The LDS needs to come clean about its prior statement that it has no problem with civil unions, never mind why it's inserting itself, yet again, in another state's politics regarding the issue of CUs. And why is an intervention like this being circulated in secret? If the church's position has changed on the matter, shouldn't they be willing to say so publicly and defend its actions, given the behavior of its leadership and flock during the Prop 8 fracas? I'm sick of the pious acting like a bunch of mafia gangsters.
------ Forwarded Message
From: (redacted)
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009
To: (redacted)
Subject: Nauvoo Ward Spreading Lies/Fear to Oppose Civil UnionsThe following official email was just sent out (via the LDS Church website) to all the members of the Nauvoo 3rd Ward, as approved by
Kristy Combs, ward website administrator, and by Bishop Chris Church of the Nauvoo 3rd Ward. (Because it was sent through the LDS
website, it required the authorization of a bishop or higher.)I am stunned and angered by the misinformation being spread in such an official church communication through the LDS Church website.
Once again, "our children" are the reason for spreading hatred, hysteria, and lies.And did they not get the memo that the LDS Church is not opposed to civil unions?
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY. And if you live in Illinois, contact your legislators to support this bill!
From: Kristy Combs <kristyc@mchsi.com>
Date: March 3, 2009
Subject: Civil Union bill scheduled for a hearing Thursday - calls neededThis message has been authorized for sending by Bishop Church.
The Civil Union Bill (HB 2234) has been scheduled for a hearing in the Youth and Family Committee this week on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. in Springfield. If the bill is voted out of committee, it becomes eligible for a vote before the full Illinois House of Representatives.
This bill will legalize civil unions in the state of Illinois, and will treat such civil unions with the same legal obligations, responsibilities, protections and benefits as are afforded within marriage. In other words, civil unions will be different in name only from marriage. As has already been seen in Massachusetts, this will empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise. It will also create grounds for rewriting all social mores; the current push in Massachusetts is to recognize and legalize all transgender rights (An individual in Massachusetts can now change their drivers license to the gender they believe themselves to be, regardless of actual gender, which means that confused men and women are now legally entering one another's bathrooms and locker rooms. What kind of a safety issue is this for our children?). Furthermore, while the bill legalizes civil unions, it will be used in the courts to show discrimination and will ultimately lead to court mandated same-sex marriages.
To help defeat this bill, please call your state representative and state senator and ask that they support traditional marriage and vote
against the civil unions bill. If you are unsure who your legislators are, please see the link at the end of this email.Also, please take a moment and call the following members of the Youth and Family Committee to encourage them to vote no on this bill. We need 4 votes to keep it from passing out of the committee. And - as always, please pass this on to all who believe in protecting our families and our children. If you are interested in attending the hearing, it will be held on Thursday, March 5th at 9:00 a.m. in Springfield in Room 122B of the Capitol Building (I can give you directions to the Capitol Building if needed).
Members of the Youth and Family Committee:
Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago)
(Greg Harris is also the sponsor of this bill, but he needs to hear your opposition to this bill)
Chairperson
217-782-3835Rep. LaShawn K. Ford (D-Chicago)
Vice-Chairperson
217-782-5962Rep. Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago)
Republican Spokesperson
217-782-1653Rep. William D. Burns (D-Chicago)
217-782-2023Rep. Michael P. McAuliffe (R-Chicago)
217-782-8182Rep. Al Riley (D-Matteson)
217-558-1007Rep. Dave Winters (R-Rockford)
217-782-0455Directions for identifying your legislators:
You can use the following link to identify your state legislators and their contact information: http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/SelectSearchType.aspx?NavLink=1 (and enter your 9 digit zip code). If this link doesn't work, you can use the general link www.ilga.gov and then click on "legislator lookup" near the bottom of the page, then click on "by zip+4". Type in your zip code, and you'll see a list of your legislators. You want your state senator and state representative as they will be the ones voting on the bill.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Sister Combs
Updates:
I just noticed that Jim Burroway over at Box Turtle Bulletin posted this earlier as EXCLUSIVE: Mormon Machine Cranking Up Against Illinois Civil Unions Bill.
And now I see that Rainey has a diary over at Daily Kos as well: LDS now wants to shut down civil unions in IL.
Good. Time is short and I hope this lights up the blogosphere before March 5th.
Between now and then, can someone - anyone - from LDS Church HQ please clarify your organization's position on civil unions?
Is it the position that Utah Gov. Huntsman recently staked out (he's for 'em)? Or is it that of Bishop Church and the Nauvoo 3rd Ward (they're against 'em)?
Somewhere in the middle?
Yes? No? Maybe so?
Memo to Salt Lake: How are the rest of us supposed to have a civil dialogue with a church that refuses to make its own position known? Enough with the guessing games already. You've got your own members running around telling everyone who will listen that their church is not anti-gay, that Mormons view civil unions as unobjectionable enough to leave well enough alone, and then you pull a stunt like this.
