Applauds For Mormon Church’s Support of Civil Rights Measures, but Suspicions Remain
11/12/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Recently, the Mormon Church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or LDS, threw their support behind LGBT Civil Rights initiatives regarding things like employment and housing discrimination. Of course, they drew the line at marriage equality. Today, the Empowering Spirits Foundation applauded the Mormon Church for their move to support Salt Lake City’s ordinances regarding employment and housing discrimination.
According to their press release “The ESF was one of the first LGBT organizations to approach the Mormon Church after the Church influenced its members to spend millions for the passage of Proposition 8 in California . The 2008 referendum on gay marriage became the most costly in United States history, and passed by 52 percent to restrict marriage to be between only a man and a woman.”
A non-partisan, non-profit organization, the ESF is an advocacy group dedicated to equality for LGBT-Americans. They work to gain equality by educating those outside the LGBT-Community about the similarities that all people have and to not focus upon the differences.
According to their press release, A. Latham Staples, ESF President & CEO has stated “We have a long way to go though before trust can be restored with the Mormon Church. But it is time that we move on from Prop. 8, and focus on building relationships, understanding our differences, and focusing on our similarities – this is the only way we can change people’s minds and hearts.” However, he also stated “We’ve worked hard to engage the church to discuss LGBT issues and get past the bitterness of Prop. 8, and I am encouraged by their recent endorsement of the Salt Lake City non-discrimination housing and employment acts.”
However, the attitude of the Mormon Church about marriage equality and their suspected continued involvement in groups fighting marriage equality laws in the country makes it hard for much of the bitterness and suspicion regarding the Mormon Church’s support of other rights hard to shake.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=596ce551-8444-481e-a4b5-fce9537fcd8b)
Loading ...
ESF is hardly non-partisan. Partisan by its definition means they advocate for a cause – in this case, GLBT equality. They just may not have party affiliations. And, the Mormon Church is hardly “suspected” of having continued involvement in marriage equality initiatives, it’s been proven time and again.
LDS support of LOCAL housing/employment non-discrimination efforts is probably more pragmatic than anything else. What stance have they taken on such issues outside of their home territory – have they issued the same types of edicts to throw support behind non-gay marriage equality issues in other states like they did with their membership to funnel millions into anti-gay marriage initiatives? I could find nothing outside of the SLC issue that indicates this is more than an aberration.
Lori,
ESF describes itself as non-partisan, as being not belonging or being affiliated with the Republican or Democratic Party, or any other established political party.
I am being neutral in my tone regarding the Mormon Church’s involvement in Maine and elsewhere. That is why I am using the term ’suspected’. However, I am pretty certain of their direct involvement in the group known as the National Organization for Marriage.
http://lezgetreal.com/?p=22901 Read my earlier BLOG – Mormon church supports LGBT rights and equality -”as long as it does not do violence to marrgiage” – is the presumption that gau marriage does violence to marriage?