Church leaders report an increase in inquiries from bishops asking, “What can a transgender person do? What are the guidelines?”
NEW YORK – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints extended its restrictions to Transgender Members have issued new guidelines that, among other things, prohibit people in transition from working with children.
The guidelines are part of a comprehensive update to the church’s General Handbook released last week, a set of instructions and guidelines for leaders and members, that now also prohibits people from being baptized if they have merely made a social transition by changing their appearance, name or pronouns.
“Church leaders advise against any surgical, medical or social change in the biological sex acquired at birth,” the manual states.
The changes were met with opposition from transgender Latter-day Saints and their supporters.
A long-standing support group for current and former LGBTQIA2S+ church members, Leaders of Affirmation, said in a statement that before the recent restrictions, transgender members of the church “could expect that their gender identity would be respected through the use of their chosen names, that they could attend church meetings consistent with their gender identity, and that they would have the opportunity to be called into the church.”
They added: “We hope that God will reveal something even better to our transgender brothers and sisters.”
A church spokesman, Doug Anderson, said the updates “are intended to help Latter-day Saints follow the example of Jesus Christ and serve with love, patience and respect.”
The new guidelines tighten regulations introduced in 2020 that restricted volunteer opportunities and access to the temple.
At the time, Church leaders said they added the guidelines because “we’ve been getting increasing questions 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 tried over the past decade to refine its treatment of gay and lesbian members, same-sex couples and transgender people. In 2015, church leaders labeled same-sex married couples “apostates” and barred their children from receiving blessings and baptisms. Four years later, they lifted restrictions on rituals for children and removed the “apostate” label.
Before same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in 2015, the church supported California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state. In recent years, church leaders have moved away from this approach, providing limited acceptance for LGBTQIA2S+ people in the church and society, although marriage continues to be defined as a union between a man and a woman.
The handbook defines “gender” as “biological sex at birth” and calls it “an essential feature in Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness.”
It acknowledges that some people feel a dissonance between their biological sex and their “inner sense of gender,” and explains that the Church does not take a position on the causes of these feelings.
The handbook also commends members who have taken steps toward gender reassignment but then “return to their biological birth sex,” stating that they can then enjoy all the privileges of membership in the Church.
LGBTQIA2S+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Trans, Queer and Questioning, Intersex, Asexual or Agender and Two-Spirit.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.