The day after Proposition 8, a Mormon supported ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage, passed in California, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints released a formal statement saying, “the church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights.”

Last week however, a Utah bill that would have allowed two people who live together and who are mutually dependent and named in a will or trust to a wrongful death court action if a tragedy occurred, was defeated in a state senate committee after opponents of the bill argued that offering any legal recognition to same-sex couples, including the right to sue when a breadwinner suffers a wrongful death, could lead to a court decision legalizing gay marriage.

This week in an effort to sway voters in that state and prevent other of Equality Utah’s legislative initiative’s remaining bills from going down in flames, Equality Utah has come out swinging with a major multimedia ad blitz that turn the tables and proclaims…

“The Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples …”

In a press statement Equality Utah said…

Several polls have indicated that the majority of Utahns support the reasonable and basic protections provided for in the legislation of the Common Ground
Initiative.

Yet lawmakers rebuffed one of the Common Ground Initiative bills last week, recalling tired arguments that the proposals are somehow an attack on traditional marriage.

Far from pessimistic about the ability of Utah legislators see passed the tired arguments that surfaced during last week’s hearing, Equality Utah has launched a media campaign to help raise awareness of the reasonableness and broad public support of the basic ideals of the Common Ground Initiative.

“We’ve modeled our legislative proposals directly from the statements of the LDS Church,” said Mike Thompson, Equality Utah’s Executive Director. “We’re talking about basic rights that have broad public support and have nothing to do with marriage. We hope this media campaign will help Utahns see passed the fear-based arguments used against this legislation.”

More of Equality Utah uses the LDS own words in a new campaign for Gay Rights
Lez Get Real – Washington DC,District of Columbia,USA

 Actor Tom Hanks went after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their support of California’s Proposition 8 while talking to Fox News. Today, the Church responded.

Hanks played a gay attorney who was fired from his job in the movie “Philadelphia,” and he paid special tribute to a couple of gay teachers in his Oscar acceptance speech. Now, he is slamming people who voted for an anti-gay marriage proposition in California.

 See Tom Hanks calls LDS Church’s support of Prop. 8 ‘un-American’
KSL-TV, UT 

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.

 See 27000 letters urge LDS leader to back rights of gay Utahns
Salt Lake Tribune, United States -

 It’s the latest salvo in the battle over same sex marriage. An openly gay entertainer is calling on the music industry to refuse to license certain material to LDS musical groups.

It’s a call for action – gay artists boycotting the LDS Church’s involvement in the passage of California’s Proposition 8 – the banning of gay marriage. Jon Powell says, “They can’t have it both ways. They can’t say they love us and take away our rights.” Powell is leading this front. He’s a former member of The Church, and of BYU’s Young Ambassadors. His website states, “I feel all gay artists should not allow their art, music, dance or theatrical piece to be used to promote the Mormon Church…. Please do not support them and do not allow them to use your work to support their message of hate.” 

Powell has talked with one artist in particular, Stephen Schwartz, the composer of the musical “Wicked” which the Young Ambassadors wants to use in their show. Powell says, “For me that material is so blatantly hypocritical… the use of it in the Young Ambassadors show.” Part of an email Schwartz wrote to Powell says, “I’m looking into it, and if this is truly a Mormon “promotional” group, rather than just student singers, I will try to do something about it.”   See Artist calls for boycott of LDS performances over same-sex …
ABC 4 – Salt Lake City,USA