Why is everyone looking at the Mormons?

Mainly because the hierarchy of the LDS Church has been actively working against marriage equality for 11 years, exposes the Bay Area Reporter:

The March 4, 1997 memo from Loren C. Dunn to church Elder M. Russell Ballard, describes an insidious “go ahead” HLM (homosexual legalized marriage) strategy of the late Mormon Church president, Gordon B. Hinckley. The memo appears to be tangible proof that Mormon leaders had been working to prevent marriage equality in California and Hawaii at least for the last 11 years while actively working to recruit the support of local California Catholic bishops…

Traditional Marriage?

After the passage of Prop. 8 , I received a message from a girl I knew in high school who is now studying to be a Marriage and Family Therapist. Her message was an attempt to comfort me by offering her explanation for why it passed:

“Most people don’t support traditional marriage because they HATE gay people- but that they LOVE traditional marriage and all it represents in our society.”

So what does ‘traditional marriage’ represent in our society? Proponents of Prop. 8 vehemently argued that marriage between a man and a woman, ‘traditional marriage,’ is the very fabric of our society. Like my former classmate so astutely pointed out, spouses in a ‘traditional marriages’ “both bring different aspects to a relationship and many of these differences are based on the differences between males and females.” Unfortunately, that answer is not good enough.

Same-Sex Marriage and Gay Marriage: A Bad Phraseology

Leading LGBT-rights groups keep referring to this issue as “same-sex marriage,” again playing the game in terms of the opposition. Both same-sex and gay marriage add unnecessary qualifiers to the word ‘marriage.’ Slightly reminiscent of colored bathrooms and white-only counters, no?

Opponents of marriage equality most often use the term same-sex marriage. It conjures up thoughts of homosexual bedroom antics. This is the way homosexuals have been defined for decades, and some would continue to have us be defined as such. So we have to phrase our battle in terms of our ownership of the struggle, and not let the opposition write any more rules.

One of Human Rights Campaign’s Facebook causes is called Legalize Same-Sex Marriage. This phrasing asks that they, whoever they are, legalize something for us, as the other. One better name would be “Enforce Marriage Equality,” i.e. our rights are protected by s/he above (the government), and they have no say in it.

This struggle has gone on for far too long in the wrong direction with the same people running it, and the onus is on us to re-define the rules and plays of the game…if we are to succeed.

Newt, your sister wrote….

Candace Gingrich wrote a very warm public letter to her brother today and published it on HuffPo.

Dear Newt,

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protestors of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O’Reilly on FOX News. I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, “There you go, again.”

However, I realize that you may have been a little preoccupied lately with planning your resurrection as the savior of your party, so I thought I would fill you in on a few important developments you might have overlooked….

Read about the developments he overlooked here.