Shaping LGBTQ Rights in Deeply Mormon Utah

Troy Williams, the head of Equality Utah and once dubbed the unofficial "gay mayor of Salt Lake City," was still absorbing the news as he made his way downtown to the opulent Grand America hotel. His phone had been blowing up all morning with messages about a speech apostle Dallin H. Oaks had given the night before. Oaks is next in line to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the world's 16.8 million believers commonly known as Mormons. In his remarks at the University of Virginia, he hailed the virtues of religious freedom and the importance of LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws like the trailblazing one LDS leaders, lawmakers and LGBTQ activists worked to pass in 2015. Known as the "Utah compromise," it bans discrimination against LGBTQ people in housing and employment while carving out exceptions for religious reasons