Last minute Prop 8 stuff: Steve Young, Obama, and the LA Times

I continue to follow Prop 8 very closely. It appears to be virtually tied, and it's anybody's guess what will happen. News that quarterback great and Mormon Steve Young had No on 8 signs at his house and that his wife had donated money to the campaign was big over the weekend. The family has clarified their position on the issue now. It appears that Young's wife is the one primarily behind the signs and the donation (I guess she has a gay brother, too) and that Steve himself is sticking to his long-time commitment to stay out of politics. At any rate, imagine all the interesting conservations in Mormon churches yesterday!

When blogger Andrew Sullivan picked up on all this, he said that Prop 8 "has exposed a lot of bigotry among the Mormon leadership, but it has also shown how many tolerant, decent, secular Mormons there are as well." What? Only secular Mormons are tolerant and decent? First of all, I know many active, religious Mormons that oppose Prop 8, and even the ones I know that support it are decent and generally tolerant. So, while I usually like your blog, Mr. Sullivan, that post sucked.

The Yes on 8 campaign has been trying to use Obama as support for their cause. Obama is on record as personally opposing same-sex marriage, but opposing constitutional amendments to ban it. But the Yes on 8 side left out that last part and focused on the first part. Obama responded to a question about Prop 8 in an MTV interview recently:

MTV Shows

And the No on 8 side has a pretty strong new ad running:



Finally, the LA Times has a powerful editorial encouraging Californians to vote no on 8. It debunks several arguments the Yes on 8 campaign has used, including the one about Catholic Charities in Boston:

Take the story of Catholic Charities. The service arm of the Roman Catholic Church closed its adoption program in Massachusetts not because of the state's gay marriage law but because of a gay anti-discrimination law passed many years earlier. In fact, the charity had voluntarily placed older foster children in gay and lesbian households -- among those most willing to take hard-to-place children -- until the church hierarchy was alerted and demanded that adoptions conform to the church's religious teaching, which was in conflict with state law. The Proposition 8 campaign, funded in large part by Mormons who were urged to do so by their church, does not mention that the Mormon church's adoption arm in Massachusetts is still operating, even though it does not place children in gay and lesbian households.

How can this be? It's a matter of public accountability, not infringement on religion. Catholic Charities acted as a state contractor, receiving state and federal money to find homes for special-needs children who were wards of the state, and it faced the loss of public funding if it did not comply with the anti-discrimination law. In contrast, LDS (for Latter-day Saints) Family Services runs a private adoption service without public funding. Its work, and its ability to follow its religious teachings, have not been altered.

Also addressed is the field trip to a teacher's wedding, and churches being "forced" to marry gays. It ends thus:

Religions and their believers are free to define marriage as they please; they are free to consider homosexuality a sin. But they are not free to impose their definitions of morality on the state. Proposition 8 proponents know this, which is why they have misdirected the debate with highly colored illusions about homosexuals trying to take away the rights of religious Californians. Since May, when the state Supreme Court overturned a proposed ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, more than 16,000 devoted gay and lesbian couples have celebrated the creation of stable, loving households, of equal legal stature with other households. Their happiness in no way diminishes the rights or happiness of others.

Californians must cast a clear eye on Proposition 8's real intentions. It seeks to change the state Constitution in a rare and terrible way, to impose a single moral belief on everyone and to deprive a targeted group of people of civil rights that are now guaranteed. This is something that no Californian, of any religious belief, should accept. Vote no to the bigotry of Proposition 8.

If you live in California, please vote no on 8! And if you know someone that lives in California, ask them how they plan to vote, and help them understand why Prop 8 is wrong.