11/09/2008
Thousands Protest Prop 8 Passage at LDS Temple in Salt Lake City
Note to NYers: Peaceful Demonstration outside Manhattan Mormon Temple Wednesday night.
More than 2,000 protestors demonstrated outside the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City on Friday night:
"Preceded by an hour-long rally in a city park, the march comes three days after California voters approved Proposition 8. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encouraged its members to work to pass the amendment by volunteering their time and money for the campaign. Church officials offered no statement on the rally and march Friday night, but have called for civility and respect in the gay marriage debate before and after Tuesday's vote. Rally speakers made a similar call Friday. 'I do not hate the LDS church, nor any of its members and neither should you,' said Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Utah, one of three openly gay Utah legislators. 'The way to deal with this problem is to love more, not hate.' McCoy's district includes the LDS church headquarters. He called on the crowd to work with him to channel frustration and anger into activism and conversation that fosters understanding. 'I will help them understand that civil rights for our community does not come into conflict with the religious rights to worship as your conscience dictates,' McCoy said."
The Salt Lake Tribune reported the numbers at around 3,000 and a KUTV-Salt Lake video report on the protest agrees with those numbers, AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted 5:05 PM EST by Andy in Activism, California, Gay Marriage, Mormon, News, Salt Lake City, Utah | Permalink
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I was at the rally and it was awesome. Here's some of my pictures and video that show more than the local media did:
http://flickr.com/photos/jessemichaelnix/collections/72157608763666106/
Posted by: Jesse | Nov 9, 2008 5:43:38 PM
Be very careful what you ask for...sure the LDS funneled money into California but to call in the IRS opens up churches which supported gay marriage to the exact same scrutiny and the IRS is blind. By the way is it true that Michelle Obama is actually James Brown in drag?
Posted by: Mark | Nov 9, 2008 6:26:31 PM
I see huffingtonpost.com is accepting banner ads from the Church of LDS --they're running within pixels of their articles on the fallout of the church's actions in funding the passage of Propositon 8.
Pretty disgusting, really. I wrote their advertising department to urge them to pull the ads. Feel free to tell them how you feel about it as well:
james@huffingtonpost.com
Posted by: ichabod | Nov 9, 2008 6:36:17 PM
Am I the only one who believes it's impossible to change the hearts and minds of those who think God is on their side? They fund a proposition to actively discriminate against a group of people then call for "mutual respect and civility," WTF?
Posted by: David in KC | Nov 9, 2008 6:48:32 PM
This is inspiring. It is a huge step for this movement to begin to spread outside of California. This issue is bigger than all of us. Ultimately, It is a world-wide human rights issue of inequality for all gays. It is important that all gays begin to use their voices to speak out.
Posted by: Bloghungry | Nov 9, 2008 6:57:09 PM
I was at the (much, much smaller) protest outside the LDS church in Seattle this morning. One woman cried and thanked us as she went into church. We cheered her on, all the way to the front door. It broke my heart. I know we did some good this morning, and I know nothing is impossible.
Posted by: Alan | Nov 9, 2008 7:24:08 PM
Ichabod, it is most certainly NOT impossible to change the hearts and minds of people in the church. It takes a tremendous effort, but it absolutely yes can be done.
It took a long time for the Episcopal church to come around to us, but certainly in my own church in Tucson, I couldn't be in a more gay embracing place. For heaven's sake, we've got gay leaders, gay government people, and gay clergy here. What more could you possibly ask for?
LDS is having this conversation, too. It is a struggle inside each of the churches, but they are having discussions. Even the whack job Baptists - our TRUE enemy - has gotten off the "choice" bandwagon, reluctant that they may be.
Yes it is very important to peacefully speak out. Change will come from the parents of gay and lesbian children. It will come from the woman that Bloghungry mentions.
Don't confuse the central leadership's bigotry with the pew sitters being of the same mind. There's more tolerance among religious people than you might think. It took a lot of work to get to that point, but yes it is possible to change a church.
I agree that the LDS "central command" asking for "mutual respect and civility" is pretty stomach churning right now. Just remember, it's the lower eschelons we're after. THEY will change the leaders.
Posted by: Craig | Nov 9, 2008 9:05:10 PM
I am upset to see us defeated in the marriage admendments, but there is something very powerful and moving about the Stonewall (especially since my boyfriend's uncle was at Stonewall) type riots we are seeing now. I have never been one to think that we will win more flies with honey than vinegar a la Act Up and whatnot, but these times do call for severe activism!
Posted by: RP | Nov 9, 2008 10:34:05 PM
Hey Mark: Way to destroy your credibility with that vile comment about Mrs. Obama.
Posted by: Miles | Nov 9, 2008 10:36:19 PM
@MARK, there is a huge difference between advising from the pulpit and contributing millions of dollars to influence government policy. your first sentence suggested that you were a stupid fuck; your second sentence sealed it.
in a way, i envy you. if i were a cretin, such as you, i would be content paddling my banana boat to board the ship of fools with you.
