Gay Rights Groups Take On Mormons

Washington Post: Supporters of Same-Sex Marriage Denounce The Church's Work Against It

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Washington Post Staff Writer Karl Vick.

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As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization are taking a very specific lesson from California, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominated both fundraising and door-knocking to pass a ballot initiative that barred such unions.

With the battle moving east, some advocates are shouting that fact in the streets, calculating that on an issue that eventually comes down to comfort levels, more people harbor apprehension about Mormons than about homosexuality.

"The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!" warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last month. The ad was rejected by sites in three other states, including Maine, where the Kennebec Journal informed Californians Against Hate that the copy "borders on insulting and denigrating a whole set of people based on their religion."

"I'm not intending it to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people," said Fred Karger, a former Republican campaign consultant who established Californians Against Hate. "My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims."

The strategy carries risks for a movement grounded in the concept of tolerance. But the demographics tempt proponents of same-sex marriage: Mormons account for just 2 percent of the U.S. population, and they are scarce outside the West. Nearly eight in 10 Americans personally know or work with a gay person, according to a recent Newsweek survey. Only 48 percent, meanwhile, know a Mormon, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

Many Mormons also acknowledge a problematic public profile that could make it difficult for them to lead the fight against same-sex marriage. A 2008 poll by Gary C. Lawrence, author of "How Americans View Mormonism: Seven Steps to Improve Our Image," found that for every American who expresses a strong liking for Mormons, four express a strong dislike. Among the traits widely ascribed to Mormons in the poll were "narrow-minded" and "controlling."

"We're upside down on our image," said Lawrence, who organized Mormon volunteers in California, where on a typical Saturday 25,000 turned out to knock on doors. "People have misperceptions of us because of ignorance, because of the history of polygamy, and because we organize quickly, which scares some people."

Mormon officials have tried to stay out of the controversy that followed the California vote, when the church's prominent role in the marriage fight became clear. A spokeswoman in Salt Lake City declined to say whether the church is involved in debates going on in states such as New Jersey and New York, except to say that leaders remain intent on preserving the "divine institution" of marriage between man and woman. The faith holds that traditional marriage "transcends this world" and is necessary for "the fullness of joy in the next life."

The church has a top-down hierarchy that answers to the First Presidency, who also holds the status of prophet. Last June, congregations were read his letter urging that "you do all you can" to pass the California initiative, known as Proposition 8. Lawrence, who like Karger worked as a Republican political consultant, professed no concern about the effort to shift the focus away from the definition of marriage.

"He is demonizing the opposition. It's Political Consulting 101," Lawrence said of Karger. "The average guy does not know the extent to which the Mormon Church was involved on Prop. 8."

The proponents' strategy is grounded in a stubborn reality: While the number of states legalizing same-sex marriage is slowly increasing -- Maine recently became the fifth -- in every case the agent of change was either a court or a legislature. Voters have rejected the idea wherever it has appeared on a ballot.

The election results track public opinion nationwide. Polls consistently show that while a majority of Americans support some legal recognition of gay unions, more want to keep marriage reserved for a man and a woman.

The disparity is narrow and shrinking, however, and in California, Mormons may well have made the difference on Proposition 8, which nullified a decision by the state Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage.

A torrent of last-minute contributions from church members across the country financed well-framed TV ads in the final weekend of the campaign. Opponents' analysis of campaign-contribution reports indicated that Mormons contributed more than half of the campaign's $40 million war chest.

"The church's position on the issue of same-sex marriage is well known and well documented," church spokeswoman Kim Farah said by e-mail. She declined to comment on estimates from individual Mormons but emphasized that the church itself made no cash contribution. It reported "in-kind" contributions of $190,000, mostly in the form of staff members' time.

Rick Jacobs, director of the Courage Campaign, an advocacy group that produced a TV ad drawing attention to the Mormons' role in the campaign, said, "We have zero interest in demonizing anybody who believes in any religion."

In the spot, a pair of Mormon missionaries knock on the door of a lesbian couple, rifle their drawers and shred their marriage certificate in front of them.

Mormons "exist and flourish in this country because of the concept of equal protection," Jacob said, noting the persecution that drove members of the church to Utah in the 19th century. "I find it just an irreconcilable hypocrisy that a group that rightly thrives within the essence of the American system would seek to repress and deny rights to another. And it's even a little worse, because I certainly didn't choose to be gay. People make choices to be Mormons, or any other religion."

Mormon officials issued statements calling for "civility" in the wake of Proposition 8. "The Church has refused to be goaded into a Mormons versus gays battle and has simply stated its position in tones that are reasonable and respectful," one statement said.

Suspicions that the church may be working behind the scenes in other states are encouraged by documents showing efforts by the church to cloak its participation in a late-1990s campaign that led to a ban on same-sex marriage in Hawaii.

"We have organized things so the Church contribution was used in an area of coalition activity that does not have to be reported," a senior Mormon official wrote in one document Karger posted on his Web site, and the church has not disputed.

Mormon headquarters contributed $400,000 in an effort to persuade Hawaiians against same-sex marriage but urged the Roman Catholics to take the lead in a group dubbed Hawaii's Future Today after polls showed that the other church had better public acceptance. A decade after the 1998 Hawaii vote against gay marriage, Lawrence wrote that the image problem remained: "The collection of negatives they are willing to apply to us suggests that they view us as a growing threat."

