Mormons for Marriage

According to a recent article by CNN reporter Dan Merica, attitudes towards members of the LGBT community may be “softening” among members of the LDS church.  The article talks about the efforts of Bishop Kevin Kloosterman, Joanna Brooks, Mitch Mayne and Kendall Wilcox.

Joanna Brooks: “Mormonism doesn’t simply wash off,” she said, adding that the church can’t make it that “either you are gay or you are Mormon, or either you support gay rights or you support the church.”

Mitch Mayne: “Here in the Bay Area … we are no longer seeking out LGBT members of the church and excommunicating them,” Mayne said. “Our role is to bring people closer to the Savior, so if we are routinely excommunicating people, then we are really not doing our job.”

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/17/gay-rights-activists-see-mormons-softening-attitudes-toward-their-community/?hpt=hp_c3

Thanks to Kendall Wilcox, who says, “As part of the quiet launch of the farbetweenmovie.com website we’re releasing the It Gets Better video from the BYU-USGA students. Congrats to them all for sharing their story of hope for LGBT Mormon youth. Please share the video with others!”

Tags: A series of videos about LDS Homosexuality, Help & Support - LDS, mormon, Personal stories, speaking up, suicide, support

A member of the LDS church in Maryland recently received an email from his ward asking members to help a “coalition of inter-denominational churches…gather signatures within the LDS community”.  While the email appears to be generated at the ward level, it is unclear what sanction, if any, it has from regional or general authorities of the church:

Attention Registered Voters who are Residents of Maryland:

As you have probably heard, the Maryland legislature passed a same sex marriage bill last February. A coalition of inter-denominational churches throughout Maryland has joined together to try to get a referendum on the November ballot that would allow the residents of Maryland to vote on this bill before it becomes law. Sister [Redacted], who is a member of the LDS Church, is organizing signature collection within Montgomery County and within the LDS Church.

We need to collect approximately 200,000 signatures by the end of May. We are looking for people to gather signatures within the LDS community. If you are willing to help with this important effort please contact Sister [Redacted] as soon as possible at REDACTED@gmail.com or Sister [Redacted] at REDACTED@juno.com.

If you would like to volunteer, you must attend a 30 minute training session due to the stringent Maryland laws concerning referendums. To register for a session please contact us as soon as possible. There will be several training sessions offered, but if transportation to them is a problem for you, a trainer would be happy to meet with you at a more convenient time and location.

The LDS Church is neutral of matters of party politics. The Church does encourage its members to play a role as responsible citizens, including becoming informed about issues and voting in elections, and becoming engaged in the political process in an informed and civil manner. Please consider helping with this very important effort. Every signature is important and every little bit helps!

Sheri pointed out on another thread that the dramatization of the Prop 8 trial is now available to view on YouTube. This is the play created using transcripts of the original trial where Justice Vaughn Walker declared Prop 8 unconstitutional. A 3-judge panel affirmed that decision 2-1 and there is currently a request to the complete 9th District to create an en banc hearing.

I’m not sure if you are working on an update for this Laura, but in case your readers haven’t heard, here’s a link to the play “8″ written by Dustin Lance Black, directed by Rob Reiner, with an all star cast including, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more. I watched it streaming live. For those who don’t know, they reenacted the transcripts from the Prop 8 trial closing arguments because the judge would not allow them to be made public. So this all star group got around that in a very clever way. It was awesome to watch. No wonder Prop 8 proponents didn’t want it made public - their arguments could hold water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlUG8F9uVgM

Tags: prop 8

Less than 24 hours after personally filing Referendum 74 with the Washington state attorney general’s office, Joseph Backholm of the Family Policy Institute of Washington and John Paulton of Focus on the Family met with “Mormon Church Leaders” in Washington.  A staffer at the Family Policy Institute initially disclosed the meeting by phone, the meeting was later confirmed directly by Joseph Backholm.

The Family Policy Institute of Washington is a Washington state-based group that advocates for maintaining the legal definition of marriage as between “one man and one woman”.  Focus on the Family is national organization that also opposes same sex marriage.  Both groups are part of a coalition called “Preserve Marriage Washington” that submitted the referendum.

