Box Turtle Bulletin
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 lobbyMay 19th, 2010
Congratulations to residents of Logan, Utah, whose city council on Tuesday night banned employers and landlords from discriminating against gays, lesbians or transgender people (SL Tribune)
Modeled after anti-discrimination laws recently adopted in Salt Lake City, Logan’s housing and employment ordinances passed with four votes and one abstention, by Councilman Dean Quayle. A crowd, which filled the City Council Chambers halls and an overflow room, was mostly subdued throughout a one-hour public hearing. Following the tally though, the crowd erupted in applause and rewarded the council with a standing ovation.
…
On Tuesday night, Monson defended his support of the ordinances and clarified the stance of the area’s largest church after calling the LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City on Monday.“The [LDS] church supports nondiscrimination ordinances, period. Certainly, I was told that this applies to Logan as much as any other place in the world,” Monson said Tuesday before calling for the vote. “They do and I do and I agree that this is not the answer for everything … But it is a step in the right direction and it is long overdue in my thinking.”
It looks like the church may be on a “see, we don’t hate you” campaign. And if so… I welcome it.
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L. Junius Brutus
May 19th, 2010
I’m actually rather impressed. At least the Mormon Church backs up its protestations with some action, which is more than can be said about most anti-gay groups.
Lindoro Almaviva
May 19th, 2010
Translation: We had to clear this with the church before we could vote on it? The church told us to go a head and therefore here you go. Be thankful to the all mighty church because thanks to her you have rights in this state.
Excuse me? Is anyone out there actually paying attention to this?
Patrick
May 19th, 2010
God bless university towns!
Emily K
May 20th, 2010
If the LDS church IS on such a campaign, they have a looooooong way to go before it does anything effective in *my* eyes. Until then, in my eyes, the Mormon anti-gay machine is as roaring as ever.
penguinsaur
May 20th, 2010
The mormon church is an anti-gay hate group.
If anyone wants to convince me otherwise they can show me an example of them opposing discrimination in a place where the anti-discrimination law wasn’t already guaranteed to pass. Or, you know, spending even 1% of the amount of cash they threw at prop 8.
customartist
May 20th, 2010
“You can have THESE rights, but not THOSE ones(marriage)”. – Mormons
Although it is a step in the right direction, we are still denied the right to marry, and in a very large part due to the Mormon Church’s money and efforts. They hid the truth about Prop 8. The Church lied. They are not our friends.
If I raped your sister, could I then do anything to gain your friendship? Especially if I did not confess??
justsearching
May 20th, 2010
The Mormons have a scale in the inner sanctum of their Temple.
This scale is able to discern how many members or potential members (aka $$ suppliers) they’ll win or lose based on their stance on any given issue.
L. Junius Brutus
May 20th, 2010
“If I raped your sister, could I then do anything to gain your friendship? Especially if I did not confess??”
Funding Prop. 8 is not really comparable to raping someone’s sister. And true hate involves more than simply wanting to ban gay marriage – which seemed to have more to do with the Mormon Church’s intrigues aimed at getting accepted as a Christian denomination by Catholics and Protestants. Question: can you imagine Peter LaBarbara supporting anti-discrimination laws? Of course not, because he hates our guts and would ban us from breathing oxygen if he could. Hell, he won’t even condemn the Ugandan law.
I don’t really care about whether this is a PR-stunt or not: we should wish for such PR-stunts.
TonyJazz
May 20th, 2010
But, Junius, isn’t using LaBarbara as a standard nearly as bad? There are few people in civilized society who are bigger jerks than he happens to be….
At least, the Mormons are moving in the right direction.
Maybe someday they’ll get to the point when they question the bizarre origins of their church and seek reality instead, as well…
L. Junius Brutus
May 20th, 2010
I’m just saying, LaBarbara is as close to the golden standard of hate as you can get. If you’re a real hater, you will probably act rather like he does.
DN
May 20th, 2010
As good as this news is, don’t forget Chris Buttars (gays are as big a threat as terrorism) was born and raised in Logan. Still, progress is progress.
cowboy
May 21st, 2010
You can see where this is going. First came the surprise endorsement by a spokesman from the LDS at that Salt Lake City council meeting. Then, the ultra-sanctimonious Mormons (as opposed to the “normal†Mormons) in the Utah Legislature thought they might pass legislation which would nullify what the SL Council did for Salt Lake City.
There was a “truce†between the uber-Mormons and the Gays. Two opposing groups agreed upon during this last legislature session: Nobody would bring icky gay issues to debate.
So…we have Salt Lake City, and then Park City and now Logan who have enacted some anti-discriminatory ordinances. There will probably be more cities to come.
You can see when this coming 2011Utah Legislature is in session they will be hard pressed to make a law to override these city ordinances. It might have been easy to nullify the Salt Lake City ordinance because the city is full of “liberals†and “commiesâ€. But, now we have Park City and Logan and….???
It would be too nasty-looking for some Mormons in the Legislature to vote away anti-discrimination laws now.
But, I bet Provo (host city to BYU) will be the last to even consider anti-gay ordinances. If they do pass an anti-discrimination ordinance in Provo, I will join the local ballroom dance team.
cowboy
May 22nd, 2010
I am still wondering what justsearching means. There is no such scale in whatever is an inner sanctum of any Mormon Temple.
penguinsaur
May 23rd, 2010
“Question: can you imagine Peter LaBarbara supporting anti-discrimination laws?”
If Peter Labarbera was a nationwide, multi-million dollar organization which is utterly dependent on PR to keep donations rolling in I could very easily imagine him claiming to support *but not with any time, money or volunteers* a tiny issue like this so he could point to it as proof he’s not a hater while he spends millions trying to take rights away from gay people.
Pender
May 24th, 2010
I will never forgive the Mormon church for the evil it has done, and I will never forget it, and likely millions of other gay Americans feel the same way.
But there are lots of evildoers in the world, and like the hikers being chased by a bear, they don’t have to outrun the bear — they just have to outrun their fellow travelers.
Given that their campaign to look less evil apparently involves actually doing less evil, I call it a win-win.
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