Parliamentary group for prevention of genocide funded by anti-gay church

According to a Private Eye report in issue 1575, an all parliamentary group set up to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity is being funded by the Church of Latter Day Saints, the International Center for Law and Religious Studies at Brigham Young University and the Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University, which is owned by the church.

While primarily based in the States, BYU maintains a small London campus.

BYU used to explicitly outlaw being homosexual until recently and being caught a ‘homosexual relationship’ is still grounds for expulsion.

In 2000, they apparently expelled 13 students for the sin of watching ‘Queer as Folk’ and, while they reportedly updated their Honor Code in 2007 to say that being homosexual was no longer an issue, all queers must refrain from “all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings (e.g. dating, hugging, kissing). There is no similar restriction against expressing heterosexual feelings” although both straight and gay people are expected to practice abstinence.

Although this matter of discrimination has been raised, the US Department of Education dismissed the Title IX claim against the university at the start of 2022, stating the University was exempt because of their status as a religious organisation.

However they seem to want to pray the gay away, it’s not working. “A 2020 survey of 7,625 BYU students found that over 13% (996) of those surveyed indicated that their sexual orientation was something other than “strictly heterosexual.”

BYU have also admitted to previously using electro-shock therapy as part of their ‘aversion therapy’ plans but, in 2016 the church’s official website declared that conversion therapy or sexual orientation change efforts are “unethical.”

The parliamentary group are also funded by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Leeds University, King College London, De Montfort University and the Trevor Pears Foundation.