The Mormon Church blinks.

SALT LAKE CITY — 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.

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.

“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.

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.

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 effects in this highly conservative state where more than 80 percent of lawmakers and the governor are church members.

“What happened here tonight I do believe is a historic event,” said Brandie Balken, director of the gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah. “I think it establishes that we can stand together on common ground that we don’t have to agree on everything, but there are lot of things that we can work on and be allies.”

So, this is better.

A few months ago, I wrote a series of blogs at Http://www.marmel.com, asking – hoping – for Hollywood to boycott Sundance.  (http://marmel.com/2009/08/utah-says-its-okay-to-discriminate-against-gays-its-time-to-boycott-sundance/ if you are curious.)

I don’t know where you stand on gay marriage, but the idea that people could be discriminated against at work – simply FIRED for being gay, as was legal in Utah and had happened in Utah… this was something I found untenable.

That Utah’s lawmakers continually allowed it to happen, disgusting.

That the new Utah governor – who took over for the more progressive Jon Huntsman – defended this discrimination like the coward he was, even less acceptable. (whatever “more progressive” means in Utah, by the way)

After much hand wringing and behavior unbecoming of someone in the 21st century, the Mormon church now thinks it’s wrong to discriminate against gays in the work place, or when looking for housing.  Why the change of heart?

Probably two reasons:  One, they realize that in the other 49 states, they’re just as likely to face discrimination as the people they don’t like… so perhaps the pot and kettle should start getting along.

Two, public relation disasters like this, from the Colbert Report:

I’d love to say this Church saw the light, and had a change of heart.  But then again, I don’t care.  If this gets Utah to stop treating gays like second class citizens in the work place or when they’re trying to find a place to live – if this bill passes, then I bear no ill-will toward the state of Utah itself.  Their government, and their state, no longer bear the brunt of my indignation on this issue, and I will get off my “Boycott Sundance” horse.

I’ll go back to doing what’s easier:  Seething at individuals.  Railing at an entire church is exhausting, and feels like punching a wall.

For the gay community, there are probably decades of work to be done, and damage to be reversed.  Generations have been soiled with the idea that homosexuals are second-class citizens.  The discrimination will more than likely still happen and people will have to be vigilant.  It will more than likely fall to younger people than I to populate that state with kinder, less xenophobic souls.

The national and regional debate over gay marriage is hardly over.

But because you need to reward good behavior, hurrah for the Mormon Church for this.  They have now left the middle ages and are living in the 1950s.  It’s a baby step, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

We’ll see what happens Tuesday night.

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday that discriminating against gay people shouldn’t be illegal, although he would prefer it if everyone were treated with respect.

In his most definitive comments yet on gay rights, Herbert told reporters he doesn’t believe sexual orientation should be a protected class in the way that race, gender and religion are.

“We don’t have to have a rule for everybody to do the right thing. We ought to just do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do and we don’t have to have a law that punishes us if we don’t,” Herbert said in his first monthly KUED news conference.

In Utah, it is legal to fire someone for being gay or transgender. The gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah has been trying to change state law for several years but has always been rebuffed by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Really?  REALLY?

So according to this guy – this replacement governor – It’s okay to fire somebody because they happen to be Gay.  That’s acceptable in Utah.

Well, not to me.  And it shouldn’t be to Hollywood.

I have gay friends.  I have Mormon friends.  I would no sooner discriminate against a religion than a sexual orientation.  But that’s not the way it works in Utah, so it’s time to draw a line.

Every year, Hollywood rolls out to Utah to trot out its cool, its different, its alternative and its edgy.  That’s Sundance – a celebration of alternative film making.

Well, here’s the deal, Hollywood.  Utah hates you.  So it’s time to move on.  It’s time to boycott Sundance.

It’s time for Hollywood to realize they are giving money and credence to a state that could give a crap and a half about some of their most creative souls, and move it to anywhere else that’s tolerant.  To Big Bear.  Or Tahoe.  Or Palmdale, for the love of God.  Or anywhere else that is willing to say that this kind of discrimination is no longer acceptable.

The hell with this governor, and the hell with this state.  They can do anything they want, and believe what they want.  That’s fine.  But Hollywood no longer has to accept it.  And every year you do is another year you put up with being treated like second class citizens.

You cannot complain about Prop 8 and go to Sundance.  If you do, you are a hypocrite.

Stop giving them your money.  Stop giving them your support.  Stop pretending that just because one small town enjoys your money, the rest of the state somehow doesn’t hate you for what you are.

