 by Brian Juergens
Video Blogs
TV Shows:
Find Articles On:
Who's onlineThere are currently 46 members and 1465 guests online.
|
No on 8 supporters protest outside the Mormon Temple in LA, plan demonstrations across the state
One of my first personal memories of the Mormon Church was when I first saw the Mormon Temple outside of Washington, DC when I was in college. The temple itself peeked out from above the trees alongside the beltway like something out of a gothic fairytale, and some enterprising individual had spray-painted "SURRENDER DOROTHY" on an overpass in reference to the Wicked Witch's castle in The Wizard of Oz.
A few years later I actually moved to Salt Lake City, and worked literally in the shadow of the mothership at Temple Square. I became friends with a guy who had been raised Mormon and who, after he told his guidance counselor at Brigham Young University that he thought he might be gay, was administered electroshock therapy. By his institution of higher learning.
The Church is incredibly wealthy and incredibly influential, and incredibly anti-gay. Their hand in getting Proposition 8 passed in California was significant, and yesterday No on 8 supporters called them out by demonstrating outside their temple in Los Angeles. And what's more, the mainstream media has been giving the demonstration considerable (and balanced-to-positive) coverage. I caught Milk yesterday and while I can't say too much about it now, the parallels to Harvey Milk's efforts against Prop 6 are startling. They didn't take it sitting down, and neither should we. There are more demonstrations planned, the details of which you can find after the break (we'll add more info as we get it) with a slew of pics from yesterday's rally.
Here is a list of planned protests over the passage of Prop 8. For even more details, check out Towelroad.com.
Submitted by on Fri, 2008-11-07 10:40. |
 Recent Comments
Recent blog posts
|
Welcome to AfterElton.com!
- Login
- Join Now!
News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media
I wonder if the LDS's are rich enough
to throw away that kind of money every year? I doubt it. Put it back on the ballot again - and again and again. The one true thing about California is nothing is over 'til it's over - and then it isn't over. So round up all the frothers once a year to scream their homophobic lies and they'll eventually get on people's nerves. California will vote for gay marriage just to shut the lying carpetbag bigots up and make them go away.
Joshua Norton
San Francisco
Well...
What always drives me crazy about the campaigns for these anti-marriage initiatives is that they usually campaign on a squishy "If you vote to ban same-sex marriages, that doesn't mean you hate gay people or think they should be discriminated against. It just means you believe in traditional marriage." Once they get that vote and the state later considers giving any kind of rights for same-sex couples, they come out with the "They're moving against the will of the voters who clearly said they want the government to discriminate against gay people." and I never see that double-speak getting called on (possibly because there's usually a lot of time between proposition and LGBT rights moving forward).
Actually....
...the Mormon Church is filthy rich. They could pour this kind of money out for years and years. They have their members so brain washed, the tilthing is an absolute. Never underestimate anything this corrupt organization can do.
I say we take the warning labels off everything and let nature take it's course.
I LOVE the signs in the second picture!
Why do they care?
where does it all come from???
i know they're extremely wealthy and with all the knowledge about these churches (especially the polygamy that goes on in some) i wonder "who is giving these people their money?" - - i remember when that huge raid happened, commentars were saying "as long as wealthy companies keep paying them, etc...this will continue because they HAVE THE MONEY TO DO THIS..."
it's so ironic dammit. all this money goes into a 'cult' so to speak where old men can marry 12 year olds and sleep with them.....yet, these people are having strokes over two freaking adults wanting to marry.
Tithing
???
tithing is...what?
real estate? haha in utah, i thought they all lived in that huge palace thing?
tithing
Mormons
The LDS church has ALWAYS been on the wrong side of civil rights, whether it was in not allowing black men to hold the priesthood until 1978, the role of women in the church, taking Native American children away from their homes for "fostering", turning the Boy Scouts of America into an official hate organization, the list goes on and on.
I was raised Mormon and was also put through the shock therapy, it took years and years of real therapy to recover. I have spent years dealing with my anger towards the church and this just brought it all up again. My neice recently married her partner and sent out a lovely e-mail asking everyone not to support this in spite of what the church says, my sister (her aunt) sent out a really nasty letter saying why she would vote yes and contribute money--it's torn the family apart. But, at least this year I won't have to come up with an excuse for not spending the holidays with her. The funny thing is--she (my sister) views herself as the victim in all this, and that's sort of representative of the church, it's a truly passive-agressive organization. Though I know a lot of members of the church who did not follow it's directives blindly they are in the minority.
Obviously, in California
it's time that we started the process of replacing the word "marriage" with the term "legal union" in all the state and county law books. It's time for "marriage" to take its place alongside "baptism" and "bar mitzvah" as a strictly religious ceremony.
Joshua Norton
San Francisco
Why didn't they do this
Melissa isn't going to pay her state taxes anymore
The journey must continue
No matter what the outcome of Proposition 8 was on Tuesday there were bound to be appeals. The proponents of Propostion 8 overlook the very basic tenet of our founding father's beliefs going back to the very dawn of the settlement of what was to become this nation. Our pilgrim forefathers landed at Plymouth Rock seeking freedom from religious persecution for their beliefs. Our founding fathers believed that a separation of church and state was essential to preserve the people's freedom of persecution by any single religion. The Declaration of Independence states that is the inalienable right of all people to "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
The First Amendment of our Constitution goes further in granting the right to free speech by all people without legal repercussions. Meaning people could openly express their beliefs without exception. At the start of the 20th century the Supreme Court determined that the only limitation to the First Amendment was in cases where it endangered life, as in the case of shouting "fire" unnecessarily in a crowded theater. Two people of the same sex pledging their fealty in a marriage not only creates a family but it in no way endangers anyone's life.
