National
Reid stirs controversy with remarks on ‘changing’ Mormon Church
Doctrine slow to adapt to evolving views of followers
Harry Reid’s remarks that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is changing on LGBT rights have inspired controversy. (photo from wikimedia by Joe Ravi)
Remarks from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week that Mormons are changing their views on the issue of gay rights has inspired a stark reaction from the church.
During a reporter roundtable in his office prior to the final vote in the Senate on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Reid asserted the church is changing when asked by the Washington Blade how he reconciles his faith with his support for gay rights.
“When I attend church here in Washington, D.C., I bet more people agree with me than disagree with me, and so the church is changing, and that’s good,” Reid said.
Although his religion stipulates that homosexuality is against God’s law, Reid, the highest-ranking Mormon in the federal government, has been a prominent supporter of LGBT rights.
He was critical of his church’s involvement in the effort to pass California’s Proposition 8 in 2008; he endorsed the National Equality March in 2009, has championed ENDA and supports same-sex marriage.
The day after the Blade published the article about the roundtable with reporters, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement responding to Reid’s comments, saying that although the church has no position ENDA, it remains opposed to same-sex marriage.
“On the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the Church has not taken a position,” the statement says. “On the question of same-sex marriage, the Church has been consistent in its support of traditional marriage while teaching that all people should be treated with kindness and understanding. If it is being suggested that the Church’s doctrine on this matter is changing, that is incorrect.”
The statement continues, “Marriage between a man and a woman is central to God’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. As such, traditional marriage is a foundational doctrine and cannot change.”
LGBT advocates working to change the Mormon Church acknowledged that while members may have evolving views on gay rights, church doctrine and policies haven’t made similar progress.
John Gustav-Wrathall, senior vice president of the LGBT Mormon group Affirmation, said Reid is right that members of the church are becoming more accepting of LGBT people and this acceptance includes support for ENDA and, in some cases, marriage equality.
“But the church leadership is maintaining that the doctrinal position of the church with relation to same-sex sexuality have not changed and are not going to change,” Gustav-Wrathall said. “And that certainly seems to be true, we don’t see any doctrinal evolution taking place at that level.”
Spencer Clark, executive director of Mormons for Equality, said as someone who lived in Reid’s D.C. congregation for five years, he concurs with the majority leader’s remarks.
“If you took a poll among Latter-day Saints locally, there would be a lot — if not majority — support of equal civil rights for LGBT individuals,” Clark said. “This is not to say that political sentiments in D.C. are representative of Mormons everywhere, but it demonstrates that there is a growing diversity of opinion among Mormons in regard to LGBT issues, and certainly a greater acceptance of them in our communities.”
After receiving substantial criticism for taking a lead role in passing Prop 8, the Mormon Church changed its tune on its public messaging on LGBT rights.
In 2009, the church endorsed an ordinance protecting gay people against discrimination in Salt Lake City. Moreover, although individual Mormons at a local level were involved in stopping the passage of marriage equality in Maryland, the church itself stayed out in 2012 when marriage equality came to the ballot in Maryland, Minnesota, Washington and Maine.
In terms of ENDA, the Mormon Church doesn’t oppose the bill, unlike other religious groups. While the Mormon Church is neutral, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to U.S. senators opposing ENDA. Among other reasons, the conference said the legislation threatened religious liberty — despite the religious exemption in the bill.
However, the Mormon Church was engaged this year in attempting to stop the legalization of same-sex marriage. It joined with other religious groups in filing briefs before the Supreme Court in favor of Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. According to a report in Mother Jones, the church issued letters to followers in Hawaii reiterating the church’s position against same-sex marriage. One letter was sent by church leadership in Salt Lake City; another came from within the Hawaii church hierarchy.
Gustav-Wrathall nonetheless said an evolution is taking place among church members because Mormon parents of LGBT children are seeing their kids coming out more widely amid greater LGBT acceptance, which is continuing to drive discussion at all levels.
