Most of you have probably heard about Proposition 8 by now, the shameful blot now on California's Constitution enshrining discrimination against same-sex couples. I posted my thoughts about it over on my personal blog already.

The elephant in the room is that somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of the funding for Proposition 8 came from the efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormons. This organization claims to be a religious one entitled to tax exemption, but now it is clear that it is nothing more than an anti-gay Political Action Committee. In fact, as anti-gay organizations go, the Mormon Church outshines even Focus on the "Family" and the American "Family" Association now. The "Family" groups are still in the nursery as far as bigotry goes in comparison to the Mormons.

Now the hilarious thing is that the Mormons are finding themselves a little bit uncomfortable with the backlash against them for being the major funding source of a campaign based entirely on lies and misinformation. They feel they've been "singled out" for raising 4 out of every 5 dollars for the Prop 8 campaign and have issued a couple duplicitous news releases, which I will now mock.

In " Church Responds to Same-Sex Marriage votes," they make the absolutely hysterical assertion, "No one on any side of the question should be vilified, intimidated, harassed or subject to erroneous information." Maybe they mean, not anymore? Because the backers of Prop 8, funded almost entirely by the Mormons, did nothing but vilify, intimidate (even to the point of sending extortion letters to no-on-8 business donors), harass and lie through their teeth.

They make this equally-laughable assertion:

Allegations of bigotry or persecution made against the Church were and are simply wrong. The Church's opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.

Sorry, but the act of stealing my civil rights is a hostile action. Don't expect me to smile while you stab me in the back. And we all know what "so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family" is code for: so long as they stay in the closet, ride on the back of the bus, and use different water fountains. All kinds of bigotry can be excused in this manner.

After a handful of peaceful protests hit a little too close to home, the Mormons got defensive, calling it "disturbing" that they've been "singled out" for their involvement in providing 4/5 of the funding for Proposition 8. They cried,

While those who disagree with our position on Proposition 8 have the right to make their feelings known, it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.

Well guess what, guys? Peaceful protests on public property are also part of the democratic process. If you can't take the heat, maybe you should get out of the kitchen. And by that, I mean get out of my state, go back to Utah, and keep your nose out of our business.

It's arguable whether the Mormon church is simply participating in the "democratic process" as they claim. The church enjoys exemption from paying federal income tax, which generally comes with a prohibition on involvement in political campaigns. There's already a movement afoot to have the IRS investigate whether the LDS church violated federal tax law by actively participating in a political campaign as they did, and to strip them of their tax-exempt status if they did.

(In other words: if you think your church needs to actively run political hate campaigns against gay people, then fine: you can pay taxes just like the gay people you're hating.)

In any case, participation in the democratic process is a two-way street. The right to participate is not the right to participate unopposed, as those of us who dedicated countless hours battling the lies and treachery of the Prop 8 hate machine know all too well.

So if you Mormons don't want protests coming to your church, might I suggest a simple way to avoid them?

---Nick

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