Salt Lake Tribune Slams Anti-Gay Judge

I previously noted the anti-gay bigotry of Utah judge who ordered a foster child removed from a legally married lesbian couple.  Judge Scott Johansen cited utterly discredited "research" bankrolled by and orchestrated by anti-gay "Christian" organizations.  Johansen chose to disregard the rulings of the 9th Circuit, 10th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court that found his cited research to be wrong.  Now, after widespread outrage and a damning denunciation in the Salt Lake Tribune, Johansen is apparently rethinking his bigoted ruling.  As a had argued, the Tribune editorial indicates that Johansen's remaining on the bench should now be in doubt.  Coupled with some backtracking and PR damage control by the Mormon Church in the wake of its recent anti-gay guidelines, the last week has proved to be bad news for the Utah religious extremists.  Here are editorial highlights: 

Spare a thought, if you will, for Judge Scott Johansen.  The juvenile court judge in Utah's 7th District over the last week was the target of local despair, official puzzlement and national derision when he, on his own initiative, moved to undo the proper placement of an infant child with a state-approved foster family because the big-hearted parents involved happen to be two women. Two women who are legally married to one another.

The negative reactions were correct. The judge's order was wrong. The foster parents and the relevant state agencies are correct to be appealing it. The foster parents' plan to adopt the child should proceed with all deliberate speed.

The whole matter should be resoundingly disposed of just as soon as the relevant appeals court can sweep Johansen's bigoted order aside.

And, despite the fact that the judge is apparently rethinking his position, Johansen's continued position on the Carbon County bench should also be in question.

But, remember, it wasn't all that long ago that the transparently bogus reasoning Johansen claimed to be relying on in ordering the 9-month-old baby girl removed from her foster home and placed with "a duly married, heterosexual foster-adoptive couple" was part and parcel of the state's case against the acceptance of same-sex marriage in Utah.

As recently as the summer of 2014, the state of Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert and Attorney General Sean Reyes were trying to convince the local federal court and, having failed there, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, that same-sex marriage should be banned because any children raised in a household so configured would be at a serious disadvantage compared to those brought up in families headed by heterosexual parents.

The state backpedaled slightly on that claim as the appeal went along. But the opinion of the 10th Circuit went out of its way to shoot it down anyway, calling it, "an argument based only on pure speculation and conjecture."

Other appeals courts and, eventually, the Supreme Court of the United States, also rejected the case against raising children in same-sex households as being without scientific or legal merit. The state of Utah has complied.

Thus were all involved apparently stunned at Johansen's Nov. 10 ruling, an order that violated not only the Supreme Court's rulings but also current state law and administrative practice, which now allow foster placement in, and adoption by, legally married same-sex couples.

After the fallout, which ranged from tears in the home of the foster parents to a raised eyebrow by Herbert — who called the judge's ruling an example of improper "activism on the bench" — Johansen seems to have given the matter more thought.

Instead of ordering the child removed by Nov. 17, he has left the status quo in place through a hearing now set for Dec. 4. If he does anything other than fully repudiate his previous order, with a lot of apologies to all concerned, the state should have the appeal already drafted and ready to file.

This judge's retrograde opinion on the legal acceptance of same-sex marriage in case of foster care and adoption, if not fully squelched, threatens to spill over into other matters, such as custody disputes. That is particularly a problem given the recent policy statement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denying full church participation to children living with same-sex parents. 

Judge Johansen has created an opportunity for himself to right this wrong. If he doesn't, other state officials must do it for him. Immediately.

Ouch!!

Salt Lake City Elects Lesbian Mayor and Gay City Councilman

(Tribune file photo) Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Jackie Biskupski.

While the election results in Houston and Kentucky are very disappointing - the finger pointing on the Houston loss has already begun - two total surprises have come out of Salt Lake City, home base of the anti-gay Mormon Church: if the unofficial results hold up, the city will have a lesbian mayor and a gay city council member.  Making it all the sweeter, the new city council man is Derek Kitchen who, with his now-husband Moudi Sbeity, was one half of one of three couples that won their challenge to Utah's gay marriage ban before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.  Here's what Kitchen posted on Facebook:

Thank you! Thank you to my family for standing next to me through this campaign, for my volunteers for putting in countless hours knocking on doors, making calls, and talking to their friends. Thank you to all my supporters, your enthusiasm, donations, and moral cheers really kept me going. This has been such a positive experience for me as a first time candidate for public office. I’m happy to say that we ran a clean campaign focused on the issues and the residents of this great city.

