Appendix D

One of the reviewers of this report raised an important point that deserves attention. The point was that if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints changed to fully accept same-sex marriage, many of those who agree with this change would be retained. At the same time, it is important to recognize that a change in same-sex marriage teachings could potentially increase the likelihood of deidentifying for those who disagree with the change.

We use figure D1 to illustrate this. In the FFYD, 65 participants somewhat agreed that the Church should accept same-sex marriage, 15 of whom were deidentified. Another 64 strongly agreed the Church should accept same-sex marriage, 30 of whom were deidentified. By contrast, 110 somewhat disagreed and 298 strongly disagreed that the Church should accept same-sex marriage. Among all participants who disagreed, only 22 were deidentified.

Under a hypothetical scenario in which same-sex marriage was fully accepted and, due to this change, 100% of those who agreed (somewhat or strongly) with such acceptance were retained, 45 individuals in the sample would be retained. However, if only 15% of those who disagreed with the Church accepting same-sex marriage (somewhat or strongly) deidentified in response to the change, the Church would lose 58 individuals—more than the number retained. Moreover, the assumption of 100% retention among those favoring same-sex marriage is unrealistically high, while a 15% loss among those disagreeing is likely conservative. Numerically, if retention alone were the goal, such a change would likely not meet that goal.