The Mormon church has released a video that tells the heartwarming story of a how a family in Utah reacted when their son came out as gay.
The video—entitled The Mackintosh's Story - A Son Comes Out and a Family Loves—shows 24-year-old Xian describing how he came out to his parents through a Facebook message.
Though his parents were initially confused—his mother thought him being gay was due to a lack of testosterone—they eventually came to embrace Xian’s sexuality saying, “We may have differences, but at the end of the day, we’re still family.”
The video has received a positive response from church members and the public with one YouTube commenter writing: “Thank you for sharing this. As a Church, as a people, I think we need as many stories like this as we can get. Positive and real.”
However, there has been some confusion about the message the church is trying to send, with a very different perspective being provided in the church’s April 2017 magazine.
An article by church elder Larry R Lawrence reads: “Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, but same-sex marriage is only a counterfeit. It brings neither posterity nor exaltation.
“Although his imitations deceive many people, they are not the real thing. They cannot bring lasting happiness.
“God warned us about counterfeits in the Doctrine and Covenants. He said, ‘That which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness’.”
The church updated its set of guidelines—Mormon Handbook 1— in 2015 to include same-sex marriage under the definition of apostasy and as a circumstance requiring the convening of a disciplinary council.