You want change?  Hit them where it hurts:  In their pocketbook, and the one event per year that makes them seem relevant.

While you’re at it, boycott your ski vacation to Deer Valley and any other place you slap sticks on your feet and hit the slopes.  Stop fiming TV or Features in Utah.  THEY HATE YOU.

But first and foremost, stand up for yourself.  Boycott Sundance.

If you don’t, then never complain about discrimination again.

From Huffpo:
Joe the Plumber, aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, sat down for an lengthy interview with Christianity Today to discuss his views on the future of the Republican party. Wurzelbacher took the opportunity to speak out against gay marriage, which he says is wrong. The unlikely conservative spokesman went so far as to say he doesn’t allow openly gay people “anywhere near” his children.

The word “queer,” Wurzelbacher noted, “means strange and unusual.”

Christianity Today: In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?
Wurzelbacher: At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary–it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do–what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

I don’t even know where to start.  The comedian in me wants to rip him apart because of the “calling a white guy a honkey” thing – like somehow that’s the most horrific thing ever in the history of insults.

But I can’t.

I’m roiling with an interesting combination of pity and fury.

Fury, because it’s ridiculous enough this assmunch had fifteen minutes of – I don’t want to call it fame as much as I want to call it footsie.  For fifteen minutes, the american public played footsie with this guy, thinking he was “one of the regular guys.”

And then he talks, and you realize exactly what kind of guy he is.

Thank you for your definition of “queer,” but it’s a five-letter word and I’m guessing if you know it, I know it.  Here’s a few more for you.  Intolerant.  Prejudiced.  Xenophobic.   If you’re scratching you’re bald, dumb head, zip on over to dictionary.com.

You have gay friends but you won’t let your kids near them?  Then:

a) You have a completely screwed up idea what a friend is and

b) I’m sure they don’t want to be anywhere near your kid.

Because God forbid that child have an independent thought, or want to do something with their life besides crush a beer can on their head, you’re going to accuse your “friend” of  trying to convert him.

Guys like this have an attitude – I’ve seen it, heard it  - that because you live on the west coast your morals get chipped away, or somehow you become “inured” to certain lifestyles.  As though I skipped my way here from the midwest holding a picnic basket, and all the forces of “evil and decay” (not my words, metaphors) finally chipped away at my stalwart midwestern upbringing.

That’s one way to look at it.  If you got dropped on your head as a child.

The other way is that when you leave your bubble, your comfort zone, you start to see people as people… not labels.  It doesn’t mean you don’t laugh at a joke, or roll your eyes at the more outlandish behavior – I’ll equate certain floats at a certain parade with certain St. Patrick’s Day stupidity on a 1-to-1 level.

Flamboyance makes some people roll their eyes.  Fair enough.  There are beer ads make me embarrassed to be straight and enjoy football.

I probably didn’t know many homosexuals, growing up in suburban Chicago.  I probably knew a few going to college, but was too busy enjoying my new romance with beer to care.  I’m sure I worked with a few when I first started in Hollywood.  And as I got older, calmer and started to pay more attention to life around me – I started to realize I had a lot more gay friends than I thought.

Friends. People i choose to be around because they’re good people.  As opposed to this guy, who chooses not to be around people because of who they are.

So, there’s fury.  Because this guy is a douche. This guy should have been done a long time ago. This guy is an embarrassment to middle-aged caucasians from the midwest.

But then, there’s pity.  Because he will NEVER know any better.  He will NEVER learn from anyone different, grow to be a bigger person… he is trapped in the small, suffocating hamster ball of his own making, doomed to roll around in whatever life he’s making for himself.  But that’s the end of the pity, because this guy sucks.

I wouldn’t let my kids near him – not because he looks like the bald guy I saw on a poster who isn’t allowed within 500 feet of a school – but because I think he’s a bully, a jerk, and a bad influence.  And – not unlike Swine Flu – I would take the proper precautions as I’d be afraid that this guy’s stupid is contagious.

Because we know who he is now.

He’s not a “regular Joe.”  He’s that jerk who cuts you off, flips you the bird and screams at you, even though you did nothing wrong.  The guy who’s got so much emotional baggage that he’ll bump into you in the grocery story and then push you into the soup saying “Watch where you’re going.”

He’s the guy telling you to go back to Mexico.  Or cut your hair.  Or “Love it or leave it.”

He’s an a**hole.