About 1,500 Mormons are resigning from the Church of Latter-day Saints in protest of a new church policy regarding same-sex couples and their children, according to CNN.
The anger began when the LDS church released “Handbook 1,” a document with new guidelines handed down from church leaders. The edict said the children of gay couples wouldn’t be able to join the church until they were 18, and would be accepted only “if they renounced gay marriage and received approval from church leaders,” according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Children who lived with same-sex parents also couldn’t receive several important church rites, such as baptism and confirmation, according to the edict. Gay marriage is now grounds for excommunicating members in the Mormon church.
More than 1,000 people gathered on Saturday near the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City to show their disapproval. Many view the policy as discriminatory toward loving families, which it is.
Another protest, called “The Utah Rally for Love, Equality, Family and Acceptance,” is set for Saturday, Nov. 21 in the same area, reports the New York Post.
“The fact that it affects children really upset people,” attorney Mark Naugle, who is helping people resign from the church, told CNN. “Most people are disaffected from the church already, and this was the final straw.”