That works for Karger, whose specialty at his consulting group was opposition research. "People will vote for someone because they like so and so, or because they don't like the other guy," said Karger, who entered gay activism to preserve the Boom Boom Room, a gay bar in Newport Beach, Calif.

And favorability ratings declined for Mormons over the last year, Lawrence said, from 42 percent to 37.

"Is it fruitful to use the Mormon bogey?" said Mark Silk, a professor of religion and public life at Trinity College in Connecticut. "My sense is that there aren't great risks to it. Once a religious institution is going to inject itself into a public fight, which the LDS did in a straight-up way, then I think people are prepared to say, 'Well, okay, you're on that side and we're against you.'"

[germanmom]

veils-2009 : maybe it's against the dictates of their conscience and just happens to be also part of their religion.

[germanmom]

abunkerfan2: good question.

[Aldymac]

Bigot, noun, one whose attitude or behavior expresses intolerance,as because of race, religion, politics, ect.
I have found that those who are in the business of throwing that word around like water are for the most part those who express that attitude of "bigot" the most.
The fundamental creed of any evangelical sect should always be from the word of God, what is right or what is wrong should come from what those words say, literaly, private interpretation is looked down on by the scripture itself.

[p_syrus]

How to view mormons? They are "nice people" however by their religious practices they are religous bigots. Same as with every other proponent of evangelical religion.

The fundamental creed of any evangelical sect is: we are right, you are wrong, and you must abandon your "false beliefs" and join us in ours. Not a lot of room for "religious tolerance" in a credo of that nature.

[bytheway59]

what same gender marriage opponents fail to EVER mention are the nearly 1,500 governement issued benefits and priveleges granted the holders of the marriage license. These are SPECIAL benefits, rights and priveleges ONLY for married couples. At present is married men and women that receive the benefits unfettered.

[tommynutz]

This should be a reality tv series.

[Aldymac]

I lived in Utah for eight years, I found them to be very industrious people. They respect people who aren't afraid of work and are willing to work, they do take care of their own and make an effort to police themselves. I am not Morman and I don't agree with some of the things they do, nor do they agree with what I believe in part.
Like every one else they are human, and they do have homosexual problems as well, like I said, they are human, they aren't above or beneath anyone else.
Everything I have seen about the Homosexual movement is all about exalting themselves and gaining more rights for themselves and placeing themselves above others. Its more of a "me first" culture than anything else. Marraige is more to make a mockery than to honor each other, none of their "marraiges" are monogamous, and their culture is very violent. I have seen more "domestic violence" in their lifestyles than in any other lifestyles. You want proof of that just look in the police records, it's all there.

[mswolfestock]

I lived in Utah for almost three years. They were the most miserable years of my life. Mormons are extremely suspicious and downright intolerant of anybody and everybody who is not exactly like them - white and Mormon.

They are extremely unsophisticated and ignorant of the world outside of Utah. They are arrogant, judgemental, narrow-minded.

It does not surprise me that they have chosen to alienate themselves from the rest of the world but I am extremely surprised that anybody would actually listen to them.

Mormons should shut up, and stay in Utah. At least that way all the rest of us could choose to avoid them. Let them have their little theocracy, let them have Utah and the rest of us will ignore them and go about our lives. They are nothing more than a cult, not a religion. They are all just silly little hypocrites.

[barbaram99]

I am an ex mormon and i am pissed when they come door to door. I left mormonism cos am a legally blind person. They be uncomfortable with my blindness and white cane. This issue of gays marrying. No way. I don't buy it they were born that way. Mormons are very controling. I was a visiting teacher and ward greeter. i never went to the temple. I left cos they are a cult and yep they brain wash. When I was a mormon I did not like the way blacks were treated. Before 2978 they were barred from many duties that white men held., Men were the power holders.
I think that the same gender marriage is not going to go away. I was taught marriage is beween a man and woman. Ii don't care if they want to live together. Marriage no way. If God Almighty wanted one gender He would have made it so. He made male and female. When I hear some one has married it is a husband and wife. I never had a problem with nlacks and whites marrying. I knew of such years ago when aarried if they were not the same skin colour they would have to tnot walk together in public.. My white sister was married to a black man.. It be cool. This gay issue is different. It is not in keeping with what is right. in the eyes of the public. I would never vote for this. The reason for marriage is for a man and woman to marry and have children together and give the children the family name. The mormons vs same gender marriage. My late father died in April. I never asked him about this issue as I knew his veiws. Mind ye,I never married. I don't see the need of same gendered people to marry. Now if someone has gone thru a thansgender operration and the person can marry. 2 men or 2 ladies. How yer properly address them Husband and husband for the males /wife and wife for the ladies. I don't know. The contution said marriage is a man and woman. The mormons they have a fight on thrir paws. This is different from the ERA that us ladies 'member. It never passrd. Marriage is not a right. America will allow the same gender marriage. Give it time. Right or wrong it will happen just to keep the peace. I am against it.

[anngw]

Does the Constitution say anything at all about marriage?