was working hard to make sure that marriage would not be accessible to people whom they believed shouldn’t be allowed to marry. An email went out canceling trunk or treat (trick or treating) so that all efforts could go into solidifying a win at the ballot box. Here’s the email:
In the email sent by the ward Bishop, instructions were outlined to fight against California’s Prop 8, the famous law against Same-Sex marriage. He proceeded to outline instructions for phone calls, putting up signs, and talking to neighbors in support of Prop 8. Additional instructions included a timeline for when to do certain efforts so that neighborhoods around California would receive calls, door knob hangers, and folks promoting Prop 8 on corners around their town. Then, last but not least, to keep this petition in your prayers to “stand strong in the face of growing opposition”.
Have you ever seen a level of commitment as driven and deranged as the one that the LDS church has towards the LGBT community? I have not. Supervised bathroom trips for transgender individuals may very well be a policy that gets reversed in time, just like the November policy barring baptism from the children of gay parents and immediately declaring gay members apostates. That deranged policy cost the lives, actual lives, of many members. Some of whom I knew personally.
So when I say I have seen the fruits of the LDS church I mean it. I have seen the tears and shed them myself. I have felt the anguish and despair from the never-ending torrent of conference talks and news statements against the LGBT community. I’ve felt the confusion and rejection caused by seeing loved ones still attend and sustain a church that has put more effort into discriminating against good people than it has in protecting children from actual sex offenders. The indignation at the cruelty of these policy changes towards transgender people burns within my bosom like the raging fire prepared to receive the hewn trees with rotten fruit spoken of in the scriptures.
Transgender youth rally on the steps of the Utah Capitol building in response to a slew of anti-trans legislation. It’s interesting to note that 86% of Utah lawmakers are LDS as of 2021 stats.
As an avid nature lover, guest author Jen can often be spotted on trails, at parks, or in her backyard admiring squirrels, birdwatching, and tending the garden. She was raised in Orange County California and graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Sociology. Jen and her family (including all 8 pets) moved from Utah to Washington in 2023 after spending a couple decades in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Jen is currently volunteering at a local library while looking for a new career.
8 Responses
The first thing I thought of when I heard about these changes was that the church works so hard to keep LGBTQ people away from children but does little to nothing to keep actual pedophiles and abusers away from children (or their spouses, or other ward members). And somehow I skipped over the rule that trans people must be accompanied to the bathroom, which is horrifying and utterly dehumanizing.
If it is the church’s goal to ensure it never has any trans members, however, it might get there. I can’t imagine people would want to stay when they’re being treated like a criminal at every step.
I think that’s the hope – they don’t know how to deal with people in their theology that conflict with the binary male/female gender roles. (What happens in a gay marriage? How can two lesbians make a final decision if neither is the one in charge? Do they have to call a neighbor man to come tell them?)
And in the temple, where do non-binary people sit? What covenants should they make? Are they supposed to preside, or be presided over?
The best scar they can come up with so far is to just try to keep them out of church meetings and participation completely. 🙁
To clarify – I think their hope is that queer people will just walk away and make them uncomfortable.
My trans daughter and I were looking in the handbook for confirmation of this today (Saturday) and found many of the other changes, but not the most egregious trans ones, Anyone have confirmation that these changes are actually in the handbook? Got links? (I am so hoping they changed their minds because no one gets to treat my daughter like a sex offender… or worse.)
So section 38 generally talks about transgender people. At the end, it says “for further guidance, refer to these guiding principles.” The guiding principles link to an additional document that you can read here: https://assets.churchofjesuschrist.org/1d/76/1d76991533df11efbaeeeeeeac1ed7e66fbf94a7/general_handbook_guiding_principles_for_local_leaders.pdf
(I found all of this via the church website to ensure that it’s actually on there).
Hmm, sounds like you guys are extrapolating and finding something to be enraged over. I just read through that document and no where does it say someone would need to be escorted to the bathroom, but to make sure the bathroom is clear as to protect all individuals involved.
To use the correct bathroom, someone must go with you and inspect the bathroom and wait to make sure nobody else goes in because if you’re trans you have to be in there alone. That is being escorted to the bathroom.
I agree with Allyssa, claiming something as policy or as a “demand” is not how the statement truly reads. But extrapolate, exaggerate stories, defame a Navy vet who passed away over 10 years ago with untrue claims, all for what purpose? Some fruits are sour some are sweet. Don’t be a sour fruit… Love is sweet, spread love not hate. Let’s all reach out and lift one who needs help