San Francisco Mormon Church Reaches Out to Gay Community

In the 18 months since Mitch Mayne became executive secretary of his San Francisco Mormon church, attendance has expanded from an unlikely community: gay and lesbian people and their supporters.

Mr. Mayne is gay and is one of the few out officials in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has a history of opposing gay-rights causes and considers acting on same-sex attraction a sin.

That means Mr. Mayne has found himself in a national spotlight in both the Mormon and the gay communities, at times asked to defend one to the other. It is a role that Mr. Mayne, a technology public-relations executive in his 40s, has welcomed.