Last Thursday, the Mormon Church officially released a video about a Mormon family with a gay son. The six-and-a-half minute video profiled a middle-aged Mormon couple whose son had come out to them several years before. The video interviewed both the parents and the son, who had just graduated with his master’s degree. Ultimately, it highlighted the love the parents expressed for their son and their journey toward their acceptance of his identity. In the video, the parents even acknowledge his open relationship with another man and his move away from the Mormon Church, though they seem less at peace with these expressions of his gay identity.
The video engendered a variety of responses from Mormons on social media. Some welcomed the video unequivocally, saying that they were delighted to see the Church produce a video that discussed gay (former) Mormons in a relatively positive light. Others appreciated the Church’s fine line between a message love and compassion while stopping short of embracing his identity theologically. Others responded negatively, believing that using the word “identity” to discuss a “sin” was an abomination and represented a departure from Church teachings. In all, the video seems to reflect the Mormons’ increasing difficulty defending their position on gay marriage while retaining as many members as possible.

Mormons’ reactions to LGBT video reveal the LDS Church’s mixed messages about gays