Mormons plan 'mass resignation' event in protest over church's same-sex marriage policy

New guidelines, leaked last week, state that homosexual couples are 'apostates' and ban the children of same-sex couples from being baptised until they turn 18

Members of the Mormon church march during the Utah Gay Pride Parade in Salt Lake City in 2013. LGBTQ Mormons and their supporters are reeling over a new rule change by church officials (AP)

Hundreds of Mormons are thought to be planning to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in dismay at its leadership’s latest policy on same-sex marriage.

The Mormon church, based in Utah, has long opposed gay marriage. The guidelines in a new church handbook for lay leaders, leaked last week, state that homosexual couples are “apostates”.

The rules also ban the children of same-sex couples from being baptised until they turn 18, at which point they must disavow their parents and leave the household if they wish to join the church.

Former and current Mormons have organised a “mass resignation” event in Salt Lake City on Saturday, with participants planning to march around Temple Square at the church’s headquarters in protest at the policy.

The Facebook event has around 1,000 confirmed attendees, though some of those may be people who had already left the church.

The Mormon church is led by a two-tier group of 15 men: three top leaders in a body known as the First Presidency, and below them another dozen in the so-called Quorum of the Apostles. Surprised by the backlash over the new guidelines, they are looking at tweaks to the policy to mollify their congregation, according to a report by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Until last week, the church was seen to have softened its stance on LGBT issues since June, when the US Supreme Court struck down same-sex marriage bans across the country. In the past, its approach to same-sex couples was largely left to local Mormon leaders to decide.

The new policies are thought to have been formulated to preclude the possibility of the church ever being forced to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.

Writing in The Washington Post this week, Kate Kendell, a former Mormon, said she had resigned her membership of the church because of the policy. “It is impossible for me to be a part of a religion that would attack its own members and punish them by denying their children involvement in the church,” she wrote.

“The church has just lurched to the extreme margins, far from its core values of love, toleration and mutual respect.”