Posted by: nic | Nov 10, 2008 1:36:40 AM
SEATTLE PROTEST
Saturday, November, 15, 2008, 12 noon
RALLY starts at 12:00 noon at the Volunteer Park stage, with keynote speakers, and community choruses. A march to Westlake Center follows the rally.
Following the march, a protest against the LDS/Mormon Church will commence at 5:00PM at the LDS/Mormon Temple in Bellevue, WA. (Located across the street from the Bellevue Community College. Address: 2808 148th Avenue SE Bellevue, WA)
For more information, please visit the following groups:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35445293690
http://groups.myspace.com/ProtestProp8
Questions? Call 206-774-7805
Posted by: Kyler | Nov 10, 2008 4:04:36 AM
WHERE'S CHICAGO??? Obama's hometown. Come on Chicago, get involved, show support!!!
Posted by: MP | Nov 10, 2008 4:38:50 AM
Here are my photos from the protest in Sacramento that was held on the steps of the State Capital Building:
http://flickr.com/photos/fritzliess/sets/72157608805333200/detail/
Feel free to use them as you see fit.
Posted by: Fritz | Nov 10, 2008 5:10:58 AM
Oh yes, lets be all conciliatory towards the Mormon Church. Not!
They deserve no civility, no shelter. They have crossed a line here and they should be made to pay for that crossing.
Posted by: Tony P | Nov 10, 2008 5:54:39 AM
With his intelligence and vision, President-Elect Barack Obama is opening doors in every direction and showing the power of persuasive dialogue and passionate commitment to ideals that we thought had been abandoned by government. We can all be thankful that the power of the "religious right" is diminishing dramatically. Not long ago the idea of a Black president was thought impossible, and look what's happened. I believe the same holds for gay marriage.
Posted by: David | Nov 10, 2008 9:14:54 AM
Great comment David....any ideas how we can change Obama's mind now that he's at the head of the table? He is against gay marriage...but says he's open to his beliefs being "misguided".
Posted by: MCnNYC | Nov 10, 2008 11:50:17 AM
A short list of the factors that defeated us in California would put the Democrat Obama/Biden ticket way out in front. Not the mormon cult. They trumpeted their bigotry about same sex marriage and whispered their insultingly last minute tactical opposition to Prop 8 only because it was a constitutional amendment, not because they support equality.
Obama's bigotry defeated us. That was followed by the efforts of the mormon, catholic and evangelical cults.
And third was the fact the same sex marriage is not a priority for most in our communities. We should have all fought Prop 8 but large numbers of California GLBT voters failed to registger or to vote. Donations and volunteers to No on Prop 8 didn't come close to reflecting the size of our commnities there.
Like many GLBT folks, their interest in SSM is lukewarm at best. For many our priorities are hate crimes bills, inclusive laws against employment and housing discrimination, HIV/AIDS and a crash program to deal with the awful conditions facing the growing number of GLBT kids being tossed on the street. Its winter and we’re suddenly in a recession heading for a depression.
If you go to DailyKos and look at the diaries of shanikka you'll see that it's statistically impossible for African Americans to have cost us the vote. That was the work of the usual suspects: superstition driven Euroamerican bigots inspired and justified by Obama's well known prejudice against our equality.
Here are some of the stats shanikka presented: there are 2.26 million blacks in California and somewhere between 720,000 and 1.2 million voted, They couldn't have determined the outcome, even if every one voted for 8, which we know is not true.
White Men: 51% of 31% of 10,325,615 votes: 1,632,480 Yes
White Women: 47% of 32% of 10,325,615 votes: 1,552,972 Yes
Latino Men: 54% of 8% of 10,325,615 votes: 446,067 Yes
Latino Women: 52% of 11% of 10,325,615 votes: 592,170 Yes
Asian/Native: 51% of 9% of 10,325,615 votes: 473,946 Yes
Total: 4,697,635 (9.3 times the maximum TOTAL number of Black votes in California.)
Other exit polling showed that 22% of those who described themselves as "liberal" voted yes on Prop 8, according to exit polls." They were liberal bigots, aka, Democrats. 82% of Euroamerican Republicans voted for Prop 8. Of all the voter cohorts polled they were the group with the highest percentage of its members voting in favor of the ban. Obama's bigotry gave them permission to vote theirs.
The victory of the bigots in California, Florida and Arizona is the price the GLBT movement paid for the partisan diversion created by supporters of Obama and the Democratic Party. Intentionally or not, they temporarily derailed the movement.
Obama is Bill Clinton (DOMA, DADT, NAFTA) in drag with Colin Powell and Donnie McClurkin attached at the hip.
Posted by: Bill Perdue | Nov 10, 2008 4:04:12 PM
Shame on Mel Gibson for giving money to support Prop 8!
http://tinyurl.com/6lmqnh
Links to a brilliant website where you can look up who contributed what.
Posted by: Sam | Nov 11, 2008 5:42:01 AM