Mormon Church Broadens Restrictions for Transgender Members

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expanded its restrictions on transgender members, issuing new guidance that includes prohibiting people who pursue transition from working with children.

The guidance, part of a sweeping update last week to the church’s General Handbook, a set of instructions and policies for leaders and members, also newly bars people from being baptized even if they have transitioned only socially, by changing their appearance, name or pronouns.

“Church leaders counsel against pursuing surgical, medical, or social transition away from one’s biological sex at birth,” the handbook states.

The changes drew condemnation from transgender Latter-day Saints and their supporters.

A longtime support group for current and former L.G.B.T.Q. church members, Leaders of Affirmation, said in a statement that before the latest restrictions transgender members of the church “could expect their gender identities to be respected through the use of their chosen names, to participate in church meetings aligning with their gender identities, and to have some opportunities to be called to serve within the Church.”

They added, “We hope that God will yet reveal better for our transgender siblings.”

A spokesman for the church, Doug Anderson, said the updates “seek to help Latter-day Saints follow Jesus Christ’s example of ministering with love, patience and respect.”

The new policies tighten rules introduced in 2020 that restricted volunteer opportunities and access to the temple.

At the time, church leaders explained that they had added the policies because “we’ve had an increase in questions coming from bishops and stake presidents saying, ‘What can a transgender person do? What are the guidelines?’” Anthony D. Perkins, director of the department that oversees the handbook, said in 2020.

The church, which has more than 17 million members worldwide, has in the last decade tried to refine its approach to gay and lesbian members, same-sex couples, and transgender people. In 2015, leaders called same-sex married couples “apostates” and restricted their children from blessings and baptisms. Four years later, they reversed the restrictions on rituals for children, and rolled back the “apostate” label.

Before same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2015, the church supported California Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state. In recent years, leaders have walked back that approach, carving out some limited acceptance for L.G.B.T.Q. people in the church and in society, though it continues to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

The handbook defines “gender” as “biological sex at birth” and calls it “an essential characteristic in Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness.”

It acknowledges that some people experience a dissonance between their biological sex and their “inner sense of gender,” and states that the church takes no position on the cause of those feelings.

The handbook also commends members who have taken steps to transition but then “transition back to to their biological sex at birth,” stating that they may enjoy the full privileges of membership in the church.