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For many years the LDS Church dealt with homosexuality through religious counseling. The sessions had elements of coercion, forcing gay men to name sexual partners. In the 1950s and '60s, there were Mormon-instigated anti-gay witch hunts in Utah and Idaho.

At Brigham Young University (BYU) in the 1970s, Dr. D. Eugene Thorne and others conducted experiments in aversion therapy under the auspices of the psychology department. The most notorious of these techniques was a regimen involving electric shocks administered to subjects aroused by pictures of naked men.

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Suicides and attempted suicides among Thorne's subjects helped inspire the founding of the organization originally called "Affirmation: Gay Mormons United" by BYU student Matthew Price and a handful of practicing and former Mormons. The group is now based in Los Angeles, where a chapter was formed in 1978.

"In Affirmation," says David Melson, "we have people who are Temple-recommends, people who want nothing further to do with the Church, and everything in between."

Melson heads the Washington, DC, chapter and serves on the international organization's executive committee. Affirmation members range from conservative to socialist, from devout Mormon to agnostic. Many remain on Church membership rolls. There is some overlap between Affirmation and LDS Reconciliation, an organization focused on GLBT Mormons who wish to remain in the Church; the two groups have sponsored joint events. David Melson is an ordained LDS high priest. Duane Jennings, who cochairs the Salt Lake City chapter, is a Democrat who says, "I believe in God, but not organized religion." What all Affirmation members have in common is a formative exposure to Mormon culture.

In June 2006, Melson and a colleague stood up during a ward house service and spoke about their lives as gay men and Mormons. While Church officials greeted their testimony with silence, Melson says he and his associate received a "very strong positive reception from members." They have not been excommunicated or otherwise disciplined.

While the Church condemns homosexuality, attitudes toward gay LDS members vary from congregation to congregation. In some wards, being gay is a ticket to excommunication. In others, gay and lesbian members are visible and accepted. In 2008, being an openly gay Mormon is not necessarily a contradiction in terms. Todd Herzog, a 22-year-old former flight attendant who recently won the "CBS Survivor: China" series, unapologetically identifies himself as gay and Mormon.

Portions of Salt Lake City, an anomalous Democratic bastion in rock-ribbed Republican Utah, are now represented in the Utah legislature by gay Senator Scott McCoy and lesbian Representative Jackie Biskupski. The thriving Utah Pride Center now shares quarters with the Utah branch of the ACLU. The annual Pride festival is now a three-day event with over 25,000 attendees. According to Valerie Larabee, executive director of Utah Pride, "Every year we're seeing more and more out Mormons."

BYU has not practiced extreme forms of aversion therapy since the late '70s, but continues to promote "reparative" psychotherapies seeking to turn gay men and lesbians straight. The archenemy of Affirmation and LDS Reconciliation is, perhaps, the Mormon ex-gay organization Evergreen. "If you want to diminish your same-gender attractions and overcome Homosexual behavior," promises Evergreen's website, "there is a way out." Without endorsing any specific form of conversion therapy, Evergreen promotes resources that include the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), cofounded by the late Charles Socarides.