27000 letters urge LDS leader to back rights of gay Utahns

President Thomas S. Monson: You have mail – boxes of it.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) delivered 27,000 letters to LDS Church headquarters Monday – all of them asking the Mormon leader to support legal protections for gay and transgender Utahns.

The national gay-rights group has endorsed Equality Utah’s Common Ground Initiative, a collection of bills that would, among other things, provide rights to fair housing and employment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Utahns and domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples.

The movement was born in response to statements the LDS Church made in the wake of California’s Proposition 8 – which eliminated gay marriage in the Golden State – 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.”

Monson and other LDS leaders helped to get the gay-marriage ban enacted, urging members to donate their time and money to the campaign and, later, igniting opponents’ protests at LDS temples and calls for boycotts of Utah.

“The reason there’s such an uproar is every LGBT person in the United States was affected by it,” since Proposition 8 stripped away rights that had been granted to gay couples, said Jerry Rapier, a Salt Lake City resident and member of the HRC’s board of governors.

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‘Call in gay’ in Utah? You could be fired

Utah lesbians and gays who join a national movement and skip work today by “calling in gay” are risking their jobs.

Besides missing a shift in a slumping economy during the holiday season, employees can be fired in the Beehive State simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).

Equality Utah, as part of its Common Ground Initiative, is hoping the Legislature changes that in 2009 by making it illegal — in a bill sponsored by Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City — to dismiss workers because of their sexual orientation.

“There certainly is that risk” of being fired for calling in gay to work, said Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah. “Consideration for employment or promotion in the workplace … should be based on performance and not on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association, said she is familiar with today’s “Day Without a Gay” work stoppage, but her industry isn’t expecting a significant problem with absenteeism.

“Those who do have jobs feel fortunate,” Sine said, adding that she does not think an employee would be at risk for termination for coming out as gay. “A good employee is an asset, and it doesn’t matter what other types of affiliations they have.”

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‘Call in gay‘ in Utah? You could be fired
Salt Lake Tribune -