Straight Mormons to March in Salt Lake City Gay Pride Parade in Act of Reconciliation: VIDEO
A group of straight Mormons will march in Salt Lake City's Gay Pride parade on Sunday, FOX 13 reports:
They call themselves “Mormons Building Bridges” and they are planning to march in this year’s Pride parade. It is a move toward reconciliation between two communities that have had been at odds in the past.
“We are faithful, practicing Mormons who feel like it’s time to reach out with love and understanding to the LGBT community,” says group spokeswoman Erika Munson.
Munson has never been to a Pride parade before, but the devout Mormon is organizing more than 100 faithful LDS Church members in their Sunday best to march among the more colorful entries to show their love.
“We are following the greater commandment of Jesus, which is to love one another and love one another unconditionally, and we want to do that,” says Munson.
Organizers of the parade have situated the group behind the grand marshal.
Watch Munson speak about the effort, AFTER THE JUMP...
Yikes. Maybe they should take some baby steps by going to some more 'low key' LGBT gatherings first.
I just hope they realize that, like any parade (ie St Paddy's Day, Mardi Gras), some people and things can be VERY over the top at such an event.
Posted by: lookyloo | May 31, 2012 4:25:10 AM
Romney campaign props.
Posted by: kelehe | May 31, 2012 5:20:04 AM
Supportive comments only from self loathers?
There's a very desperate mentality among Utah's gay community in that they'll "take anything they can get" that remotely resembles acceptance of the LDS machine. It's a starve/feed mentality. Also former Mormons (of which there are many - the religion has a huge retention problem) retain the brainwashing from their childhoods and still, on some level, desperately seek acceptance from the LDS organization which founded and funds NOM which promotes anti-gay legislation. The comments in support of the Mormon Pride marchers don't necessarily come from self-loathers, but I think more so from those desperate for any sign of acceptance from what has and continues to be proven as an anti-equality hate group.
On another note, knowing how the LDS PR machine works, video and pictures will definitely be used to "normalize" the LDS hate group in the eyes of the mainstream population. It can't go unnoticed that this is the first time there will be a Mormon presence in a Pride parade and it just happens that the GOP POTUS candidate is Mormon. The LDS PR machine is extremely advanced. One member of the Facebook group is "Director -Broadcasts and Events at LDS Church." Fact. Watch how this token participation is strategically utilized especially during the next 5 months prior to the election.
Posted by: SLCRealist | May 31, 2012 6:02:31 AM
The Utah "Pride" Parade organizers are not unlike a bettered wife, or an abused child.
Posted by: NVTodd | May 31, 2012 6:36:00 AM
Trust is earned not given. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.I don't trust them.
Posted by: NIgel | May 31, 2012 6:54:50 AM
Sometimes the comments on this board fire me up more than the actual articles. There are almost 6 million Mormons in the US alone and this group comprises of 100 people. In no way do they represent the Mormon hierarchy or decision makers. They is no reason to not take them at their word, that they just want to reach out. I see nothing wrong with this gesture at all. The funny thing is, when they encounter people on the parade route who think like half of these commenters, who boo them and question their motives, they might wonder why they reached out in the first place.
Posted by: Dan | May 31, 2012 8:28:14 AM
Marching in a Pride parade while still actively funding, supporting and promoting referendums and politicians that are against the civil equality of gays is a bit like Target selling Pride Tee shirts while continuing to donate big money to rabidly anti-gay politicians.
Both are PR stunts to change the public image while it's business as usual behind the scenes.
Posted by: TampaZeke | May 31, 2012 9:08:00 AM
Dan, these are "active" (you likely don't know what this really means) Utah Mormons. If you haven't live here for many years, you can't understand the culture. The "reaching out" is not out of "acceptance" but rather to try to stop Mormon teens from killing themselves so they will live longer so "THE Church" will have a chance to heal them of their "same sex attraction." http://evergreeninternational.org/ Look at the site and give the insight of gay people like me who live here a bit more weight. This is a PR move orchestrated by the LDS organization.
Posted by: SLCRealist | May 31, 2012 9:14:38 AM
I was a member of the LDS church and still attend. I have been excommunicated twice (which I am highly ashamed of). I lost my membership because I was involved in sexual relationships with people of my sex. The church will NEVER accept same sex relationships and although I am still involved with this I know that the church standing is right. Same sex relationships are wrong.Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ provide a way out....it will be hard but it will be worth it.
Posted by: Steve R | May 31, 2012 9:20:21 AM
The Lord knows the righteous and non righteous desires of your heart. He will support your righteous desires. He loves the sinner not the sin.
