The LDS Church’s 2015 policy for same-sex couples is now history. But for LGBTQ members, even in this more helpful and hopeful present, the pain is hardly in the past.

After all, they were the ones labeled “apostates,” even though many of them still loved and lived their faith. They were the ones who were told their kids wouldn’t be able to be blessed or baptized, although some of them may have desired that chance.

So when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rescinded that policy earlier this month, anger accompanied their elation, hurt tempered their happiness, bruises scarred any healing.

This “exclusion policy” triggered a huge uproar, historian Greg Prince says on The Salt Lake Tribune’s latest “Mormon Land” podcast, particularly because it also targeted innocent children.

Instead of “lashing out [only] at LGBTQ people, it was lashing out at their kids,” explains Prince, author of the newly released “Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences.”

While not all gay member couples were disciplined or their children denied rituals — in fact, Prince says, most lay leaders seemed to ignore that instruction — some were. Still, the policy’s deeper harm may have been an unspoken message behind the written words. Read more via Salt Lake Tribune