It is unknown what was discussed or agreed to at the meeting, or which church leaders attended.  During proposition 8, members of the church were encouraged to donate time and money to support the proposition, which won at the voting polls but has been struck down by the courts (currently under appeal).

A new facebook page has been created for Mormons in Washington state who support marriage equality: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wamo4ma/.

February 13, 2012

(Reuters) - Washington state became the seventh in the nation to put a law on its books recognizing same-sex marriage on Monday, as opponents of the measure signed by Governor Christine Gregoire vowed to try to prevent it from ever taking effect.

The measure, which won final approval from state lawmakers last Wednesday, remains essentially on hold until at least early June, following a standard enactment period that runs until 90 days after Washington’s legislative session ends.

Opponents launched their own campaign on Monday to seek the statute’s repeal at the polls in November through a ballot measure that could delay enactment further or halt it entirely.

A 3-judge panel from the 9th District Court of Appeals released a 2-1 opinion today confirming that stripping the rights of same-sex Californians to marry was unconstitutional. Continue Reading »

Tags: legal issues, prop 8, reaction

In August 2010, Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the language in California’s constitution which restricts marriage to a man and a woman was in violation of the U.S. Constitution. His decision was immediately appealed to the 9th District Court of Appeals and a 3-judge panel heard arguments regarding both the merits of Walker’s decision and the standing of Prop 8 proponents to bring the appeal in the first place.

On Tuesday, February 7th, by 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the 9th District panel will Continue Reading »

This afternoon marked the final hearings in the flurry of appeals related to the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case. A decision on the constitutionality of California’s one man-one woman marriage definition could be issued at any time, whenever the three-judge appellate panel is ready to sign off on the decision. Court watchers are hoping for an early Christmas or New Year’s present in the form of a neatly packaged set of historical decisions (which will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court).

Today’s hearings addressed a motion to vacate Judge Walker’s decision and an appeal of Judge Ware’s decision to release videotapes made of the trial in Walker’s courtroom.

Just one year ago, Continue Reading »

Tags: history, legal issues, prop 8, same-sex marriage

Kevin Kloosterman recently spoke at the Circling the Wagons conference in Salt Lake City. He is one of a growing number of faithful Mormons changing the way we look at and treat our LGBT brothers and sisters. He also happens to be serving as a bishop in Illinois.

This interview with Joanna Brooks needs to be read.

Or you could just watch the talk here:

We all know about the Federal court case Perry v. Schwarzenegger making its way through the appeals process, the one addressing whether California’s constitution, as amended by Proposition 8, violates U.S. Constitutional protections.  But there is also another Prop 8-related case, ProtectMarriage.com v. Bowen, addressing whether donors to proposition campaigns should be able to donate anonymously.

Plaintiffs argued that donors were harassed and that the $100 cumulative threshold for disclosing donor identification is too low. The state defense team argued that publicizing campaign donor identities is critical for an informed electorate.

U.S. District Judge Morrison England, Jr. ruled in favor of the state. The ruling is expected to be repealed. Continue Reading »

Dr. Gregory L. Smith, the new associate editor at the FARMS Review (a publication in the process of changing names to Mormon Studies Review) has given me something interesting to write about here just before the “Circling the Wagons” conference in Salt Lake City in November. We’ve been in a bit of a lull, in case you hadn’t noticed, and his paper has surfaced on the internet in several places now, and it seems a good time to talk about it.

There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people. …For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, form a single body,….But now God has arranged the parts, every one of them, in the body according to his plan.

So there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are in fact indispensable, and the parts of the body that we think are less honorable are treated with special honor, and we make our less attractive parts more attractive. However, our attractive parts don’t need this.

But God has put the body together and has given special honor to the parts that lack it, so that there might be no disharmony in the body, but that its parts should have the same concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is praised, every part rejoices with it. - 1 Cor 12:6, 12, 18, 20-26

Smith published a 24-page article in the FARMS Review (FARMS Review: Volume 23, Issue 1, Pages 61–85) entitled, “Shattered Glass: The Traditions of Mormon Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Encounter Boyd K. Packer” wherein he applauds Mormons for Marriage for reaching out in support of our GLBT friends and neighbors, while at the same time taking the opportunity to critique a handful of the site’s posts regarding Pres. Packer’s April 2010 conference remarks, now titled, “Cleansing the Inner Vessel.”

