Mormon Leader Denounces LGBT Families as 'Counterfeit'

The Mormon Church may have bent a little on its antigay stances by supporting the ultimately successful drive for antidiscrimination legislation in Utah, but speakers at the church's Annual General Conference over the weekend left no doubt that the church's traditional views remain intact.

"We want our voice to be heard against all of the counterfeit and alternative lifestyles that try to replace the family organization that God himself established," Mormon apostle L. Tom Perry told the gathering Saturday, echoing -- perhaps unwittingly --gay Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's recent comments about "synthetic" children of same-sex couples.

Perry, at 92 the oldest member of the church's Quorum of 12 Apostles, "lamented the media's glorification of 'immorality and amorality,'" The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The quorum is the second-highest governing body in the Mormon Church, known formally as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Despite what much of media and entertainment outlets may suggest, however, and despite the very real decline in the marriage and family orientation of some, the solid majority of mankind still believes that marriage should be between one man and one woman," he said. Perry also said that while the desire for marriage and family is common across all cultures, only Mormons have "an eternal view" of marriage.

Several other speakers joined in "the drumbeat for 'traditional families,'" the Tribune notes. "The end of all activity in the church is to see that a man and a woman with their children are happy at home and sealed together for time and for all eternity," said Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

Equality Utah, the statewide LGBT rights organization, issued a statement in response to the remarks at the conference. "After our positive interaction with the leadership of the LDS Church, we are left disappointed by their recent statements denigrating the validity of our families," said executive director Troy Williams. "As LGBT Utahns, our families are not counterfeit. They are real, they are beautiful, they reflect the diversity and the greatness of our state.

"We have made great progress, and we still have more work left to do. We can change laws, true, but the most difficult task ahead is to open hearts. As we reach out to all Utahns, we will not waver in our commitment to equality in all things -- not only in the workplace and housing, but also in family and marriage."