27,000 letters urge LDS leader to back rights of gay Utahns. President Thomas S. Monson: You have mail - boxes of it.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) delivered 27,000 letters to LDS Church headquarters Monday - all of them asking the Mormon leader to support legal protections for gay and transgender Utahns.
The national gay-rights group has endorsed Equality Utah's Common Ground Initiative, a collection of bills that would, among other things, provide rights to fair housing and employment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Utahns and domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples.
The movement was born in response to statements the LDS Church made in the wake of California's Proposition 8 - which eliminated gay marriage in the Golden State - that the church "does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights or probate rights."
WordPerfect co-founder and Orem resident Bruce Bastian, who is gay and sits on the HRC's board, launched the letter-writing campaign last week by sending an action alert to HRC members.
Bastian, a former Mormon, donated $1 million to fight Proposition 8 after the LDS Church joined the "yes" campaign.
"Our movement has a long history of respectfully engaging with those who would deny our basic humanity and civil rights," Bastian wrote in his e-mail. "Let's hope the church's claims are more than just a political posture."
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