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Loading ...Mormons denounce anti-Prop 8 protests
11.17.2008 9:00am EST
(Salt Lake City, Utah) After receiving hoax mailings containing a white powder, the Mormon church is blaming opponents of California’s gay marriage ban for recent “attacks” while an allied group condemned “acts of domestic terrorism against our supporters.”
Investigators have not publicly cited any evidence that the mailings were linked to the Mormon church’s support of the measure, and a gay rights group in Utah denied that gay protesters were involved.The letters were sent to the Salt Lake City headquarters of the church, where powder spilled on a mail clerk’s hand, and to a temple in Los Angeles. Both packages tested nontoxic, the FBI said.
The two temples were sites of recent protests against the church’s support for a California ballot initiative that superseded a court decision allowing gay marriage. The Mormon church, whose official name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said it is stepping up security.
Church leaders have released two statements, one saying they were disturbed the church was being singled out for taking a position on the California amendment, the other assailing “attacks” and vandalism of church property by “opponents of Proposition 8.”
“We call upon those who have honest disagreements on this issue to urge restraint upon the extreme actions of a few,” church President Thomas S. Monson said in a statement.
The Utah Pride Center, a gay rights group, put out its own statement calling the powder hoaxes and acts of vandalism “deplorable.”
However, the group said, “It is false to conclude that yesterday’s suspicious package came from gay protesters. Overwhelmingly, gay and allied Utahns have expressed their pain, frustration and commitment to securing rights through peaceful demonstrations and marches.”
The coalition that ran the campaign to defeat Proposition 8 also issued a condemnation.
“The NO on 8 campaign was about civil rights and seeking equality for all Californians. We have said time and again that the Mormon church deserves the same respect as any other religion,” said Ali Bay, a spokeswoman for Equality California, the state’s largest gay rights group.
The FBI is still investigating both cases, spokesman Juan T. Becerra said, noting that it’s a crime to release a substance to threaten harm and stoke public fear.
“Even if you send a hoax threat, you’re still in violation of federal law,” Becerra said.
Anthrax mailed as a white powder to lawmakers and media members killed five people and sickened 17 in 2001. Since then, hoaxes modeled on the anthrax mailings have popped up but usually turn out to be harmless.
Separately, the coalition of religious groups behind the successful measure held a news conference to denounce protests carried out since Election Day.
The backlash has included calls for a boycott of Utah ski resorts and California businesses whose owners donated to the cause.
“Our opponents do not like the outcome and that is to be respected. They fought hard and they feel defeated and that is understandable,” said Frank Schubert, co-manager of the Yes on 8 campaign. “What they do not have the right to do, however, is to harass and intimidate people. And they do not have the right to commit acts of domestic terrorism against our supporters.”
Meanwhile, five civil rights groups asked California’s highest court Friday to annul the ban on the grounds that Proposition 8 threatens the legal standing of all minority groups, not just gays.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and two other groups petitioned the state Supreme Court to prevent the change from taking effect.
The petition is the fourth seeking to have the measure invalidated. But it’s the first to argue that the court should step in because the gay marriage ban, which overturned the Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay unions, sets a precedent that could be used to undermine the rights of racial minorities.
Eva Paterson, president of the San Francisco-based Equal Justice Society, said the election raises the specter of voters deciding to bar illegal immigrants from public schools, disenfranchising black voters or otherwise using the ballot box to promote segregation.
“The court ruled that to discriminate in the area of same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and violated our guaranteed equality,” Paterson said. “Why should a slim majority of Californians be able to put discrimination back into the California Constitution?”
To the readers of this website who may not have read nor heard about the Cinemark theatre groups, here is a link that hopefully will guide your entertainment dollars.
http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/cinemark-ceo-gave-9999-to-anti-gay-prop.html
Screw the Mormans. Take to the streets. Peaceful has not worked. Act up is the main reason Aids got any attention. I am sure the Mormans were hoping it would just kill us all. It is time these God and guns people get a little of thier own medicine. Boycott any Morman owned business. Say you don’t know, ask, do research. Take our gay, green dollars to gay friendly business’s, cities, counties and states. Non-Mormans of Utah need quit whining that you are being boycotted and change your church run state. Or shut the [heck] up.
I don’t get why they complain about boycotts. They boycott companies all the friggen time. “oooh…we have to boycott Disney because they’re gay friendly” So, we’ll boycott businesses that are gay unfriendly.
If they want their lives, liberties and pursuits of happiness, then they MUST GIVE ME MINE.
If NOT, then TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY. What is good for the geese is good for the gays.
The Mormons, individually and collectively can go [SCREW] themselves – you wanted to get involvedin OUR lifves -now we’re going to ourselves involved in YOURS! Oh, and did I say “[SCREW] YOU!”
Okay, so terrorism and intimidation are not okay? Hmm, what do you call it when someone is fired for being gay, denied medical care for being gay, told constantly that if they do not change (conveniently ignoring the truth) that they cannot be part of society, that they are not allowed to lead happy and productive lives and that they are denied housing (among other things)? I am sure these are not acts of terrorism or intimidation; they must be acts of love.
