WATCH: Mormon Leader Attempts To Increase Gay Teen Suicides

So much for that public relations makeover for the Mormon Church embrassed by the widespread reaction to their religious-based homophobic actions in the Proposition 8 fight to strip marriage rights from same-sex couples in California!

The leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Boyd. K. Packer, issued a sermon on Sunday which will likely lead to more early deaths of LGBT teenagers at their own hands as he reiterated heterosexual supremacist and virulently homophobic church dogma:

Same-sex attraction can be overcome and any type of union other than marriage between a man and a woman is morally wrong [emphasis added], an LDS apostle told millions of Mormons on Sunday.

“There are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God’s laws and nature,” Boyd K. Packer, president of the church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, said in a strongly worded sermon about the dangers of pornography and same-sex marriage. “A law against nature would be impossible to enforce. Do you think a vote to repeal the law of gravity would do any good?”

Packer, speaking from his seat because of his frail health, addressed more than 20,000 members gathered in the LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and millions more watching the faith’s 180th Semiannual General Conference via satellite.

The senior apostle drew on the church’s 1995 declaration, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” to support his view that the power to create offspring “is not an incidental part of the plan of happiness. It is the key — the very key.”

Some argue that “they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural,” he said. “Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember he is our father.”

Alluding to the Utah-based church’s support of laws such as California’s Proposition 8 that would define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, Packer said, “Regardless of the opposition, we are determined to stay on course.”

“We cannot change; we will not change,” the senior apostle declared. “We quickly lose our way when we disobey the laws of God. If we do not protect and foster the family, civilization and our liberties must needs perish.”

It should be noted that there is a direct (positive) correlation between the percentage of people who feel that homosexuality is a choice (as declared by Packer) and the percentage who disapprove of same-sex marriage.
Additionally, the notion that homosexuality is a choice and that young people who can not "overcome" their same-sex attraction is a key factor in may teen suicides. It should also be noted that in America, of course, marriage is a civil, legal institution which is open to people of all faiths (and no faith). What one religion believes about marriage should be irrelevant to how the state decides who can get married to whom.

I can honestly say that the widely broadcast words of the Mormon head will lead to more deaths (by suicide) of LGBT kids in America. The blood of those children are on Boyd Packer's hands.

WATCH: Trailer for "8: The Mormon Proposition"

Hat/tip to WonderMan

Olson/Boies Prove Religious Involvement in Prop 8

Very big news in the federal Prop 8 trial today: the plaintiffs were able to produce and enter into evidence documents that reveal that the Mormon and Catholic churches were both intimately involved in ProtectMarriage.com's activities to enact Proposition 8.

An e-mail from the executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the bishops and a cardinal said Catholics were crucial in providing money and volunteers to qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot.

The e-mail also praised the Mormon Church, saying it had provided "financial, organizational and management contributions" for the measure.

A memo by a Mormon Church public affairs officer said the Proposition 8 campaign was "entirely under priesthood direction," and the minutes of a Mormon Church meeting said members should not take the lead in promoting Proposition 8 but should work through Protectmarriage.com.

The church document said a teleconference had been held in Salt Lake City with 159 of 161 Mormon leaders in California. The leaders were told to encourage members to contribute $30 each for Proposition 8, toward a projected goal of $5 million, in addition to general fundraising.

As Julia Rosen over at Prop8TrialTracker.com said, this is an "explosive" revelation:

This is perhaps the most explosive bit of all, from a document between the LDS Church and the campaign:

With respect to Prop. 8 campaign, key talking points will come from campaign, but cautious, strategic, not to take the lead so as to provide plausible deniability or respectable distance so as not to show that church is directly involved.

Get that? The LDS Church intentionally worked to hide behind the scenes to disguise their involvement in the public realm. The LDS Church is well aware that the general public does not have the most favorable opinion of them. Attention on their involvement could have hurt their cause, namely passing Prop 8.

The plaintiffs intend to rest on either late Thursday or early Friday and then the real fun will begin as the unapologetic heterosexual supremacists of ProtectMarriage.com defend Proposition 8 before a skeptical and sharply intelligent federal judge.

Mormons Support Salt Lake City Gay Rights Orginance

As Wonder Man says, "It's Ice Cold In Hell." The LDS Church not only did not oppose a proposed ordinance in Salt Lake Cty to extend civil rights protections in emloyment to the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity, but actively supported it. The ordinance passed unanimously, the Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Hours after the LDS Church announced its support Tuesday night of proposed Salt
Lake City ordinances aimed at protecting gay and transgender residents from
discrimination in housing and employment, the City Council unanimously approved
the measures.

