In the dozens of years since his childhood, Reid said he’s grown on social issues. Reid: Mormons evolving on gay rights

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members are gradually changing their views on gay rights, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

On the brink of passing a bill that would ban workforce discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, Reid, a Democrat from Nevada and a Mormon, told a small group of reporters that as his social views have shifted to embrace bills like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, so too have those of many of his fellow churchgoers.


“When I attend church here in Washington, D.C., I bet more people agree with me than disagree with me, and so the church is changing, and that’s good,” Reid said, according to the Washington Blade.

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Reid’s remarks to reporters were intensely personal, and he described growing up not doing enough as a child to defend children who were bullied.

“As I was growing up, somebody who was ‘queer’ was really easy to pick on,” he said. “I was not in that category, but I saw it happen, and I didn’t do enough to speak out.”

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In the dozens of years since his childhood, the Senate’s Democratic leader said, as he’s grown on social issues, “so have the American people.” To Reid, that means that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who opposes ENDA, will need to follow the Senate’s lead if the party wants to have any hope of being on the right side of the majority of Americans.

“The House is going to have to capitulate,” Reid said.