California’s political watchdog agency is investigating a complaint alleging the Mormon church failed to report non-monetary contributions to the Yes on 8 campaign, a state official said Monday.
The sworn complaint by a group called Californians Against Hate contends the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized phone banks from Utah and Idaho and sent direct mail to voters.
The complaint, filed four days after Californians voted to end gay marriage in the state, also alleges the Utah-based church transported people to California to walk precincts and distributed thousands of lawn signs and other campaign materials.
The church is also accused of establishing Web sites and producing commercials and other video broadcasts geared toward nonmembers….
Read the full story by Aurelio Rojas in the Sacramento Bee.
It was meant as a message of hope from a Christian church to the gay community.
But on Thursday, members of Seaside Community Church in Torrance were stunned to see a banner — which read “Someday everyone will have the right to legally marry. Don’t give up hope!” — pulled down from their front lawn and slashed with a knife…
Read the full story by Melissa Evans at the Daily Breeze.
Catholics played a pivotal role in the success of Proposition 8, from pulpits down to the pews. Bishops lobbied for its passage, priests preached about it, and laypeople overwhelmingly voted for it. Yet not all have been joyful in Bay Area parishes.
The Bay Area has a large and vibrant gay Catholic community, and they have many allies among straight Catholics. So it has led some to question how the region’s dioceses, which include myriad diverse groups, could be opposed to what many view as secular rights….
For many Catholics who voted no on the measure, it was particularly painful that San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, the former bishop of Salt Lake City, played a pivotal role in bringing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into the Prop. 8 battle. The alliance had a powerful effect on the election — Mormons contributed up to half of the $40 million raised to support the measure….
Read the full story by Matthai Kuruvila at the San Francisco Chronicle.
…Today, the first of a series of six bills — proposed by Democratic lawmakers and endorsed by gay-rights groups — faces the Senate Judiciary Interim Committee. The leadoff legislation would allow someone to name an unmarried partner as a designee in the case of a wrongful death.
Together, the bills make up the so-called Common Ground Initiative, which also includes proposals for a statewide domestic-partner registry, health benefits for gay couples and partial repeal of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The initiative marks a bold move in a state where the Republican-dominated Legislature has fought gay student clubs, stopped gay couples from adopting children and barred any domestic unions that would give same-sex couples rights traditionally granted to married couples….
Read the full story by Rosemary Winters in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Focus on the Family announced Tuesday afternoon that 202 jobs will be cut companywide — an estimated 20 percent of its workforce. Initial reports bring the total number of remaining employees to around 950….
The cutbacks come just weeks after the group pumped more than half a million dollars into the successful effort to pass a gay-marriage ban in California.
In all, Focus pumped $539,000 in cash and another $83,000 worth of non-monetary support into the measure to overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed gays and lesbians to marry in that state. The group was the seventh-largest donor to the effort in the country. The cash contributions are equal to the salaries of 19 Coloradans earning the 2008 per capita income of $29,133.
Read the full story by Cara Degette at the Colorado Independent.
n June, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a fateful decision. They called on California Mormons to donate their time and money to the campaign for Proposition 8, which would overturn a state Supreme Court ruling that permitted gay marriage.
That push helped the initiative win narrow passage on election day. And it has made the Mormon Church, which for years has striven to be seen as part of the American mainstream, a political target….
Read the full story by Nicholas Riccardi in the Los Angeles Times.
…As proponents of same-sex marriage across the country planned protests on Saturday against the ban, interviews with the main forces behind the ballot measure showed how close its backers believe it came to defeat — and the extraordinary role Mormons played in helping to pass it with money, institutional support and dedicated volunteers.
“We’ve spoken out on other issues, we’ve spoken out on abortion, we’ve spoken out on those other kinds of things,” said Michael R. Otterson, the managing director of public affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons are formally called, in Salt Lake City. “But we don’t get involved to the degree we did on this.”
The California measure, Proposition 8, was to many Mormons a kind of firewall to be held at all costs….
Read the full story by Jesse McKinley and Kirk Johnson in the New York Times.
…Leaders of Equality Utah said statements made by Mormon leaders in defense of their actions in California — that the church was not antigay and had no problem with legal protections for gay men and lesbians already on the books in California — were going to be taken as an endorsement to expand legal rights that gay and lesbian couples have never remotely had in Utah, where the church is based….
