HRC Blog

Today we called on the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs to listen to mental health professionals and discontinue their newly adopted “12-step program” for gay men. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the diocese has adopted Twelve Steps of Courage, a counseling program for gay men based on Alcoholics Anonymous. Part of the program asks participants to admit they are “defective.”

“Bullying for any reason is contradictory to authentic religion.” This, statement by Dr. C. Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance, is a sentiment that has inspired faith leaders to declare that we cannot afford to be quiet in the face of the violence and hatred that is literally killing our LGBT youth.

As part of the incredible support from all over the community during the crisis of teen suicides, the Reverend Gene Robinson and the Reverend Susan Russell loaned their voices to the It Gets Better Project, a resource of videos reaching out to teens across the nation to let them know first hand that they are cared for and that there can be love and happiness in their future.

Today the Human Rights Campaign-- in partnership with Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons, Equality Utah, and the Utah Pride Center -- delivered 150,000 petitions to respectfully ask Elder Boyd K. Packer, president of the Mormon Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, to correct his inaccurate and dangerous statements calling same-sex attraction “impure and unnatural,” claiming that it can be corrected and characterizing same-sex marriage as immoral. The delivery comes as over the past month, a number of teenagers across the country have taken their own lives as a result of anti-gay bullying.

In response to the lack of response from Mormon church officials to the community outcry against recent statements calling same-sex attraction "impure and unnatural," HRC will join with Utah pro-equality groups in Utah next week to call on church officials to make it right and to present over 100,000 petition signatures to the church demanding them to do the same.