Equality Utah Press Release

[daddytodd]

I think this is brilliant!

"Throughout the recent election cycle, the LDS Church has demonstrated its willingness to participate in political issues by asking its members to do all they can do, including donating their means and their time, to support California’s Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution and eliminated gay couples right to marry by defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

The LDS Church has articulated it is not “anti-gay” but rather pro-marriage and it “does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights.” On November 5th, Elder L. Whitney Clayton stated the LDS Church does not oppose “civil unions or domestic partnerships.”  In response to these statements, Equality Utah is drafting legislation for the 2009 General Session of the Utah Legislature to address each of the issues mentioned by the LDS Church.

At a noon Press Conference today, Equality Utah is asking the LDS Church to keep its word and to demonstrate its conviction on these issues.

Read today's Press Release

Read the full transcript from today's Press Conference

I fully understand the community's anger. I share it. It's real, and it's justified. I've been concerned that we've been spending all our anger on catharsis. Catharsis feels good, but it doesn't change anything.

I've been hoping we could reserve part of our anger and turn it into the kind of action that will bring about change. This is an example of the kind of creative engagement with our enemies that we need to get better at.

Comments

[animbear.livejournal.com]

I think it's an excellent first step. At the very least it will bring them out as the complete hypocrites that they are.

[daddytodd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the worst-case scenario is exactly as you describe, and it would be SWEET!

It only gets better from there.

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

They aren't anti-gay, but they ARE pro-marriage.

So. they are in favor of gays and in favor of marriage.

So. By their own logic, they are in favor of gays getting married.

I don't see a problem with this.

Perhaps, they need to consider a rethink on their choice of words so that it reflects their actions. They are pro-discrimination.

You'd think that a people with such a massive persecution complex could learn from the actions taken against them.

Maybe it's just that I grew up in the church and watched as a child as it took the feds threatening their bottom dollar just to do something the rest of the country did almost 15 years previously....desegregate. But, honestly, when there are out fags in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I'll believe that this isn't just another ass-kissing shit stunt to try to smooth out a situation that they don't care about and the rest of us find intolerable.

[daddytodd.livejournal.com]

I agree that the 1988 "revelation" was in responses to the bottom dollar, but I disagree that the feds had anything to do with it. Separation of Church and State means churches can include or exclude whomever they want, based on whatever criteria they choose, including race.

It was the court of public opinion that prompted that particular revelation -- the Church was getting a lot of bad press, and it was negatively impacting both recruitment and tithing from members.

It is the evolution of public opinion that truly terrifies them about same-sex marriage; in a couple more decades, when it's commonplace and unremarkable, the LDS Church will look ignorant and old-fashioned if they continue to oppose it. So, above all, they want to foster the public opinion that same-sex marriage is bizarre, off beat and downright dangerous. The commercials they ran in Cali and AZ were only partly about this particular ballot measure -- they were mostly about shaping public opinion.

Fear-mongering was the goal, not the means to another end. But they'll lose that battle, and within another couple decades same-sex marriage will be commonplace and unremarkable. And then the Mormons will, once again, be revealed as the weird, nasty, narrow-minded little bigot church they are.

[teddyb.livejournal.com]

I think you are right on all counts, man.