This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
On Sunday, Boyd K. Packer, president of the LDS Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles, insisted gay people can overcome same-sex attraction and condemned gay marriage as legalizing "immorality."
"A law against nature would be impossible to enforce," Packer said at the church's semiannual General Conference. "Do you think a vote to repeal the law of gravity would do any good?
Gay-rights activist Eric Ethington has organized a protest of Packer's speech on Thursday. Protesters are asked to meet at Salt Lake City's City Creek Park, 102 N. State St., at 7 p.m. and wear black. The group plans to march to the LDS Church Office Building nearby. Ethington says the demonstration will be "creative," and he warns attendees to be prepared to lie on the ground.
"This kind disgusting hate speech is responsible for more teen suicides every year then we even know," Ethington wrote on a Facebook invite. "Kids kill themselves, or are thrown from their homes because they are taught by men like this that God doesn't love them."