Mormon Shocker

It's a little hard to figure out exactly what's going on here, it's kind of shocking. The Mormon Church has suddenly told Salt Lake City that it's okay with them to enact a nondiscrimination law protecting gay and transgender citizens, in fact they support it. They say the only thing they care about is the definition of marriage, and that otherwise they want to treat everyone fairly and respectfully.

Nobody really knows what to make of this, whether it's a Trojan horse or they're for real...

From the Salt Lake City Tribune:

Hours after the LDS Church announced its support Tuesday night of proposed Salt Lake City ordinances aimed at protecting gay and transgender residents from discrimination in housing and employment, the City Council unanimously approved the measures.

"The church supports these ordinances," spokesman Michael Otterson told the council, "because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage."

They also are consistent with Mormon teachings, he said. "I believe in a church that believes in human dignity, in treating people with respect even when we disagree -- in fact, especially when we disagree."

Normally more deliberate, the council opted to vote after dozens of residents in the overflowing crowd expressed their support.

"Guaranteeing a right to fair housing and fair employment is not an issue of compromise," Councilwoman Jill Remington Love said. "We are a stronger, better city this evening. I'm proud to serve on a City Council where this isn't even controversial."

The LDS Church's endorsement was hailed by leaders of Utah's gay community -- some of them stunned -- who called it a historic night they hope will set the stage for statewide legislation.

"This is a great step," said Will Carlson, director of public policy for the advocacy group Equality Utah. But, he noted, four out of five gay Utahns live outside the capital and should be afforded protection as well. "Equality Utah will continue to work for that."

Councilman J.T. Martin said some will dismiss the church's move, arguing LDS leaders blinked or caved to pressure. "That's not the case," he said. "I can tell you they do have compassion. They have church members who have gay sons and daughters, and they know this is an issue that touches everyone's life." Salt Lake City adopts pro-gay statutes -- with LDS Church support

You love that little phrase seaparated by hyphens -- "some of them stunned." I'll bet. The LDS Church was the greatest force behind the anti-marriage Proposition 8 in California, and has poured money into other anti-gay causes around the country. Now the leaders have had a revelation and say they don't have anything against gay people per se, just against gay people marrying one another.

In our own county, the Mormon group Family Leader Network signed onto a lawsuit and actively opposed our county's sex-ed curriculum. The original president of the Citizens for a Responsible Curtriculum is Mormon, and we have had other organized efforts by members of that church to undermine the health curriculum.

There is a subtext here, going back to the days when the Mormons were persecuted for their definition of traditional marriage, which included polygyny. They might be saying, look, we had to play by these stupid rules, you guys ought to, too. And there is another twist, it is remotely possible that if somehow the legal definition of marriage were loosened up a little to allow gay and lesbian marriage, then perhaps it would just take a little more to open it up to allow multiple wives. So you'd think the Mormons would kind of like to see society make this change, but they don't seem to act like it.

I am tending to believe that the Church has actually had a change of heart. Here is some description of the meetings that led up to this:

Tuesday's announcement and subsequent vote follow more than two months of secret meetings between midlevel LDS officials and five of Utah's most prominent gay leaders. Those meetings have their roots in the "kiss-in" protests that took place after LDS security detained two gay men spotted hugging and kissing on the church's Main Street Plaza.

Former City Councilwoman Deeda Seed organized the first kiss-in and called Council Chairman Carlton Christensen to talk it over. Christensen suggested to LDS leaders that a dialogue with Utah's gay community may ease hostilities.

The officials reached out to leaders of Equality Utah and the Utah Pride Center, proposing they huddle at the Church Office Building. The gay leaders suggested a coffee shop at the Utah Pride Center. They settled on a neutral location -- the Avenues home of Sam and Diane Stewart. The Stewarts are active Mormons and close friends of Jim Dabakis, who helped found Equality Utah and the Pride Center.

Suspicion marred initial meetings. "These were two communities living in the same town that just had no understanding of each other," Dabakis said. "It was quite uncomfortable in the beginning."

Slowly they built a level of trust and good will. They searched for common ground, understanding that the LDS Church wasn't about to back gay marriage and Utah's gay community would not stop pushing for what it considers civil rights.

The meetings fizzled a few weeks ago, but then Dabakis got a call from an LDS official asking to reconvene the "gang of five." They met four times since Thursday in the lead up to Tuesday's announcement.

The LDS Church sees its move as an olive branch to the gay community after months of growing tension over the church-backed Proposition 8 vote -- barring gay marriage in California -- and the kiss-ins. Dabakis hopes it isn't the end of the discussion, but a high point in a burgeoning "friendship."

"They are really trying to put some of the Prop 8 stuff behind them," Dabakis said. "The discussions we have had over the last several months have shown what a caring, loving, concerned institution [the LDS Church] is."

The discussion, he said, "changed all of our lives."

You will remember the Great Kiss-In that started this ball rolling. Two men kissed one night in July in a plaza in Salt Lake City and were detained by Church security guards. This led to a nationwide "kiss-in" protest in August, where gay and lesbian couples met in public and kissed openly.

Apparently the activism surrounding these events set in motion some wheels of change that resulted in the Mormon Church re-thinking its position on homosexuality. I intend to hold on to a certain amount of skepticism about this, of course, but it is possible that the elders have realized that their earlier position was indefensible.

LGBT activists often fail to understand how hard the other side is going to fight back, but let's give them credit here. It does appear that these Utah activists and national organizations pulled together to do the right thing. The kiss-in was an effective measure to show the mean-heartedness of the Church's position, and the negotiations that are described in this Tribune article seem to have been handled well. This appears to be a good example of grassroots activism effecting change at high levels. If the LDS Church is sincere in its statements then you will see city and county councils across Utah and all through the Southwest start to change their policies to become more inclusive. Just as they were able to tip the scales in California the other way, the Mormon Church is massive enough to tip the scales in favor of fair treatment and acceptance of gay and transgender individuals.

If the LDS Church decides to hold the line at marriage, insisting that the word is reserved for a certain relationship involving one man and one woman, then I think peace can be attained between the church and the gay community. The situation is tractable, at least, not just a global prejudice but something specific to one word, one situation. It is weird to think that the Mormon Church could actually push us to the tipping point of change in the direction of acceptance of sexual minorities.