Mormons Back Salt Lake Gay Rights Law

Group of dissenters launch campaign urging church to stop its political advocacy

(NEWSER) - A group of Mormons is campaigning to get the church to cease its aggressive activism against gay marriage, the Salt Lake Tribune reports, with the so-called Committee for Reconciliation calling for church leaders to soften their uncompromising stance on the issue. They say the church’s attitude has helped take rights away from homosexuals and damaged many Mormon families. More»

New law knocks down barriers, hands-off policy in restaurants

(NEWSER) - Under a new law that went into effect yesterday, restaurants that sell alcohol no longer need to separate patrons from the people serving them drinks, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. “Not having these barriers is going to save us a lot of time, especially with out-of-state visitors who constantly ask what it is and why it's there,” one owner said of the “Zion curtains,” which are usually glass barriers. More»

Will Mormon Church stand by claim that it only objects to marriage?

(NEWSER) - In leading the fight against gay marriage in California, the Mormon Church liked to say that it wasn’t antigay and had no problem with gay legal rights—just marriage. Gay rights activists in Utah have decided to test that claim, reports the New York Times, and gay Utah legislators are proposing an expansion of legal rights. “We are taking the LDS Church at its word,” says an activist leader. More»

(NEWSER) - Gay and straight protesters covered each other in kisses today outside Salt Lake City’s Mormon Temple, USA Today reports. The rally—inspired by a gay couple who were handcuffed and cited Friday for smooching on church property—was organized to condemn the Mormon ban on "offensive, indecent, obscene, lewd or disorderly speech, dress or conduct.” More»

Half of donations, many volunteers from LDS church

(NEWSER) - Vigorous Mormon efforts were behind the success of California’s gay-marriage ban, the New York Times reports. Mormon leaders said they saw the ban as a “fundamental moral issue,” and contributed almost half of the $40 million collected to push Proposition 8 through; they coordinated an extensive campaign to contact voters, with church members accounting for some 90% of early door-knockers for the cause, said a strategist. More»