The Mormon Church has undergone a shift on marriage equality, preferring to stay away from the front lines after its temporarily successful effort to pass California’s Proposition 8. Now the Church is taking a new tack, using the upcoming debate over marriage equality in Hawaii to focus protecting the Church’s rights”religious liberty” instead of stopping the marriage equality altogether.
In a letter to the faithful, state Church leaders are asking members to let legislators know where they stand on same-sex marriage. While the letter doesn’t insist people lobby against marriage equality, it does note that the Church’s policy supports only traditional marriages.
However, no matter how people feel about marriage equality, the Church wants members to lobby for “a strong exemption for people and organizations of faith” so that religious groups would be spared “from requiring to support or perform same-sex marriages or from having to host same-sex marriages or celebrations in their facilities; and protect individuals and small businesses from being required to assist in promoting or celebrating same-sex marriages.”
The part pertaining to religious institutions is a standard protection offered by bills that have legalized marriage equality. The second part is not: in essence, bakeries, florists and caterers would be able to refuse to provide services on the basis of sexual orientation, which is illegal in Hawaii.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Quin Monson, a political scientist at LDS church-owned Brigham Young University, told Religious News Service that the letter was a “significant” change from past tactics. Instead of relying on fearmongering tactics, the letter to “signal a kind of resignation that there’s a shift in society that we can’t stop,” Monson said, “but we can ask for exceptions.”
andy_d
Bigotry deserves no exceptions in the public marketplace.
MK Ultra
The Moonman Mormons, still as hateful and despicable as ever.
What they’re advocating would basically make any equality law useless because Mormons are arguing they should have the special privilege of disregarding the law if they don’t like it. So there will be actually no protections for gay couples!
Some people have really been taken in by Mormon propaganda over the last little while. Fooled by their attempts to appear more progressive in social areas. But I want to remind you all, it’s nothing but decoration. Their views have remained the same – no gay sex, no gay romance, no gay marriage. If you’re gay and want to be Mormon, take the meat clever and chop your nuts right off because you’re not going to be using them ever again.
Wilbready
@MK Ultra: brilliant observation! I am no longer welcome there due to my coming out.
2eo
@Wilbready: You shouldn’t go anyway, I hope you’ve found faith a fraud, we’re great people out here in reality and we want the world to be better.
You can not be moral and of god. Time and endless events prove it completely.
Cam
W0W Queerty, still aren’t very good at Hiding the fact that you are shilling for the Mormon church are you?
1. You claim that the church now “Prefers to stay off the front lines” of the marriage debate, and yet then right after that admit that the church is pressuring it’s members to do what??? Get on the front lines and pressure their legislators to vote against marriage.
2. Why are you using the Church’s language? “Protecting Religious Liberty”…really? When more accurately you could say that the Mormons are “fighting to continue legal bigotry”.
3. What exactly are they asking for the religious exception for? Oh that’s right, they are fighting for the right for anybody to legally be able to discriminate just by saying “Well it’s against my religion to allow gays in my business.
We get that the Mormons have paid for some ads etc… on gaycities, but by shilling for them, you are taking the side of the group that has been the largest opponent against gay civil rights in this nation. How much exactly did it cost to get this site to sell out gays by shilling for them?
lickety splitz
Please go to the LDS website Mormons.org and find out what they really think about
homosexuals.
MikeE
Dear Queerty: I think you spelled it wrong, you added an extra “M”.
Wilbready
@ Lickety Splitz, I was a Mormon for quite some time, I know ALL TOO WELL what the Mormons think of e and my lifestyle! Some LDS are living as gays, but it’s a life of celibacy, not for romance and marriage!
Wilbready
@2eo:
I have found that my mother raised me to think for myself, protect those I love and love this country with all my might! I found solice in the LDS faith and thought that my wife had, too. I was wrong, they can’t “fix” anything! I had major crushes on those men in suits! I am glad to be rid on trying to conform and feeling guilty when I did nothing wrong. Saints be praised! LMGAO!
