ABC 4 News: “LDS Church reportedly set to reach out to gay community”
Numerous sources are now telling ABC 4 that the LDS Church is poised to extend an olive branch of sorts to the gay community.
These sources say the Church is expected to – both through spoken and written statements – to offer its support for proposed Salt Lake City ordinances extending protection to gays in the areas of employment and housing.
Reportedly, the Church has been in quiet discussion with members of Utah’s gay community.
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Good. This is an unnecessary battle between two minority groups that ought not to happen. The quicker it can be reconciled the better.
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The Mormon Church has (rightfully, in my opinion) received a lot of negative press regarding the support of Proposition 8 in California and the support of anti-marriage equality measures in other jurisdictions.
If there is ever to be reconciliation between the Mormon Church and the gay and lesbian community, the Mormon Church will need to clearly demonstrate that they do not support discrimination against gays and lesbians. Supporting proposed Salt Lake City ordinances extending protection to gays in the areas of employment and housing would be a small–but–welcome step in the right direction for the Mormon Church.
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I have been in complete support of the church leadership in (1) repeating God’s instructions regarding the _practice_ of homosexuality and (2) working in selected public policy areas where normalization of homosexuality and same sex marriage threatened society. But I have been concerned that some members have taken (1) & (2) as license for uncharitable expressions and even bigotry (depending on how that inflammatory work is defined). So I anxiously welcome measured support for gays if only to communicate to us the members that the stance on prop 8 and the church position on the (flawed, IMO) Utah constitutional amendment do not amount to open season on our brothers and sisters.
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Very interesting news coming out of Utah tonight! Here is an updated article that covers the Mormon support of gay-rights story: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705343558/Mormon-Church-backs-protection-of-gay-rights-in-Salt-Lake-City.html
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It’s the right thing for the church to do, and I do hope members are clear about where the church is coming from, but don’t expect any gratitude from gay activists. The church will never support same sex marriage, and the most vocal of gay activists will never accept anything less than that.
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Paul:
When the Mormon Church supported Proposition 8 in California, it took away a huge bundle of rights from gays and lesbians in California. While it is nice that the Mormon Church supported a Utah city’s anti-discrimination law, that does not begin to make up for the rights that have been lost in California and other jurisdictions.
I note, however, that the Mormon Church did NOT support statewide anti-discrimination legislation that was proposed in Utah this year. Here is an excerpt from a May 3, 2009 Salt Lake Tribune article entitled “Utah prime location for gay-rights movement”:
“In the midst of the Prop. 8 debate, however, the [LDS] church also quietly posted a statement on its Web site saying it did not object to civil unions or basic legal protections for same-sex couples involving hospitalization, medical care, housing, employment and probate rights as long as they do not infringe on the “integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.” The statement went unnoticed until after the November election.
Equality Utah drafted a package of bills around those rights for the 2009 legislative session. Polling showed more than two-thirds of Utahns supported such protections. But all of the bills failed.
“The majority of Utahns get it,” Thompson said. “But the folks in the people’s house somehow feel that providing these legal protections is an endorsement of something they fundamentally disagree with.”
Where was the support of the LDS Church when these bills were pending in Utah this year? Nowhere to be found….
If the LDS Church is really serious about demonstrating that it is not for discrimination against gays and lesbians, then it will support statewide legislation in Utah that provides protection from discrimination against gays and lesbians.
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This is nothing more than a PR move designed solely to blunt national criticism over the Mormon Church’s persecution of homosexuals. Not gonna fly. Does the Mormon Church really expect homosexuals to suddenly regard Mormons as friends? Give me a break. The Mormon Church is the most hateful, committed enemy homosexual Americans have, and I for one recognize this cheap ploy for what it is. You can put whipped cream on horses*** but that doesn’t make it dessert.
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BTW quandmeme….you and other Mormons are not my ‘brother’.
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Dan….you are joking right? Reconciled? I have no wish for reconcilation with the Mormons….absolutely none. I want equal protection under the law and for Mormons to leave me and my family alone. You all have done enough damage to me for one lifetime.
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In another interesting twist on this story, the filmmakers behind “8: The Mormon Proposition” said that Mitt Romney saw their film and put pressure on the LDS Church to “extend an olive branch to the gay community to try and deflate the anticipated negative press” that would come from its release, over concern with an anticipated 2012 Presidential campaign. (See http://8themormonproposition.blogspot.com/2009/11/8-tmp-press-release.html ).
The step by the Mormon Church to support the SLC ordinance could be deemed an olive branch to the gay community — albeit a very small branch.
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