Same-sex marriage coming to Utah

[Solon]

FIFY

You're right. Zion NP is a lot closer to Cedar City than it is to St. George.
I did make it to Leeds last week - we went swimming in (what's left of) the Virgin River down at Old Babylon. Great times.

St. George is a rough spot for the kiddies this time of year.

[Donuthole]

Wait, what?


Solon never gets on any more so I'll tell his story. He told me yesterday that they read the letter and some guy asked, "what do we do if some gay couple like comes to sacrament meeting? And like what if they are like hugging and stuff?" The bishop, a friend of mine who is nice but not particularly reflective, was apparently stumped. Fortunately, the SP was present and rescued him with "um...act normal?"

This is the church we have in southern Utah. Anyone wonder why the church is 0 for 3 among CSers here?

Good re-telling, ER. Thanks.
I'll be back online more when school starts up again. Until then, that Southern Utah summertime is calling my name.

You're right. Zion NP is a lot closer to Cedar City than it is to St. George.
I did make it to Leeds last week - we went swimming in (what's left of) the Virgin River down at Old Babylon. Great times.

St. George is a rough spot for the kiddies this time of year.

Here's a map to help you understand what constitutes Northern, Central, and Southern Utah. Note how Cedar and Blanding are both in Central Utah. Now you know!
Utah.jpg

[ERCougar]

Outside of that group in Northeast Las Vegas, does anyone really live in that bottom region?

[falafel]

Vernal is in central Utah? I'm not buying it.

[Donuthole]

Vernal is in central Utah? I'm not buying it.

It totally is.

[falafel]

I would move the line up to include Cedar, Panguitch and Monticello. And since this map is just made up, I think I'll do that!

[Solon]

It totally is.

Parowan calls itself the Mother Town of Southern Utah. Maybe we should send this map to them. I'm going to forward it to the folks at Southern Utah University. Maybe we can get a two-for-one on the name-change costs as Dixie State finally realizes how stupid they were to hold onto that name 2 years ago.

If it's so important to St. George to claim status as the only real "city" (to use the term loosely) in Southern Utah, we should probably let them have it. They really struggle with identity. When it's not the California-transplant complaining about the lack of organic options or a Trader Joe's, it's some retired octagenarian yelling at the customer-service worker in Lowe's; about twice a year, the town is clogged with soccer-SUVs bringing Ethan and Jordyn to an overpriced tournament for privileged white Davis County kids, and about twice a year more it's full of rednecks on their way to race motorcycles around Fort Pearce. Lately, it's a bunch of old-timers who can't figure out why their Dixie Rebels Confederate flags are under attack.

PS - I hope you know I'm just teasing, dh. I love St. George - esp. from about September to April.

[Donuthole]

Parowan calls itself the Mother Town of Southern Utah. Maybe we should send this map to them. I'm going to forward it to the folks at Southern Utah University. Maybe we can get a two-for-one on the name-change costs as Dixie State finally realizes how stupid they were to hold onto that name 2 years ago.

If it's so important to St. George to claim status as the only real "city" (to use the term loosely) in Southern Utah, we should probably let them have it. They really struggle with identity. When it's not the California-transplant complaining about the lack of organic options or a Trader Joe's, it's some retired octagenarian yelling at the customer-service worker in Lowe's; about twice a year, the town is clogged with soccer-SUVs bringing Ethan and Jordyn to an overpriced tournament for privileged white Davis County kids, and about twice a year more it's full of rednecks on their way to race motorcycles around Fort Pearce. Lately, it's a bunch of old-timers who can't figure out why their Dixie Rebels Confederate flags are under attack.

PS - I hope you know I'm just teasing, dh. I love St. George - esp. from about September to April.

Don't forget the month-long geriatric takeover each October! My father is the proud inventor/creator of one of the most popular HWSG events.

[Eddie]

I would move the line up to include Cedar, Panguitch and Monticello. And since this map is just made up, I think I'll do that!

I think the map is simply missing the line for Eastern Utah. Which really takes in Vernal, Price, Moab, etc. on down to Monticello.

[grapevine]

Ours took all of Sunday School then additional info on Sabbath training. One lady asked if it was ok to go to a so called gay wedding Bishop didn't answer for her said you have to decide. A guy said would you go to a gang rape and. Abortion party. That is what you are doing. Bishop said won't lose Temple Recommend if you go.

A lady who adopted several Kids has adopted daughter failing herself of a so called same gender marriage and lady went on can,t agree but needs to support daughter. Thought spot. One lady whose daughter inactive now took great pride in performing those ceremonies said we have to love everyone. Lady that said that is active her daughter performed the ceremonies. Guy asked what it would do for scouts. Since we choose our leaders ok. Had a few comments h it would give earth to monkeys if we all did it so ours took some time, primary teachers got it after church.

