Utah recently passed a bill that protects LGBT people against discrimination in employment and housing. These protections are extremely important, and now it is vital to start looking at the third category, public accommodations. Many states and localities have these…
The article, “Faith Groups Seek Exclusion from Bias Rule” New York Times, 9 July 2014), strikes me as illustrating how difficult it is for religious groups to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy, which Jesus condemned more frequently and vociferously than…
In a recent press release, the church invited people to hear a message from Elder Oaks on the topic of religious freedom. Released last week, during the height of debate over Arizona’s SB 1062, I find it highly unlikely that…
By Melissa Mayhew. (This is being republished with permission from the website bythesamesign.com. If you agree with this statement please go to the bottom of that page to add your name.) By the Same Sign? If you’ve spent any amount…
These events of the last 2 days have surely jolted you, and have forced you to leave the innocence of your childhood behind. For the first time in your life, you realize that people hate you. Not for anything that…
By Jim Birrell Dear God, as the Eagle Forum gathers today, to incite one another from fear and to both sharpen and target their talons for (and at) their enemies—which they will assert are your enemies, too—help them, oh God,…
January 7, 2014 Dear Representative ___, Thank you for sending me this survey, as I had hoped to have communication with you prior to your upcoming legislative session. These are divided times, and that concerns me. I spent decades as…
By Aaron Tabacco (also published at his blog http://quorumoftheoutcasts.blogspot.com/) I will be the first to admit that as I was growing up, never did I foresee a time wherein homosexual citizens and their civil rights would…
This essay was published in the Deseret News Jan 10,2014 It’s a complex equation for Utahns: practicing the principle of unconditional love on the one hand, and cherishing traditional conceptions of gender roles and family on the other. As Utahns…
Alongside dropping temperatures across much of the country, on Monday morning we also felt the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of same-sex marriages in Utah blow a chill across the jubilation of the last two and a half weeks. While supporters…