State Senator Scott McCoy, an openly gay Democrat who said he would sponsor the legislation with two openly lesbian members of the House of Representatives, said part of the goal was to find a positive outlet for the tensions that arose here as the fight raged over the California measure….
No attempt will be made, he and other Equality Utah members said, to overturn Utah’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, passed in 2004. The group will propose, however, striking out language in the amendment that prohibits legal protections for domestic unions.
The proposed laws would also expand protections for same-sex couples in health care and hospitalization decisions, housing and employment and in inheritance issues in probate court.
Read the full story by Kirk Johnson in the New York Times.
Republicans and conservative Christian pastors are vowing to block any attempt by New York State’s new Democratic majority to pass marriage equality legislation for gay and lesbian couples.
Legislation to allow same-sex marriage was thwarted in the state Senate earlier this year by a GOP majority after passing the Assembly. Last Tuesday’s election, however, saw Democrats take a slim majority in Senate - prompting hope the bill will be passed in 2009. Gov. David Paterson (D) has said he would sign the bill if it is passed.
With only a two seat majority in the Senate, however, any Democratic bid to revive a marriage equality bill could be opposed by socially conservative members of the party….
Read the full story at 365gay.
Months before the first ads would run on Proposition 8, San Francisco Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer reached out to a group he knew well, Mormons. Niederauer had made critical inroads into improving Catholic-Mormon relations while he was Bishop of Salt Lake City for 11 years. And now he asked them for help on Prop. 8, the ballot measure that sought to ban same-sex marriages in California….
This Catholic-Mormon alliance was part of a broad pattern that underscored a critical difference between the rival campaigns: Yes on 8 sought to marshal support among many religions, while the No on 8 campaign often put religion on the sidelines….
Read the full story by Matthai Kuruvila in the San Francisco Chronicle.
When Brandon Flowers leads the Killers on stage at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco next month, he may not get the ecstatic reception to which six years of rock superstardom have made him accustomed.
It could be a similar story when Gladys Knight plays New Orleans in a fortnight, or Donny Osmond returns to the Flamingo in Las Vegas in January, or American Idol star David Archuleta does the rounds of Hollywood chat-shows to promote his debut album this week. Each singer is a committed member of the Mormons, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately, that’s a spiritual calling that in the eyes of California’s suddenly vociferous gay rights movement makes them public enemy number one.
“This Mormon church has just taken away one of our fundamental rights, and shown itself to be a nasty church with bigoted beliefs,” said John London, a student from West Hollywood, at an equality protest last week. “So when Brandon Flowers, or David Archuleta or any of its other celebrity members show up in a gay neighbourhood, they should know how we feel.”…
Read the full story by Guy Adams in the Independent (UK).
According to an Associated Press report, Maggie Gallagher and other antigay activists plan to use the same strategy they developed in the California Proposition 8 campaign to fight marriage equality in New York, New Jersey, and other states.
Read the full story by Lisa Leff at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Opponents of a measure that banned gay marriage in California took their outrage to the spiritual hub of Mormonism on Friday.
More than 3,000 people swarmed downtown Salt Lake City to march past the LDS temple and church headquarters, protesting Mormon involvement in the campaign for California’s Proposition 8….
A sea of signs in City Creek Park, where the march began, screamed out messages including, “I didn’t vote on your marriage,” “Mormons once persecuted . . . Now persecutors,” and “Jesus said love everyone.” Others read, “Proud of my two moms” and “Protect traditional marriage. Ban divorce.”…
Read the full story by Peggy Fletcher Stack and Jessica Ravitz in The Salt Lake Tribune.
…Gay people are fed up and have learned a thing or two about mobilizing themselves — and not just for angry rallies. Some pro-Proposition 8 folks may come to regret their not so private support of hate. And were you thinking about skiing in Utah this year? Hmmm, Colorado’s looking pretty appealing these days.
Yet somehow an economic boycott doesn’t feel direct enough; those who team up against gay people must learn that there are consequences.
That’s why we are seeking to strip the Mormon church of its status as a religious organization….
Please join our efforts and show the world that gay people — and their friends and families — know how to hit back. Sign this petition to support the legal effort to strip the Mormon Church of its tax-exempt status.
Read more by Mario Ruiz at the Huffington Post.
Read more about the petition at MormonsStoleOurRights.com
According to the Associated Press, Utah’s tourism industry and the Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by marriage equality supporters. The boycott is intended to protest the heavy involvement of the Utah-based Mormon church in the campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California.
Read the full AP story by Brock Vergakis in the San Francisco Chronicle.