Box Turtle Bulletin

LDS Prophets’ Latest “Revelation”: Church Gave $190,000 To Pass Prop 8

When supporters of Prop 8 went to Federal Court to try to block the public release of the names of late donors, they said that their move was to protect individual donors from harassment. Now we know the real reason Yes on 8 had to try to circumvent California’s open campaign finance laws. In fact, Yet On 8’s chief benefactor had 190,000 reasons to fight the release:

Mormon church officials, facing an ongoing investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, Friday reported nearly $190,000 in previously unlisted assistance to the successful campaign for Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

The report, filed with the secretary of state’s office, listed a variety of California travel expenses for high-ranking members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and included $20,575 for use of facilities and equipment at the church’s Salt Lake City headquarters and a $96,849 charge for “compensated staff time” for church employees who worked on matters pertaining to Prop. 8.

The Mormon church had been under investigation by the Fair Political Practices Commission for failure to report its contributions as required by law. The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by Fred Karger, of Californians Against Hate.

IRS regulations barred from endorsing political candidates, but they allow churches and religious groups to campaign and contribute on behalf of issues. When doing so, churches are required to report their contributions just like every other donor. They are also required to report and attach fair market dollar values to “in-kind” donations, which consist of services and activities provided directly without charge by a donor that a campaign would otherwise have been required to pay for.

Until yesterday, Mormon church had denied any direct financial support for the campaign. I guess some of the Mormon prophets in Salt Lake City had one of their famous “revelations” last night.

Mormon Utah Legislators Oppose Even the Slightest of Gay Rights

You may recall that the Mormon Church claimed that they don’t object to “rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches”. And you may recall that Equality Utah called their bluff and asked for Mormon support for five bills that would allow for just those rights.

And you may even recall that polls showed that Mormons in Utah generally will oppose anything whatsoever if it appears that gay people might want it.

Well we now have the answer to the first of the five bills. Senate Bill 32 would allow individuals who rely on a breadwinner to sue for wrongful death. Currently Utah law limits those who can sue to only spouses, parents and children.

Let me be clear. There is no legitimate reason to exclude those who rely on someone for their livelihood from suing should that livelihood be taken away due to the wrongful actions of another. If a woman is killed directly due to the reckless or wrongful actions of another, why should her partner who stays home and raises the kids not be able to sue?

But because this bill was understood to benefit (among others) those gay persons who rely on each other, Sen. Buttars’ committee killed the bill 4 – 2.

And did the Mormon Church live up to its claim? Did it encourage its members to allow for probate rights for gay couples? Let’s see.

Voting “no” were:

Chris Buttars, Mormon
Lyle Hillyard, Mormon
Mark Madsen, Mormon
Michael Waddoups, Mormon

The three non-Mormons either voted Yes or were absent.

There is no way to explain the action today other than in terms of bias, bigotry, or downright hatred.

The more I experience the actions of those in leadership positions or those who have power withing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the more I become convinced that this organization is an instrument of organized homophobia and that there are no rights, no equalities, no measures of freedom for gay men and women that are too small for them to let pass unopposed.

Mormons Don’t Like You Much, Either

One of the common claims coming from the Mormon Church is that they love gay people and favor justice, they just have to protect the sanctity of eternal marriage. But three new polls taken in Utah suggest that this may be more rhetoric than reality.

First, the good news. Utah residents – only 2/3 of which are Mormons – do favor some changes in a pro-gay direction. For example, 56% of Utahns favor some additional legal protections such as hospital visitation and inheritance. And a poll by Equality Utah is claiming that majorities of Utah residents favor job and housing protection.

But that’s about where the good news ends. Of the polled Utah Mormons,

• 67% think you should not be allowed to adopt,
• 85% oppose civil unions,
• 85% think it was appropriate to urge members to donate time and money to Proposition 8,
• 58% think it was inappropriate for gays to protest outside the LDS temple grounds, and
• less than half think you should be allowed hospital visitation, inheritance rights, and job protections.

Not all positions that one might hold contrary to the interests of gay equality are an indication of bigotry.

But, seriously, hospital visitation? Inheritance?

Proof of Mormon Church’s Direct Involvment In Prop 8

The American News Project has prepared a video investigating the the Mormon Church’s lack of disclosure about direct expenditures on Proposition 8. They claim to have only spent a few thousand dollars, but ANP obtained a copy of a telecast in which they promised to perform a number of very expensive services for the Yes on 8 Campaign.

The church is currently under investigation by the California State Fair Elections Commission.

