The rules that define this policy are found in one of two Church Handbooks. One of these handbooks is available to anyone. The other handbook is only available to current Bishops and Stake Presidents. I forget if it's handbook 1 or handbook 2, but the handbook for church leaders only is the one with this policy.
The policy doesn't say that the children of gay parents are apostates. It just treats them like apostates until they become adults. After they reach adulthood and only if they condemn their parents' sexual preferences, they are then allowed to join the church.
The church has an official excuse for this policy. But I don't buy it. They claim that the policy only exists because it protects the church from lawsuits wherein after a divorce, one parent justifies parental alienation of the other parent by disparaging the other parent to the kids, because the other parent is gay or is in a gay marriage. The claim against the church is that the parental alienation (a form of child abuse), is supported and encouraged by the church, who openly rejects gay marriages in which the kids may be living under. If the church refuses to let the children in gay-parent households join the church, the church won't be put in to a position of disparahing the children's parents' marriage to them.
Here is the problem with that reasoning. Since the church's founding, the church has been meddling in the parental rights of parents, to enforce what the church wants for the kids, often against the will of the biological parents in many cases. Women are often highly pressured to adopt-out their children in cases where they are unmarried and not likely to merry the child's father. Even worse, if the church does not approve of the father in cases of out-of-wedlock child birth, the church to this day will lie to the man, encourage the woman to go in to hiding, or to leave the state as a means to deny the man, his ability to exercise his legal rights. This stuff happens all the time. The church takes great legal risks with the excuse that they are protecting the children. However, if the child lives in a gay-parent household, then the child is completely disposable. The church doesn't want the risk. The truth is that if the church can't openly disparage gay marriage and perpetuate those beliefs successfully, they'll sell the children out if necessary to restore their ability to win that battle.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2017 12:26AM by azsteve.