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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyNovember 8th, 2008
An estimated 3,000 people gathered in downtown Salt Lake City to protest Mormon involvement in the campaign for California’s Proposition 8:
A sea of signs in City Creek Park, where the march began, screamed out messages including, “I didn’t vote on your marriage,” “Mormons once persecuted . . . Now persecutors,” and “Jesus said love everyone.” Others read, “Proud of my two moms” and “Protect traditional marriage. Ban divorce.”
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and three openly gay state legislators, Sen. Scott McCoy and Reps. Jackie Biskupski and Christine Johnson, spoke out in support. At one point, the crowd took up the mantra made famous by the country’s new president-elect: “Yes, we can!”
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Dave
November 8th, 2008
The signs mentioned in the story are good, and a definite improvement over the likes seen in Los Angeles.
In contrast is the attitude of John Aravosis:
It is unfair to go after Utah for something done by the Mormon Church rather than the Utah government, of course. The comment about Utah being a “hate state” is quite ironic coming from Aravosis, who is a first-class hater himself.
What about the comments given by Joe Mathews?
This seems to leave critics of the Mormon leadership’s actions in a bind.
David G
November 9th, 2008
Oh I don’t know, maybe if the Mormon church’s tax exemption was reneged, the Mormon church could then say whatever it felt, while providing much NEEDED tax dollars.
Until then perhaps the Mormon church should STFU.
Craig
November 9th, 2008
For those familiar with Mormon history, there is only one thing that frightens them: national or international negative publicity. It thwarts their missionary effort, and diminishes the image they tirelessly portray. It was massive negative publicity that led to Blacks getting the priesthood in the late 70s.
No other voice will ever be heard by Mormon leaders. But tarnish their name and spew the truth and they will shake in their boots.
Protests may not usually work with religions, but with one that has an obsession with its own favorable image, protests and negative publicity are just what the doctor ordered! So keep it up folks!!
confused
November 12th, 2008
The only thing I don’t understand is that everyone is saying only 2% of California is mormon so why should they have a say in everyone’s life. So…if only 2% of them are mormon…then only 2% max of the votes could be mormon votes…which means the other 50+% voted on their own beliefs…which were not mormon…I just don’t understand why the mormons are getting the blame…
David C.
November 12th, 2008
There were against the involvement of the LDS Church in both putting Prop. 8 on the ballot and funding the yes campaign.
See for instance:
http://www.noonprop8.com/downloads/Thurston-Memo.pdf
and
http://signingforsomething.org/blog/?cat=3
This makes me a little less likely to feel sorry for the LDS types since they knew full well what they were doing when they stepped into this arena.
I note with some interest that little has been said about the Catholic organizations that also donated heavily to the yes side. Is this because the LDS Church is an easier target by virtue of being a little more on the fringe of Christianity?
Personally, and I think there are a lot of other people that feel this way, it’s time to expose the direct hypocrisy of Christians that aren’t even familiar with the fundamentals of their own religion. Just what part of “Love one another” don’t they understand?
It’s high time “believers” were challenged, and on their own turf! LGBT people have been beaten over the head with the Bible for centuries, and it’s time we used the same weapon against their political positions on the question of LGBT equality.
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