It seems like things have not even yet begun to settle down after the California Prop 8 debacle last week (see article below), when Holocaust survivors get riled up against the Mormons for continuing to baptize their dead. See the CNN article HERE.
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And then yesterday Equality Utah held a press conference. Here’s a snippet:
“While we disagree with the LDS Church’s position on Proposition 8, we respect that their position is based on the guiding principles of their faith,” she said. “Throughout the campaign, while the LDS Church stated its support of [the measure], it also made repeated comments that the church ‘does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights.’
“Just last week, Elder L. Whitney Clayton stated the LDS Church does not oppose ‘civil union or domestic partnerships,’ ” Pappas said. “We are taking the LDS Church at its word.”
Three of the bills would seek to secure equal treatment when it comes to hospitalization, medical care, housing, employment and probate rights (entitlement to insurance and inheritance upon a partner’s death).
A fourth, titled the Domestic Partner Rights & Responsibilities Act, would create a statewide domestic partner registry that would secure rights of insurance, inheritance and fair housing. A fifth would seek to repeal the second part of Utah’s own marriage-defining constitutional amendment, which Will Carlson, Equality Utah’s public policy manager, said “has been misinterpreted to avoid any recognition of gay couples.”
The part in question reads, he continued, “no other domestic union; however, denominated, may be recognized as marriage or be given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.”
Equality Utah executive director Mike Thompson asked the LDS Church to continue “its willingness to engage in political issues” by stepping in to help.
“Is the LDS Church willing to assign a member of its Presidency of the Seventy to lead church efforts to secure these rights, just as it did with Proposition 8?” he asked. And, he continued, “will the First Presidency draft a letter to Utah Latter-day Saints in support of rights and protections for gay couples . . . [and] ask for this letter to be read to all Utah congregations on a specified date,” as it did in California?”
