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Show 230 the historical experience of Mormon polygamy provided a local example of sexual and religious choice that seemed to support the gay liberationist position." Like contemporary gays, nineteenth-century Mormons were the sexual nonconformists of their day, and their practice and sanctification of polygamy earned them national opprobium. Furthermore, Mormons' eventual renunciation of plural marriage suggested a flexibility under social pressure that, under the right circumstances, could shift in favor of gay rights. Those circumstances did not exist in the 1970s, however, given the persistent homophobia in American culture, Mormons' historically-based fear of being tarred as sexual extremists, and the credibility Spencer W. Kimball had invested in the issue. The polygamy comparison also ran up against the church's framing of sexuality as a doctrinal matter. Historically, Mormons did not view polygamy as a chosen lifestyle, but a commandment from God to a chosen people." as Thus, rather than view their predecessors martyrs to sexual diversity, LDS leaders treated Mormons' renunciation of polygamy as the relevant model for gays, who must ultimately conform to social expectations or keep their illicit lifestyles "underground." Consequently, expedience compelled local gays to defend homosexuality as an inborn trait analogous to skin color, which could not be changed, rather than argue that homosexuality should not be changed. 83Prologue: An Examination of Mormon Attitudes Toward Homosexuality, 31-2; "Fear," The Open Door, Winter 1977, unpaged. 84For an overview of the LDS Church's retreat from plural marriage, see Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958; repro Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993), 377-8, 380; Gottlieb and Wiley, 50; Dean May, Utah: A People's History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987), 128. |
