Latter-day Saint leaders and LGBTQ advocates deepen their relationship on Washington D.C. Temple tour

Jeanne Woodbury, left, Janine Skinner and Sarah Burlingame chat as LGBT leaders meet on the guests’ middle after touring The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington, Maryland, on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information

KENSINGTON, Md. — Latter-day Saints sat peacefully with dozens of LGBTQ advocates within the Celestial Room of the Washington D.C. Temple final week throughout a particular personal tour of the church’s holiest area, which usually is closed to the general public.

Excellent quiet is regular etiquette for a Celestial Room, however the LGBTQ leaders from throughout the nation mentioned the moments they shared within the temple with their pals from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strengthened relationships which can be actively working to beef up each homosexual rights and non secular rights throughout america.

“We really can have LGBTQ liberty and non secular liberty collectively. These will not be oppositional viewpoints,” mentioned Angela Hughey, president of One Neighborhood, a coalition in search of equal remedy for LGBTQ Arizonans.

Latter-day Saint leaders in Arizona and a number of different states are a part of a broad coalition of spiritual, authorities, enterprise and LGBTQ teams working collectively to cross new laws in statehouses and Congress.

After final week’s joint temple tour, the group sat down for lunch within the temple guests’ middle and listened to one another. Listening and understanding are keys to the coalition, Hughey mentioned.

“What retains us in battle is that we don’t perceive each other, so after we meet one another in locations of security and equality, and we’re in a position to come collectively and find out about one another’s historical past and tradition, it brings us collectively and creates a standard bond of humanity,” she mentioned.

Two months in the past, the coalition launched a invoice that might each strengthen spiritual liberty within the state whereas providing vital new housing, employment and public lodging protections for LGBTQ folks.

A day earlier than the joint temple tour, the coalition printed an open letter asking folks to help comparable future laws in Georgia. The signatories included rabbis and leaders from Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Muslim and evangelical congregations, in addition to a Latter-day Saint Space Seventy.

The Arizona invoice comprises spiritual liberty protections just like Utah’s 2015 Equity for All regulation that handed with the help of Latter-day Saint senior management. The Deseret Information editorial board not too long ago described that as an “eye-popping” instance of various pursuits working collectively to hammer out tough compromises.

Utah’s regulation banned discrimination towards LGBTQ folks in housing and employment. The Arizona proposal would ban discrimination in public lodging — some eating places within the state flip away would-be homosexual and transgender clients, for instance.

It additionally would ban conversion remedy.

Utah banned conversion remedy in 2020 with the help of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposes conversion remedy, and our therapists don't observe it,” Marty Stephens, the religion’s director of presidency and group relations, mentioned whereas the ban was beneath debate.

Equality Arizona govt director Michael Soto mentioned what he and Hughey are calling the equality and equity coalition plans to introduce comparable laws in 9 different states over the subsequent 12 months. It plans to make use of that mannequin in Congress, too, which to this point is contemplating each the Equality Act and the Equity for All Act.

Coalition members are also shepherding metropolis ordinances modeled after the identical laws. Final 12 months, 16 North Carolina cities adopted municipal ordinances that NBC Information known as “historic LGBTQ nondiscrimination legal guidelines.”

One of many leaders behind that effort joined the tour of the Latter-day Saint temple, Kendra Johnson, govt director of Equality North Carolina.

“This partnership to me makes it clear that we are able to have variations of opinion,” Johnson mentioned. “I’m not in search of, as an individual who’s LGBTQ or an individual who’s working on this space for our rights, to alter church doctrine, however we are able to work collectively for fundamental human rights, to make sure equity for all.”

She mentioned Latter-day Saint help for the coalition exhibits spiritual folks that there's a means ahead the place folks don’t have to decide on between spiritual liberty or LGBTQ rights.

“I feel that the church has taken a place that's extraordinarily useful,” she mentioned. “There may be one other means for us to strategy this the place folks will be handled with fundamental human dignity and have all the products and companies that we must always have as people who find themselves a part of this nation, with out forcing the church to change into one thing that the church just isn't snug being.”

