The Grand Canyon Synod is RIC. I recently heard from a member of a call committee that they said, "No," when asked if they would consider a LGBT candidate. The issue is that it may take longer to find a candidate that fits the congregation and is willing to move to our corner of the world. (And we are a more liberal congregation than the other ELCA congregation in town.)
Thanks for proving my point. In an RIC Synod, when 6 out of 7 ELCA seminaries are RIC, a congregation either is open to an 2SLGBTQIA candidate, or they have to wait an inordinate amount of time. This is a subtle but effective form of coercion.
The wait is that there are few candidates willing to serve in this location for what the congregation can pay. They had been vacant for a couple years before I came. (This was before the 2009 vote.) The pay was good for that time - and much better than I was receiving; and more importantly, my mother lived in Yuma. I was willing to come. However, I never sought (nor did I receive nor did we need) a raise during my 13 years here. Part of my reason for retiring was that they would be dipping into savings to pay me. I do not think that paying a pastor should be a reason a congregation goes broke.
The congregation is not all that conservative. Before I was here, there was a transvestite who had worshiped here. When I came, there was a gay couple worshiping here. (They ended up breaking up and moving away.) We lost one older couple after the 2009 vote. Another man had left before that when the gay couple volunteered and were put in a leadership position for Vacation Bible School. He objected to that, the rest of his family did not. When his college-aged daughters came to town, they were all back at our worship.
One of our active members has a daughter in a same sex marriage. They now have four children. A winter visitor talked to me about a granddaughter who was about to enter a same-sex marriage. I just learned about a couple whom I married with the bride being a member, where the husband is transitioning. She had told me when she was in high school that she was bisexual. In his coming out post on Facebook, he said that his family had known this for a long time. (They are Wisconsin Synod Lutherans. When he came with his wife, he usually would not receive communion.) Being in a conservative church does not change what a person may think about him/herself. (It may just make them feel more guilty about it.)
As a whole, the congregation is not opposed to LGBT folks. They are part of us. The report I got was that call committee was most concerned about T - and not sure the congregation was ready to call such a pastor.
Although I have supported same-sex relationships, I have never asked or encouraged a congregation to become RIC. While that is a signal to LGBT folks that the congregation is open to them, it can also become a symbol that the congregation is not open to traditional folks. If we are to truly be open to all people, we shouldn't put barriers to some.
I'll also add that the founding pastor of this congregation was later elected a bishop and participated in the irregular ordination of Anita Hill. He was a member of a congregation with a non-conforming lesbian pastor (who had a partner in a legal relationship according to CA laws at the time).
