What the Mormons Learned From the Gays

http://www.advocate.com/Politics/What_the_Mormons_Learned_From_the_Gays/

The Mormon Church is having its most visible period ever.

The musical The Book of Mormon is the biggest hit Broadway has seen in years. TLC’s Sister Wives portrays the real housewives of polygamous families—granted, something no longer sanctioned by the church. And Mitt Romney, the world’s second or third most famous Mormon (after Donny and Marie Osmond, of course), has been fighting for the Republican presidential nomination, even besting Jon Huntsman, a fellow Latter-day Saint, along the way.

But being out in the mainstream is a mixed blessing for the faith, which has been a frequent target of ridicule (see: The Book of Mormon) and backlash (after introducing Texas governor Rick Perry, another of Romney’s now-bygone rivals for the GOP nomination, at the influential Values Voter Summit in October, Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress reiterated his belief that Mormonism a cult). So the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched a national advertising campaign last year that aims to introduce the public to a diverse collection of Mormons, including African-Americans and Latinos. The “I’m a Mormon” campaign hopes to dispel myths and end prejudice at a time when the stakes have never been higher.

This LDS media education effort bears striking similarities to campaigns that LGBT groups have undertaken over the years. Banking on the wisdom that knowing an individual builds empathy for a marginalized group has long been a tactic of the gays. With such shared desires and strategies, it seems as if the two communities ought to be able to find common ground. But Mormons won’t find too much empathy among gays these days.

In the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that amended the California constitution to override the state Supreme Court’s decision allowing same-sex couples to marry, an estimated 40% of the pro–Prop. 8 funding came from Mormons, in California and elsewhere, acting at church leaders’ behest. (The exact figure is hard to determine because campaign donation records do not include individuals’ religious affiliation.) This caused a rift that endures more than three years later. Rage among gays over the LDS actions gave rise to the website StopTheMormons.com and the critical film 8: The Mormon Proposition. Gay Republican Fred Karger, another presidential aspirant, launched his Top 10 Craziest Mormon Beliefs website largely to challenge Romney’s candidacy.