"The church supports these ordinances," spokesman Michael
Otterson told the council, "because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage."

They also are consistent with Mormon teachings, he said. "I believe in a church that believes in human dignity, in treating people with respect even when we disagree -- in fact, especially when we disagree."

[...]

The LDS Church's endorsement was hailed by leaders of Utah's
gay community -- some of them stunned -- who called it a historic night they
hope will set the stage for statewide legislation.

"This is a great step," said Will Carlson, director of public policy for the advocacy group Equality Utah. But, he noted, four out of five gay Utahns live outside the capital and should be afforded protection as well. "Equality Utah will continue to work for that."

The ordinance contains much more extensive language granting exceptions to the discrimination protections for religious-based organizations and practices. It will be interesting to see if the Governor of Utah, Gary Hebert, who earlier this year revealed his utter ignorance and misunderstanding of the concept of civil rights, will change his position on statewide legislation now that even the Mormons are saying that LGBT rights laws (trans-inclusive!) are "fair and reasonable."

Here's the full text of the official statement from the LDS Church on the Salt Lake City ordinance:

Good evening.

My name is Michael Otterson, and I am here tonight
officially representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The nondiscrimination ordinances being reviewed by the city council concern
important questions for the people of this community.

Like most of America, our community in Salt Lake City is comprised of citizens of different faiths and values, different races and cultures, different political views and divergent demographics. Across America and around the world, diverse communities such as ours are wrestling with complex social and moral questions.

People often feel strongly about such issues. Sometimes they feel so strongly that the ways in which they relate to one another seem to strain the fabric of our society,
especially where the interests of one group seem to collide with the interests
of another.

The issues before you tonight are the right of people to have a roof over their heads and the right to work without being discriminated against.

But, importantly, the ordinances also attempt to balance vital issues of
religious freedom. In essence, the Church agrees with the approach which Mayor
Becker is taking on this matter.

In drafting these ordinances, the city has granted common-sense rights that should be available to everyone, while safeguarding the crucial rights of religious organizations, for example, in their hiring of people whose lives are in harmony with their tenets, or when providing housing for their university students and others that preserve religious requirements.

The Church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage. They are also entirely consistent with the Church’s prior position on these matters. The Church remains unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman.

I represent a church that believes in human dignity, in treating others with
respect even when we disagree – in fact, especially when we disagree. The
Church’s past statements are on the public record for all to see. In these
comments and in our actions, we try to follow what Jesus Christ taught. Our
language will always be respectful and acknowledge those who differ, but will
also be clear on matters that we feel are of great consequence to our society.

Thank you.

Trailer for "8: The Mormon Proposition"

VIDEO: Mormon Leader Comparing Their Homophobia To Racial Oppression

Here's the video of Mormon Elder Oaks saying his crazy mess comparing protests of church efforts on passing Prop 8 to racism against African-Americans in the 1960s.

Mormons (Again) Reveal Their Ignorance Of Civil Rights

Dallin H. Oaks, member of the
Quorum of the Twelve of the Mormon Church

Another day, another verbal eruption from an influential Mormon revealing their ignorance and opposition to civil rights, the concept that all people are treated equally by their government. Last time it was the Mormon Governor of a predominantly Mormon state of Utah, this time it is one of the most powerful leaders in the rigidly hierarchical church, Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Oaks said the free exercise of religion is threatened by those who believe it conflicts with "the newly alleged 'civil right' of same-gender couples to enjoy the privileges of marriage."

"Those who seek to change the foundation of marriage should not be allowed to pretend that those who defend the ancient order are trampling on civil rights," Oaks said. "The supporters of Proposition 8 were exercising their constitutional right to defend the institution of marriage ..."

Oaks said that while "aggressive intimidation" connected to Proposition 8 was primarily directed at religious people and symbols, "it was not anti-religious as such." He called the incidents "expressions of outrage against those who disagreed with the gay-rights position and had prevailed in a public contest."

"As such, these incidents of 'violence and intimidation' are not so much anti-religious as anti-democratic," he said. "In their effect they are like well-known and widely condemned voter-intimidation of blacks in the South that produced corrective federal civil-rights legislation."

Wow! Where to begin with refuting these statements when there is so much misinformation and ignorance displayed? Earlier I blogged about the white-hot homophobia and misogyny of the Catholic Church and now comes this insanity from a spokesperson a certifiably racist and misogynistic institution.

