The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, preaches a rejection of homosexuality unless members remain celibate for life.

The religion also rejects the children of gay parents, unless they actively disavow their parents’ “lifestyle”, and has been linked to a number of dangerous gay ‘cure’ practises.

Earlier this year, Mormon leader David A Bednar, who sits on the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, insisted that the church has no gay members.

He said: “First I want to change the question – there are no homosexual members of the Church. We are not defined by sexual attraction… we are not defined by sexual behaviour. We are sons and daughters of god and all of us have different challenges in the flesh.”

Bednar insisted homosexual “afflictions” don’t constitute a sexuality, because Mormons will try to cure them.

But in a surprise move this week, the Mormons launched a website aimed at converting gay people.

The Mormon and Gay website initially appears gay-friendly, but digging slightly deeper it actually claims to be able to help Mormons “manage their same-sex attraction” – code language used by gay ‘cure’ practitioners.

It insists: “The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them.”

Elder Dallin H Oaks confirmed the Church would not be softening its anti-LGBT doctrine.

He said: “There is no change in the church’s position of what is morally right.

“What is changing and what needs to change is helping church members respond sensitively and thoughtfully when they encounter same-sex attraction in their own families, among other church members, or elsewhere.”

A hate crime law in Utah was recently blocked after opposition from the Mormon Church.

In 2014, two Mormons released a photo book showing them having fully-clothed simulated sex, to mock the institution that they were brought up in.