Historian; gay; excommunicated 1993
D. Michael Quinn
1944–2021
3 topics · 4 dated events · 6 sources
Their part in each topic
The September Six
Historian of the hierarchy
Hired onto Leonard Arrington's History Division as a graduate student in 1972, Quinn became the most prominent scholar among the six. His 1985 Dialogue article on plural marriages authorized after the 1890 Manifesto, and his 1992 essay arguing that Mormon women had held priesthood since 1843, were named by his stake president in the written accusation of apostasy delivered to his door in February 1993. He refused to attend his own council and was excommunicated in September 1993.
Church Finances, Tithing, and the Transparency Question
Historian of Mormon wealth
Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power (2017) is the fullest scholarly reconstruction of Church finances from the 1830s to 2010, built from published conference reports, foreign regulatory filings and corporate records. He reprinted the April 1949 and April 1959 financial reports as appendices, reconstructed the 1959–62 deficits, and traced the corporate structure. Excommunicated in 1993, he worked outside institutional access for the rest of his career.
LGBTQ Latter-day Saints
Historian; gay; excommunicated 1993
Quinn wrote the most detailed critical history of the Church's marriage politics in the corpus, 'Prelude to the National "Defense of Marriage" Campaign' (Dialogue, 2000), and argued that continued distribution of Packer's 1976 pamphlet made the First Presidency 'morally responsible' for anti-gay violence. His 2023 memoir Chosen Path describes his own attempt to find treatment in 1976–77, his refusal to affiliate with Evergreen, and his 1993 excommunication.
In the timeline
4 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
Quinn publishes on post-Manifesto plural marriage
'LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904' appeared in Dialogue 18:1, documenting that plural marriages after the 1890 Manifesto had been performed by and for members of the First Presidency, apostles and mission presidents. Quinn had told Gordon B. Hinckley the substance of it in 1982; access to the First Presidency's vault was refused.
Quinn's stake president arrives with a written accusation
Salt Lake Stake president Paul A. Hanks and his counsellors came to Quinn's door on a Sunday morning holding a typewritten list of publications said to constitute apostasy. At the top was Quinn's essay 'Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843,' published the previous year in Maxine Hanks's Women and Authority.
D. Michael Quinn is excommunicated
Quinn refused to attend, writing that the process 'was designed to punish me for being the messenger of unwanted historical evidence and to intimidate me from further work in Mormon history.' His stake president had written on 11 May that there were other matters, 'very sensitive and highly confidential,' not related to his historical writings. Quinn's memoir reports the stake president telling the high council that Packer had been phoning weekly about the importance of taking action.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports the outcomeshinge
'Three men and three women have been charged with apostasy for their writing and speaking about Mormon subjects. Paul Toscano, Avraham Gileadi, D. Michael Quinn, Maxine Hanks and Lavina Fielding Anderson were excommunicated. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was disfellowshiped.' The story ran on the eve of general conference; the New York Times put the affair on its front page and National Public Radio carried comments from Dallin H. Oaks.
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
Spiritual Paths After September 1993
Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Paul James Toscano, Maxine Hanks, D. Michael Quinn and Lavina Fielding Anderson
Five of the six speaking together ten years afterward about what they decided, what it cost and where it took them.
D. Michael Quinn
Quinn's own dated account, drawn from his journals, of the History Division, the 1993 accusation, the two earlier councils, and what his stake president said about Packer's weekly phone calls.
Joseph Smith III's 1844 Blessing and the Mormons of Utah
D. Michael Quinn
The fullest account of the designations Joseph made before 1844 — Whitmer 1834, Cowdery 1834, Rigdon, Hyrum, Samuel, Joseph III — written before the blessing document at its centre was shown to be a Mark Hofmann forgery.
D. Michael Quinn
The documented count and authorization pattern of post-Manifesto plural marriages, and the sequence of public denials issued alongside them.
D. Michael Quinn, Robert A. Rees, Hugo Olaiz
The 1990s political history, the Packer pamphlet controversy, the Stuart Matis case as it was reported at the time, and Affirmation's own account of itself.
The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power
D. Michael Quinn
The continuous financial history — 19th-century salaries and tithing, the 1915–1959 disclosure run, the 1959–62 deficits, the corporate subsidiaries, and foreign regulatory filings reprinted verbatim.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with D. Michael Quinn.
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