The tour of the temple appeared to buttress the coalition’s efforts to work collectively. “We met collectively on this place of true shared humanity, with the core values of LGBTQ liberty and non secular liberty strolling collectively,” Hughey mentioned.

The Washington D.C. Temple has been closed to most of the people for 48 years. The Church of Jesus Christ not too long ago accomplished a renovation and is internet hosting a scheduled six-week open home that begins Thursday.

Over the earlier two weeks, apostles and different church leaders and representatives have supplied personal excursions to invited company.

The tour and subsequent assembly have been particular for Equality Arizona’s Soto, who grew up as a Latter-day Saint.

“We have now constructed such a beautiful relationship with everybody on this coalition that it’s like seeing household after we get to be in the identical room with one another,” he mentioned.

Soto’s friendship and management, and the whole coalition, are vital to James and Monica Phillips, Latter-day Saint dad and mom of two LGBTQ kids in Mesa, Arizona. They have been a part of the temple tour.

“Michael’s an ideal collaborator in that he brings folks throughout traces,” James Phillips mentioned. “There’s not many boards the place we are able to sit with folks from each side and discuss options within the center that can truly impact change, the place we are able to see lasting modifications that have an effect on all these issues which can be most valuable to us. So it was a possibility we couldn’t cross up, not solely as dad and mom however as passionate advocates within the area.”

Monica Phillips mentioned her household is central, so her focus is on loving her kids and trusting God.

“This was a dream come true being on this room with my LGBTQ pals and my church,” she mentioned after the tour and lunch.

The church and its senior leaders have publicly supported nondiscrimination legal guidelines that shield LGBTQ rights and non secular liberty since formally backing a Salt Lake Metropolis ordinance in 2009. On the time, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles indicated that ordinance may change into a mannequin for different cities and states.

In February, Latter-day Saint leaders launched an announcement on the Arizona laws.

“The church is happy to be a part of a coalition of religion, enterprise, LGBTQ folks and group leaders who've labored collectively in a spirit of belief and mutual respect to handle points that matter to all members of our group,” the church mentioned. “It's our place that this bipartisan invoice preserves the spiritual rights of people and communities of religion whereas defending the rights of members of the LGBTQ group, in step with the rules of equity for all.”

Soto mentioned the church’s leaders are setting an instance in public coverage.

“I really like how the church is modeling what being citizen is, what being an lively participant in a pluralistic society and democracy is, whereas additionally nonetheless adhering to your core beliefs,” he mentioned. “That’s the gorgeous half. None of us have modified our core beliefs, and we’ve developed this wonderful coalition, partnership and deep friendships. That's what we want extra and this comes from at the moment.”

Latter-day Saints and lesbians, gays and bisexual, transgender and queer folks have historic understanding about an vital precept to minority teams, Soto mentioned.

“Once you get to know somebody who's of any kind of identification or lived expertise, and also you begin to care about that particular person, it modifications the best way that you just deal with not simply that particular person, however the entire group they’re affiliated with,” he mentioned.

That’s why the temple tour continued to construct belief between members of the coalition, LGBTQ leaders mentioned.

“None of us have modified something about who we're, besides that we have now this larger household and coalition, now, of individuals doing fantastic work,” Soto mentioned. “We are able to comply with disagree, however the reality is, we agree on much more primarily based on these two issues, of loving your neighbor and constructing belief with one another.”

North Carolina’s Johnson has watched church buildings and non secular folks reject LGBTQ folks. The coalition and the temple tour have supplied her hope.

“Coming into this area, it’s been actually heartening to have folks meet me at my fundamental humanity,” she mentioned. “Each time I’ve come to have interaction with the parents who're a part of the Latter-day Saints, I'm experiencing real welcomeness and openness and gratitude for me being within the presence of the church. That's to me what, as an individual who’s raised Christian, Christianity is about. It offers me hope that we are able to do work in that area with much more religion traditions.”