LDS, LGBT, HRC (and several other letters as well)

As many of you (at least those of my readers who are in Utah), this past weekend was the LDS Church's General Conference. Conference is generally something that doesn't have much effect on me. I avoid trying to drive or eat at restaurants down-town and that's about the extent of my involvement. Like with all things to do with religion, I say to each his own. Live and let live.

This year the speech made by President Boyd K. Packer raised a lot of hackles. I'm friends with a lot of queers and consider myself part of the LGBT community. Not because I am LGB or T (although I have been declared an honorary gay boy for pride) but because I support their cause and believe that gender and sexual orientation shouldn't matter.

The press statement released by the Human Rights Campaign in response to Packer's speech popped up on my facebook several times this morning. I read it, and a few other articles (mentioned below), and then reposted it.

My friend Jeremy posted a reply with a link to this blog post which is, as he put it, "a good response to many of these allegations." I feel like at this point I should tell you that I greatly respect Jeremy's opinions. We don't agree on many issues (mostly involving politics and religion), but that's ok. He is an intelligent person and does his best to be well informed. As do I.

Anyway, you should read both things I linked to up there. Go on. I'll wait. The rest of this post is my response to them so if you don't read them you could probably stop reading now.

Connor Boyack makes some valid points, but his blog tips a little toward hypocrisy. I don't want to get into that. Hypocrisy is almost impossible to avoid in a heated issue like this. Boyack does make some valid points.

The HRC is certainly not an unbiased source, and a lot of their rhetoric is exaggerative in order to make a point and stir people to action. It's also probably true that most people who support HRC and LGBT causes will probably not read any further into the issue. That is a damned shame. People really should be willing to explore multiple sources for information and to look at both sides before they firmly come down on one side or the other. They don't. And that is how we get ignorant and uninformed people on both sides of an issue.

After reading the link Jeremy posted, I followed the link from that blog and listened to Packer's speech. I also read through "The Family: a Proclamation to the World" which plays a significant role in what Packer said. I've also read the article in the Salt Lake Tribune, the article in the Herald Journal and another blog, written by a member of the LDS church. I feel like I'm well informed enough to make an informed statement.

HRC has two, very important points. Packer's words are dangerous and, at times, inaccurate.

Inaccurate because same-sex attraction is not unnatural and it cannot be cured. People cannot help who they are attracted to.

Dangerous because what he said does effect the way the church members consider LGBT people. It is probably most dangerous to members of the LDS church who are gay. It creates a hostile environment for them in exactly the places they most need support. Being gay is hard enough without your community telling you it is unnatural and impure.

Moreover, there are people who will take Packer's words and will twist them to justify the kind of bullying and homophobic behavior that lead to the recent suicides. Yes, I know Packer didn't condone that sort of behavior in anyway. Yes, it's possible to twist anything to justify anything else if we try hard enough. But Packer is a very influential spiritual leader and his speech was pretty clearly anti-homosexual. A person in his position must be extra careful of what seeds he plants in his community. How hard would it have been for him to plant ideas of tolerance and openness? How hard would it be to spread a message of love and acceptance of all our fellow human beings?

Criminal Trespass

This is pretty much why I often get frustrated with my dear home state of Utah. The church politics are so often completely absurd. The hypocrisy an intolerance that comes out of my state's dominant religion is incredible. It's so ridiculous that you just have to laugh about it.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nailed 'Em - Mormon Church Trespassing
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I am in no way saying that all mormons are hypocritical idiots. Most of them, actually, are absolutely not. It's just "The Church" - the masses of people who run this state with a strong bias toward their personal faith. Individually I'm sure most of these people are fine. I bet most of them are actually able to think logically occasionally too. But the shenanigans that The Curch gets up to in this town are nuts!

And then people here complain about Utah Mormons have a bad reputation for being back-woods, idiot, ultra-conservative, morons. There is a reason for that.

Proud American

Obama has officially been president for about an hour now.

I listened to his speech on the radio. I would have watched it, but I don't have a television. I know I could have seen it online, but I happened to be in the car on my way to get groceries.

I can't remember the last time I had any faith in my country or the administration.

It's wonderful to have an articulate president. I truly believe that he will be able to do a world of good for our country.

I'm not naive enough to think that he will change things overnight. It's going to be really hard to undo all the things that the Bush administration did. I have faith that Obama can get things done though and that he will change our country for the better.

I suppose there were times when I was little that I was proud to be an American. Patriotism is instilled in us in elementary school, right? I feel like I have never in my adult, or even young-adult (read teenage) years, really truly felt patriotic. The 4th of July has been a nice break from school and work. I always enjoy fireworks, but I scoff at the people parading around in red, white and blue and roll my eyes at the pomp of the patriotic music.