Wilbready
*of
Charles175
Before proposition 8, the Mormon church also was responsible for the passage of Hawaii’s constitutional ban against same-sex marriage. As we all know they recently lost the former and now are scrambling to not lose the latter. You see, in the Mormon faith, heterosexual marriage is a key component in their salvation plan. They believe that their marriage must be sealed here on earth in order to gain favor to come into the presence of God. So a Mormon’s wife as well as his former wives are sealed with him. With that, he and his wives are granted permission to be in the presence of God. And since Mormons believe that God was originally a man with many wives Himself, that faithful Mormon and his wives are thus granted a brand-new world for them to rule over as he becomes a God and his wives become goddess themselves. This in order to multiply his children upon that new world. But for the Mormon that has not been faithful, that has been disobedient, he is condemned through castration. This is the reason why Mormons are so adamant and concerned about earthly marriages not being contaminated by gays. So when a Mormon family happens to have a gay child this is the metaphorical “monkey wrench” in the works. This is because that gay person is believed to be condemned and to never be allowed in heaven and thus the family is forever broken apart.
Charles175
@lickety splitz: Here is what they say:
“People inquire about our position on those who consider themselves so-called gays and lesbians. My response is that we love them as sons and daughters of God. They may have certain inclinations which are powerful and which may be difficult to control. Most people have inclinations of one kind or another at various times. If they do not act upon these inclinations, then they can go forward as do all other members of the Church. If they violate the law of chastity and the moral standards of the Church, then they are subject to the discipline of the Church, just as others are.
“We want to help these people, to strengthen them, to assist them with their problem and to help them with their difficulties. But we cannot stand idle if they indulge in immoral activity, if they try to uphold and defend and live in a so-called same-sex marriage situation. To permit such would be to make light of the very serious and sacred foundation of God-sanctioned marriage and its very purpose, the rearing of families” (Ensign, Nov. 1998, 71).
Wilbready
@ Lickety Splitz
Hey, Captain Obvious, I told you that I did not need to be taught about what Mormons have to say about ourr lifestyle! I certainly do NOT need it here, amongst my fellow gays!
If you want to tract for the Mormons, go for it! Just leave me the hell alone with their holy-than-thou rhetoric!
MK Ultra
Government used to “cure” gay men of homosexuality by castrating them.
That is more humane than what the Mormon church is attempting today.
The obscene and repugnant Corporate Mormon church use known torture techniques to “modify the behavior” of gay people, especially children.
They get young gays to self-castrate by making them feel worthless and alone. By employing guilt, shame, threats, degradation and dehumanization the break a human being, then built him up again using shattered pieces into their own image. The biggest crime of all – they call this ‘love’ and ‘acceptance’.
The only thing more disgusting than the Mormon church’s barbaric treatment of gay people and the Big Lie that they are changing, is gay sites like this spewing the Mormon churches propaganda to the LGBT who read their blogs. Why doesn’t Queerty ever hold the church accountable? Why not call them on their BS attendance in Pride parades, the offensive joke that is their gay supportive website, and their pronounced duplicity between trying to market themselves as gay friendly, and their true actions of being even more aggressively anti-gay behind the scenes?
lickety splitz
@Wilbready:
Please look closer. Charles175 was the one who posted the official LDS position, not I.
My position is that the Mormons wish for a lonely, celibate existence for gays. The testimonies of the Mormons on the Mormons.org website even say so.
Charles175
@MK Ultra: Talking about castration of gay people there is an interesting historical note of the subject. Prior to the rise in power of the Catholic Church during mid-evil times, they did not use the word gay or homosexual to describe us as these are modern terms. Instead another word was used to denote who we were and that was the (natural born) eunuch. As Jesus said, “some eunuchs are born this way from their mothers womb”. The second category of eunuch was those that were made this way by men (physically castrated) the third category was that some were (celibate) eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven sake. So unlike today where a eunuch means only a castrated man, back then and according to Jesus there were three distinct categories.