I feel honored that the residents of District 4 have put their faith in me to represent them and make important decisions on their behalf. I’m energized and excited to get to work on the Salt Lake City council as your next representative!

As for the mayoral race, here are highlights from  the Salt Lake Tribune (let's hope the uncounted ballots confirm Biskupski's win):

There remain several thousand uncounted provisional and mail-in ballots in Salt Lake City's mayor's race, leaving the door open for Mayor Ralph Becker to pull off a come-from-behind win — although such a scenario appears unlikely.

Tuesday's unofficial and incomplete results gave Jackie Biskupski a 52.1 percent to 47.8 percent lead over Becker. They are separated by 1,450 votes out of 33,717 counted — 46.8 percent of registered voters in Salt Lake City.

According to Utah law, the new total will be sealed until the Nov. 17 canvass.

Tuesday night Biskupski said that Becker's 4.3-point deficit was statistically "insurmountable." When she announced at her campaign celebration that Becker would not concede, her crowd of supporters groaned and booed. 

Until Nov. 17, the discussion of Biskupski's possible election as the first openly gay big-city mayor in the deeply conservative, Mormon state are on hold. 

"In a couple weeks," she said, "I'm confident we will have a chance to talk about how historic this is."

Biskupski said she recognized from the beginning that she would lose votes for a number of reasons, not limited to her gender. "There are people who would not vote for me because I'm openly gay," she said. "There are people who would not vote for me because I'm a single mom."

Nonetheless, it's possible to get elected in a conservative state based on your merits, Biskupski told reporters Tuesday night.

"Not my gender, not my sexual orientation," she said. "It matters that we embrace people for their ability to lead and affect change."

Her likely victory says something about Utah, Biskupski said.  "We have a reputation here, right? But ... this community continues to move forward in strides that are mind-blowing," she said. "I'm so proud of our community."

In some ways I am not surprised by Utah.  Jon Huntsman  is one of the few sane Republicans left and he was a popular governor in Utah.  The fact that he is sane is why he failed to gain traction in 2012. That said, what could be more delicious than a lesbian mayor in the Mormon Church's home town. :)

States with Anti-Gay Marriage Amendments Have Highest Percentages of Gay Couples Raising Children

The Christofascists played a lead role in passage of anti-gay marriage amendments - in Virginia, The Family Foundation orchestrated the passage of the Marshall-Newman Amendment - in the hope it would stigmatize same sex couples and perhaps discourage parenting by same sex couples.  A new study by the Williams Institute shows that the results have been just the opposite: states with anti-gay amendments have the highest percentages of same sex couples raising children.  Here in Virginia, surprisingly Virginia Beach has 24% of sames sex couples raising children (see the image above).  Talk about busting The Family Foundation's bubble.  The Los Angeles Times looks at the study's findings:

Salt Lake City: the gay parenting capital of the United States?  Unexpected as it may sound, a new study finds that the Utah capital and its outskirts have the nation's highest percentage of gay or lesbian couples raising children.  Among couples of the same sex in the Salt Lake City area, more than 1 in 4 are rearing children, the analysis of census data reveals.

That fact may seem at odds with perceptions that San Francisco and New York are the centers of gay and lesbian life. Pop culture depicts gays and lesbians turning to adoption, sperm banks or surrogacy to form families in decidedly liberal cities such as Los Angeles.

But the reality for gay parents can be very different, said Gary J. Gates, the researcher behind the new estimates from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.  For instance, "a big chunk of them are people who had children young, with opposite-sex partners, before they came out," Gates said. After coming out, they raised those children with a partner of the same sex, he explained.

That may be one reason that in some more conservative places not known for celebrating gays and lesbians, a striking percentage of same-sex couples are rearing children, Gates said. Among states, Mississippi has the highest percentage of gay or lesbian couples raising children — 26% — his analysis of census data found.

"When you ask, 'Why are you living here?' they almost always say family," said Abbie Goldberg, an associate professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who has studied gay and lesbian parents in rural areas. "It shouldn't really be surprising. They value family — and now they're creating families of their own."

Activists who support marriage rights for gays and lesbians said the study underscores that many couples are raising children in states where they lack the protections of wedlock.

