Human Rights Campaign Sends Letter to LDS Church, Launches National Action Alert
HRC Board Member Bruce Bastian calls on Mormon Church to support "Common Ground Initiative", Legislative Package Aimed at Providing Equality to Utah’s LGBT Community
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today launched a national action alert written by activist Bruce Bastian to the LGBT community to contact the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and ask its leadership to support LGBT protections in Utah. The action alert follows a letter sent by Human Rights Campaign last week to LDS Church President Thomas Monson asking the church “offer protections and support” to LGBT people by supporting the Common Ground Initiative by Equality Utah, the state LGBT group. The action alert and letter urge the church to publicly support the words of Elder L. Whitney Clayton, who recently said the LDS Church is not opposed to civil unions and other non-marriage legal recognitions of same-sex relationships. To view the action alert visit: http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/ldsletter.
“As you know, California's Proposition 8 stripped loving, committed couples of their legal right to marry. While we will always be in opposing camps regarding marriage equality under the law, I ask that you now support legislative change in Utah that offers real protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens and families,” according to the letter, written by Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “If the LDS Church is committed to a view that there are other ways to offer protections and support to the LGBT people who are in your pews and in your home state, then you will publicly join Equality Utah's Common Ground Initiative.”
At this time, LDS Church leadership has not responded to the letter sent by Human Rights Campaign. When contacted by the Associated Press for a story published November 11, a spokesperson for the LDS Church said “it would have no comment.” (Associated Press, November 11, 2008) In a statement issued online by the LDS Church, church officials said they do “not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights.” Link to the story: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1515514
To read the full statement by the LDS Church visit: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-responds-to-same-sex-marriage-votes#continued
The Common Ground Initiative includes a package of legislative bills that will:
- Providing domestic partnership rights and responsibilities for same-sex couples;
- Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Utah’s anti-discrimination laws for employment, housing, and health care;
- Giving domestic partners of public employees insurance and retirement benefits.
- Giving domestic partners access to the courts if their loved one is killed because of negligence or malpractice; and
- Repealing the second clause of Utah’s Anti-Marriage Amendment which is used to prevent gay and lesbian couples from receiving any kind of relationship recognition in the state.
- The letter as sent to LDS Church President Thomas Monson:
Link available: www.hrc.org/ldsletter
Subject: Let's find "Common Ground"
Dear President Monson:
I write you now in the spirit of respectful engagement to compel you to give credibility and force to the words of Elder L. Whitney Clayton, who said the LDS Church is not opposed to civil unions and other non-marriage legal recognitions of same-sex relationships.
As you know, California's Proposition 8 stripped loving, committed couples of their legal right to marry. While we will always be in opposing camps regarding marriage equality under the law, I ask that you now support legislative change in Utah that offers real protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens and families.
Equality Utah, a state group supporting LGBT rights, has created the Common Ground Initiative, seeking to find acceptable solutions to solve the many problems LGBT people in Utah face every day. The initiative includes legislative bills that will:
- Providing domestic partnership rights and responsibilities for same-sex couples;
- Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Utah’s anti-discrimination laws for employment, housing, and health care;
- Giving domestic partners of public employees insurance and retirement benefits.
- Giving domestic partners access to the courts if their loved one is killed because of negligence or malpractice; and
- Repealing the second clause of Utah’s Anti-Marriage Amendment which is used to prevent gay and lesbian couples from receiving any kind of relationship recognition in the state.
If the LDS Church is committed to a view that there are other ways to offer protections and support to the LGBT people who are in your pews and in your home state, then you will publicly join Equality Utah's Common Ground Initiative.
And if you do, then perhaps the respectful dialogue we all seek is one that we can finally have moving forward. There is a way out of this anger, but it is not the burden of our community to stop its rightful protests. It is the burden of the LDS Church to support legislation that impacts LGBT lives in Utah positively for a change.
Sincerely,
Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.