Today I am, for the first time in years, not wishing that I lived in Canada or Europe. I won't say that the grass is suddenly greener on my side of the fence, but I can see the fertilizer and the new seed that will make it lush and verdant again. I am actually happy to be a citizen of the United States today. It's a very strange feeling.

Patriotic Whatever

Hey! Guess what I did today! I voted! Woot!

Yes, I "avoided the lines" and voted early. I stood in line for about half an hour to do it too. Funny thing is the place I usually vote usually doesn't have much of a line at all. All the news people seem to think that there will be tons o' folks voting on Tuesday though, so maybe I did avoid a long wait.

Do Your Part

This is a great video that's been going around the interwebs:



If you haven't registered yet, go out and do it now! With the country going to shit, it irresponsible to not pay attention to what's going on in Washington. I'm not the most political person you'll ever meet, but I'm following the news and forming my own opinions. It's time my generation sat up and started to give a damn about our future.

Super Duper

Hey Kids! Don't forget to go out and vote today! I like Obama, who do you like?



How 'bout now?

I actually don't expect to actually change anyone's mind about who they're going to vote for. I just think it's kind of a neat video. Hooray for political propaganda.

Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite

Last night I saw Across the Universe with my family. This movie hasn't gotten very good reviews, but I thought it was mostly good. It may have been better if 5 or 6 songs had been cut. But I'm a fan of The Beatles and, for the most part, the movie treated their music quite well. It was on par with just about any other movie centered on music and a worthwhile geek-fest for any fan of the Fab Four.

On a completely different note:
I don't pay much attention to politics. I do listen to NPR in the morning and sometimes on my way home from work, so I have a general idea of what it going on, but I rarely form an opinion. Concerning a certain Senator from Idaho, this made me chuckle:

Midtasticness

I feel like I should post something about the election that happened on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I don't really have much to say. Here in grand old Utah, voting is almost completely pointless. Utah would elect republicans even if they all started shaving their heads, painting themselves red, tatooing pentagrams on their chests and sacraficing virgins. Well, maybe not. But the elephants would have to get pretty damn close to that point for them to lose Utah. So I threw my vote away two days ago by voting straight democrat. I even voted for Matheson who is our mascot "democrat" even though I probably shouldn't have because I don't really agree with most of his schtick. My dad was hoping that Matheson would win by less than he hoped to because his constiuents voted for the green party. Wishful thinking.

The good news is that Rummy is gone. Yay.

Blood will Get Blood

Our monkey president decided to grace the great state of Utah with his presence today. Being the patriot that I am, I went down town to protest with (as the radio tells me) about 3,000 others. That's a pretty good turn out considering I live in one of the reddest states in the union. So all those people were locked in a "free speach zone" bedecked in their old hippie attire, carrying signs, listening to speaches or harrassing drivers. Our wonderful SLC mayor showed up as well and spoke a very moving speach. I'm glad I voted for him.

I was glad to see so many people out to fight against the war and they lies of the current administration. I was also struck by the futility of it all. the "free speach zones" set aside for such protests are far away from anywhere they would really do any good. Mr Bush didn't even drive by Pioneer Park. That really scares me, actually. In theory the whole right to free speach should apply everywhere in the USA, right? But isolating people with "radically liberal" opinions seems to me to be blotting out that whole part of the constitution. Yes there were three thousand people there, but the president, the person who was the cause of the whole demonstration, could easily be totally oblivious.

We only stayed for about an hour and a half. When we were walking back to the car, we happened to see G.W. himself (and his enourage) drive past. There were a few people with signs returning to their vehicles, like us, and others who simply gave the tinted windows of the limo dirty looks or obscene gestures. As it past us, we saw the president waving happily as a trained monkey. He is so totally oblivious.

One final bit of politics. For anyone who still reads this and would like to be just a little political, there is an anti-war rally on Sept 24. There are marches and rallies being held all over the country. In dear old Salt Lake people are meeting at 11am at Pioneer Park and marching to the county building. I'm thinking I'm going to go.

Gay Day

Yesterday was Pride Day in Salt Lake. I woke up early to go to the parade down town and then to the festival with my friend, Arrakis, and her friend,Kris, his boyfriend, Chris, and their friends, Eric and Brian. It was a lot of fun. The festival is great for people watching- guys in dresses and stillettos, girls with mullets and a few of those people that you just can't be sure what gender they are. The protesters were fantastic too. There were the expected guys protesting homosexuality on the whole (Homo Sex is Sin! God Will Judge You), and people protesting the protesters. My favorite were the two signs protesting shrimp (website: www.godhatesshrimp.com).