Religion & LGBTQ+

Do the two mix?

There are affirming churches but the Mormon church is not one of them and that leads to this mornings post and the doings out in Utah.

A billionaire and the tech industry are trying to shape LGBTQ rights in deeply Mormon Utah
The Washington Post
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
December 21, 2021

Troy Williams, the head of Equality Utah and once dubbed the unofficial “gay mayor of Salt Lake City,” was still absorbing the news as he made his way downtown to the opulent Grand America hotel. His phone had been blowing up all morning with messages about a speech apostle Dallin H. Oaks had given the night before.

Oaks is next in line to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the world’s 16.8 million believers commonly known as Mormons. In his remarks at the University of Virginia, he hailed the virtues of religious freedom and the importance of LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws like the trailblazing one LDS leaders, lawmakers and LGBTQ activists worked to pass in 2015. Known as the “Utah compromise,” it bans discrimination against LGBTQ people in housing and employment while carving out exceptions for religious reasons.

“I deeply regret that these two groups have been drawn into conflict with one another,” Oaks said of advocates for religious liberty and LGBTQ rights.

So what is the Utah Compromise?

Utah Passes Antidiscrimination Bill Backed by Mormon Leaders
The New York Times
By Laurie Goodstein
March 12, 2015

With the backing of Mormon church leaders, the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature passed a bill on Wednesday night that would ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in housing and employment, while also protecting religious institutions that object to homosexuality.

The legislation, known as “the Utah compromise,” has been hailed by Mormon leaders and gay rights advocates as a breakthrough in balancing rights and religious freedom, and as a model for other conservative states. But leaders of some other churches oppose it, saying it would not sufficiently protect the rights of individuals who have religious objections to homosexuality.

The vote was an extraordinary moment for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is opposed to same-sex marriage, but sent two of its leading apostles to a news conference on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City last week to endorse the anti-discrimination bill. Legislators and gay rights advocates said having the blessing of the church leaders turned the tide in the Legislature, where most members are Mormons.

“The apostles of this faith, which is the predominant faith here in Utah, stepped forward and expressed an earnest and sincere desire to come together,” said Representative Gregory H. Hughes, a Republican and the speaker of the Utah House. “We had not heard that before, and we had not heard that with such specificity, and we took notice.”

The bill would ban employers and landlords or property owners from discriminating against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, adding those categories to Utah’s laws that already protect against discrimination on the basis of race, sex and age.

The law carves a great number of exceptions included exempting government clerk from the law. The Post article goes on to say that not all are happy with the compromise.

Many supporters of LGBTQ rights are less enthusiastic. They cite glaring gaps in the state’s protections for LGBTQ people and argue that religious freedom protections, which were integral in securing conservative support for the compromise, were already strong in the state. For example, Brigham Young University prohibits LGBTQ students from dating and can deny housing to same-sex couples.

The Post article goes on to say that Utah passed other so called LGBTQ+ friendly legislation, Utah overturned its “No Promo Homo” law which lifted the law banning the discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in class (The Supreme Court has ruled that other states bans violate the First Amendment rights.) and they banned conversion therapy. But notice the law does not include public accommodation, a glaring gap in protection for us and for many they see it as the most important part of the non-discrimination laws. 

The billionaire Jeff T. Green, who owns Trade Desk wants to help fund Equality Utah...

The sun was setting behind the mountains as Green went into his plans to submit his formal resignation from the LDS Church on Dec. 23, the birthday of Mormonism’s founder and an important day for the faith. He cited his frustrations with church leadership, especially over LGBTQ issues. Also resigning are his brother, an executive at Amazon; a cousin, a vice president at U.S. Bank; his sister, as well as several of their children.

[…]

At the end of the meeting, the billionaire was still unsure exactly how much he was going to give to Equality Utah. (He would later donate $600,000, the second largest one-time donation the group has ever received). But he was won over by Williams’s diplomatic approach.

“I know there’s an attitude that we had this great Utah compromise and somehow we make it work, but we haven’t made it work yet," Green said. "We can. We’ll get there.”

To me I do not see the compromise as anything good, to me I see it as throwing table scraps at us, the overly broad religious exemption from a state where about 70% of the population are Mormons and without public accommodation the law is worthless.