Posted by: Steve R | May 31, 2012 9:23:30 AM
Steve R's posts are bait - not worthy of response.
Posted by: SLCRealist | May 31, 2012 9:57:44 AM
I can understand how for those who have had little dealings with the Mormon church, much less have no experience living in Salt Lake City, this group's involvement in the Utah Pride parade looks like some sort of Romney PR stunt and that the Utah Pride organizers have been hoodwinked. Cynical? Yes. Accurate? No. Believe it or not, we have allies in the Mormon church -- some of whom appear to be those 100 or so folks who will join in Utah Pride festivities. I don't believe their involvement in the parade amounts to a tacit acceptance of the Mormon church's official position on homosexuality.
Posted by: Brandon | May 31, 2012 10:32:10 AM
Oh, God. Do some of you believe that we are ever going to effect real change in society if only 40% of the population are supportive of us?
If not, then what good do you think you are doing when, every time an individual or a group of individuals from a group that has historically been hostile to us takes a positive step in our direction....., you attack them and try to alienate them instead of being supportive and encouraging?
Are you just not intelligent enough to see the effect that has?.....or is the problem that you really don't want homophobia to be eradicated because then you would have nothing to complain about and your purpose in life would disappear?
Unreal.
Posted by: Rick | May 31, 2012 11:15:42 AM
*NO*
It's too soon.
Mormons... you are not yet forgiven for prop 8.
This is a total sham and an insult.
Posted by: jexer | May 31, 2012 11:31:20 AM
Uh... how 'bout they start building that bridge from the OTHER side of the river and march as a pro-gay contingent in a Mormon parade?
Posted by: BobN | May 31, 2012 11:52:10 AM
When i was at the National Equality March in 2009 i met a terrific group of straight ex-Mormons. They all were in their 20s, and left the LDS after they told me that in week after week, their ministers were telling them whom to vote for, where to put their political donations, and anti-gay this and that. They simply realized they were no longer part of a religious group that worked to promote love and help, but a cult that seeks to control via fear and oppression.
the only good mormon is an ex-mormon, and not just because of the LDS' anti-gay stances. but, hey, this is a step. and apparently we still need to applaud baby steps, so i will.
but there's more to healing and building bridges than a simple march in a parade, although i appreciate "the gesture" - one must also stand up against bigotry, and stand up for LGBT people while IN CHURCH. IN THE TEMPLES. that's where the change needs to come. it's not about convincing gays that Mormons "aren't all bad", but about getting Mormons to end their historic anti-gay bigotry.
we didn't start the fire.
Posted by: LittleKiwi | May 31, 2012 12:03:22 PM
I applaud these people for trying to make a dent in Utah's first-place national finish in suicide rates.
It's called a Step in the Right Direction and will surely lead to better things. If you think this has anything to do with Mitt Romney, I feel bad for you, girl.
Posted by: MIleHighJoe | May 31, 2012 12:52:46 PM
Littlekiwi says "The only good mormon is an ex-mormon" because he is a rank bigot. What an ugly hate-ball he is. He can never say anything positive about anyone/anything with out twisting a knife somewhere.
Churches change. Believe it or not, many churches in the U.S. supported slavery. Not one of them does today. Maybe it will take a long time, but littlekiwi is a evil because he tells people that it won't. Is he that ignorant of history, or is he just using their religion as an excuse to bash them? He is just as ugly as the homophobes who say the same things about gay people. He is as ugly as any hate-filled pastor in his own way.
The gay community does not need the baggage of religious intollerance to be holding us back. We will not be fully accepted until we call out these religious biggots amongst us and show the rest of the community that we are not all twisted hate-filled ugliness like Littlekiwi. We need to shun such people into changing their anti-social behaviour.
Posted by: NullNaught | May 31, 2012 3:23:04 PM
<---lifelong member of the United Church of Canada, which has been on the forefront of LGBT Equality for decades. Openly supportive champions of the LGBT Communities, and of those from different walks of life. No dogma, no false claims to "one true faith", and a humanist approach to scripture - viewing the judeo-christian bible as a book of allegories to inspire, not a book of "history" that must be seen as "truth."
and if you want to show "the rest of the community" that you're, ahem, "not like me", you can start by providing the URL to your own page or youtube video where you, you know, show who you are and how unlike me you are.
