Mormon missionary positions: Gay sex and the latter-day saint

The Book of Mormon Missionary Positions opens with a quote from Handbook 2 of The Church of Latter-Day Saints: “Sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Any other sexual relations, including those between persons of the same gender, are sinful and undermine the divinely created institution of the family. The Church accordingly affirms defining marriage as the legal and lawful union between a man and a woman.”

Photographer Neil Dacosta and art director Sara Phillips, the duo who created the series, which features (clothed) Mormon men in various sexual positions, describe the project as being open to interpretation in hopes that “the viewers will find their own personal meanings.”

“This project means a few different things to everyone involved, but the overall goal is to start a discussion, using a visual medium, about equal rights and the separation of church and state,” Dacosta tells The Huffington Post. “The institutionalized views of past generations don’t represent our current generation’s beliefs.” He concedes, however, that “we have a long way to go still, but at least things are changing for the better.”

Say hello to Elder Kimball and Elder Searcy:

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