“They don’t want their kids to be lonely or alone, and they see the anguish that their kids are going through and they want to see their kids fully accepted and loved within their congregations,” Gustav-Wrathall said. “They value their Mormon faith, and they want to see their kids stay true to that faith, and they’re worried that if the church has a very strong anti-gay position, then they don’t much future for their kids in the church, and that causes them a great deal of anguish.”
Clark said this discussion among members of the Mormon Church and growing acceptance among LGBT people will reach church leadership and “ultimately carry the day.”
“Whether or not official LDS doctrines ever change, it’s undeniable that … the actual people who come together to worship are changing,” Clark said. “And as they filter up into higher leadership over the coming decades, the institution will change too, just as it always has.”
As the New York Times noted last week, Mormon members of the U.S. Senate provided the crucial votes needed to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. All but two of the chamber’s seven Mormon members voted for the bill.
In addition to Reid, Mormons who voted for the bill were Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). The two who voted against it were Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
It remains to be seen whether the bill will find the same support among Mormons in the House. Only one of the Mormons in that chamber co-sponsors the bill: Rep. Jim Matheson (R-Utah). The other nine include lawmakers with anti-LGBT records, such as Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Raul Labrador (R-Idaho).
Gustav-Wrathall said he “absolutely” thinks the support that ENDA enjoyed among Mormons in the Senate is evidence of the change within members — at least on the issue of non-discrimination.
“I think in some ways Prop 8 actually may have moved things forward in those others areas because it created the impetus for discussion, and once people actually started talking about it, they realized, hey, we can support LGBT rights in at least these areas,” Gustav-Wrathall said.
The full remarks from Reid on Mormons evolving on gay rights follow:
I believe that I have rendered my church some pretty good service, and having members of the church recognize that they’re not all the same. I was stunned. I went to the national convention, and they asked me, “Would be willing to do an event for Mormon Democrats?” Ah, sure. I’ve been to things before where there was 14 people, whatever it is. I went down there. They have to turn people away. Lots and lots of people in North Carolina. I think they were proud of me for some of the stands I’ve taken.
For example, right in this room, I told one of the leaders of the Mormon Church, “Don’t do this. Stop this stuff in California. It’s nothing but trouble. It’s not going to work. You go back and tell everyone in Salt Lake what I’ve said because it’s not going to work. You’re not creating a good, positive guide for the church.” Example is the word, not guide.
And, you know, the Mormon Church is led by some wonderful men and women, but especially the men are old because it’s based like the Senate. A lot of it is on seniority. And there’s some young new church leaders, one of whom is an apostle. He’s what is called a stake president in San Francisco. He knows all this stuff. So, things are changing.
I hope they appreciate how I’ve helped. I’ve never — I don’t feel uncomfortable going to church and recognizing that in some places, not everyplace that I may think differently on social issues and other things than some. But, you take for example, when I attend church here in Washington, D.C., I bet more people agree with me than disagree with me, and so the church is changing, and that’s good.”
State Department
State Department implements anti-trans bathroom policy
Memo notes directive corresponds with White House executive order
The State Department on April 20 announced employees cannot use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The Daily Signal, a conservative news website, reported the State Department announced the new policy in a memo titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms.”
The State Department has not responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the directive.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes — male and female — and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggot told the Daily Signal. “In line with President Trump’s executive order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. The sweeping directive also ordered federal government agencies to “effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
The Daily Signal notes the new State Department policy “does not prohibit single-occupancy restrooms.”
National
I’m telling the scared little girl I once was it’s okay to feel free
This week is Lesbian Visibility Week
Uncloseted Media published this article on April 23.
By SOPHIE HOLLAND | At 13 years old, I remember looking in the mirror in my Toronto bathroom and thinking, “Yeah, I’m a lesbian.” At the time, I thought it was a dirty word. Thinking back, it could be because the first time I heard it was when a family member said, “I don’t know what a lesbian is, they are like aliens.”
And although I walked around in camouflage Crocs with a rainbow My Little Pony charm, plaid knee-length shorts and a shark tooth necklace (yes, these are all, in my opinion, stereotypically lesbian apparel!), I didn’t feel like I fit the mold. The longer I thought about it, the worse I felt, so I buried my feelings deep inside.