Utah Gay and Lesbian Ski Weekend Victim to Prop 8

Normally gay and lesbian ski bunnies would have been shooshing down the slopes in Park City, Utah this past weekend. But organizers had to cancel the event. (Park City Utah’s Park Record”

One of the ski week’s organizers, John Harriot, a bisexual who lives in West Hollywood, Calif., said six people had registered for the trip. Approximately 50 would have signed up beforehand in a typical year, and 150 or so people would have attended.

While a reduction in participation might reflect a downturn in the economy, a full scale abandment of the trip of this sort can only been understood to be a reaction to Mormon support for Proposition 8. And more than most activism, this reduction suggests to me that there has been a fundamental core change in the gay community.

It is fairly easy to get gay bars, gay businesses, or gay organizations to join a community endeavor. But like any demographic, its much harder to get individuals to change their life habits. And when you’re taking away someone’s ski trip, you really need to be convincing.

But the passage of Proposition 8 changed us.

BYU Rehangs Photo Exhibit

Michael Wiltbank’s photo project is back up:

BYU spokesman Michael Smart said a miscommunication between administrators in the College of Fine Arts and Communication led to the removal. “When the action became apparent after the weekend, college administrators reviewed the decision,” Smart said. “Because the project does not violate BYU’s honor code, the project was rehung Tuesday afternoon.

The photo project, which featured pairs of photos of one gay student and one straight supporter, had been removed last Friday. Michael writes in his blog:

While I was of course frustrated that the work was removed, I also hoped that it, and this situation, would prompt more discussion. This has now happened, and I’m very pleased about it.

No Homosexuals At BYU. Nope. No Siree.

A student at Brigham Young University had put together a series of photographs for a Fine Arts show which feature… well, we’ll let him explain:

These are some of the final images for my fine art photography project. These portraits are of students of BYU who identify themselves as homosexual and a person that supports them. With all of the dissenting views regarding this topic in the past few months I have felt very strongly about this project. The portraits will be shown in pairs. The idea is that there are gay and lesbian individuals not only in the Mormon culture, but also at BYU. I also chose to photograph someone who is a support to this person. This could be a family member or friend. This support person may also identify themselves as homosexual and both people may provide support to each other. I am not telling the viewer who identifies themselves as homosexual, because I hope the viewer will realize that placing a label with the portrait only creates divisions in our society and furthers stereotypes. It is my hope this body of work can be a vehicle for tolerance, support, love and change.

It looks like portraying gay people — or is it the ambiguity of not knowing who is gay and who isn’t in these pairs? — was just too much for BYU’s administration. Michael now reports:

Apparently the topic of homosexuality is a bit much for the BYU audience and my part of our Fine Art Classes show was taken down today. It seems that censorship is favored over support and love. This really saddens me. I found out because a friend of mine went to the show and said that my pieces had been removed and the show had been rearranged. While I knew this topic would be controversial (in fact I expected that this would ruffle some feathers) I never thought that they would bring it down. Also I wish that they would have asked me to remove it, or at least had the courtesy to ask that I remove it or discuss it with me prior to its removal.

Update: BYU has put the exhibit back up.

Mormon Times: CA Gays are “Sore Losers”

The Mormon Church has been as some effort to tell the world that the tens of millions of dollars and nearly endless manhours which they dedicated to banning marriage equality for gay citizens in California and Arizona was not based on malice. They aren’t haters, you know. They are full of love love love.

But when talking amongst themselves, another picture emerges. And in tone it seems to have less love than is promised. Take, for example, an article by Lee Benson in the Mormon Times. Benson chats merrily away about “winning streaks” and percentages, all as though this is nothing more than a game.

In all, 58,911,741 Americans over the past decade have cast votes on the issue.

The overall score is 37,662,846 to 21,248.894.

If it were a football game, you’d change the channel in the third quarter and watch something else.

And by now, we should just accept the actions of his church. They’ve won, you know. And from the astonishingly arrogant position of Benson and – from everything I’ve seen – the leaders of his church, that’s all that matters. We won – you lost – so shut up and take it.

But California won’t let it go. The whining is enough to make a soccer player envious. Lawyers are headed to court to block the proposition. Others are demanding that the vote go back on the ballot in 2010. Proponents of Prop. 8 are being singled out for abuse by opponents.

Sore losing is having a field day.

I’ll admit that at times I may wonder if perhaps the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is getting too much of the burden of anger for their efforts. But it’s articles like this one that remind me that not only are they confident in their power and arrogant in their self-justification, but when they think no one’s listening they are contemptious towards those they’ve hurt.

Vigil At Mesa, AZ Temple Tonight

I wish I had found out about this earlier:

When Mormons light their massive and colorful Christmas displays tonight on the Mesa Arizona Temple grounds, thousands of candles may burn across the street in a vigil in Pioneer Park.