 Among the most significant things gay marriage bans do is harm children of gays and deprive them of stability.  But then again, once children leave the womb, the Christofascists don't really give a damn about them.  

Salt Lake City Tribune Endorses Obama

It is more than a little bit interesting that in states where he is best known - i.e., Massachusetts where he was governor, and Utah where he worked to save the Olympic Games - Mitt Romney is not overly popular.  Indeed, in Massachusetts, Obama is leading him by double digits.  Now, the Salt Lake City Tribune has come out and formally endorsed Barack Obama for re-election over Romney.  That those who know him best are running in the other direction ought to make some folks open their eyes.  Or at least stop chugging down the Kool-Aid quite so rapidly.  Among the reasons cited for rejecting Romney are his countless position changes and his refusal to offer meaningful specifics of any of his supposed plans if elected.  Here are highlights from the Tribune's endorsement of Obama:

 

Nowhere has Mitt Romney’s pursuit of the presidency been more warmly welcomed or closely followed than here in Utah. The Republican nominee’s political and religious pedigrees, his adeptly bipartisan governorship of a Democratic state, and his head for business and the bottom line all inspire admiration and hope in our largely Mormon, Republican, business-friendly state.

But it was Romney’s singular role in rescuing Utah’s organization of the 2002 Olympics from a cesspool of scandal . . . .  Romney managed to save the state from ignominy, turning the extravaganza into a showcase for the matchless landscapes, volunteerism and efficiency that told the world what is best and most beautiful about Utah and its people.

Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: "Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?"

The evidence suggests no clear answer, or at least one that would survive Romney’s next speech or sound bite. Politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience. Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear.

More troubling, Romney has repeatedly refused to share specifics of his radical plan to simultaneously reduce the debt, get rid of Obamacare (or, as he now says, only part of it), make a voucher program of Medicare, slash taxes and spending, and thereby create millions of new jobs.

If this portrait of a Romney willing to say anything to get elected seems harsh, we need only revisit his branding of 47 percent of Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, yet feel victimized and entitled to government assistance. His job, he told a group of wealthy donors, "is not to worry about those people.

And what of the president Romney would replace? For four years, President Barack Obama has attempted, with varying degrees of success, to pull the nation out of its worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, a deepening crisis he inherited the day he took office.

In the first months of his presidency, Obama acted decisively to stimulate the economy. His leadership was essential to passage of the badly needed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Though Republicans criticize the stimulus for failing to create jobs, it clearly helped stop the hemorrhaging of public sector jobs. The Utah Legislature used hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to plug holes in the state’s budget.

The president also acted wisely to bail out the auto industry, which has since come roaring back. Romney, in so many words, said the carmakers should sink if they can’t swim.

Obama’s foreign policy record is perhaps his strongest suit, especially compared to Romney’s bellicose posture toward Russia and China and his inflammatory rhetoric regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

In considering which candidate to endorse, The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board had hoped that Romney would exhibit the same talents for organization, pragmatic problem solving and inspired leadership that he displayed here more than a decade ago. Instead, we have watched him morph into a friend of the far right, then tack toward the center with breathtaking aplomb. Through a pair of presidential debates, Romney’s domestic agenda remains bereft of detail and worthy of mistrust.

Therefore, our endorsement must go to the incumbent, a competent leader who, against tough odds, has guided the country through catastrophe and set a course that, while rocky, is pointing toward a brighter day. The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first.

OUCH!!!  Candidly, the Tribune's reasoning ought to make sense to every rational voter who cares about the nation and the common good.  Sadly, many cannot see what the Tribune so well describes and I have to wonder what motivates this blindness.  Is it racism? Is it greed and a desire to pay less in taxes no matter the consequence to the nation or others? Is it religious extremism and bigotry that cannot accept a president who see all of us as citizens whether we be black or white, gay or straight, Christian or non-Christian, etc.?   Is it the fear that white privilege is slowly fading away?  Whatever it is, I do not believe it stems from anything good or honorable. 

Gay Salt Lake City Club Hit With Flaming Projectiles

A gay club in Salt Lake City was hit by a shower of flaming projectiles while patron were gathered in an outdoor courtyard.  The identity of the assailants and their motives remain unknown.  What is known is that the attack had to be deliberate and that it was obvious to the attackers that people were gathered in the courtyard and might have been injured.  Thankfully, no one was injured.  Both the Salt Lake Tribune and ABC 4 News have details.  First, highlights from the Tribune coverage:

Salt Lake City fire investigators Thursday were searching for people responsible for launching flaming debris at a gay nightclub.

