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Family Fellowship is a predominantly
Latter-day Saint Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into sev ...
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for those who have
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...
, or
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family members.Family Fellowship. (2003, November 22). ''Family Fellowship''. Retrieved January 22, 2007 from http://ldsfamilyfellowship.org/index.htm It was founded in 1993, and it functioned for over 20 years. As of 2003, it had a mailing list of over 1,700. The group hosted conferences, open to the public, on various subjects concerning homosexuality.


Leaders and Members

Organizational informality has characterized Family Fellowship. Over its history, three sets of co-chairs have led its efforts. The first were Fred and Wanda Karford of Idaho Falls (1993-1994), followed by Gary and Millie Watts of Provo (1995-2007), and finally Bill and Marge Bradshaw of Orem (2008-2012).


Initiatives and Activities

In the months following its organization Family Fellowship sponsored the first of six conferences (in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001) focused on various aspects of homosexuality, its etiology, its history, its relation to morality and law, and not least, its particular impact on the lives of individuals. The featured speakers at these conferences were nationally prominent scientific experts and advocates. They included June Reinisch, head of the Kinsey Institute,
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, editor of the New Republic, Dean Hamer from the National Institute of Health, Evan Wolfson, of Lamba Legal Defense,
Simon LeVay Simon LeVay (born 28 August 1943 in Oxford, England) is a British-American neuroscientist. He received a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1966, a Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy at the University of Göttingen ...
, a leading neuroscientist investigator of brain development, Kate Kendall, Director of the National Center on Lesbian rights, Amity Buxton, author of a book on mixed orientation marriage,  Robert Rees, former Editor of Dialogue, Lisa Diamond, Professor at the University of Utah and Christine Johnson. The first of these conferences, held at the University of Utah, drew more than four hundred participants. Beginning in August of 1993, the first issue of “Reunion,” the Family Fellowship newsletter, was sent out to a mailing list of over four hundred. Thirty four more issues followed. These newsletters regularly featured personal stories of LDS families trying to understand homosexuality as they confronted the disconnect between Church teachings and the reality of their lives. A complete set of the newsletters is also located in the Lee Library at Brigham Young University (BYU). From 1994 to 2015 Family Fellowship conducted quarterly forums held alternately in Salt Lake City and Provo. They featured a variety of speakers and panel discussions. Attendance at these meetings ranged between fifty and one hundred members and visitors. They included gay men and lesbians, parents, straight allies, and other interested members of the public. People of all faiths participated.


Impact

For nearly a quarter century Family Fellowship was at the forefront of efforts to advance LDS LGBT interests and to support those marginalized by Church doctrines and policies. By 2016 this group began to be less visible. Its leaders and core members were growing older and were content to see newer organizations push these causes forward. One concrete measure of the impact of Family Fellowship is seen in a recent survey of “known empirical literature” based on this (LDS LGBTQ) population. McGraw, et al (2021) identified thirty three refereed publications using quantitative and qualitative methods. The authorship of fourteen of these is shared by individuals who have been affiliated with Family Fellowship.McGraw, J. S., Chinn, J., & Mahoney, A. (2021). Historical, doctrinal, and empirical insights into Latter-day Saint sexual minorities’ psychological and interpersonal functioning. ''Journal of GLBT Family Studies'', 17(2), 168-195.


See also

* Homosexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


References

LGBT Latter Day Saint organizations Christian organizations established in 1993 {{LGBT-org-stub