The bible, though it speaks of husbands and wives, never actually defines marriage as between a man and a woman. It does speak of men with many wives and many children and lives lasting hundreds of years. The Bible never speaks of divorce, but ever since Henry VIII revolted against the Catholic Church in order to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn it has become increasingly acceptable to the point that one in every two marriages ends in divorce. So much for family values! According to the 2000 US Census there are 4,236,000 single parent households in the US, 84% percent of them were created due to divorce. It would seem that “traditional family values” are threatened not by same sex marriage but a high divorce rate. There are more that 127,000 US adoptions annually of children that need legal and financial security and and have special needs. There are thousands more awaiting adoption and yet 8 states have banned gay adoptions. How does the declaration of fealty between two people who love each other and their desire to create a new family threaten “family values?” And what values are they teaching their children when they lie and twist the truth?
Like the Catholic church in the Middle Ages, proponents of Proposition 8 do not want to have people informed by reading the truth, they count on their congregation’s laziness in doing so, instead, they devalue intellect calling intellectual people elitists. When the Bible tells them not to put false gods before them and these mega-church leaders demand tribute (through constant tithing and, as they become not the word of God but little gods unto themselves. The money is more to support their lavish lifestyles and for self-aggrandizement, than it is about spreading the word of God. Jesus never traveled by private jet, Rolls Royce, or lived in mansions. He did not build temples of vanity or theme parks. He went out to the people and taught tolerance and piety, he did not deal with advertising and promotion to put butts in seats at his sermons or have money counters off adding up the take as his show went on.Love is expressed in many ways, love between two people of the same sex is just one of the ways. Jesus preached that we should love each other as we love ourselves, h did not say how that should be done, he never officiated at any wedding. The Bible is not the truth and the whole truth, it is an interpretation of stories about a man that the writers and editors never met. We are not all sinners in the hands of an angry God. God gave us all free will when he took the rib from Adam and created Eve. Let us love one another freely, not by dictum from those who do not love us.
There is no one true religion People are social beings and we are all interdependent on one another for our survival we are no longer hunter gathers, or live by an agrarian based economy. Change is the one true constant in life, and, "its gonna happen, like it or not."
INSIDEGUY
Hmmmmmmmm
Mormon church...Nazi party. Think about it.
That's all I'm sayin'
Confusion
I'm a regular lurker on this site but I've never posted before - partly because I don't have home Internet access and I only get an hour a day at the local library and partly because I'm not sure that the views of a middle aged Aussie faghag are appropriate on a site for gay american men.
However, now I'm confused about American law. As I understand it, Proposition 8 came about through a petition calling for the overturn of gay marriage laws. Once it got the required number of signatures it was required by law to be put to a referendum. Now I could be wrong on this (no expert on American law) but as I see it I can start a petition calling for the return of slavery for African Americans in California and as long as I get the required number of signatures it then goes to vote and if the majority vote in favour of it it must be passed regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situtation. Is that right? I'm sorry but I just don't see how any petition calling to strip someone of their civil rights could be classed as legal in the first place.
It also seems that the Yes campaign put up adds that told deliberate lies. The one about the schools was denied repeatedly and still they were allowed to tell the same lies. In the meantime, years ago a Catholic work colleague fell in love with a man whose wife abandoned him for someone far richer, leaving him with three small children to raise. She married this man but the Catholic church refused to marry her claiming that this divorced man was really married to someone else. The Church was not forced to perform the wedding anyhow. She got married at the local court house and is very happy now. Here in Australia, political advertising must at least avoid deliberate lies. Maybe you can look to that system in America too.
Good luck with the protests. There's not much I can do immediately but just wait until the next Morman missionaries show up at my door. No more polite "not interested!"
Aussielou
State Constitutions
First off we are talking about the constitutions, not individual laws. A state law or amendment legalizing slavery would be shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court. State Constitutions must abide by the U.S Constitution. So, a state can grant more individual rights than the U.S. Constitution, but State Constitutions can not take away rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. (the U.S.Constitution does not guarantee rightes of any kind based on sexual orientation.)
Supreme courts judge the laws in terms of whether a particular law follows what their constitution lays out. The California Supreme Court ruled that the California Constitution affords gay people the same right to marry as straights. (similar rulings like this were used to grant interracial marriage in the past.)
Proposition 8 is not a law, it's an Amendment to the California Constitution which clearly states that marriage is between one man and one woman. A new proposition could be introduced and voted on which negates proposition 8, as a matter of fact, if prop 8 were voted on today I wouldn't be surprised to see it fail. For the time being, proposition 8 sets a new standard for the California Supreme Court to interpret the law. That standard would negate their recent ruling concerning gay marriage.
confused-mormon church=law?
I feel confused about the (America law)and about the mormon church history because i am a outsider for this religion.I have a question is that God still love the person if they done a mistake?so if yes,why the gay marriage is not same with other person under name of God?why person can marry with another person who different race,skin and religion but cannot marry the person that they love whereever they are same gender?Everyone have their right to do the thing they like.And i very angry about the person(who think that they were very high standard or like a Saint)always use the religion name to make the rule to another person.
Anyway,Goodluck for the protester and hope that your voice will be heard by God and one day dreams come true that all the country and state will legally the same-sex marriage just like other person.
Wish from reader Malaysia.
when a religion's belief system clashes w/ pursuit of happiness"
I think there's two issues with Mormonism: 1, its doctrine on celestial marriage and 2, baptizing the dead. Even after you die, they try to convert you. It's an component of their religion that doesn't help pluralism any. Yet they have compromised once on their concept of marriage by ending polygamy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0d1HbItOo