This month, Mormons have been (metaphorically) caught with their pants down and are feeling the wrath of civil and gay rights activists over their support for Proposition 8 in California – a voter initiative to define marriage between a man and a woman – as well as the church-sponsored Brigham Young University’s denial of a degree to Chad Hardy (pictured) over his role in publishing the topless male calendar Mormons Exposed.
Those Mormons, those crazy Mormons, they are making headlines these days and not the good kind. In California, they were at the center of the well-publicized and hotly debated Proposition 8 – a voter initiative that if passed will define marriage as between a man and a woman in California’s state Constitution. The Mormon Church (officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) joined forces with the Catholic Church to fund efforts to pass Prop 8 and galvanize voters.
With Proposition 8 expected to pass and thereby threaten same-sex marriages in California, Mormons have largely been held responsible for the shift. Early polls predicted Proposition 8 would not pass, but after Mormon leaders called on church members to get out the vote (and their pocketbooks), the momentum shifted.
While absentee and provisional ballots have not yet been counted, the current tally has the yays at 5,387,939 and the nays at 4,883,460. With the Mormon population in California estimated to be around 770,000, according to the site mormonsfor8.com, the church’s active lobbying for Proposition 8 seems largely responsible for the swing. In fact, the lobbying was so active that mormonsfor8.com lists members who donated $1000 or more to the cause and puts the total figure of Mormon donations at over US$15 million.
The role of the Mormon Church in passing Proposition 8 has led to a massive backlash, most notably on the website www.mormonsstoleourrights.com, which has called for the government to revoke the church’s classification as a religious organization. The site argues that a church is banned from political lobbying for legislation and a voter initiative such as Proposition 8 is directly linked to legislation. The website has received over 300,000 hits in its first five days and if successful in its calls for a change to the church’s tax class would cost the Mormon Church millions of dollars in tax exemptions.
Meanwhile in Utah, the Mormon Church will soon be gearing up for another legal battle as Chad Hardy sues the church and its affiliated university Brigham Young for denying him a degree because of his role in publishing the sexy Mormons Exposed calendar of topless male Mormon missionaries. (To read OUTinPerth’s interview with Chad Hardy, click here.)
In a mass email received by OUTinPerth, Chad Hardy said he had retained top civil liberty attorneys to take on the Mormon Church and BYU in court, claiming ‘the only way to get the church to behave is to publicly show how they really operate behind closed doors.’
Hardy’s email went on to say, ‘This is not intended to be a hate campaign against the LDS church. That has never been my intention. This is simply a campaign to allow the church to be accountable and to follow their procedures truthfully, honestly and with integrity. I am saddened by the actions of the LDS church against me… The abuse needs to stop, and together we can make a difference for people in similar situations.’
The email then invited people to visit www.chadhardy.com to find out more about his case and donate to his legal fund with the hopes of raising $10,000 in 30 days.
