Recently I have requested of several prestigious Law Schools that a Law Review article be researched and written on the issue of criminal culpability of Mormon Church leaders who have so demeaned young male members of the church to the point that they have been unable to continue living, resulting in suicide. The issue has arisen since 1950 when the church began a war against homosexuals, both Gays and Lesbians. It has reached a point where each year several young Mormon men, about half of them returned missionaries, have taken their lives because of the psychological abuse of church leaders. *
While the exact number of suicides is difficult to ascertain ,it has averaged at least one per year since 1950. Most of these deaths have occurred because of the actions of church owned Brigham Young University [BYU] in Provo, Utah. The nexus between the Church Hierarchy and BYU is the result of the apostles of the church constituting the Board of Regents. Therefore what the church leadership has conceived as conduct being acceptable to the church is incorporated into the code of conduct at the University.
Under the honor code Lesbian or Gay students are not allowed. Yet historically Gays and Lesbians have been present in official church affairs ever since its establishment. Even Brigham Morris Young, the son of Utah pioneer leader Brigham Young was a Drag Queen who performed on stage under the pseudonym of Italian opera diva "Madam Pattirini". And two of the presidents of the Women's Relief Society were life long Lesbians. Closeted Gays and Lesbians had traditionally filled roles as professors at BYU.
However, all this changed after Mormon W. Cleon Skousen speculated that one of the signs of America coming under the influence of communism would be that Gays would seek same civil marriage status as heterosexuals.*** As a result, the church organized it's masses to fight against ERA killing it from ratification in the late 70's.
BYU Campus Police traversed the state of Utah tracking down students who might be Gay by looking for BYU stickers on cars parked near gay bars. While they had no jurisdiction off campus at the time, they never the less participated in a witch hunt for homosexuals who may be violating the honor code on campus. Dismissal from school was the punishment along with excommunication if they refused to change their lifestyle.
While the cases are too numerous to discuss in this article, one example of ferreting out Gays is worth discussing.
This involved five young Gay BYU students all in their 20s, three of whom had recently completed missions for the LDS Church. Four of these men "had been trapped in the on-going homosexual witch hunts at BYU and subjected to the church's disciplinary program. The fifth young man had confessed voluntarily to church leaders that he was Gay. Each one was harshly interviewed in 1965 by Apostle Spencer Kimball later church president. Unfortunately, when the church rejected them because they were Gay, it destroyed them. All five students killed themselves. Two of the students committed suicide by over-dosing on drugs, one hung himself, another blew his own head apart with a gun and the last jumped seven stories to his death.**
This is but the tip of the iceberg. In California in past years several suicides of young Mormon men occurred over the attitude of the church in denying equal civil rights to Gays. It has also happened across the country!
Electrical shock therapy to cause aversion was used against Gay and Lesbian students at BYU under a demented program without any success. Some Gays lied by saying they had been converted to heterosexuality to escape further punishment.
Arrogant belief in their authority from god induces the hierarchy to conspire against the civil and human rights of persecuted Gays both in and without the church. Without doubt they need to be stopped in their tracks and suffer criminal punishment for their conduct.
It is hopeful and would be appropriate for young law students to research and write a legal thesis based upon current laws which would bypass statutes of limitations to indict and prosecute these leaders for psychologically coerced suicide constituting accessory to murder in the second or third degree. Such a legal thesis would grant courage to prosecutors to indict all hierarchal members in the conspiracy chain.
* For a reasoned history of Gays and the Mormon church:
http://www.affirmation.org/learning/prelude.shtml
** This paragraph is paraphrased from Conner O’Donovans’s publication “Abominable & Detestable Crimes against Nature. His writing is dedicated to the named individuals referenced in the paragraph. http://connellodonovan.com/abom.html
*** The entire Mormon justification for its existence is that of eternal families becoming gods in an afterlife in which a man and many wives give birth to countless other progressing humans. Homosexuality destroys that justification hence it is a fear among Mormons that maybe they have been deceived by their “theory-ology”. Yet homosexuals existed on earth millenniums prior to the Johnny come lately Mormon delusion along with Muslims, Christians and Judaism!
