I appreciate those contributing who know more about it. Thanks…

To address questions around the role LDS theology of family and eternal relationships plays in all this, certainly, marriage is central to a Latter-day Saint cosmology of eternal progression, but also central is the idea that the growth and progression we experience in Jesus Christ will continue long after our time in this world. Joseph Smith taught, “Those who have died in Jesus Christ may expect to enter into all that fruition of joy when they come forth, which they possessed or anticipated here… All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.”

So, if someone doesn’t ever get to a place where they feel like heterosexual marriage is a healthy and positive option in their mortal life, there is the assurance in Christ that as long as they stay true to their covenants (among which is the requirement of no sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage) and seek to continue growing in His grace, there is the assurance that they will eventually get to a place, even if beyond this life, where the promises and blessings regarding eternal marriage will happen beyond this life.

Theologically, even if someone identified as gay but were committed to the behavioral standards of the Church, and desired to continue growing spiritually and otherwise, they can have the expectation that there will a full transformation in this life or the next that would enable them to have a rich and fulfilling heterosexual marriage.

I personally don’t feel like I have any more at stake than anyone else, though the theology and culture of Mormonism are so family-focused that it can be either motivating or discouraging, depending on where someone is at in their circumstances and growth.

Given that this concept of “ultimate” salvation is all wrapped up in marriage and family it follows that those who are not attracted to the opposite sex find themselves especially out of place among the Latter-day Saints. It is one thing to be considered a sinner for being gay, but if you are Mormon and gay, you are a misfit socially in such a family oriented church and are effectively precluded from the ultimate eternal happiness, through no fault of your own.

It was in this religious context and in the context of the LDS participation in California’s Prop 22 campaign that Stuart Matis took his own life.

Amen.

This reminds me of another of my favorite quotes from one of Anne Lamott’s inspirational books:

You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

Far too often we all try and recreate God to agree with us. We know what the scripture says and exactly what it means because God Said It and I Believe It.

But most of the time we really have that backwards. We believe it and then we run to find scripture which proves that God agrees with us. And everyone else who is doing exactly the same thing are just “twisting scripture” and justifying their own sin and bias.

Somehow, living in accord with LDS beliefs is insufficient, one must change one’s attractions to demonstrate progression in the faith.

I’m not particularly strong in LDS theology, but I think that perhaps Mormons may have a stronger basis for insisting on reorientation.

If I understand correctly, a Mormon can only reach the highest level in the Celestial Kingdom and become a god of another planet if the are in heterosexual marriage. Celibate persons of any orientation will always be a lesser being because after death they cannot have spirit children to populate the new world.

(Sorry LDS folk if I got that less than fully accurate)