Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash

Since California voters passed a ban on gay marriage, some supporters of the measure have found themselves squarely in the bull’s-eye of angry gay rights activists.

It’s no secret who gave money for and against the controversial amendment to the state’s constitution, known as Proposition 8. California’s secretary of state publicized the lists of contributors, which were picked up by local media and Web sites.

And in the aftermath of a contentious campaign, protests followed. In Los Angeles, would-be patrons of a popular Tex-Mex restaurant were greeted by furious protestors like John Dennison.

“El Coyote — millions in gay margarita money funding hatred,” Dennison yelled during the protest. “Boycott El Coyote!”

The restaurant owner’s daughter, Margie Christofferson, a faithful Mormon, had made a modest $100 contribution to the “Yes on 8″ campaign — and the restaurant’s gay patrons, like Edward Stanley, felt betrayed.

“I won’t be eating here,” Stanley said.

Business dipped about 30 percent at the height of the protest, and it still hasn’t returned to pre-protest levels. Several members of the restaurant’s staff — including many of its gay employees — have seen their hours cut back in response. And Christofferson, who managed the restaurant, has resigned.

Others Feel The Heat

In Sacramento, the owners of Leatherby’s Family Creamery found themselves part of the backlash when The Sacramento Bee printed the list of contributors. Dave Leatherby, a devout Roman Catholic father of 10, says he was responding to a direct request from his bishop to give generously.

“We gave $20,000 for Yes on Proposition 8,” he says.

And once that was known, retaliation was swift. “We soon started getting very nasty e-mails and letters and phone calls by the hundreds,” he says.

Leatherby says he was mystified, because the Creamery had always enjoyed good relations with the gay and lesbian community.

And he says something interesting happened when demonstrators arrived outside his shop: Business went up, instead of down. “The day they picketed us, there were about 15 picketers, and that day we had people waiting two hours to get into our restaurant for four or five hours,” he says.

Not every backlash story ends that way.

Richard Raddon, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Scott Eckern, director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, are devout Mormons. Both made contributions to Yes on 8, and both got demands for their resignations from gay rights protestors. They quit so their organizations wouldn’t face further controversy. Ironically, the film festival has been instrumental in introducing works by gay and lesbian filmmakers to a broader audience — and the musical theater included works by gay playwrights and composers.

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NPR

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Faith forms a bond for a lesbian priest and a Mormon father of three

Who could have foreseen what would happen between the Mormon filmmaker and the lesbian priest?

Not Douglas Hunter, even after he took a leap of faith and trained his camera on the Rev. Susan Russell.

And maybe not even Russell, who had undergone a remarkable transformation from one-time suburban soccer mom to priest and outspoken champion of gay rights.

But the friendship that took root when Hunter asked Russell to play the central role in his documentary about same-sex marriage and theology would lead two people from different worlds to a new understanding of themselves and their faiths.

“We’re all telling the same stories about God’s work in our lives,” said Hunter, 40, a father of three from Pasadena who discovered Russell on the Internet.

Technology may have provided the bridge, but it was an ancient religious calling that drew Hunter to Russell, a senior associate priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

Hunter felt a religious obligation to cross the same boundary Jesus is said to have traversed 2,000 years ago when he spoke of embracing the outsider.

No group was further outside Mormon circles, Hunter thought, than gays and lesbians. Mormonism, he knew, viewed homosexual acts as sins, and Mormons would become among the most generous supporters of California’s Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage that was approved by voters last fall.

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Los Angeles Times – CA,USA

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Mormons take lead on ‘social’ bills

CHEYENNE — Mormons comprise more than 10 percent of the membership of the Wyoming Legislature, yet Mormon lawmakers are not known for voting as a bloc or working together to promote legislation.

That may be changing.

Mormons are taking a higher profile this session in promoting bills linked to controversial social issues including assisted suicide, gay marriage and abortion.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are the primary sponsors of bills dealing with all three topics, and a cadre of about eight LDS lawmakers have teamed up as the original co-sponsors of six related bills.

Members of that group say their collective support of the bills is more coincidence than strategy, and they insist that no Mormon caucus exists in the Legislature.

But watchdog and social-issue advocacy groups say it could be a troubling sign if LDS legislators are working to inject their religious beliefs into the lawmaking process.

“It raises some serious questions about how we want to make our laws in this state,” said Dan Neal, executive director of the Laramie-based Equality State Policy Center, a policy watchdog group. “Churches that believe one way or another shouldn’t be forcing things in their direction.”

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.Casper Star-Tribune Online – Casper,WY,USA