Struck down as unconstitutional on August 4, 2010.
I watched this documentary the night before the Proposition 8 ruling and then again with my LGBT Rights Activist friend Stacey the night before the announcement of the stay.
That documentary is really powerful in terms of impact on the universe…
Hmmm… when is the vote on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?
Anyways, my opinion on the documentary.
8: The Mormon Proposition shows the influence and impact that the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) had on the Proposition 8 ballot measure.
Why does the LDS care about whether two consenting adults enter into a relationship?
Most of it has to do with the Mormon belief in the afterlife. The Mormons believe that when you reach the afterlife, you basically become a God with many wives to populate this conception of heaven with souls. They believe in celestial marriage. So… by their logic… if a gay Mormon makes it to heaven, then that soul will be unable to populate heaven with souls. Marriage equality threatens the Mormon afterlife.
How ridiculous does that sound?!
This was not the first time that the LDS got involved in a marriage equality ballot measure. A decade earlier before the Prop 8 vote, there was a measure to expand marriage to same-sex couples in Hawaii. According to documents, the LDS spent $100K towards an opinion poll to determine the public’s opinion of the church in that state. It was not favorable. Most of the people in that poll viewed the LDS as racist and did not approve of their practice of marriage (polygamy). In order for to keep “traditional” marriage in place, the LDS provided money and formed a front group to distance the church from this ballot measure. This front group was a coalition of other groups that included the Catholic Church. “Traditional” marriage was kept in place in Hawaii. That gave LDS leaders an idea. If this plan worked well in a small state like Hawaii… imagine what this would be like in an influential state like California.
In 2007, the LDS began forming their plan to place Proposition 8 on the ballot. What they did was create a complex web that distanced the Church from Prop 8 through the National Organization of Marriage (NOM).
While following the money, it was very interesting how the LDS was able to raise the necessary capital to support Prop 8. The Church encouraged their members to donate money to their cause. If they weren’t able to donate, church leadership intimidated members by threatening to revoke their membership or personally showing up at their members houses and not leaving until they got an appropriate donation.
According to the records shown in the documentary, families were donating large sums of money. They were emptying their savings for retirement; even their children’s college fund in order to fund the “Yes on 8” campaign.
“Sorry, Timmy, but you can’t go to college. But, by gum, we’ll keep those evil degenerate gays in California from marrying.”
The amount of money raised daily for “Yes on 8” was astonishing. The amount of money raised daily to fund the campaign in the month leading up to the election was $500K/day. The comparison, as one of the investigators put, was that to “Obama money.” In the last week leading up to the election, $3 million dollars came directly from Utah because there was a good chance that Prop 8 was not going to pass. The total amount of money raised for “Yes on 8” was over $20 million. The amount contributed by the LDS was $17 million. Mormons make up 2% of the California population BUT accounted for at least three-fourths of the campaign contributions to “Yes on 8.”
Of course, according to documents released by the LDS they only spent $180K on the campaign (At first they reported they spent $2,000 on “Yes on 8”)
Right… they spent $180K on the campaign…
$2,000 probably paid for the catering. $180K probably went towards the equipment for one of the ads.
About the front organization, take a look at this advertising.
That’s right.
The National Organization of Marriage was working with the Knights of Columbus and Focus on The Family
And guess who took all the credit for Prop 8 passing?
This was a very interesting coalition because Mormons are not viewed positively among Christian Evangelicals. How else can you explain that Mitt Romney did not win the Republican nomination in 2008? Christians have a history for persecuting Mormons because, ironically, of their practice of alternative marriage in the form of polygamy.
And this will turn your head: One of the couples interviewed featured the descendant of Frederick G. Williams, a well known leader in the founding of the LDS who was chased across the US and into Mexico because he was married to three wives. He was excommunicated from the church for apostasy (a heretic) in 1837, but later re-baptized in 1840.
The documentary also showed the “Yes on 8” materials that the LDS promoted such as encouraging people to host parties, blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. about voting Yes on Proposition 8 and why they were voting that way. Even the “Yes on 8” ads drew some criticism for using a couple’s child in one of their ads (NOTE: a husband and wife couple, by the way).
Wait a minute… Organizing people? Campaign contributions? Encouraging people how to vote? Paying for ads?
Are you sure this is not a political party?
Hmmm… me thinks that should result in the LDS being revoked of 501(c)(3) status…
Originally, 8: The Mormon Proposition was filmed to discuss homophobia in the Mormon community in Utah. The last 20% of the film centered on the topics of youth homelessness and suicide. Utah has the highest rate of youth suicide not just in the US, but worldwide; most of them among LGBT youths.
This part of the film discussed about a BYU student who was tortured by LDS members to renounce his “homosexual ways.” He talked about a list circulated by the LDS where they tortured people by electroshock therapy and lobotomies. Many of the people on this list either “disappeared” or committed “suicide.” There was also mention of a same-sex male couple that was assaulted by LDS members when they showed public displays of affection outside of the LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City.
And apparently there was a new LDS front group that appeared called America Forever (website shut down). They were running ads in a Utah newspaper. All I have to say is good riddance that they are shut down.
And they also interviewed this prominent Utah State Senator, Chris Buttars (R) …
I guess he has some issues to deal with…
The documentary sheds a light about the negative influence religion can have on people. Also, it does highlight a point I made in a previous entry about the time, money, and energy these organizations put their focus into. According to State Senator Buttars, the number one threat to America is… the gays.
That’s right. Not the evaporation of the American middle class. Not the fact that we are involved in two wars. Or, we have 250 THOUSAND homeless veterans. A health care system that ranks #37 in the world and we spend the most per person while our neighbors in Canada spend half that and live longer. Not financial reform. Not having to face a deteriorating infrastructure. Not climate change. Or, how about this: five years AFTER Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans is STILL not built back up to what it was before the storm hit.
“Well… my job has been shipped overseas; the company’s CEO cleaned out the pension plan; we can’t afford to send our kids to college; the kids have been dropped from our health insurance plan because they have a ‘pre-existing condition’; and my brother Steve was supposed to come home from Afghanistan in a week, but his deployment has been extended again. But I am glad that we kept that nice elderly lesbian couple next door from getting married because them celebrating their commitment is a threat to America.”
Folks, this is the politics of distraction and scapegoatism. All this does is distract us from real issues and shifts blame over to a group that has absolutely nothing to do with the real issues facing this country. For goodness sakes, the “Yes on 8” campaign raised $20 MILLION. Imagine what that money could have been put towards? It could have been donated to a public school, a county hospital, or even put towards a scholarship fund. Instead that money was used for evil.
Marriage equality should not even be an issue. Hell, it should not have been voted on in the first place. I have not seen any evidence of the issue of “mixed race marriages” placed on the ballot in the 1950s and 1960s. So, could SOMEONE please explain to me why a relationship between TWO CONSENTING ADULTS is being voted on?
To use religion as the basis for why marriage equality should not happen is disgustingly contradictory to any faith, which every major religious faith teaches kindness, forgiveness, and acceptance: all the items that make up love. Even former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson (D) said the religious argument against marriage equality “is a lie.”
I found this documentary at my local public library and I even suggested that the UNT and Bedford Libraries purchase it to expand their collection (I know the Community Services Supervisor at the Bedford Library).
I recommend this documentary. As you can see, I learned quite a bit after watching the film.
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