Vigil organizers call it a demonstration of solidarity for gays and lesbians seeking full civil rights. They say their vigil was precipitated by Mormons’ staunch opposition to same-sex marriage with passage of amendments to constitutions in Arizona, California and Florida in the Nov. 4 general election.

“We are not going to march. It is not a protest. We will have our candles,” said an organizer, Robert Parker, an outspoken gay Mormon from Mesa. Parker hopes to get 5,000 people to assemble in the park “to stand in solidarity with gay Mormons who are stuck in the closet and need to know that we are working to help secure their civil rights.”

Mormons in Arizona contributed at a minimum 40% — some say as much as 80% — of the $8 million raised to pass Prop 102 in Arizona. Prominent Mormons were also at the head of the official “Yes” campaign in support of Prop 102. But for all of that, Don Evans, spokesman for LDS church in Arizona, continues to express surprise at being “singled out”

This constitutional amendment was supported by the Catholic Church, which is far and away the largest church in Arizona, and it was also supported by the various evangelical congregations.” All of those churches consistently opposed same-sex marriages, but “our church has taken the lion’s share of the protest,” Evans said.

The LDS church has taken a lion’s share of the protest because the church took on a lion’s share of the work — running the campaigns as well as using LDS tithing rolls as a fundraising tool among church members. Evangelicals and Catholics, while supportive of the amendments, did not take nearly as prominent a role as the LDS church chose to take.

And when anyone chooses to insert themselves in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, they can expect to experience the political consequences and criticisms of their actions, be they a political party, James Dobson, Swift Boat Veterans, or the Mormon church.

And if any other group had gone in as deeply and as enthusiastically into this political fight as the Mormon church has, they’d be fair game for protests. We could just as easily be targeting General Motors if GM had played the role that the LDS leadership did. But GM didn’t put their reputations on the line and fight to strip people of rights that they already enjoyed. The LDS church did.

And they did it with Big Mormon Money and Big Mormon Organization. In Arizona’s example, they out-spent anti-102 forces by nearly 12-1. They are also under investigation in California for making unreported in-kind donations — providing for free the sort of services that campaigns typically have to pay for. The LDS Church provided free phone-banking, satellite broadcasts, travel, a web site, commercials, and so forth — all of which are reportable under California and Arizona law.

So because of all that, the LDS leaders are now political figures just like anyone else who organizes and executes a political campaign. And because they chose to exercise their rights to do that — and as citizens and under current IRS regulations, it is their right to do so — they are now subject to the same scrutiny and criticisms as any other political figures or organizations.

They have given up their right to be “puzzled” and pretend that they are just another church. They’re not. They are now political activists just like the rest of us. Welcome to our world.

See also:
LDS Church Can’t Hide Behind A Temple

Conversations At A Temple Protest

Police estimate that about 300 demonstrators gathered in front of the Newport Beach, CA Temple of the LDS church this morning to protest the church’s dominant role in passing California’s Proposition 8, stripping gays and lesbians of their rights. The protest began at about 10:00 a.m. an lasted until about 1:00 p.m.

The OC Register’s article contains the usual narrative — descriptions of people protesting, the usual quotes from both sides, an argument broke out between protesters and a passer-by. You have to dig into the Register’s online slideshow (which, I suspect isn’t available in the print edition) to get to the more interesting stories:

Cindy Massaro, center, and Jennifer Ras, left, offered cold water and snacks to protesters. Massaro apologized as a Christian to protesters, “Our sin has contributed to division in the world,” she said.

A passer-by reacts to protesters in front of the Mormon temple in Newport Beach on Sunday.

“I figured I’d speak a little louder if I wore this,” said John Remy of Irvine who came in support of a protest against the passage of Proposition 8 on Sunday. Remy is a former Mormon elder and wore clothing from when he was a missionary. He and his wife were members of the Mormon church and attended the Newport California Mormon Temple in the past. “Having been a member of the church, I felt duty-bound to atone and duty-bound to be a critic of the choice it is making,” he said.

Ahhh, the Love

The New Zealand Herald brings you some thoughts from some lovely folks attending a wedding at the Temple in Salt Lake:

“This is not democracy. This is not American. This is terrorism, for want of a better word,” said Renee Scheffers, a guest at a wedding at the Salt Lake Temple, the imposing granite building that, together with the snow-capped Wasatch mountains, dominates the city’s skyline.

“The gays have become everything they accused their opponents of,” added her fellow guest, Wilson Clyde.

“They’re intolerant of me, of my beliefs and my way of life. They’re nothing more than extremists who are trying to intimidate and silence anyone who disagrees with them.”

