So I haven't been paying as much attention to the news lately as I usually do, but last week's groundbreaking decision by the LDS church - which led the fight for Prop 8 last year in California - to support a gay-rights ordinance in Salt Lake City is worthy of mention. The New York Times:
Andrew Sullivan:The Mormon Church has been a target of vituperation by some gay rights groups because of its active opposition to same-sex marriage. But on Wednesday, the church was being praised by gay rights activists in Salt Lake City, citadel of the Mormon world, for its open support of a local ordinance banning discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing and employment. . . .
The ordinance, which passed unanimously Tuesday night, made Salt Lake the first city in Utah to offer such protections. While the measure probably had majority backing on the seven-member City Council anyway, the church’s support was seen by gay activists as a thunderclap that would resonate across the state and in the overwhelmingly Mormon legislature, where even subtle shifts in church positions on social issues can swing votes and sentiments.
“It’s the most progressive and inclusive statement that the church has made on these issues,” said Will Carlson, the manager of public policy at Equality Utah, the state’s largest gay rights group. “What they’ve said here is huge, in protecting residents in other municipalities, and statewide.”
It is possible to be cynical or begrudging in reacting to the LDS Church's unprecedented public decision to support civic protections against discrimination in employment and housing with respect to homosexuals in Salt Lake City. I think that is a temptation to be resisted. . . .Is the beginning of a thaw in the anti-gay attitudes of the religious right, or just a CYA after all the heavy flak the Mormons caught for their Prop 8 support - what do you say?
What the LDS church has done in Utah is an immensely important and positive step and places the Mormon church in a far more positive and pro-gay position than any other religious group broadly allied with the Christianist right. They have made a distinction - and it is an admirable, intellectually honest distinction - between respecting the equal rights of other citizens in core civil respects, while insisting - with total justification - on the integrity of one's own religious doctrines, and on a religious institution's right to discriminate in any way with respect to its own rites and traditions. . . .
For this degree of respect - even if it is not fully what I want or what gays truly deserve - we should reciprocate with respect as well. This is a moment of genuine dialogue and civil compromise. And it was accomplished in Salt Lake City among gay and straight Mormons and gay and straight non-Mormons in a way that other Christians in other places have been unable to replicate.
Leadership comes in the unlikeliest places. And when it does, we should thank God and be glad.
2 comments:
I would not get too enthusiastic about this "olive branch" offered by the LDS Church. Me thinks I smell a rat. I can't help but feel that they did this so that they can feel better about continuing to maintain their stance on same-sex marriage.
I am the first to admit that I am strongly biased against organized religion. It has never accepted me, and to the contrary, has told me I'm going to burn in hell unless I change my evil ways.
I'm much too cynical to believe that this is an honest attempt on their part to accept (not just tolerate) gay people. I hope they will prove me wrong, but somehow, I don't think so. I don't intend to be disrespectful, just cautious.
I feel wary too, Jeepguy.... although Marie Osmond did come out last year in support of her gay daughter. Maybe attitudes are softening at least.
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