During the Catholic Church’s rise to power around 400 A.D., She saw the power that the eunuchs wielded in the palaces. That they had positions of high authority and control. She did not like this and as such made major changes. What she did was declared that all eunuchs were vile and immoral because they had sexual relations with each other and sometimes with men. As a result she had all the known (natural) eunuchs castrated with the remaining unknown eunuchs driven into the first closet. The second thing she did was change the laws. She erased this category altogether all the while changing the law to include the remaining (natural) eunuchs and joining them legally as the same as natural masculine men.
In ancient Roman law, specifically for the slave trade industry, they had laws of transparency and disclosure. This in order for fairness and openness during the selling and buying of slaves. The slaves that had no natural desire or no natural will to copulate with the opposite sex were known as natural eunuchs. It was not that they were unable to copulate but unwilling by nature to copulate with the opposite. So in Roman law there were two categories: the castrated eunuch which was not a true eunuch and the natural one which was regarded as a genuine eunuch.
Whether it be for the sales of slaves or for potential worker as a eunuch in the king’s palace, in both cases there was a similar test. For the sake of describing it I will use the one that was done for the palaces. Let’s say for example I applied for the position. Upon physical examination I am found to be biologically complete. At that point the King would put me in temporary quarters. During that time my basic needs would be taking care of. During this process I would be assigned one or two beautiful virgin women and their purpose would be to elicit sexual arousal. If they failed to do this within a given time and without physical contact, that I would be considered a viable candidate for the position. There is a short comical skit in the movie “history of the world part one” by Mel Brooks. It is where the prospective eunuchs are lined up with white feathers covering their crotches. A beautiful virgin woman dances around them to get them aroused. The first three have no reaction but the fourth one, the black dude, he’s biding his tounge rather firmly trying not to let his penis get hard but he failed and the feather rose.
MK Ultra
@Charles175: Awww that’s lovely.
Why don’t you comment on the Mormon church’s terrorism of the gay community, the psychological abuse suffered by LGBT at the hands of Mormon sadists, and the Mormon church’s incredibly high suicide rate among youth?
yaoming
“…the Church’s policy supports only traditional marriages…” – to how many wives (and teenaged girls), I wonder.
Cam
Look, lets cut right down to it.
Bigotry is Bigotry, and Bigots are Bigots.
The Mormons have been on the WRONG side of every single civil rights issue in this nation for the last 100 years.
They fought against women’s rights. They wouldn’t even allow blacks to be full members of their church until around 1980, and they have spent over a hundred million dollars fighting against gay rights.
The only difference between the LDS church and the KKK is that the KKK doesn’t get the automatic defense of claiming that it’s a religion.
Daniel-Reader
Mormons should remember to be careful what you wish for. If the Mormon cult leaders are going to do that, then the proper response is to start a campaign to protect the “religious liberty” of Christians from the unholy Mormon cult using the same tactic. The 243 million U.S. Christians need to be protected from the insane 15 million Mormon cult. Christians should not be forced to serve a crazy cult whose founder murdered his own followers before he was killed as a traitor to the US. Evangelicals cannot stand Mormons so the campaign will have a lot of support and Republicans who fail to protect Christians from the cult will lose their primaries. And once more Christians find out that Mormons consider non-Mormons to be their slaves in the afterlife, Americans will really despise the Mormon cult even more.
1EqualityUSA
The Mormon Church is not a “religion.” It’s a cult, a nefarious sect, a spurious metastasis that is using the fight against gays to accomplish being seen as spiritually relevant.
