Then there's the issue of families and having both a mother and a father raise a child. In the Mormon church we believe that gender is eternal, meaning that before we were born our spirits were either male or female, and then after we die we will continue to be male or female. We believe that families that have both a mother and a father are god's preferred and commanded family structure. Mother and father are both equal but each of them provide different things to a child as they grow up. If a gay man had a child and they raised it with two fathers, then the child would be missing out on the female aspect provided by a mother.