Happily, there were responses from two gay people included in the article about Oaks' speech, which the author claims Mormon church officials told them would be a "significant commentary on current threats to religious freedom."

Marc Solomon of Equality California:

"Blacks were lynched and beaten and denied the right to vote by their government," said Marc Solomon, marriage director for Equality California, which spearheaded the No on 8 campaign. "To compare that to criticism of Mormon leaders for encouraging people to give vast amounts of money to take away rights of a small minority group is illogical and deeply offensive."

Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate:

Fred Karger, founder of the gay rights group Californians Against Hate, said Oaks' speech is part of a public relations offensive to "try to turn the tables on what has been a complete disaster for the Mormon church ... They are trying to be the victim here. They're not. They're the perpetrators."

Pretty good responses, but both comments fail to address the key issue that Oaks speech reveals: he fundamentally does not believe in full equality for LGBT people and he either doesn't know or doesn't care to find out about the extent of the persecution of African-Americans in the civil rights era of the 1960s, but he still wishes to overlay his own bigotry with the mantle of civil rights. This from a lawyer who clerked at the United Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren!

Hopefully, more people will follow Fred and Marc's lead and call out Elder Oaks statements for the affront they are to all fair-minded Americans who understand and believe in civil rights for all people.

Celebrity Friday: Dustin Lance Black Speech at Oscars

Dustin Lance Black, the openly gay (34-year-old) screenwriter of Milk, made a strong statement for equal rights for gay people and for the esteem of LGBT youth in his acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay on Sunday. Since any references to homosexuality were apparently censored to the Oscar ceremony broadcast to hundreds of millions of people around the world, I am posting it here:




And back stage talking to the media, he continued:



Justin Cole posted the transcript of Black's speech on the GLAAD blog.

Utah Legislature Kills Gay Rights Bills

After the bitter electoral fight over Proposition 8 in the 2008 elections an official statement from the Mormon Church said that "[The Mormon Church] does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights."

In response, Equality Utah created the Common Ground Initiative which was a group of bills that would enact these principles into Utah law:

Expanding Health Care-most gay Utahns can not insure their family. Currently, Equality Utah is working to secure an Executive Order, which would extend benefits for State of Utah employees and their adult designees. Since the State of Utah is the state’s largest employer, this is a great start in getting insurance plans to cover all family structures.

Fair Housing & Employment-Right now it is legal in Utah for people to be fired from their jobs or evicted from their homes just because they’re gay or transgender. All Utahns should have the chance to provide for their families and stay in their homes without fear of being unjustly fired or evicted for reasons that have nothing to do with ability to work or pay rent. A Fair Workplace bill was introduced in the 2008 session as HB 89. This year, the Fair Employment portion was added and the bill has been introduced as HB 267.

Wrongful Deaths-The sudden death of a loved one is painful. When someone dies because of the negligence or malpractice of another, we can help families stay in their homes by removing existing barriers to inheritance and insurance. This bill was introduced in the 2007 session as SB 58 and in the 2008 session as SB 73. The bill is SB 32 in the 2009 session. *This bill was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 4-2 vote.

Adult Joint Support Declaration- Apart from marriage, we can do much more to help committed couples in Utah care for each other. This bill creates a joint support declaration and will attach rights of inheritance, insurance, and fair housing. This bill's number is HB 160.

Clarifying Amendment 3- A government registry involving inheritance, housing, and insurance is nowhere near the legal equivalent of marriage. But the second part of Amendment 3 has been misinterpreted to prevent any recognition of gay and transgender couples in Utah. This bill would repeal the portion of Amendment 3 which states “no other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as marriage or be given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.” It will not change Utah’s current definition of marriage, which is one man and one woman.

How did the Utah Legislature respond? They killed every single legislative bill they could get their hands on.

Courage Campaign Delivers Nearly 17K Petitions To Mormons

Reverend Eric Lee of Southern Christian Leadership Conference joined Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign yesterday in Los Angeles to deliver nearly 17,000 signed petitions urging the Mormon Church to cease and desist its activities to eliminate marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Intrepid openly lesbian reporter Karen Ocamb was there and filed this report:

"We need to stop the Mormon Church from pushing their marriage views
on Californians through the ballot box," Jacobs said. "The Mormon
Church is not welcome to impose its theology on the people of
California. We are galled that the Mormon Church would stoop to lying
in advertisements and condoning blackmail." He called such
intimidation conduct “reprehensible.”

