In a move to show its political and moral support on issues of preserving religious rights while protecting members of the LGBTQ community, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has joined with other stakeholders to support proposed legislation in Arizona.

Church representatives gathered with local government and community leaders on the Senate lawn of the Arizona State Capitol on Monday morning, where the bill was first announced. The bill was to be filed Monday with the state’s legislature.

The bill is being co-sponsored by Arizona’s Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers, a Republican and a member of the LDS Church, and Rep. Amish Shah, a Democrat. The bipartisan bill provides equality in housing, employment and more, including making it illegal to use conversion therapy.

Bowers, Shah and several business, legislative and faith leaders are calling on the Arizona State Legislature to update nondiscrimination laws. The bill supports equality, respect and fundamental rights, according to Mesa Mayor John Giles, one of the supporters. Mesa and the cities of Glendale and Scottsdale have adopted similar laws.

While speaking Monday, Bowers noted that he comes from a religion the believes all people belong to the family of God and that he has a responsibility to help tie everyone on earth together as family and love everyone.

“I hope we can be unified in a respectful dialogue moving forward,” Bowers said. “I don’t anticipate a rose-strewn path ahead of me.”

The following statement, distributed to media after the event, expresses the church’s view of the proposed legislation for the Grand Canyon State:

“The Church is pleased to be part of a coalition of faith, business, LGBTQ people and community leaders who have worked together in a spirit of trust and mutual respect to address issues that matter to all members of our community. It is our position that this bipartisan bill preserves the religious rights of individuals and communities of faith while protecting the rights of members of the LGBTQ community, consistent with the principles of fairness for all.”

The church has supported religious freedom and nondiscrimination bills in the past, including one in Utah in 2015 and another at the federal level in 2019.

In March 2015, two months after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called publicly for legislators to pass laws that safeguard religious freedoms while also extending protections in housing and employment for LGBT people, and after intense negotiations between various community stakeholders, the Utah State Legislature passed groundbreaking legislation that achieved that goal.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed support in December 2019 for the federal Fairness for All Act introduced at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., by nine members of Congress from seven states. The church joined a broad coalition of bill supporters, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the 1st Amendment Partnership, the American Unity Fund, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and the Center for Public Justice.

As a church statement said in support of the latter, “the nation is more united when diverse individuals and groups can work cooperatively to advance sound policy.”

Last November at the University of Virginia, President Dallin H. Oaks of the church’s First Presidency called for “a new, workable balance between religious freedom and nondiscrimination.” He pointed people to a “better way” that focuses on the Christ-centered virtues of loving, listening, respecting, negotiating, persuading, balancing, tolerating, cooperating, reconciling and accommodating — any peaceful means that focus on the common good and “resolve differences without compromising core values.”

According to a press release about Monday’s action, the church supports bills like the new one in Arizona “because they do these very things.”

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