The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), headquartered in Salt Lake City UT, has once again entered the fray against marriage equality, this time in Mexico. The LDS Church has thrown in the towel in its campaign against marriage equality in the US. A campaign which found the LDS Church in cahoots with the US Roman Catholic Church’s leadership to skirt state and federal laws regarding the reporting of campaign contributions. The LDS Church participated in the Proposition 8 campaign in California. Prop 8 was a ballot initiative to overturn the CA Supreme Court’s (CASC) ruling that anti-same gender marriage laws violated the CA Constitution. The initiative proposed amending the CA Constitution with the addition of a definition of civil marriage as only between a man and a woman. The initiative passed by a small margin, ending the short window of opportunity for legal same gender marriage that was open between the time of the CASC’s ruling and the passing of the initiative.
The LDS Church was found to have been working behind the scenes as far back as 1998 to influence anti-same gender marriage laws in various US states. The LDS Church funneled thousands/millions/? of unreported dollars into the Prop 8 campaign by asking for large donations from wealthy members of the Church, bundling the donations and passing them to the campaign. The LDS Church was also reported to have provided thousands/millions/? of dollars in unreported in kind donations, such as using church-owned facilities to produce anti-marriage equality/pro-Prop 8 commercials for airing on CA television and radio stations, as well as print ads for CA periodicals. These efforts by the LDS Church angered many of its own US membership who have LGBT family members and friends.
Last Sunday, the Mexico Area authority for the LDS Church in Mexico, Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, and his two counselors, Elder Paul B. Pieper and Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela, fanned out across Mexico to read a letter they had signed, to various stake conferences. (An LDS stake is similar to a diocese.) In the letter, the Mexico Area Presidency reemphasized the LDS Church’s stand against same gender marriage (SGM) and restated that marriage was established by God to be between a man and a woman. They encouraged Mexico’s 1.4 million members of record with almost verbatim language used in the LDS Church’s previous fight against SGM in the USA. “We encourage members of the Church to unite our voices with those of other citizens exercising our rights as are contained in the Constitution of the United Mexican States, which establishes and honors freedom of religion and expression of beliefs and thoughts, both publicly and privately.” The LDS Church web portal for news in Mexico also stated that the letter would be distributed to ward bishops & branch presidents to be read to their local congregations. (LDS Wards & branches are similar to self sufficient & dependent parishes, respectively. Bishops & branch presidents are the local pastors of those congregations.) The letter also encouraged members to become involved with a non-governmental organization, la Conciencia Nacional por la Libertad Religiosa (the National Conscience for Religious Liberty.)
The LDS Church has become concerned about SGM in Mexico because of a recent (19 MAY) presidential proposal to embody marriage equality in Mexico’s constitution. SGM is already legal in the Federal District (Mexico City) and the Mexican states of Coahuila, Quintana Roo, Jalisco, Nayarit, Chihuahua and Sonora. The Mexican Supreme Court has ruled that SGMs solemnized in those locations must be legally recognized by all Mexican states. Last year the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that Mexican states could not pass laws against SGM, but stopped short of requiring the states to write SGM into their local state codes. If the Mexican Congress passes the constitutional amendment by 2/3s majority of each of its two houses, the amendment would then need to be passed by a simple majority of the 31 state legislatures to become law.
Should Mexico legalize SGM nation-wide, then all three NAFTA countries (Canada, Mexico & the USA) would have embraced marriage equality and SGM would exist for LGBT folks in the largest swath on the planet, from the Arctic to the Tropics, including almost 500 million people.
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Would you please explain why you feel that it is not what it is “trumpeted to be?”
It has been quite a few months, so I have moved on from this and can’t pull all the issues from the air. But, for starters, there is absolutely no public accommodation protections for same gender couples in the law. So anyone in Utah can refuse same gender couples services; stores, restaurants, B&Bs, motels, hotels, gyms, etc.
Thank you for responding, I truly appreciate the dialogue. I understand where you are coming from, and I do not disagree with you.
Still, according to the Movement Advancement Project, 49% of LGBT US citizens live in a state with overall “Low” LGBT protection policies (which means virtually none). Utah ranks “Medium” in LGBT protection policies, including employment, with no push back from the LDS church. I’m old enough to remember when that would have been unfathomable.
Did anyone catch Steve Inskeep’s interview with Utah State Senator Stuart Adams on the June 1 Morning Edition? According to Inskeep, Adams helped craft a Utah law that is backed both by the LDS church and pro-LGBT organizations. It allows LGBT protection in public housing, marriage, the work place, restroom/locker room use etc. However, it does not offer these same protections in religious, “faith-based” institutions. In short, it seems like a compromise that could honor First Amendment Rights on both sides.
Adams explained, “My religious beliefs are not in any shape or form comprisable, but I actually believe I am living my religion now. As I look out and try to do good to those who maybe don’t agree with me, or those who may hate me [in the LGBT community], I am loving my neighbor or trying to be respectful of other people. I believe those are good Christian religious principles that we ought not to just talk about, but that we ought to live and act on.”
I find it interesting that the LDS church is pushing against marriage equality in Mexico, given what’s going on in Utah.
That would be because you don’t understand that the new “anti-discrimination” law in UT isn’t what its trumpeted to be. It isn’t a model for the nation.
That fight is dead upon arrival…the Supreme Court already ruled that the GLBT community has the constitutional right to have civil same-sex marriages
But it would be nice if we could get married in our home cities & states. Right now folks in many parts of Mexico have to travel to the federal capitol or one of the handful of states that offer same gender civil marriage. That can become expensive. Many heterosexual folks in Mexico already forego legal marriage because they feel that they can’t afford the marriage license. Adding travel expenses will prevent many folks from enjoying legal SGM. The Mormons and the Roman Catholics together could slow or halt embodying SGM in the federal constitution.
I’ve never been in an LDS place of worship, but I’m curious as to why the first row of seats in the photo is reversed to face the rest of the congregation.
LDS meetinghouse interiors are basically very similar for almost the last 70 years (there are architectural examples of each decade all over the greater Salt Lake City area.) They are very simple and functional.
http://tinyurl.com/juxb9jb
http://tinyurl.com/zs3mnpc
http://tinyurl.com/zqbz8e4
They are even more simple in Mexico. I would venture a guess that those seats are for a choir. Especially since they appear to have boom microphones suspended above them.
http://tinyurl.com/gnh58o6