David-Edward Desmond

In 1966, 26-year-old David-Edward Desmond founded a break-off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Denver, Colorado. The United Order Family of Christ was for young gay men only, ages 18 to 30. Because they practiced a uniquely Mormon form of communalism in which they held "everything in common", Desmond affirmed that the Family was "not for the great majority of the Gay LDS" [Latter-day Saints ]. The United Order Family of Christ lasted at least until 1972.

David-Edward Desmond was born Oct 24, 1940, in Spokane, Washington, to Leonard Kruger and Joyce Betty Grasty. It is not known why his surname is different from that of either of his parents. He died in May 1983, location unknown.

(This information provided by Connell O'Donovan. Sources: D. Michael Quinn, Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p .382 and footnote 81; and http://familysearch.org for vital statistics on Desmond.)

Biography Date: July, 2004

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