If you read juls' diary yesterday, then you'd know that the Mormon Church is getting a bit nervous about its support for Proposition 8 in California being exposed in public. As juls told us, they've already shut down the call center they had been running to support stripping gays of their hard-earned equal rights.
If there's one thing the LDS church doesn't like, it's bad publicity. They're so nervous about it, in fact, that a diary I wrote generated a lengthy news segment on Salt Lake City's ABC affiliate, and got coverage from the Salt Lake Tribune.
And what were are they hoping to avoid? Any mention of the fact that "Yes on 8" might as well be a subsidiary of the Mormon Church. After all, that very ABC news affiliate said that Mormons have donated a staggering 80% of the total money Yes on 8 has raised.
(more below)
They were hoping they could slip their attempt to make California look a little bit more like Temple Square under the radar--just like they were hoping that they could slip their effort to blackmail businesses that had contributed to No on 8 under the radar.
See, the thing is this: regardless of how you feel about gays being married, only theocrats approve of a religious organization having its way with our state constitution. Which means that the more you can do to expose who's really supporting this initiative and get media publicity toward that end, the better off we'll be--not only because the Mormon Church will be forced to tone down its support of this initiative in the closing days of the campaign, but because an anti-theocracy message will definitely help sway anyone that might be on the fence.
But in order to achieve these goals, we need to keep the pressure on, because they won't relent easily. After all, any cause that can unite the Mormon church and their usual archenemies in evangelical protestantism is a firmly held belief indeed.
But here are some of the things that you can do--and they involve either responding to news, or creating it yourself.
- Contact the Salt Lake ABC affiliate that ran the story about my diary. Ask them why they're not running a similar story about the Yes on 8 campaign sending a letter of blackmail and extortion to businesses opposing Prop 8--a letter signed by Mark Jansson, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- Sign the petition written by my friends at the Courage Campaign requesting Prophet-President Thomas Monson to stop lying about Proposition 8. The ads being funded by their church's members tell bald-faced lies about both education and religious freedoms. And any good Christian knows that bearing false witness is a violation of God's law.
- Create news of your own. If you have a Mormon temple near you, gather some friends together and protest at it. Call up your local TV stations too--maybe they'll want to cover it.
- Donate or volunteer for the Prop 8 campaign. The Mormons have put $20 million and thousands of hours of shoe leather into this campaign. If we want to win this fight, our investment needs to be just as great during the last few days before election day.
- And most important: if anyone you know in California might be undecided about Proposition 8, talk to them. Even if they're uncomfortable, talk to them about equal rights. Talk to them about who's trying to foist this off on Caliornia. And have them ask themselves what might be next if Prop 8 passes.
They must be stopped. They must be stopped here and now. They know the tide of history is against them. They know that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Towards fairness. Towards equality. And they don't like it. If they're defeated here, it will be hard to generate the enthusiasm and the resources to do it again. After all, a family with five children can only donate their $50,000 live savings once.
There are lots of things you can do between now and November 4 to strike a blow for equality and against theocracy.
What will you do?
UDPATE: here's a YouTube video about the blackmail and extortion campaign run by the official Yes on 8 campaign. Make it go viral.
And remember: this letter was signed by the leaders of Yes on 8, including their chief legal counsel.
Update 2: make sure you sign the Courage Campaign petition! From CDH in Brooklyn in the comments:
Just signed the Courage Campaign petition, and was impressed that:
1. I was invited to e-mail the petition link to my friends (which I did), and that
2. I was then directed to Act Blue, where I donated, and I was given the option whether or not to adjust the automatic 50/50 split between the Courage Campaign and Equality for All (and again, given the opportunity to forward the request for donations to my friends, which I did).
People, these folks have got it together. Reward them for their hard work!
Amen to that. Your contributions to the Courage Campaign pay for activism like this.
UPDATE 3: This is inspiring. From commenter cvcobb01:
As a Mormon, what I've done is... (3+ / 0-)
...redirected all of my tithing and fast offerings to No on 8.
I've also spoken out at church and made as much noise as my little influence allows.
As have many of my Mormon friends. We are not monolithic on this, if that's any comfort.
More at Mormons for Marriage.
That deserves a diary in and of itself.