First, Smith notes that this site’s “opposition to the mistreatment of homosexuals” is laudable. In general he finds “…recent years have seen at least some of the casual cruelty and unthinking disdain inflicted upon this subset of God’s children become less acceptable. Even yet there is clearly work to do—for example, in opposing verbal and physical violence—that no one of goodwill would oppose.” (p.62)

Despite agreeing that it’s time we treat each other better, he still finds plenty to criticize and takes the opportunity to say to all of us,

“With no more authority than accrues to ‘fellowcitizens with the saints’ (Ephesians 2:19; D&C 20:53–54), I urge all who have erred to repent privately and publicly (Mosiah 27:35; D&C 42:90–92), trusting that God will be as merciful to them in their errors as he is to me in mine. If they choose not to, or insist they have done nothing wrong, the proximate and eternal consequences will be tragic, but not unexpected.” (p.84)

Most scholarly reviews don’t include calls to repentance like this. And, by his own admission, this well-footnoted paper may not be Continue Reading »

Tags: commentary, responses, same-sex marriage

You may remember Mitch Mayne, an openly gay Mormon who shared his story here a while back. He’s been called to serve in the bishopric in the Bay Ward in San Francisco.

He’s written an open letter about the circumstances in his life which have lead to this leadership role at his blog.

It ends with these paragraphs:

I understand that for my gay Mormon brothers and sisters and those who support them both inside and outside our faith, there is special meaning here: For it demonstrates that not only do we as gay Mormons have a home within our faith if we so choose, but that we also have a path.

It is a humbling honor to be asked to serve in this capacity, and I am grateful for a Church leadership that views me as an asset that can help serve our community. Nonetheless, I am simply an ordinary man, blessed to have been placed in extraordinary circumstances. And as such, a man who is willing to bring that experience to bear to help others as they strive to find their place within the gospel, and within the Mormon family.

Thank you for sharing, Mitch, and may you be blessed in your service to the people of your ward and stake.

URGENT. If you (or someone you know): 1) has ever been a member of the LDS church, and 2) has ever experienced same-sex attraction of any kind — please forward them the link to this survey: http://lds-ssa-survey.com/. It’s a study being conducted by Utah State University, and could have very important implications on LGBTQ Mormons in the U.S. Thanks in advance. Please, please, please help me spread the word.

VERY IMPORTANT: Exploration of Experiences of and Resources for Same-sex Attracted Latter Day Saints
psychmeasures.org
The questions in this survey focus on how LDS (or previously LDS) people have experienced same-sex attraction through time, their beliefs about the nature of homosexuality, any experience they may have had in attempting to understand or alter their orientation, the current state of satisfaction with their lives and their feeling about and relationship with the Church. We believe that the overall impact of this study will be positive; that is, that the information obtained will be accurate, dispel myths, and promote understanding and good will.

Yes, there are gay Mormons, and their stories are compelling. Brent Kerby’s put a bunch of them into one book, now available online and in paperback or on Kindles.

As more people in American society find safety in sharing with friends and family that they are attracted to members of the same sex, it’s no surprise that Mormons are coming out in increasing numbers as well.  And, just as members of the GLBT community and their straight allies have been telling their life stories, gay Mormons are telling their stories as well, this time in a book and e-book compiled by Brent Kerby, a gay Mormon himself.

Gay Mormons? Latter-day Saint Experiences of Same-Gender Attraction follows the pattern set forth in Carol Lynn Pearson’s groundbreaking work, No More Good-byes: Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones. But while many of the subjects in Pearson’s collection struggled with rejection, depression and suicide, nearly every essay in Gay Mormons ends on a hopeful or encouraging note, kind of like a written Mormon version of It Gets Better.

But despite the hope, there are still too many stories with tears, pain, isolation and depression. Thankfully, many of the essayists in Gay Mormons have benefited from Pearson’s (and others’) insistence that Mormons need to show more appreciation, love, understanding and patience for those “out on the plains” seeking comfort, hope and shelter.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the stories Continue Reading »

Tags: Help & Support - LDS, inspiration, mormon, Personal stories, support