Charles175
@MK Ultra: All that I did was merely copied and pasted lickety splitz’s offer to let people see what the Mormon church actually believes about us. In the first part of that writ they call us so-called gays and lesbians. This means that they do not believe that we even exist, that we merely have a “problem” that needs to be resolved. Also in that same writ they demand gay people to conform to their rules or be punished, and if that doesn’t work pretty much kick “unrepentant” gay people out. This same writ pretty much dictates the only way to have church sanctioned sex is through a heterosexual union of marriage all the while condemning us to a miserable lonely life of celibacy. In no way shape or form do I condone any of this of what they do and apparently your anger has blinded you to this fact. For what it is worth, the best way to see a well consolidated documentary about the horrible shit they have done to us, go and rent or download or stream the movie entitled, “8 the Mormon proposition”. It is horrible what they did and what they still do today. That religion is based on one man’s belief and that man is Joseph Smith. He was a scoundrel and a con artist and a sexual addict to women. His subsequent death was related to the people around him discovering these facts. As far as my writ of the history of what we were called back in the day, the purpose of that writ is to explain to people where this error began. The error that has caused us to be viewed in a totally untruthful light. The error that is root to this misunderstanding of who and what we are. That by restoring this truth, then people might understand, religious folks specifically, that we were actually born this way from our mother’s womb as Jesus stated.
hanrahanjude
uptil I looked at the bank draft of $5930, I did not believe that my friend realie earning money in there spare time on there computar.. there aunts neighbour had bean doing this 4 only about 8 months and just repaid the depts on there mini mansion and bourt themselves a Porsche 911. from this source …….. BAM%32%31%2E%63om
Go to website and click Home tab for more details.
Polaro
I fully support the Mormon Church’s involvement in politics. It should be rewarded with the loss of its tax-free status since it has crossed the line it is not allowed to cross.
Cam
@Polaro:
LOL!!!!!!! Agreed!!!
Spike
Just the mormon Taliban painting a horse black and white stripes and trying to make everyone believe it’s a Zebra. Nothing new. They screwed up BIG TIME letting the catholic Taliban talk them into taking the lead on opposing Prop 8 in order to improve their credibility specific to a mormon Presidential candidate by the name of Mitt Romney. Their followers donated millions nation wide, Prop 8 passed, Mitt became the GOP nominee, he lost, Prop 8 was overturned by the SCOTUS. They would still put us all on labor camps of they had their way, all in the name of god.
Deepdow
Religious people are so sex negative. They view sex as some kind of function that conception doesn’t occur, somehow that means you’re corrupt and going to hell for eternity. It’s a weird way to think. Sex is a biological function which is dynamic. It’s primary purpose is to have children but their are other reason people have sex.
Look at Russia. Those twisted goontards now have taken the Abrahamic approach about sex and made it law.
I can’t even in this fucking world sometimes.
loren_1955
For almost two centuries the Mormon church took on heavy persecution for many of it’s beliefs particularly plural marriage. In that time I had ancestors who lost their homes from mob action, some raped, some murdered all in the name of hatred towards Mormons. My ancestors believed the message and stayed from New York, to Ohio, to Illinois, and then to what became Utah, actually living in polygamous colonies in Idaho.
Now the Mormon church has gained some amount of approval and recognition by society and the tables turned. The persecuted have become the persecutors…and in some of the most vile ways. Mormons have tortured their own with electro-shock therapies, drug treatments, isolation. They have conducted gay witch hunts that have turned into multiple suicides. Many gay Mormon youth have been turned out from their homes to become child prostitutes and/or drug users. Even worse, the church feels that abuse of their own is not enough, they are on a crusade to legislate laws based on church dogma across all states and in many countries around the world. Any appearance of support for gays is merely a smokescreen. What is really sad are the Mormon gays that are so desperate for love and attention are buying into the smokescreen. This latest in Hawaii clearly shows the wolf is still alive under the sheep skin.
Cam
@loren_1955:
Loren, Don’t be fooled by the false doctored history of the Mormon church. Much of that supposed “Persecution” did not happen, or it did but for different reasons. Joseph Smith wasn’t attacked by people for being Mormon, he was attacked because his wildcat bank stole their money and slept with several of their wives claiming them as his right for being God’s prophet. The people attacking him were his former followers.
Oh, and of course lets not forget the 14 year old that he was also married to.
Mormons like to lie and claim that Polygomey came about because many men died on the journey out to Utah and so the remaining men married the surviving wives. But it’s just another lie. Smith and his remaining followers had multiple wives before they ever left for Utah.
The church started out by stealing money and wives from it’s members, and hasn’t stopped attacking, stealing, lying, and abusing people since.