Now stop it you nasty extremists! How dare you try to intimidate those who spent over $20,000,000 and served as 80 to 90% of the on-the-street activists as well as all the faces in the ads of a campaign to take away one of your fundamental rights.

How very “intolerant” of you.

After all, just because Wilson Clyde’s “way of life” includes actively seeking to make you a second class citizen doesn’t mean that you should hold him accountable. Especially on a such a happy celibratory wedding day.

Mormon Church Makes Unsubstantiated Accusations Against Gays

During the Yes on 8 and Yes on 102 Campaigns we learned that the leadership of the Mormon Church has little respect for honesty in campaigning. Although they were planned, funded, and implemented by religious groups, mainly Mormons, these campaigns were astonishingly dishonest.

Now the willingness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to make baseless claims has moved one step closer. I guess once you get comfortable with deception it becomes all the easier.

In the past week, someone sent envelopes with a non-toxic white powder to two Mormon Temples. Due to the timing, some speculate that this could be the result of the exposure of the Mormon Church’s involvement in the Yes on 8 Campaign. However, it could also be an evangelical that thinks Mormonism is a cult.

At this point, we just don’t know. But we do know that no gay organization has endorsed the effort and that the community has soundly condemned the action, whether it was by a gay person, an evangelical, an ex-Mormon, or just some mentally ill person. That, however, hasn’t stopped the prophet of the Mormon Church from using this incident as an opportunity for anti-gay propaganda. (AP):

Church leaders released two statements Friday, one saying they were disturbed the church was being singled out for taking a position on the California amendment, the other assailing “attacks” and vandalism of church property by “opponents of Proposition 8.”

“We call upon those who have honest disagreements on this issue to urge restraint upon the extreme actions of a few,” church President Thomas S. Monson said in a statement.

This is beyond offensive. It assumes that gay people are guilty, that we all know who did it, and that we are choosing to excuse their behavior.

NY Times: Mormons Church “Tipped Scale” for Prop 8

This morning’s New York Times has a the scoop on the extraordinary role the LDS church played in stripping gays and lesbians of their rights in California:

As proponents of same-sex marriage across the country planned protests on Saturday against the ban, interviews with the main forces behind the ballot measure showed how close its backers believe it came to defeat — and the extraordinary role Mormons played in helping to pass it with money, institutional support and dedicated volunteers.

“We’ve spoken out on other issues, we’ve spoken out on abortion, we’ve spoken out on those other kinds of things,” said Michael R. Otterson, the managing director of public affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons are formally called, in Salt Lake City. “But we don’t get involved to the degree we did on this.”

While Mormons make up about 2% of the California population, their out-front, leading efforts were far in excess of their numbers:

Jeff Flint, another strategist with Protect Marriage, estimated that Mormons made up 80 percent to 90 percent of the early volunteers who walked door-to-door in election precincts.

…In the end, Protect Marriage estimates, as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised on behalf of the measure was contributed by Mormons.

…Mr. Otterson said it was too early to tell what the long-term implications might be for the church, but in any case, he added, none of that factored into the decision by church leaders to order a march into battle. “They felt there was only one way we could stand on such a fundamental moral issue, and they took that stand,” he said. “It was a matter of standing up for what the church believes is right.”

The Complete 1997 Mormon Memo

We reported earlier on the 1997 memo addressed to LDS elder Elder M. Russell Ballard which outlined the Mormon church’s entry into anti-gay politics more than eleven years ago. Ballard went on to become a key leader in the political campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California.

We now have a copy of the entire memo in full, which highlights the church’s efforts to ban same-sex marriage in Hawaii.  Interesting points include expressions of satisfaction that the leaders of the Hawaii campaign were not publicly identified with the Mormon church despite being members.

You can download it by clicking here (PDF: 260KB/8 pages).

Mormons Don’t Oppose SOME Gay Rights…. Unless they Can

I’ve seen obnoxious self-serving hypocisy before, but this totally takes the prize for duplicity and double-speak.

While being ever so wounded that anyone might think they were homophobic, the Mormon Church released a statement that they do, they truly-ooly do, support gay rights.

… the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.

Well this was a surprise to Equality Utah who had been battling the church for just such rights. So they called their bluff. They asked the Mormon Church for support for Utah gays on those rights they think are acceptable.

Now Michael Otterson, a church spokesman, has their response. (Washington Post)

Otterson said the church’s statement was based on civil unions in California and that no decision has been made regarding similar rights in Utah.

“That’s got to be a matter of very careful analysis and discussion. I don’t want to give the impression that the church is saying civil unions in all cases are okay,” Otterson said.

Ohhhhh. So Mormons are loving and caring and of so fond of rights that they have no chance whatsoever of revoking.

What a foul steaming pile.