I'm not the only one tired of this under-the-radar Mormon politics-by-email. Plenty of faithful Mormons have had enough as well:
So here I get another alarming mail from a good Church member ... The aim of these mails is to foster anger against those that seem to threaten our ideals. It is part of a rhetoric based on lies, or at least on severe alterations of the truth. It triggers people to promptly rally to causes without knowing all the facts.
Memo to Mormons: If you're going to stand up for your ideals, you need to first know what those ideals are. If you're at all unclear about that, simply working to make sure the other side loses every time becomes nothing more than a stalling tactic. At some point, you're going to have to figure out what you stand for and start speaking out about that instead of merely reacting and characterizing those of us with a modicum of clarity about our political ideals as "angry" and "mean" ...
Gratuitous further update: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Hatch's secret drug firm links
Orrin, that one's for picking Jeff Flint to run your disastrous 2000 presidential campaign. That said, Jeff finally made good, didn't he? Anywho, I'll pass along my congrats to Jeff through Frank when I see him up at the Manning Networking Conference & Exhibition 2009. I'm just worried about putting Jaime on the spot when I do.
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
Did you hear thear the one about the church that was forced to allow lesbians to hold a commitment ceremony on its property?
How about the father who was dragged away from his son's school in handcuffs because he wouldn't let teachers "indoctrinate" his child in the alleged gay agenda?
Well how about the secret plan of gays to take over America via a six-point plan put out by a 1980's book?
I can't believe you haven't heard of these things? Haven't you been keeping up with the news? There is a HUGE conspiracy by gays to silence Christians.
I kid you not and I know for certain that this is true because the American Family Association and other religious right groups created a "documentary" proving it.
Okay, realistically, this claim about gays trying to silence Christians is an unadulterated fraud not unlike the equally phony "War on Christmas" moral panic perpetrated by religious right groups every December.
And like the "War on Christmas," this lie about gays plotting to silence Christians is built on deceit, intentionally misrepresented anecdotes, and the inherent laziness of the media and public in general for not seeking out the truth behind said anecdotes.
Creating a moral panic about the gay community is nothing new to the American Family Association (AFA) or any other religious right group for that matter. In the 80s and early 90s (and even now), these groups pushed shockingly inaccurate studies that masqueraded as scientific facts. The purpose of these studies was to give the false impression of gays as diseased hordes obsessed with gerbils, carrots, public sex, blood, and children.
And the idea of presenting anti-gay innuendoes in a "documentary" (thereby giving them a fake air of truth) isn't a new concept either. Religious right groups (AFA included) took those pre-mentioned studies and packaged them into propaganda films such as The Gay Agenda and Gay Rights/Special Rights.
So what's happening now is just a new version of the same tired game. In the past, the religious right tried to make the issue of gay rights into that of a public health menace. Apparently the gay community have gotten savvy to this game so they are now trying to slink their lies into another inaccurate talking point - gay rights will increase religious persecution.
Now all that is left is for a public religious right figure (i.e. Mike Huckabee) to push these lies with an unassuming frame of mind and say things like "you gays can't seem to understand that we Christians don't hate you" while his friends in the background (AFA and company) accuse gays of everything BUT attempting to bring back the Spanish Inquisition.
It's a nifty way to poison the case for gay rights in the eyes of the public while at the same time leave gays sputtering in anger over the wanton evasiveness of such tactics.
The end result being gays will look pushy and threatening while Huckabee and company will come across looking like St. Peter and smelling like a Rose of Sharon.
And let's not forget the anecodotes because they play a crucial part in this game. No matter how farfetched or deceptive they are, random stories about gays allegedly persecuting Christians are effective. No matter how many times they are discredited, there is always a crowd ready to believe them - especially when these anecdotes take centerstage in "documentaries" that will repeat them ad naseum.
But for the sake of bringing things back to the beginning, let me return to the anecdotes I mentioned at the beginning of this piece:
The incident involving the church had to do with the church receiving tax breaks for a pavilion it owned. But a requirement of the tax breaks was that the pavilion had to be open to all, gays included.
And that father allegedly dragged away in handcuffs? Well he objected to his son bringing home a book on different families on the grounds that one family in the book was of a same sex nature. The school accommodated his anger via private meetings, but he used the occasion to orchestrate his arrest - even to the point of having people waiting outside to take pictures when the police led him away in handcuffs.
Lastly, that book about gays taking over America? The majority of gays have never heard of it.
And that's the true story behind just three of the stories regarding gays allegedly persecuting Christians. But you won't find this truth featured in any religious right "documentary."
And that's a shame because it's proof that to some people who claim to fight for moral values, truth is an expendable casualty.
The changes will recalibrate what it means when a company scores a 100 on the Index, most notably by raising the bar regarding transgender rights and benefits.
