The Family Proclamation is NOT Scripture

The only way to think it is comes from not being familiar enough with the procedure by which past writings have (or have not) become scripture.

Not everything prophets and apostles do is instantly canonized as scripture. They and their positions are not the ones who determine what becomes scripture and what doesn't.

For something to become actual canonized scripture, it has to be presented to the Church for a sustaining vote for that clearly stated purpose. Reading it in general conference is not enough. Putting it in a manual is not enough. Even printing it inside a triple or quadruple combination isn't enough. That's why the Lectures on Faith used to be published with the Doctrine and Covenants and they aren't anymore. The Lectures on Faith never received a sustaining vote.

The Family Proclamation wasn't submitted for a sustaining vote when it was read for the first time in general conference. It wasn't even written in consultation with the female leadership of the Church. The general Relief Society presidency were not included in the drafting of this belief statement. They, and by extension the women of the Church, had no representation or input into its content.  

Read Chieko Okazaki's comments on this some time if you don't believe me. She was in the general Relief Society presidency at the time and didn't like the way the situation was handled at all. Had they been consulted, she said, the Family Proclamation would look very different than it does. It was presented in the Relief Society general session, which was somehow supposed to make up for their exclusion. But reading something in a Relief Society meeting doesn't compensate for the lost value of what their contributions would have been.

Having something like the Family Proclamation is important enough to do it right. Part of that process has to include consulting with and receiving input from the female leadership of the Church. They receive revelation in their stewardship that male leadership will never be able to access.

"Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord." 

Do we really believe this, as much for our leadership as we do for our families?

When God gives scripture to the Church, it will be given to the entire church. Not shoehorned into a Relief Society meeting against their will to provide legal standing for a court case in Hawaii.

So what do I think about the Family Proclamation?

It's a really good example of how it's not a perfect, errorless thing to speak for God in the Church. Those who do it make mistakes. They have agendas. They also change and grow with time and experience, which allows them (and those who come after them) to see old words with new eyes. A separation of distance and time gives us the opportunity, as a church, to see the fruits of a piece of writing before we decide together to canonize it.

I don't think the Family Proclamation will survive that process, the same way other pieces of writing have not. I don't see that as a bad thing. Whether people want to admit it or not, the Family Proclamation has a significant body count, in terms of LGBTQ+ members who have been rejected, disowned, murdered, and committed suicide because of it. As more and more of the original authors of the Family Proclamation pass away, that body count is going to become harder to ignore.

If we're going to attempt to the scriptural canon, I simple believe that with the power and access we have to Jesus Christ, we can do better.