[Clark Addison]

Ours took all of Sunday School then additional info on Sabbath training. One lady asked if it was ok to go to a so called gay wedding Bishop didn't answer for her said you have to decide. A guy said would you go to a gang rape and. Abortion party. That is what you are doing. Bishop said won't lose Temple Recommend if you go.

A lady who adopted several Kids has adopted daughter failing herself of a so called same gender marriage and lady went on can,t agree but needs to support daughter. Thought spot. One lady whose daughter inactive now took great pride in performing those ceremonies said we have to love everyone. Lady that said that is active her daughter performed the ceremonies. Guy asked what it would do for scouts. Since we choose our leaders ok. Had a few comments h it would give earth to monkeys if we all did it so ours took some time, primary teachers got it after church.

Man, I wish I was in this Ward.

[falafel]

One lady asked if it was ok to go to a so called gay wedding Bishop didn't answer for her said you have to decide. A guy said would you go to a gang rape and. Abortion party. That is what you are doing.

[Uncle Ted]

Church releases a new religious freedom video...

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/loca...71b46fae0.html

Is the church worried about something?

[Uncle Ted]

For Churches That Won’t Perform Same-Sex Weddings, Insurance Begins to Look Iffy


In the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges, pastors and church members are experiencing a wave of anxiety over what many of them deem the “nightmare scenario”: lawsuits or government action designed to force them to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. While there are — so far — no meaningful judicial precedents that would permit such dramatic interference with churches’ core First Amendment rights, lawsuits challenging church liberties are inevitable.


Indeed, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has declared that prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity “sometimes” apply to churches and has stated that a “church service open to the public” is not a “bona fide religious purpose” that would limit application of the law. In 2012 a New Jersey administrative-law judge ruled that a religious organization “closely associated with the United Methodist Church” wrongly denied access to its facilities for a same-sex wedding.


Churches, like virtually every functioning corporation, protect against liability risks and the potentially ruinous costs of litigation through liability insurance. With same-sex marriage now recognized as a constitutional right — and with news of Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries awarding a lesbian couple $135,000 in damages for “emotional, mental and physical suffering” after a Christian bakery refused to bake their wedding cake — pastors are reaching out to insurance companies to make sure they’re covered. And at least one insurer has responded with a preemptory denial: no coverage if a church is sued for refusing to perform a same-sex wedding.
[...]

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...iage-insurance


Well, I guess it is a good thing the church is self-insured.

[Solon]

A very nice writeup trumpeting Utah's anti-discrimination law in The Economist. Lexington (a weekly essayist) touts the law as offering answers to the "should a religious baker have to bake gay-wedding cakes?" question.

Here are the highlights:

As long as laws banning discrimination in housing and the workplace come with commands to bake wedding cakes for gay weddings, religious conservatives are going to block the whole bundle. But this can be fixed. It is just a matter of figuring out the best way for handling discrimination in "public accommodations", interpreted to mean any business or property that is open to the general public. This is the bit that involves Christian bakers and Muslim tailors, and which provokes most of conservatives' concern over encroachments on religious freedom.For a crafty solution to this puzzle, look no further than Utah. In March the state passed a law that banned workplace and housing discrimination against gays and lesbians while protecting the expression of religious conscience. The legislation was the result of patient cooperation between gay-rights activists and the Mormon church, without whose support the law would have been doomed. It is now illegal in Utah fire someone for being gay, but also illegal to fire someone for expressing religious opposition to gay marriage. The law specifies certain narrow exemptions from the new housing and employment regulations for religious groups. Perhaps most significantly, public-accommodations protections weren't taken up at all, and it remains legal for Utah businesses to deny service on the basis of sexual orientation. That may seem objectionable, but robust legal protection against discrimination in housing and employment for tens of thousands of LGBT Utahns is a great deal better than nothing. [. . .]


Equality, religious freedom and graceful coexistence are stirring liberal ideals to which every decent state aspires. Conservative states should look to Utah and improve upon its excellent example. For instance, public-accommodations protections for gays and lesbians might be rendered palatable to religious conservatives by including tightly specified exceptions for religious businesses, ensuring that god-fearing florists won't be punished for not providing wedding bouquets to gays, but will be otherwise required to sell daffodils without regard to sexual orientation. State RFRAs [Religious Freedom Restoration Acts] won't be needed to protect people of faith against the overzealous application of new anti-discrimination laws when religious-freedom provisions are baked into them from the start.


Now that they are free to marry, most gays and lesbians in conservative states don't really care that much if one in 20 bakeries won't bake them a wedding cake. But they care a lot about the possibility of losing a home or a job to due to anti-gay discrimination. For their part, few religious conservatives are really all that opposed to gays and lesbians enjoying legal protection against discrimination. But they care a lot about the right to live and work according to their faith. It would be wonderful if everyone could get almost everything they wanted, and it's possible. Americans got so worked up tearing into each other over Indiana's RFRA that they neglected to notice that Utah had just proved that civil rights and religious liberty can peacefully coexist.


http://www.economist.com/blogs/democ...6d37c30b6f1709