"Anytime one group of people are denied the rights afforded to
another group, it is a violation of civil rights," said Lee. "In this
nation, we enjoy religious freedom. That means no one has the right
to impose a narrow theological view on relationships upon every body
in every situation. Our nation is poised to achieve the dream Dr.
King spoke about. Yet here in California, interests that present
themselves as Christian rally for hatred and division. I oppose
Proposition 8 because it seeks to create a permanent second class of
citizens, something this country cannot afford."

No representative from the Mormon Church was available at their Los Angeles temple to accept the petitions so the Courage Campaign intends to deliver them directly to Mormon Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Another way to keep abreast with information on the Campaign to Defeat Proposition 8 is to follow @NoOnProp8 on Twitter -- and/or if you're not on Twitter, for heaven's sake, join Twitter!

Online Petition Gains Steam To Reduce Mormon Participation in Prop 8 Fight

The Courage Campaign is promoting this open letter to the head of the Mormon Church, Thomas Monson, to urge him to end his church's involvement with Proposition 8, despite the estimated $20 million Mormons have donated to eliminate the right of gay couples to marry in California, imposing their own religious views of marriage on all Californians. That is simply unfair and wrong.

Dear President-Prophet Thomas Monson,

One of the most cherished freedoms granted to Americans in our Constitution is the freedom to choose our own religious beliefs. It is a freedom we firmly support. But that freedom also brings an obligation on the part of churches to not impose their religious beliefs on other churches, on the rest of society, or to dictate public policy. Under your leadership your church is now actively doing all of the above by supporting the campaign to pass Proposition 8 here in California.

We are particularly troubled that your church is funding television and radio ads that are lying to Californians about the effects of a "No" vote against Proposition 8. We are disappointed that you have chosen to break the Ninth Commandment - "thou shalt not bear false witness." The ads that you have funded bear false witness by not telling Californians that parents actually have absolute rights to remove their children from sex education classes, unlike in Massachusetts.

We ask you to recognize that every education authority in the state has rejected the lies and distortions of the Prop 8 campaign, including the California Teachers Association and the California School Boards Association. We also ask you to listen to a member of your church, Brigham Young University adjunct law professor Morris Thurston, who has called on the Mormon Church to "instruct its members that reliance on misleading and false 'consequences' is not worthy of our basic values of honesty and fair dealing."

We are especially saddened to see your church, which has suffered discrimination and the loss of basic legal rights based on lifestyle and belief in the past, now attempting to do the same thing and take away Californians' rights. We had hoped your church had moved beyond its discriminatory past when you rescinded the ban on African Americans entering the priesthood in 1978. We fully respect your religious freedoms - but your freedoms do not include the ability to take away rights from anyone.

We, the undersigned, call upon you to direct your church to cease funding the "Yes on 8" campaign and to cease all forms of advocacy for Proposition 8. We ask you to stay out of our state's governance. We ask you to respect the religious freedoms of those churches that choose to conduct same sex weddings, just as we respect your church's right to refuse to do so. We ask you to uphold both the spirit and the letter of the California and United States Constitutions and not attempt to eliminate the fundamental rights of Californians.

Sincerely,

I urge MadProfessah.com readers to sign the STOP THE LIES petition.

Orson Scott Card Is A Hateful Homophobe

Orson Scott Card, author of the multiple award-winning Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead among other acclaimed works of speculative fiction, has recently published an anti-gay diatribe in the Mormon Times which is getting noticed by an influential gay blog, AfterElton.com as well as on the popular Whatever blog by science fiction author John Scalzi. Scalzi says it best for many:

Speaking as one of the heterosexually-married people OSC clearly hopes will respond to this clarion call of his, I have to say to him: Dude, no. Just, no. On the list of government actions that have genuinely threatened the well-being of the United States over the years, same-sex marriage is probably about number 36,000, wedged between cashmere subsidies and funding for whatever set of still pictures Ken Burns is slow-panning across on PBS this next year. On the other hand, initiatives intended to cancel out existing marriages and deprive citizens of rights they already have under law jump up to near the top of the list of things I personally worry about tearing at the national fabric. Call it a difference in perspective.

However, the AfterElton staff is not as forgiving:

I’ve read almost all of Card’s books, some of which are excellent and a few of which even include somewhat sympathetic portrayals of gay people. But I’ll never give another cent to this paranoid, delusional man.

[...]

Card has been saying outrageous, openly bigoted things about gays for years. But he has received little mainstream criticism, and major media players such as Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers, and Card's publisher Tom Doherty Associates continue to work with him.

