More than 1,000 people gathered at City Creek Park in Salt Lake City, Utah to rally against the new anti-LGBT policy of the Church of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The protest involved a mass resignation from their Mormon faith to object the new LDS policy that affects children of same-sex couples to whom the church will deny the right of Baptism to.
The church said that its refusal to baptize children of same-sex couples only affects the children who live with the couple; however, they may be given a proper baptism if they reject same sex marriage and cohabitation when they reach 18 years of age.
The policy was approved by the church leaders on Nov. 5 and an interview with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint was released on Nov. 6 in an attempt to provide context to the changes in the Handbook.
"We regard same-sex marriage as a particularly grievous or significant, serious kind of... We recognize that same-sex marriages are now legal in the United States and some other countries and that people have the right... But that is not a right that exists in the Church. That's the clarification." Elder Christofferson said.
"This is a policy that is about the people at the top, and their views and prejudices, and they are not thinking through what this will do long-term to families," Brooke Swallow, one of the organizers of the protest, said.
The LDS supported laws protecting lesbians and gays from being discriminated upon when it came to employment and other necessities, however, it stands by its refusal to support same sex unions and considered same sex marriage acts to be a basis for possible excommunication.
Many of the members who resigned have considered leaving the faith for some time but the new policy was what compelled them to finally act. "The church's decision about families was the final straw for me," Connie Walker, a protester, said.
"It is difficult for people to leave the Church. It takes people a long time to make this decision. It is a well-thought-out one and it is not taken lightly," Swallow said.
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