Gay Mormon group Affirmation sure rubbed the Church the wrong way yesterday.

As previously mentioned, the LA-based activists held a press conference to air their grievances after Mormon leaders postponed a scheduled meeting.

Affirmation executive director Olin Thomas told reporters he simply wanted to sit down and explain how the Church of Ladder-day Saints can create a more inclusive, less damning environment by accepting their gay brethren. They also seek a female staffer to counsel mothers who blame themselves for their child's sexuality.

Assistant executive director David Melson echoed his leader's statement, "I would like to see the church become a safe haven for all its members."

LDS leaders, however, claim it's Affirmation that's creating tension.

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The Church of Latter-Day Saints does not approve of masculine objectification. Not in their name, at least, which explains why the Mormon church's leaders excommunicated Chad Hardy, the man behind the skintastic calender Men On A Mission.

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Gay Mormon group Affirmation extended an invitation to new Ladder-Day Saints president Thomas S. Monson this week. They write:

Although there are many areas of hurt and disagreement that have separated us, there are many more areas on which we can find agreement, and in doing so, become a blessing in the lives of many of the Saints, both straight and gay.

Assistant executive director David W. Melson says that in the wake of former President Gordon B. Hinkley's death this month, "it seemed like the appropriate time".

W wonder if Monson's ready for a change of pace. The new President did, after all, have a significant role to play in the Values Institute, an "unofficial" LDS group aimed at demonizing - and attempting to cure - the gays. And their unholy crusade left a few bodies in its wake.

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A few weeks back we told you about the Mormons Exposed calendar. Here creator Chad Hardy explains the core beliefs of the skintastic time keeper: "A fun look at a group of individuals who are Mormon and expressing them in a way that most people are not used to seeing Mormons or perhaps have perceptions - they don't understand that Mormons can do what we've done." The intrigued journalist goes on to ask Hardy if the calendar is in "direct conflict" with the Church's words against modesty. "The church has certain standards, [but] what it really boils down to is a personal choice". Bless Hardy's blasphemously progressive attitude!

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There's something queer happening in the Church of Latter-Day Saints. After decades of decrying the sins of homosexuality, the Mormon church seems to be experiencing a leftward lavender slide.

In a piece over at Merrill Report, Sarah McMann tells the story of a man named Lester Leavitt, who found himself excommunicated after admitting same-sex attractions. Six months later, however, the church unexpectedly welcomed Leavitt back into their fold.

The big change came after the religion, which many see as a fringe cult, rather than an organized faith council, issued the God Loveth His Children.

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"You are not going to hell,” Gene Robinson told a group of 160 gay Mormons last Saturday. The gay Episcopal Bishop appeared at the Affirmation Conference, which dealt specifically with the conflict between one's faith and their sexuality. In addition to reaffirming the Mormons' position, the controversial bishop, whose 2004 consecration split the Anglican Communion, Robinson shared a bit of his own coming out:

I got into therapy for two years, twice a week to change myself. You can see how effective that was. By the end of those two years I felt ready to have a relationship with a woman.

Robinson eventually married and had two children, but the couple divorced thirteen years later.