Earlier this year, Card was given the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award by the Young Adults Library Services Association for his contributions to young adult literature. As my author friend David Levithan argued at the time, would they have given the award to an author who is as openly racist or sexist as Card is homophobic? Would an author who advocates a return to South Africa's apartheid be welcome at an awards ceremony anywhere other than a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan?

Orson Scott Card is a hateful, dangerous man. It’s high time more people treat him as such.

And Paul Constant over at Slog in a piece entitled "Let’s Call a Jackass a Jackass" is trying to publicize "Orson Scott Card is a hateful homophobe." Mad Professah agrees.

NO ON PROP 8 Gets $1m Donation from Gay Mormon

Joe.My.God has the scoop on openly gay Wordperfect co-founder Bruce Bastian's one million dollar donation to the No on Proposition 8 campaign announced at HRC's San Francisco gala (boycotted by Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, State Senator-elect Mark Leno, State Senator Carole Migden and Assemblymember-elect Tom Ammiano) this past weekend.

The Bay Area Reporter has some useful details:

Bastian, a member of the Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors, announced his gift at the group's annual gala fundraiser in San Francisco Saturday, July 26. It is the largest personal contribution toward the campaign against Prop 8 to date, according to HRC officials.

Although Bastian is single, does not live in the state, and does not have any close gay friends who are Californians planning to marry, he said he sees the marriage fight in the state as a "battle line." And with the Mormon Church already raising funds to pass Prop 8, Bastian said it was imperative that he become involved in the fight.

"As a Mormon I know it costs a lot of money to preach. The Mormons will raise a lot of money in support of Prop 8 in November," said Bastian, who divorced his wife in 1994 and is the father of four sons. "It upsets me deeply. I want to tell the Mormon Church to stay out of my business."

[...]

A graduate of Brigham Young University, Bastian excelled at computer programming and co-founded the WordPerfect Software Company with Alan Ashton in 1978. Forbes magazine estimated his wealth to be $1.1 billion at one time, and Bastian has funneled his money to gay causes and numerous arts groups in Utah.

LDS Church Officials Cancel Meeting with LGBT Mormons

Quelle Surprise! Officials at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) have now cancelled a previously announced meeting to be held with gay Mormons next month.

Latter Day Saints President Thomas S. Monson agreed to a meeting in April with leaders of Affirmation, an organization for LGBT members of the LDS church, Fred Riley, commissioner of family services for the LDS, and Harold C. Brown, the agency’s past commissioner.

Affirmation had sought such a meeting for several years. It was to have taken place Aug. 11.

But in a letter to Affirmation, Riley suddenly called off the discussion, noting he was preparing to leave his position and that the meeting would best be handled by his successor, who has not yet been named.

“We feel badly about this, but believe that for this to be the best experience for all parties and to ensure appropriate consistency and continuity of the process, it would be best to postpone the meeting until the new commissioner is named,” Riley said in the letter.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm.

Gay Mormon Wins $1m on Survivor: China

Despite losing interest in the show after fan favorite and über-hottie James Clement was voted off the show a few weeks ago MadProfessah still couldn't resist watching the Survivor finale Sunday night. Surprisingly, for the second time ever, an openly gay contestant won the $1 million dollar prize (Richard Hatch, the show first ever winner was also its first openly gay winner). Todd Herzog, a 22-year-old former Southwest Airline steward from Utah and Survivor-fanatic who first started watching the show when he was barely a teenager received 4 votes from the jury to wrest the prize from the more-deserving Amanda Kimmel, a 23-year-old beauty queen from Montana currently living in Los Angeles and the dangerously thin (and needlessly cruel) Courtney Yates, a 23-year-old waitress from New York City. Todd is actually the second openly gay Mormon to be a contest on the show; the other was Rafe Judkins from Survivor: Guatemala who made it to the jury.

Happily, the very handsome and pleasant James (who unfortunately made one of the most boneheaded moves ever in Survivor history which resulted in him being voted out while holding two special talismans that confer immunity if played at the right time) was awarded a $100, 000 prize by Sprint for the most popular Survivor contestant.MadProfessah thinks that the "popularity consolation prize" of $100k is a good addition by the producers to the show. Denise Martin, the mullet-wearing 40-year-old non-lesbian was given a $50, 000 donation by Mark Burnett, the executive producer and creator of Survivor, upon hearing that the $7-an-hour lunch lady had been demoted to a janitor at her elementary school. Denise was the last member of the jury to be decided when Amanda made the fatal decision NOT to renege on her Day 1 alliance with Todd and instead ended up receiving only 1 vote from the jury, even less than the odious Courtney (2 votes) and eventual obnoxious winner, Todd.