Mormon Leader Asked to Correct Antigay Statements

HRC and Utah-based gay rights groups plan to call Tuesday on Mormon leader Boyd K. Packer to correct his statements characterizing marriage equality as immoral and claiming that gay people can be "corrected."

Earlier this month, Packer, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, addressed the 180th semiannual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City and, among other statements, denied that gay people "were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural."

Protests greeted the statements from the influential religious leader as the nation coped with a series of LGBT youth suicides. Boyd is next in line for the church presidency.

According to a news release about the Tuesday morning event, "Nearly 150,000 people have signed onto a petition asking Elder Packer to make it right. Today, HRC President Joe Solmonese, Utah Philanthropist Bruce Bastian, Affirmation President David Melson, Equality Utah Executive Director Brandie Balken, Utah Clinical Social Worker Melissa Bird and Utah Pride Center Executive Director Valerie Larabee, will provide their remarks and then travel to the Church Office Building to deliver the petition signatures."