Now I am 25, and I have been out since I was 22. Three years ago, I never could have imagined that I’d be working for a queer news publication and celebrating Lesbian Visibility Week, an annual event meant to honor and uplift lesbian perspectives and highlight the hardships our community faces. To me, LVW is so important because, frankly, it has been an absolute shit show getting here, to a place where I feel love and joy most days.
I think back to the frustration of constantly being asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” Of watching princess movies and seeing a broken girl only find herself when her prince charming arrives. I remember listening to music that was always about heterosexual relationships. I remember feeling left out in high school when, one by one, my friends got boyfriends.
I tried the boyfriend, and I tried really hard for it to work at a large detriment to my wellbeing. I brainwashed myself into thinking I was probably bisexual, which I told my closest friends around 16 and unsuccessfully told my parents at the same age. I was probably subconsciously using this as a litmus test of their acceptance and to soothe the anxiety I felt around my sexuality.
Learning to love who I am did not only come from me unraveling my internalized lesbophobia and dissecting the oppressive societal messages of heteronormativity. It came from meeting an awesome community of lesbians and queers. I found people who understood my worldview and who showed me the ropes. I no longer had to stutter over concepts like lesbian loneliness or my frustration with misogynistic straight men.
They all just got it.
Without this community, I am not sure if I could be as warm and confident in myself as I am today.
And while I still experience homophobia, like being spat on while walking with an ex in downtown Toronto or having a stranger yell in my face “Are you fucking lesbians?” in Kensington Market, the joy and love still outweighs the nasty.
So, as the sentimental dyke that I have become, I decided to ask a set of lesbians in my orbit — including my friends as well as Uncloseted staffers, board members and followers — if they would share a little bit about what makes them love being a lesbian. And now, I can share it with all of you. Here they are. Happy LVW!
Timi Sotire
Falling in love with her was a reset. I felt like a kid again, hopeful about the future. We’ve had to overcome many obstacles to be together, but I’d choose her in every lifetime. I was sick with a long-term health condition when we met, and hanging out with Sophia really helped me with my recovery after my surgery.
Bella Sayegh
Being a lesbian is one of the most beautiful things in the world. To be authentically yourself in resistance and joy is so special within the lesbian community.
Parker Wales
When I met Liv, I finally understood why almost every song is about love.
Gillian Kilgour
There is no connection quite as perfect as between lesbians, no one sees me like my lesbians do.
Chyna Price
There’s many things I love about being a lesbian. But here are my top three:
- There’s just a deeper understanding when it comes to being loved by another woman.
- The next one would be the sense of community, especially being a POC masculine-presenting lesbian. I don’t feel like I’m cosplaying as someone else like I felt like I was doing before I came out.
- There’s so much history going back to the 1800s on how we found and fought for our love. That fight makes me proud because it shows me … that we’ve [found] ways to express our love even when it was misunderstood, illegal and deemed as madness.
Hope Pisoni
Before I knew I was a lesbian, romantic relationships seemed suffocating — it felt like everyone would expect me to act my part in the meticulous performance that is heterosexuality. But meeting my spouse and discovering our identities together showed me just how freeing it could be to love without a script to follow.
Leital Molad
It was the joy of watching the New York Sirens defeat the Toronto Sceptres at our first professional women’s hockey game — surrounded by hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cheering lesbians.
Angela Earl
I spent years building a life that looked right. But I never felt settled, and eventually I started asking what would actually make me happy. Coming out was about more than who I love, it was letting go of everything I was told to be. The last few years have felt like coming home to a life that had been waiting for me.
Tali Bray
What I love about being a lesbian is what I love about being in love … the wonder and joy of “oh, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.” I love moving through the world with women.
Izzy Stokes
I didn’t fall in love until I realized that queerness was an option. My queer friends have helped me see so much more than I grew up seeing. I’m so proud of us, and I’m so grateful for my lesbian community.
