The LDS Church’s controversial 2015 LGBT exclusion policy and its 2019 reversal, the faith’s president said Tuesday, were motivated by the same emotion: love.
“We knew that this policy created concern and confusion for some and heartache for others. That grieved us,” Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in an address at church-owned Brigham Young University.
“Whenever the sons and daughters of God weep — for whatever reasons — we weep. So, our supplications to the Lord continued.”
The original policy labeled same-sex Latter-day Saint couples “apostates” and barred the children of LGBT parents from church rituals, including baptism, without permission from the governing First Presidency.