I am dismayed by the letter to California Mormons from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposing same-sex marriages. It is difficult to understand how Mormons, who in the past were so persecuted and excluded for practicing an alternative family model (polygamous families), could now be so invested in condemning and making illegal another alternative family model (same-sex couples).

This is an attempt to have government treat homosexuals as second-class citizens. Why is the church so threatened by the lifestyles of others? LDS leaders view the prospect of same-sex unions as nothing short of apocalyptic. But many gay and lesbian couples already live with same-sex partners, raise children and provide for families - and have done so for many years. The sky has not yet fallen!

When the LDS Church condemns gay and lesbian families, it is not addressing some abstract satanic force in California, Massachusetts or Canada. It is condemning thousands of Mormon and non-Mormon families around the world; Mormons are condemning their neighbors, their children and their siblings. They are rejecting their own.

Paul Brault

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada