LDS Church issues statement on same-sex marriage

Top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently released a six-page statement on why the faith is opposed to same-sex marriage.

The document, titled "The Divine Institution of Marriage," has garnered both praise and derision from Affirmation, a group of gay Latter-day Saints.

The document was posted on the church's Web site, www.lds.org, in the "newsroom" section last month, and leaders of Affirmation issued a press release late last week in response.

Latter-day Saints in Utah and around the country know the church is one of several faith organizations that are actively supporting Proposition 8, which would overturn the California Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage earlier this year. If approved by voters in November, the proposition would amend that state's constitution to read, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The new LDS Church document follows the release of a letter in June from the faith's First Presidency to church members in California, asking for their donations of time and money in support of Proposition 8. The new document is an expansion of past statements made by the church in response to questions about its reasons for opposing same-sex marriage. The "introduction" section of the document may surprise some church members with its stance on some legal questions that have surfaced in Utah and elsewhere regarding domestic partnership rights.

"The church does not object to rights (already established in California) regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference," the introduction says.

Those California rights apply not only to same-sex couples, but also to other kinds of domestic partnerships.

In October 2004, the First Presidency's office issued a statement saying the church "favors measures that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and that do not confer legal status on any other sexual relationship."

That statement came two weeks before Utah voters were to decide whether to amend the Beehive State's constitution, not only to define marriage as the "legal union between a man and a woman," but also to prevent any other domestic union from being "recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect."