HRC Claims its Advocacy Made the Mormon Church Less Anti-Gay; Mormon Church Says, That’s ‘Simply Absurd’

The Mormon Church is disputing a press release sent out by the Human Rights Campaign earlier this week suggesting that the group's advocacy work had led the LDS Church to remove same-sex attraction from its "list of sins."

“The new guidelines clearly show that advocacy efforts pay off with real change,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese in a press release.  “We spoke out against the harms of so-called ‘reparative therapies' on LGBT young people.  Church leaders heard us and responded by dropping their recommendation that such discredited interventions be forced on LGBT and questioning youth.”

“We continue to disagree with the Mormon Church about fundamentally important issues like full respect for the marriages of same-sex couples, but we are encouraged that our advocacy has paid off with real movement that will help save young lives,” added Rev. Harry Knox, director of HRC's Religion and Faith Program.

The LDS Church responded to HRC's claims, according to FOX13: "The HRC's representations of the changes in the new handbook are simply absurd."

Blogger 'Pride in Utah' agreed with the LDS church, expressing anger at HRC's press release.

"I am furious (about HRC's press release)…Unfortunately this is completely untrue, did no one at the HRC bother to actually read the new handbook? I did. And as I posted yesterday, they still compare homosexuality to: Attempted Murder, Forcible Rape and Spouse Abuse (pg 57). Also, while they did remove one reference to pushing LGBT people into therapy, that doesn't mean they removed it completely. In another section, they still push for “counseling,” (pg 165). The Mormon church should be receiving absolutely no credit for their changes. They are as bigoted, dangerous and harmful as ever."

Watch FOX13's report, AFTER THE JUMP…