LDS Church reportedly set to reach out to gay community

[creekster]

the church will support the protection of gays for housing and employment but not marriage? I find this very hypocritical. oh well, I'm not a very good mormon then

Hypocritical? How so? It seems pretty consistent wiht the church's position, to me.

[pellegrino]

the church will support the protection of gays for housing and employment but not marriage? I find this very hypocritical. oh well, I'm not a very good mormon then

you bad Mormon you.

[pelagius]

Text from LDS church regarding Salt Lake City's non-discrimination ordinance

[TripletDaddy]

Text from LDS church regarding Salt Lake City's non-discrimination ordinance

wow, that is a pretty un-supportive vote of support. It is a start, though. Hooray!

"we are here today to discuss the issue of housing and employment....so let's talk about marriage!...."

[Non Sequitur]

Text from LDS church regarding Salt Lake City's non-discrimination ordinance

Big win for the gay community. They must be dancing in the streets.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ugh...

Well it's a start I guess.

[Portland Ute]

Big win for the gay community. They must be dancing in the streets.

Is that unusual?

[Moliere]

Big win for the gay community. They must be dancing in the streets.

One interesting thing that I've noticed throughout the Prop 8 stuff and subsequent fallout is the lack of discussion around the self-imposed stigma that accompanies the gay community. This post made me remeber that.

By self-imposed stigma, I mean the free love, promiscuous nature that was exhibited so much in the later part of the 20th century. I remember growing up and seeing the gay pride parades as well as the news reports that discussed their promiscuity. This wasn't a stigma that was plastered onto the gay community by religiouis zealots. It was self-imposed and the gay community was proud of it.

Fast forward a decade or two and does it surprise anyone why many religions are struggling to deal with gay marriage? Many people still have that free-love, promiscuous stigma from the late 20th century when they think about the gay community and now that community is wanting to enter into a contract that many people view as a religious rite. Human perceptions aren't changed overnight, especially perceptions that were, for the most part, brought on by the community itself.

This is a battle that I fight everyday not living in the Mormon belt. I live in the south and the inaccurate perceptions about Mormons are still there. Those perceptions were brought on by church practices a long time ago and they are slowly going away but it takes time to fully dissolve human perceptions.

Many people here may lament that the church is being too slow to let be something that will eventually happen, but in all seriousness the slowness doesn't surprise me nor does it bother me.

[wuapinmon]

[Jeff Lebowski]

I am going to officially revise my lukewarm response to the LDS church statement supporting the SLC gay rights law. I thought the wording was kind of lame, but I think the effect will be significant.

State legislators and conservative groups are already starting to spin the statement and dig in their heels.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...gislature.html

The Senate President is worried about rainbow flags and such:

However, Waddoups, a property manager, said he wants the "right to protect the image of my company" against gay employees "out flaunting the gay lifestyle" during work hours. He said he also had concerns about similar behavior among his tenants. "I'm not going to put up with that on any of my properties," Waddoups said.

Gayle Ruzicka snubs her nose at the church position:

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah chapter of Eagle Forum, a pro-traditional family organization, also believes the Legislature, dominated by conservative Republicans, won't pass any "pro-gay and lesbian" anti-discrimination laws.
"We knew that the city was going to do this," Ruzicka said. "We knew that the LDS Church, appropriately, would not oppose it because religions were carved out of the law. It does not affect the church, or any religious organization. But it certainly affects all the rest of Utahns who were not carved out based on our beliefs. We also have the right to be carved out, otherwise we become the victims of it."

Stay tuned. This should be a fun legislative session next year.

[Indy Coug]

I anxiously await the accusations that the church put out this statement while surreptitiously encouraging legislators to go ahead and fight it.

[TripletDaddy]

I am going to officially revise my lukewarm response to the LDS church statement supporting the SLC gay rights law. I thought the wording was kind of lame, but I think the effect will be significant.

State legislators and conservative groups are already starting to spin the statement and dig in their heels.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...gislature.html

The Senate President is worried about rainbow flags and such:

Gayle Ruzicka snubs her nose at the church position:

Stay tuned. This should be a fun legislative session next year.

This will be interesting to watch.....last summer, this was the group that was going to the polls not because of homophobia, but because that is what the Church wanted. This year, these people don't seem to be as interested in what the Church is endorsing.....

Under the banner of heaven, indeed.....

[Clark Addison]

I am going to officially revise my lukewarm response to the LDS church statement supporting the SLC gay rights law. I thought the wording was kind of lame, but I think the effect will be significant.

State legislators and conservative groups are already starting to spin the statement and dig in their heels.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...gislature.html

The Senate President is worried about rainbow flags and such:



Gayle Ruzicka snubs her nose at the church position:

Do gay people in Utah act much differently than those in NC? I have worked with many people of divers orientations, and am now disappointed that I have never entered a colleague's office to view a sea of rainbow flags. I had one of the happy folk work for me for a year or so, and not once did he try to recruit me, nor did he surreptitiously slip some M/M porn into my desk drawer. It was disappointingly similar to having a straight subordinate.

[LA Ute]

Do gay people in Utah act much differently than those in NC? I have worked with many people of divers orientations, and am now disappointed that I have never entered a colleague's office to view a sea of rainbow flags. I had one of the happy folk work for me for a year or so, and not once did he try to recruit me, nor did he surreptitiously slip some M/M porn into my desk drawer. It was disappointingly similar to having a straight subordinate.

My experience has been that in Utah, those who are in an "opposition" type of life are understandably more militant. An anecdote: When I was in law school at the U., we'd have student parties where those who smoked would smoke up a storm. A Jewish friend of mine who grew up in Salt Lake was visiting one Christmas from New York, where she was going to law school. She came to our party, and commented on how much smoking was going on. (You could hardly breathe in there - I probably lost a year off my life just by being present.) She made a very interesting observation - hardly anyone smoked at her law school parties, but at Salt Lake parties with heavy non-LDS attendance people always smoked like crazy. She noted that she herself had the same tendency - when she was at an interview lunch, she made it a point to order wine, because her resume showed she was from Utah and she wanted to signal to her interviewer that she was not LDS.

I don't blame people for this - after living outside Utah for a while I began to feel for people who live in Utah who don't live an LDS lifestyle. It must be a pain sometimes.

So whenever I am in Salt Lake I do notice there are lots more rainbow flags there than I ever see in L.A. People feel a need to stand against the tide, to differentiate themselves, I guess.

[SoCalCoug]

I am going to officially revise my lukewarm response to the LDS church statement supporting the SLC gay rights law. I thought the wording was kind of lame, but I think the effect will be significant.

State legislators and conservative groups are already starting to spin the statement and dig in their heels.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...gislature.html

The Senate President is worried about rainbow flags and such:



Gayle Ruzicka snubs her nose at the church position:



Stay tuned. This should be a fun legislative session next year.

Holy crap, those people are bigoted.