More than a dozen towns and cities already have ordinances protecting orientation and gender identity, but the move is now to get one adopted statewide. As the Salk Lake Tribune reports, nearly 75% of Utahns support such a law, as do the Catholic Diocese of Utah and the Mormon Church.
Activists are saying right-wing lobbying groups—specifically the Eagle Forum, Phylis Schafley’s anti-choice, anti-marriage-equality, anti-vaccination gang of kooks—have gotten the ear of the Utah Legislature despite broad support for the bill. When it went before a Senate committee, Utah Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka was only one of two people who spoke against the measure before it was tabled. (Ruzickas, by the way, has also tried to block screenings of Brokeback Mountain and called GSAs “gay recruiting tools.”)
“It was so symbolic of what seems to happen up there,” rally promoter Weston Clark told the Trib’s Rosemary Winters. “The legislators are not listening to the public. They’re listening to the lobbyists and the Gayle Ruzickas.”
Fellow organizer Bob Henline is even more fed up: He started listing names and home addresses of Eagle Forum leaders, calling them “a**holes” and “bigots” and suggesting readers confront them. He said his views were not those of the rally but that, “quite frankly, I think sitting down and talking with these people has failed.”
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.
We agree, but paying them a visit might not be a good idea: Redneck homophobes are usually big gun nuts.
Photo: Sean Breazeal
Cam
The Mormon Church doesn’t actually “Support” this. They were being attacked right and left for being bigoted and for funding NOM, with many newspapers referring to NOM as a “Mormon Front Group”. So to counteract that the church stated that this much smaller anti discrimination law in Utah was not “Unreasonable”.
They only even did that so they had something to point to when people accused them of bigotry. They are STILL funding NOM and attacking gay rights this year in multiple states.
They are not pushing this, they just publically said it was not unreasonable. However they are still attacking gays in their services and meetings and the Mormon politicians know how the church feels about us. A very important profit in the church wrote that a boy on a Mission was justified in beating other missionaries if it turned out they were gay. This is the type of message the church is still giving.
the crustybastard
Can a gay person fire someone or kick them out of their home for being Mormon?
Of course not. That’s unlawful discrimination!
Can Mormons fire someone or kick them out of their homes for being gay?
Yes, of course! And they intend to keep it that way.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City explains, “In my mind, you are picking a special activity and creating a special class of people.”
No doubt as a straight white guy, a Mormon in a Mormon state, Scott Jenkins can tell you war stories about his own experiences overcoming discrimination. This lawmaker’s legal training that permits him to arrive at his informed legal opinion? None. He got an associate of science degree from Webster State College (Ogden, UT) in 1974.
Well done as usual, Utah.
Danny
Simple. Start a movement demanding that Christians have a right to vote on whether the Mormon cult should be considered a “religion” or just a cult without any protections. Let the people vote on Mormon status. Cults like the Mormons are not actually religions, and most Christians agree with that. Start a movement about why Republican politicians support cults that believe in magic underwear and ruling other planets in the afterlife. Evangelicals hate Mormons even more than they hate gay people. If you want to see the Republican party split, demand Christians’ right to protect their religion from cults rewriting their religion – like Mormons attempt to do. Everyone knows the next big fight in America is Christians vs. Mormon cult members.