Nandika Chatterjee
When I met my fiancée is when I started to feel most like myself. That meant loving myself for who I am and embracing my identity as a lesbian. I felt free in a way I have never before. That’s the long and short of it.
Liz Lucking
The love and joy of being a lesbian is getting to live the life I dreamed of but never thought I would get to have!
Reflections
As I read these beautiful entries, it’s not lost on me that we’re still living in a world where lesbians are more likely to struggle with maternity problems, fetishization, and compulsory heterosexuality — not to mention the intersectional pressures of racism from both inside and outside the queer community. That’s part of why, according to a 2024 survey, 22 percent of LGBTQ women have attempted suicide, and 66 percent have sought treatment for trauma.
So if you are a lesbian who isn’t out or doesn’t feel safe, I hope you read this and can glean some hope from these messages. So when you look in the mirror, you know that it’s okay to release the weight — which can feel so heavy — of a heteronormative world.
We still have a long fight until all lesbians can feel safe to be themselves, but this is a community that does not back away from the tough, from the joy, from being loud and from all the other things that it takes to start a small revolution.
Hell yeah, lesbians! Here’s to you.
*I am signing off with my cat on my lap and a pride flag over my head <3.
Cuba
Trans parent charged with kidnapping, allegedly fled to Cuba with child
Cuban authorities helped locate Rose Inessa-Ethington
Federal authorities have charged a transgender woman with kidnapping after she allegedly fled to Cuba with her 10-year-old child.
An affidavit that Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on April 16 notes the child is a “biological male who identifies as a female” and “splits time living with divorced parents who share custody” in Cache County, Utah.
Waterfield notes the child on March 28 “was supposed to be traveling by car to” Calgary, Alberta, “for a planned camping trip with his transgender mother, Rose Inessa-Ethington, Rose’s partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and Blue’s 3-year-old child.”
The affidavit notes the group instead flew from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico City on March 29. Waterfield writes the Inessa-Ethingtons and the two children then flew from Mérida, Mexico, to Havana on April 1.
The 10-year-old child called her biological mother on March 28 after they arrived in Canada. The custody agreement, according to the affidavit, required Rose Inessa-Ethington to return the child to her former spouse on April 3.
“Interviews of MV [Minor Victim] 1’s family members provided significant concerns for MV 1’s well-being, as MV 1 was born a male, however, identifies as a female child, which is largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose Inessa-Ethington,” reads the affidavit. “Concerns exist that MV 1 was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty.”
The affidavit indicates authorities found a note in the Inessa-Ethingtons’ home with “instruction from a mental health therapist located in Washington, D.C., including instruction to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children.”
The affidavit does not identify the specific “mental health therapist” in D.C.
A Utah judge on April 13 ordered Rose Inessa-Ethington to “immediately” return the child to her former spouse. The former spouse also received sole custody.
“Your affiant believes that due to the extensive planning and preparation exhibited by both Rose Inessa-Ethington and Blue Inessa-Ethington to isolate MV 1 and take MV 1 to Havana, Cuba, without notifying or requesting permission from MV 1’s mother indicates they are likely not planning to return to the United States,” wrote Waterfield.
The affidavit notes Cuban authorities found the Inessa-Ethingtons and the child.
A press release the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah issued notes the Inessa-Ethingtons “were deported from Cuba” on Monday “with the assistance of the FBI.”
The couple has been charged with International Parental Kidnapping. The Inessa-Ethingtons were arraigned in Richmond, Va., on Monday. The press release notes a federal court in Salt Lake City will soon handle the case.
The New York Times reported the child is now back with their biological mother.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for working swiftly to return the child to the biological mother,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah in the press release.
The case is unfolding against the backdrop of increased tensions between Washington and Havana after U.S. forces on Jan. 3 seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. A second White House directive banned federally-funded gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year in the Skrmetti decision upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Cuba’s national health care system has offered free sex-reassignment surgeries since 2008.
Activists who are critical of Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues as director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, have previously told the Washington Blade that access to these procedures is limited. The Blade on Wednesday asked a contact in Havana to clarify whether Cuban law currently allows minors to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
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