Fire spokesman Jasen Asay said about 12:35 a.m., three or four people in their late teens or early 20s launched multiple flaming projectiles at Club JAM, 751 N. 300 West. The projectiles started the fence on fire, but club patrons acted quickly and dumped pitchers of water on the flames, Asay said.

 Others chased the culprits, who fled to a red or maroon Pontiac Grand Am sedan and drove off.

ABC 4 News has more:

A crowd at a popular Salt Lake City gay club is attacked by flaming projectiles.

Fernando Noriega explains to ABC 4 what happened early Thursday morning at Club JAM at 751 North 300 West. "So we had at least 30 to 40 people here,” said Noriega. “Everybody’s congregated to about here. All the tables were set up. It was very busy.”

Noriega says everyone was having a great time until something on fire came flying over the fence. "All the sudden we saw something bright,” said Noriega. “I thought they were fireworks on the floor."

The crowd quickly realized that wasn't the case when several more flaming projectiles went flying through the crowd.

Noriega said, "Out of a group of 30 people, all of those flares to be hitting at the same time we don't know how, everyone was very lucky."

 Both Mower and Noriega say there's no way you couldn't have known the patio was packed.

Noriega said, "Even from here you can't miss the fact there's lots of people there. You can hear the people; see the people so you know there are people in there. It was definitely malicious. They definitely knew what they were doing."

Tony Perkins may be trying to milk the shooting at FRC headquarters to claim it is Christians who are persecuted, but the reality is that it's the Christianists like Perkins, Peter Sprigg, Maggie Gallagher and others who set the stage for almost constant attacks on gays somewhere around the country any given week. 

Quote of the Day: Deadly Bullying

In the wake of recent suicides by members of the LDS, a column in the Salt Lake Tribune looks at the foul fruits of religion and the attendant bullying and cruelty that seem to be the principal hallmarks of conservative denominations.  The piece also underscores the fact that it's not just LGBT teens who take their own lives because of the anti-gay hate and bigotry that spew incessantly from the "godly folk."  Here's the money quote:

When you put religion and homophobia together, a special poison is created and the damage is intensified. When you take a religion that teaches the mistaken notion that gays choose to be gay, and you add in the opinion that God disapproves of homosexuality, the combination is often too much.

Recently, on a beautiful spring day, after services in an LDS ward house, a bubbly, sweet, funny woman was laid to rest. Over her lifetime, she had significant trouble with her religion and her God-given sexuality, trying desperately to be faithful to both, even though the church has set them up as mutually exclusive. Even in the safety of adulthood, it was too much. (Goodbye, old friend.).

[E]ven if the LDS Church gets all the way to full acceptance of homosexuality by noon tomorrow, it will come far too late for an unfathomable number of LGBT people, people who saw no way out of the religious bullying other than to take their own lives.

I continue to view far right, judgmental religions to be one of the foulest forces for evil on the planet today.  Despite modern knowledge and science, their adherents willingly embrace ignorance and bigotry.  A world without religion might well be a far better place.

