by Dan Aiello
Bay Area Reporter
Reprinted with permission

Chino’s Preface: Fred Karger, of Californians Against Hate fame, recently marked the launch of his new Mormongate.com site with the publication of several never-before-seen internal LDS documents regarding a 1990′s contest in Hawaii over the issue of marriage equality.

In the course of reading through Fred’s docs, one name in particular caught my attention: Debi Hartmann. Could this be the same Mormon mom whom I’d recently seen speaking in support of her Local 5 union and its affirmative stance re marriage rights for all? Indeed it was, and here’s Debi making her case around the 4:25 mark:

The Mormon church claims to have only spent a few thousand dollars on the campaign, but ANP has uncovered evidence that may expose a gaping hole in that claim.

By Dave Zirin

x-posted from Edge of Sports with permission.

As supporters of Gay Marriage have discovered, it’s never easy to be on the Mormon Church’s enemies list. The Church of Latter-Day Saints backed the anti-Gay Marriage Proposition 8 in California with out-of-state funds, and gave the right a heartbreaking victory this past election cycle. But the Mormon Church has been challenged in the past. Just ask Bob Beamon.

Admittedly, I got busy with the holidays and fell behind in my reading at some of my favorite websites. I figured I could bookmark, spend a couple days getting reacquainted with the wife and kids, and then catch up later.

Later was apparently too late:

No longer available? Now that’s disappointing.

The author, Sheldon Rampton (center) in a photo from his days as a Mormon missionary.

BY SHELDON RAMPTON

Reprinted with permission from PRWatch.org

I posted a brief item [on PRWatch.org] recently about the PR nightmare facing the Mormon Church as a result of the prominent role it played this year promoting Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage in California. At the urging of church leaders, Mormons spent about $20 million on the effort, which probably provided the margin that enabled the proposition to pass.

BYU NewsNet, the BYU campus newspaper, did a story on December 10th that frankly talks about the energy around Prop 8 on campus before the election. The reporter also reviews the infamous “Six Consequences” document and scratches the surface of the claims, including the top line pro and con arguments against them.  

THE ADVOCATE ASKS: Does the organizational and fund-raising prowess displayed by the LDS church during California’s Proposition 8 campaign augur future political might?

In june the governing body of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a letter to every Mormon congregation in California asking that a message be read to members at Sunday services stating that “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God,” and “local church leaders will provide information about how you may become involved in this important cause.” The cause was Proposition 8, and church members were implored to “do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time.”

I decided to start a project to try to put together a timeline with details about Mormon church involvement in Prop 8 and gay marriage, using news reports, blog postings and other information to try to paint a picture of what was going on inside the Mormon church. This was without question a highly involved campaign at all levels of the church, not simply the random free efforts of Mormon church members.

We previously posted about a complaint filed by Californians Against Hate about the amount of money and non-monetary contributions reported to the State of California for Prop 8. The state has officially opened an investigation, and now some outside opinion is chiming in with support.  Yesterday, the New York York Times editorial board said, “Based on the facts that have come out so far, the state is right to look into whether the church broke state laws by failing to report campaign-related expenditures.”