Mormons for Marriage Equality ‘taken aback’ by church elder’s criticism of same sex parenting
Mormons for Marriage Equality was surprised to hear Elder Dallin H. Oaks condemn same sex parenting during the 182nd Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Just three weeks ago, Dallin, who is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, appeared to support Californias recent ban on so-called ex-gay or reparative therapy. At a conference in Utah, Dallin warned of unprofessional therapy practices on marriage and family concerns and said the Mormon Church accept[ed] professional counseling because it is subject to legal regulation, stands or falls on the principles of science, peer review, and competition.
Lots of Mormons interested in LGBT matters took his broader statement as affirming the recent ban against ex-gay therapy in California, and against ex-gay therapy in general, Sara Long, the executive director of Mormons for Marriage Equality, told Raw Story in an email. So naturally we figured that science and peer review should be consulted to see how children do in diverse families because science and peer review show that children of same-sex couples do as well as the children of opposite-sex couples.
At the General Conference in Salt Lake City on Saturday, however, Dallin said children raised by single parents or same sex couples were at a significant disadvantage.
For children the relative stability of marriage matters, he explained. We should assume the same disadvantages for children raised by couples of the same gender. The social science literature is controversial and politically charged on the long term effect of this on children. Principally because, as a New York Times writer observed, same sex marriage is a social experiment and like most experiments it will take time to understand its consequences.
Raw Story (
http://s.tt/1pCmH)