[Djamila Grossman, The Salt Lake Tribune]
On the heels of extremely bigoted, anti-gay remarks the other day from Boyd Packer, one of the highest ranking leaders in the Mormon church, thousands gathered in Salt Lake City, dressed in black, to protest his words, coming as they did after a spate of gay teen suicides:
Packer’s speech, delivered during the LDS Church’s 180th Semiannual General Conference, hit a nerve, protesters say, because it came after a string of gay teen suicides in the national news. Boys as young as 13 took their own lives after reportedly being bullied by their peers for being gay.
On Thursday, protest organizers estimated that 4,500 people ringed the two downtown blocks that make up the LDS Church’s headquarters. Participants wore black, and some carried signs. Lying head to toe or sitting shoulder to shoulder, they encircled Temple Square two times.
“Tonight, we are symbolic of all the children who have been killed by messages like Boyd K. Packer’s,” said organizer and Salt Lake City blogger Eric Ethington. “When you hear nothing from [church leaders] but that you are nothing but evil and you need to change the unchangeable nature of yourself, that is only a message kids can take for so long.”
It’s getting louder. Keep turning up the volume.
[h/t Joe]
I saw Prop 8 the movie exposing the LD$ Church’s involvement in the anti marriage amendment in California recently, and it has crossed my mind that marches on Washington are not where we need to be putting our energy. 50,000 gay folk marching on Salt Lake City might be far more effective in getting the publicity shy LD$ to back off their political machinations. Any thoughts?
Actually, for SLC 4500 is pretty amazing. Mormons are not known for street protests.
There have been times in the church’s past where the “living prophet” had a vision from God and all the rules changed.
There was the time the United States wouldn’t give them statehood because they practiced polygamy . . . BAM . . . church changing vision.
The only way the “living prophet” will have one of his church-changing visions is if federal dollars are in the mix. Cut federal money until God gives him the vision.
I suppose we could learn from the NCAA. They refused to give BYU a ???charter . . . whatever it’s called??? until they allowed blacks to enroll. Suddenly, the prophet had a “vision” that blacks aren’t inherently evil because of the color of their skin. I suppose we could wait for the NCAA again, but either of the solutions above is probably gonna take a long stinkin time.