Man Fired from LDS Church For Refusing to Give Up Gay Friends

Apparently, some in the Mormon Church did not want the Roman Catholic Church to hog all the much deserved media coverage on the issue of firing folks for being gay or too gay friendly. It seems a Salt Lake City stake fired Drew Call (pictured at right), age 32, a returned missionary who is gay from a position in the church’s printing department because he refused to abandon his gay friends as a condition for renewal of his temple recommend. Fortunately, Call surreptitiously made an audio recording of one of the meetings in March so the Mormon Church cannot deny or try to spin what really occurred. The Salt Lake City Weekly has coverage on this case of religious based bigotry. I love it how bigots think they have a license to discriminate against others but don't like it when they get justly berated for their bigotry. Here are some story highlights:
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ official policy is to accept gay people as members of the church so long as they take what is, in essence, a vow of chastity. But one Salt Lake City man, a church employee for more than a decade, is surprised and angered that he lost his temple recommend—a prerequisite for employment in the church—after he refused to give up his gay friends and was fired.
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“I want people to know that [the LDS Church] is targeting people unfairly,” Call says. “I do believe they wronged me.” Hoping to avoid the situation he now faces, Call had been looking for a new job for more than a year anyway. In this tough economy, however, it’s been difficult. The divorced father of two wanted to stay in the church’s good graces long enough that he could resign with dignity and financial security. The recording makes clear that Call’s association with gay people was the problem.
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Call served a mission in Massachusetts from 1997 to 1999 and got married at 24 to a high school classmate even though he wasn’t attracted to women. Raised in Layton, he wanted children and felt being gay was evil. “I thought getting married would fix it and this tendency to like men would go away, but it never did,” he says.
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In April 2009, he filed for divorce. . . . . In April 2010, the already-strained relationship with his parents grew more painful when they were told—not by Call—that he was gay. They were not accepting of it. He felt shunned at church and was still unsure if rumors were spreading about his sexuality or if it was just that he was divorced. His job was in jeopardy because of his small, secret steps toward living openly as a gay man. His only strong allies with whom he could be totally honest during a painful divorce, crisis of faith and job insecurity were his gay friends, many of whom had had similar experiences. “I had no idea how many great people are in the gay community,” he says. “I have better friends than I’ve ever had in my life and I’m happier.”
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To receive or maintain a temple recommend, Mormons must answer certain standardized questions. The stake president says on the recording that the question Call could not answer honestly asks, “do you support, affiliate with or agree with any group or individuals whose teaching or practices are contrary to or opposed to those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?” The stake president goes on to say that that question applies to Call’s gay friends “because of the moral decay that is going in the world and that’s part of it. The church opposes the relationship between a man and a man and a woman and a woman, and you’re associating with those individuals. I don’t know how to get around that.”
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“So what are you going to do?” Call asked. “You’re going to have to look for a job,” the stake president replied.
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Its noteworthy that the stake president apparently would have preferred that Call remain in a sham marriage - note how the straight spouse NEVER gets any consideration - and abandon honest, genuine people in order to remain amongst the modern day Pharisees of the LDS.

Mormon Group, America Forever, Lashes Out at LDS Support of Non-discrimination Ordinance

It is often difficult to discern who is more hateful - the far right elements of the Mormon Church or the haters of the far Religious Right. Both groups seem to use hatred against gays as a rallying cry and often a convenience fund raising tool. I posted recently how the Mormon Church came out in support of a housing and employment non-discrimination ordinance in Salt Lake City that affords protections to LGBT citizens. Well, that action was enough to send the extreme homophobes in the LDS to totally low a gasket and begin ranting and bloviating. Set out above )click the image for a larger copy) is a portion of America Forever's diatribe against the LDS leadership for supporting passage of the Salt Lake City non discrimination ordinance. 8 the Mormon Proposition describes the raving as follows:

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Today, 80,000 people got this fax from the Mormon group, America Forever. Progress may have happened when the Mormon church decided to inch towards something that they themselves say is "common sense." Housing and employment for gay people. (Gee thanks! Hopefully soon the Mormons will give me my "free to breathe the air" card too!)
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But we cannot forget that when the Mormon Prophet or Apostles speak what Mormons believe to be the literal word of God, their membership reacts. And this [the image above] is the reaction of one of the Mormon Church's most vocal anti-gay groups.

Mormon Church Endorses Passage of Salt Lake City LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance

In a somewhat of a surprise move, the Mormon Church supported the passage of a non-discrimination by the Salt Lake City city council that extends housing and employment protections to gays and lesbians in Salt Lake City. In delivering the Mormon Church's comments to city council, the Church representative credited the city council with balancing the rights of citizens to housing and employment with freedom of religion issues. Personally, I suspect what really motivated the Mormon Church was all the bad press that it has received in the wake of the largely Mormon financed passage of Proposition 8. Of course, it's also possible that some city fathers had a sit down with the Church and explained how non-competitive the city was becoming because of all of the anti-Mormon fall out. Whatever the motivation, I am thankful that the Mormon Church did the right thing for a change, although it's a bit depressing that Salt Lake City is now more progressive than the Commonwealth of Virginia. Here are some highlights from Google News:

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The Mormon church for the first time has announced its support of gay rights legislation, an endorsement that helped gain unanimous approval for Salt Lake city laws banning discrimination against gays in housing and employment.
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The Utah-based church's support ahead of Tuesday night's vote came despite its steadfast opposition to gay marriage, reflected in the high-profile role it played last year in California's Proposition 8 ballot measure that barred such unions.
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"The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage," Michael Otterson, the director of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said.
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Passage made Salt Lake City the first Utah community to prohibit bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the two new ordinances, it is illegal to fire someone from their job or evict someone from their residence because they are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender.
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Utah lawmakers tend to quickly fall in line when the influential church makes a rare foray into legislative politics. So Tuesday's action could have broad reaching effects in this highly conservative state where more than 80 percent of lawmakers and the governor are church members.
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But addressing the council on Tuesday, Otterson said the endorsement is not a shift in the church's position on gay rights and stressed it "remains unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman."
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Church support for the ordinances is due in part to the way the legislation was drafted to protect those rights. Exceptions in the legislation allow churches to maintain, without penalty, religious principles and religion-based codes of conduct or rules. "In drafting these ordinances, the city has granted common-sense rights that should be available to everyone, while safeguarding the crucial rights of religious organizations," Otterson said Tuesday.

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The full statement issued by the Mormon Church can be found here.

Increasingly Hateful Rhetoric on Gay Rights

With each passing day it seems that we are witnessing increasing levels of vile anti-gay rhetoric coming from the Christianist/Mormon.GOP camp. In addition to the ad released in West Virginia depicting gays as out to murder "the family" that I mentioned yesterday in Utah new anti-gay ads have been released in an effort to defeat small incremental increases in civil rights for LGBT citizens in Utah. A group called America Forever ran full-page ads in The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News calling on Utahns to "stop the homosexual movement." The ad compares being gay to being "druggies and hookers," labels homosexuality as "anti-species behavior" and concludes that "gays should be forced not to display" their sexual orientation. A full-page ad in both Sunday papers costs about $15,000.00, so it would be interesting to see where the money is really coming from. Here are some highlights from the Salt Lake Tribune:

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Gay-rights opponent Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, agrees with America Forever's stance on upholding "traditional marriage" but condemns the group's tactics and rhetoric, including the ad.
"Everything they're doing crosses the line," Wimmer said Monday, noting he helped to eject members of America Forever from an Equality Utah news conference last week after they became confrontational. "There's no need to have hateful discourse," Wimmer said. "Quite frankly, they make those of us who are on the side of traditional marriage -- they make a lot of us -- look bad."

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Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah -- the advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Utahns that is pushing the Common Ground Initiative -- called the ad "inflammatory" and "divisive."

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MediaOne, which handles advertising, production and circulation for both The Tribune and Deseret News , said four subscribers canceled subscriptions to The Tribune on Monday in response to the ad. No one had stopped subscriptions to the News , said Brent Low, MediaOne's president and chief executive officer. MediaOne made the decision to run both ads -- and removed a photo of two gay men kissing from the LDS Church-owned News version -- Low said, consistent with publishing guidelines from both papers. . . . America Forever paid full price for the ads, Low noted. Based on MediaOne's rate card, a full-page ad in both Sunday papers costs about $15,000.

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Here is a sampling from America Forever's website that describes the supposed "gay agenda" and its war on the family (caution: its really sick stuff and beyond inflammatory):

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"We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all-male clubs, in your house of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us... All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked. Instead legislation shall bee passed which engenders love between men.

Google Maps Highlights Prop 8 Donors

UPDATED: Andrew Sullivan had this comment with which I very much agree:

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I don't get the fear. If Prop 8 supporters truly feel that barring equality for gay couples is vital for saving civilization, shouldn't they be proud of their financial support? Why don't they actually have posters advertizing their support for discriminating against gay people - as a matter of pride?

I noted the other day how Proposition 8 supporters have their panties in wad over the California campaign finance disclosure laws which have exposed anti-equality supporters and their bigotry. Now Interactive Google maps have taken the matter to a new level showing the amounts, names and locations of Prop 8 donors online for three locations so far, including Salt Lake City. It's interesting how these folks want to deprive others of civil legal rights but at the same time want to remain safely anonymous. I can think of few things more dangerous than allowing individuals and/or companies and organizations to seek to influence the civil laws and yet remain anonymous. I have always had the courage to stand openly behind my beliefs and be counted. Thus, if these bigots do not have the courage to publicly stand behind their convictions, then perhaps they ought to rethink their positions. I have no sympathy for these cry babies whatsoever.