The new criteria will require that all employees have access to at least one insurance plan that contains no exclusions for transgender-specific care and recognizes internationally-accepted medical standards of care. The current criteria, announced in 2004 and implemented in 2006, require insurance plans to cover at least one out of five categories of treatment and were designed to educate employers and their insurance carriers about the insurance needs of transgender people. Employers have been required to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity to achieve a 100 percent rating since the CEI began in 2002.Businesses will be rewarded for demonstrated, ongoing supplier diversity programs that include LGBT-owned suppliers, public support for equal rights legislation and sustained sponsorship and philanthropy. The new system also enhances requirements for diversity training, resources and accountability."These new criteria get right to the core issues of how insurance plans exclude transgender employees. By aligning the new requirements to 'medically necessary' coverage defined by recognized standards of care and removing transgender-related exclusions from healthcare plans, we have significantly raised the bar allowing businesses to enhance their commitment to all employees," said Meghan Stabler, national transgender activist and HRC Business Council member. "Right now, hundreds of businesses will begin working to expand coverage to transgender employees. With this powerful new tool, our community must set out to educate human resource and benefits professionals about why these benefits are needed, not just for individual employees and their dependents, but to secure employer-of-choice status in the LGBT community."
..."With these new standards, the CEI will continue to be a powerful incentive for businesses to make real change that will impact the everyday lives of LGBT Americans in every corner of our country," said Daryl Herrschaft, Director of the HRC Foundation Workplace Project. "But it will not happen by itself. Between now and 2011, it will take the coordinated effort of employees and LGBT advocates to make these policy changes reality."
Rating Criteria 3.0
Underlined text indicates new or revised criteria.
- Equal employment opportunity policy includes:
- Gender identity or expression
- Sexual orientation
- Employment benefits
- Organizational LGBT competency
- Public commitment
External LGBT-specific efforts, including at least three of the following: recruiting, supplier diversity, marketing or advertising, philanthropy or public support for legal LGBT equality (more info)- Responsible citizenship
No known activity that would undermine LGBT equality
The new points allocation will be announced by March 2010, with, as Herrschaft noted, the full criteria applied in 2011. The timeline is below the fold.
Key DatesThe logical reason for the rollout as described above, Daryl Herrschaft noted, was that the changes require renegotiations of insurance contracts (usually renewed annually). However, the reality is many companies that previously received a 100 and will not under the new criteria will start working now to maintain their ranking. Many of the 500 companies in response to changes in the Index have already clready contacted HRC to find out how they could best comply and modify internal policies. Meghan Stabler underscored that the benefits organizations and HR departments will take some time to work out details in those new health insurance contracts -- for instance, the definition of "medically necessary" is quite broad, and that in itself will raise questions that corporations have to consider. An example that was cited -- rhinoplasty for MTFs, supported by the WPATH standards of care, should not be restricted in an insurance policy offered by a company if it is to receive at 100% score. That's one of many items to be negotiated, and many insurance companies are not yet well-versed in T issues to write an inclusive policy.
2009: Mar. 31: 2010 CEI Survey released to participants (includes clearly marked questions that will count toward the current and/or the new criteria).2010: Mar. 31: 2011 CEI Survey released to participants (includes clearly marked questions that will count toward the current and/or the new criteria). Point allocations for new criteria will be announced. Participants will receive preliminary rating evaluations under the current and new criteria upon survey submission.
2011: * Mar.31: 2012 CEI Survey released to participants (includes clearly marked questions that will count toward the new criteria only).
Participants will receive preliminary rating evaluations using new criteria only.
* Jun. 30: 2012 CEI Survey must be submitted to HRC Foundation by the end of June.
* Jul. 29: Participants must demonstrate that all new non-benefits criteria have been met and that all new benefits criteria will be met by Jan. 1, 2012.
* Sep. 1: 2012 CEI Report released to public with new criteria only.2012: Jan. 1: Because benefits typically operate on an annual cycle, all benefits changes must be effective by Jan. 1, 2012.
While this news is positive, there are concerns. The CEI would display a 100 rating for multi-national companies that may have progressive LGBT policies stateside, but an overseas operations in a country that is allowed to discriminate against LGBT employees. We were told that the Index only rates operations based in the U.S.but that the inequity would be noted. Bil Browning:
Daryl Herrschaft responded to my question by stating the CEI is "one indicator and people should look at others that are important to them." HRC currently questions respondents about their policies overseas, and make the occasional note on their website but abuses of LGBT people in other countries will not affect the company's score on the CEI because it only focuses on the US.This is obviously a step forward in terms of transparancy and accountability for corporations participating in the CEI. Do you think it will result in a more accurate assessment tool?Speaking of the inordinate amount of research and follow-up that an international scale would necessarily require, Herrschaft told me, "HRC doesn't have the level of competency to do a good job of that. We're not set up like that."
He continued, "If there was a company that was firing people at will in Brazil we would raise that and it would be a huge deal. The CEI has enormous influence - especially for human resources officials (most of them straight) who are dedicated to educating themselves and their companies. But the CEI is not the end-all-be-all of how a company should be viewed."
Also: Samir Luther has a column on the Index up at Bilerico.
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