Alternative Lifestyles of the Mormons & Gays

I just read an article about Proposition 8, where 52% of the voters decided to ban gay-marriage. The Mormons worked really hard to raise money and send people door-to-door in California to pass this measure.  The leader of this campaign said that he was doing this to protect God’s intent of marriage.

First of all… it always makes me angry when people assume that there is only one god, and it is their god.  If you can have a god, so can I and every one else on this planet.  You are entitled to your belief, but don’t impose your religious beliefs onto the rest of society.  I know the argument has already been made, but why would your god or any other god create gay people if they did not want them to exist, be happy, etc. (assuming that any of these gods even exist).  The leader of this campaign, Frank Shubert, has a sister who is a lesbian.  So in his own defense, he says that he is not against gay people, he just wants to protect the idea of marriage as god intended.  Apparently, God speaks through him, and tells him what His intentions are, even though He created all people.

Let’s get down to the idea of marriage here… the argument against gay marriage, for the sake of protecting the sanctity of marriage, is that it is a union between a man and a woman.  Did Shubert, the Mormons, and the Church of Latter Day Saints misread that to be woMEN?

The irony of this campaign is killing me!

When the media’s attention was focused on the Mormons in Texas earlier this year, one Mormon family went on Oprah to discuss and defend their lifestyles.  They had said that they do lead an alternative lifestyle. We should be tolerant, if not accepting, of different lifestyles that are different from our own.  Just because it is different doesn’t mean it is bad.  At the time, I totally agreed.  Whatever our judgments about plural marriage, they are our own judgments.  If people want to be in plural marriages and families, and it makes them happy, then they have every right to it; what is the real harm to society?

My stance on that has not changed.  It just bothers me terribly that the same group of people, the Mormons, are now condemning the lifestyle of another group of people.  How can you ask society to be accepting of your alternative lifestyle if you cannot do the same for others?  Mormons obviously do not lead lives according to our norms; many people do not.  It is outrageous to me that they should put forth so much energy and money to campaign against another group of people.

Additionally, they misled the public by implying that same sex marriage would be taught to children in school.  Are you CRAZY?  Teachers have a hard enough time trying to teach BASIC sex ed to kids; why would we even want to talk about anything beyond what we must?  Besides that, Mormons teach their children that men can have many wives! Is THAT okay, but the idea of a same-sex couple is not?!  Such hypocrites!  We just shouldn’t tolerate anything that is different from what we expect.