Let’s also understand something: if you lose a vote, it means you must accept the results no matter what. So, black people in South Africa should have accepted that most of the voters at the time wanted Apartheid. When most Germans did eventually support the Nazis, the Jews should simply have accepted that this was the will of the majority. When most people in Britain voted centuries ago to uphold slavery, people who fought for the abolition of this practice should simply have accepted it. The logic really makes sense to me. Where do I sign up for this bigoted (I mean logical) organisation?
The Mormon church is a fraud that LIES to people, lies about history, lies about race and sexuality, lies about being an authority, drives people to suicide, depression, feelings of unworthiness and more.
It is a CULT ( a false religion created by a charasmatic leader which requires your money, tells you how to dress and behave, takes up your time, and even sexual advantage of members in the past) that is deceiving millions of people, causing tons of pain, LYING, and is completely anti-christian.
I think one thing we must do is to join people that have escaped this cult spread the word of the evils of this cult.I am educating family , friends, and nieghbors to this evil, please take the time to learn all you can of our enemy and let us spread the word of what they really are about. I find it so strange that a group of people with so much evil has the nerve to make up stuff on other people,if all of us educate people to what they really are we will make them regret they ever messed with us.
Below is a great site to start
http://exposingmormonism.blogspot.com/2008/01/2008.html
There’s no excuse for pulling a hoax like this; it only serves to inflame people, and it also puts the USPS on heightened alert, unnecessarily. But, it also doesn’t mean that the “white powder” came from somebody in the gay community; it could have easily been sent by a Mormon insider who knew what would be the cult’s reaction – victimhood.
That said, the boycott of Utah and Mormon affiliates in other parts of the US are still on. The cry of “Poor us” isn’t going to stop us from delivering the proper lessons to a group(s) bent on being subversives and manipulating the constitution for their own nefarious goals.
If you want the ensuing boycott to end, recant, and use your organization to institute full marriage rights for all citizens, otherwise you will be isolated and ostracized.
The movement is gaining momentum; it’s up to you to shed your terrorist ways and join the community of civil rights for all.
“What they do not have the right to do, however, is to harass and intimidate people. And they do not have the right to commit acts of domestic terrorism against our supporters.”
And yet they have no issue with committing acts of domestic terrorism against the gay community for decades. Makes me want to go feed them to a bunch of hungry lions, only the lions have done nothing to deserve that abuse.
Advice you and a few other ‘heads’ of the Mormon church should have heeded Mr. Monson ……… We in the gay community did in fact call upon those who have honest disagreements on ‘Gods law’ as it pertains to the Constitutionally protected EQUAL rights of ALL citizens, of which has always included the LGBT community whether you or anyone else likes it or not, agrees with it or not, and finally, with complete disregard as to whether or not your GOD likes it or not as is enforced by the Separation of Church and State. We have done nothing but peacefully ‘urge restraint’ upon the extreme actions of a few heads of the Mormon church that funded the vast majority of Prop 8, either directly or indirectly, and to have additionally made this mockery of a DEMAND to OUR Constitutional rights with your TAX FREE income.
And NO, Mr. Frank Schubert, co-manager of the Yes on 8 campaign… you and your ilk do NOT have the RIGHT to harass and intimidate people, nor do you or your ’supporter’s’ have the right to commit acts of domestic terrorism against the GLBT community with Prop 8 or any other Prop for that matter.
Do NOT stand on YOUR Constitutionally protected rights as a means of subverting and/or destroying someone elses, for the ’cause’ of jackhammering the foundation of ALL of our rights will ‘effect’ the collapse of ALL others… including YOUR protections as it pertains to your ‘choice’ of religious freedom.
Explain to me again why I’m supposed to “respect” a PAGAN FERTILITY CULT (Mormons) which TORTURES its teen-aged LGBT members in the name of “aversion therapy” at its secret “Evergreen Project” … the scenes in “Latter Days” were based on REALITY. The place EXISTS. I’m surprised reporters haven’t FOUND it yet. Certainly gay ex-Mormons know about it.
Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA
happily married in SPITE of the Mormons, the Romans, and the Konservative Kristianist Kultist Krazies (KKKK), PATRIARCHAL PAGAN FERTILITY CULTS ALL … they’re AFRAID of “women’s blood” and “women’s magic” and the joy of SEX FOR PLEASURE!
Remember being in the car when you were a kid? Your brother’s next to you, he’s minding his own business. You yell “OW! Quit it!” and of course your parents are on this–and him. Now, it’s one thing if this is merely balancing the scales from earlier in the day, but it’s another when it’s a constant weapon you use against your brother. It’s a manipulative lie of victimhood. Usually, the kid who pulls that stunt too many times will get his due. It seems the Mormons never played with other kids, or they were the spoiled brats that everybody hated. Maybe there’s a reason those kids–or those Mormons–might find themselves unwelcome, when they act like that. I’m not saying a faked anthrax attack is a suitable gesture, but I fully expect that it was an inside job.
And why was it I’m supposed to give a crap what the Mormons think?
If they don’t want to take heat for their involvement in politics, they should stay the hell out of politics.
Why is it I have the sick feeling the Mormons mailed the envelopes to themselves as a way to vilify our families. Do not trust these “pro 8″ people. They are Black Bible tyrants trying to hide behind the mask of righteousness. We must over come their bully tactics and rise up to defeat discrimination against our community once and for all.