:D
i know how history works. and i know that change doesn't come from invisibility and silence.
a letter from a good friend of mine and former-Mormon, printed with permission.
http://littlekiwilovesbauhaus.blogspot.ca/2009/10/born-gay-into-world-of-latter-day.html
Posted by: LittleKiwi | May 31, 2012 3:40:59 PM
Please someone (TJ?) explain to Kiwi that th statement "the only good mormon is an ex-morman" is a hatefull bigoted thing to say. He is too stupid to see it when it is pointed out to him. Also, while you are at it, attempt to explain to kiwi what it means when I ask him how to show a url. He has acknowledged before that he believes I don't know how to do this, but he keeps demanding I do without explaining to me how. How stupid can a person be? What an inane thing to do, to tell a person to do a thing you have admitted they don't know how to do.
He is just an a$$hole troll on here trying to make gay liberals look stupid and like traitors to the gay community. Notice that troll is always attacking gay people? That is because he hates us. If he were gay, he must be self-loathing in the extreme.
I honestly feel sorry for the train-wreck.
Posted by: NullNaught | May 31, 2012 3:51:44 PM
those links i posted. those are URLs.
you can make a youtube video or create a homepage, and you can provide the link to it and send it around to everyone so you can show everyone that you're not a horrible gay person like me :D
http://youtu.be/zFgkYUxSpwI
that's a URL.
http://www.i-am-an-exmormon.com
AMEN.
now, you've called on people to show that you're not all like me. you can start by standing up to be counted, and showing who you are. right here, right now.
:D
Posted by: LittleKiwi | May 31, 2012 4:04:52 PM
Littlekiwi
I don't want you to think I believe I have any reason to give up my anonymity. I was pointing out your stupidity in asking me to do something you knew full well I knew not how to do. I didn't even know what you were refering to. I am not rising to your bait. I need not give up my anonymity to demonstrate that I am different than you. You have never changed you mind on anything in all the time I have been here and probably since you were a teenager as I had pegged you as such until I realized if you said the truth you must be about 30. I differ from you markedly as I learn from my mistakes and don't remake the exact same ones. I listen assuming I could be wrong, probably am. I defend myself usually without resort to ad hominem (or at least usually with the intent to avoid it - I make an exception with you as you are hatefull in your expression of the trauma you have been through) rigorously and change my mind when I have been shown to be going on dated or simply wrong facts. You don't appear to be able to do this.
What is a homepage? How do I get a homepage? Can I do so while avoiding Facebook? I sincerely wish to know these things as I might post something if I knew how. "One never knows, do one?" - Fats Waller.
Posted by: NullNaught | May 31, 2012 5:03:58 PM
Teensy bit cynical in some of the responses here - this lady strikes me as sincere and it is refreshing to see a group actually try and compromise and reach out - more power to their elbow!
Posted by: Mundus | Jun 1, 2012 8:41:04 AM
Tolerence. It goes both ways. It may take a generation before the LDS church is able to accept gay marriage, but tolerence is not a word to be despised. Love your neighbor. Be they black or white. Mormon or Jewish. In the end, it matters nothing whether we agree or disagree, what matters is the faith in our principles, that is; the content of our character. Despite whatever it is that is the basis of our prejudices against one another, the walls of Jericho must fall against the tide of overwhelming empathy to the need to be one with our fellow human beings.
Posted by: Jeffrey Bryant Bishop | Jun 1, 2012 6:46:08 PM
The SLC "Pride" parade should be called the "Shame" parade. The organizers had NO chance to decline the request of some Mormons to march in the parade. Mormons Building Bridges Facebook group "takes no stance" on gay marriage. They're seeking absolution and forgiveness while offering the extremely desperate GLBT community in SLC a "crumb" of hope for "tolerance." People have commented that SLC's GLBT community is no different than battered women and such...this is extremely accurate.
This group is doing "LDS missionary" work which is "officially" unsanctioned by the LDS cult (how convenient.) This "Shame" parade sickens me as the Marching Mormons will be right behind the grand marshal. Disgustingly desperate. There's no "pride" to be found here in Utah.
The "pro" comments are from either people who don't live here and understand how everyday life works in Utah, or from former Mormons who are desperately seeking crumbs like hungry vermin. I'll toss in the myopic optimists too.
The Pride Marching Mormons aren't present to show support of the GLBT community, but rather to exonerate themselves from the extensive and ongoing damage they've done (and do) to the GLBT community. They also know that they couldn't be denied their request to march in the parade.
If you don't live here, you really can't understand what everyday life is like for gay people. If you don't live here, keep your optimism to yourselves because you truly don't understand the oppression and bigotry inflicted on the GLBT community by the LDS cult and culture.
I'm glad many who have commented are able to see past this patronizing ruse.
Posted by: SLCRealist | Jun 2, 2012 2:41:02 AM