Mormon Church's New Anti-Gay Policy Backfires: Thousands of Mormons Set To

At least 750 demonstrators will gather on Saturday afternoon at a Salt Lake City park across the street from the headquarters of the church, organizer Lauren Elise McNamara said on Friday.

"I don't know that there's any precedent for this", said Patrick Mason, professor of Mormon Studies at Claremont University. Supporters from Georgia, Kentucky, Rhode Island, OH and other states weighed in.

Thousands of Mormons are resigning from the LDS Church over its new and spiteful anti-gay policies.

The church initially announced changes to a church administrative handbook in a letter that detailed the revisions and was emailed November 5 to area leaders.

But that clarifications may also lead to bitter custody battles where straight spouses will fight even harder for primary custody to protect their children from being targeted due to a gay parent, said Spencer Clark, executive director of Mormons for Equality, an LGBT support group.

"When this announcement came out, there was no way I was going to leave my name on the books", said McNamara, 29, who converted to the faith as an adult with her husband and plans to resign along with him.

Members of the Mormon church have made overtures to the LGBT community in recent years, donating to LGBT homeless shelters and supporting anti-discrimination laws. The section instructs local leaders that those children can not receive baby blessings and may not be baptized until they are 18 and disavow same-sex marriage and cohabitation. Church spokesman Eric Hawkins did not respond to a request for comment. Todd Christofferson did an interview posted on the church's website in which he said the church believes same-sex marriage is a significant sin that requires church discipline, and he wants to remove doubt over the issue, especially after this summer's Supreme Court decision. It emphasizes that children can avoid being punished for who their parents love if they quit the parental home. Thousands have made their desire to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Mormon faith very public and have a established.

Larsen, of the Mormon Expressions podcast, said the church has been "in a cold war with the LGBT community for awhile", with Mormon leaders backing efforts to ban gay marriage since the 1990s across the US.

As opposition spread, the church issued what it called "guidance" that appears to give local leaders more leeway in applying the rules to children but does not change the thrust of the policy. But, he said the group still considers it "incredibly cruel" that the church is forcing children of gay parents to disavow their parents' sexuality. "There's a quality and a depth to the outburst of discontent that I have not seen before".