Your Prop 8 Experience
With the voting over and the dust settling, Sunstone is gathering the personal experiences of Mormons who worked on all points of the Proposition 8 spectrum. The purpose of the collection is to help Saints with different stances on Prop 8 to understand one another as human beings.
We’re looking particularly for short personal essays: brief, reflective, autobiographical stories that encapsulate the writer’s experience. Preferably not more than 700 words.
To give you a little inspiration, take a look at these two blog posts:
http://loydo38.blogspot.com/2008/11/seeking-forgiveness.html
http://roughstonerolling.com/blog/2008/11/03/five-signs/
If you have read any good writing along the lines above, please point us there.
Send your Prop 8 experience to stephen [at] sunstonemagazine [dot] com
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November 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
This is such an important project. I had a lengthy comment-based discussion on Facebook with a stranger on the other side of Prop 8 from me. The only point I sought to make was that it’s essential to recognize that not everyone who disagrees with you is “retarded and mean.” I’ve despaired as I’ve read rants and raves from both sides all over the bloggernacle that show such a lack of understanding about both the actual concerns and the very humanity of people in the opposite camp.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Would it be possible to write under a pen-name?
November 10th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Writing under a pen name is a possibility though we much prefer to stick with real names. I’m more inclined to accept a pen name if it has been your online identity for a long time. Of course, really good writing always helps.
In any case, I’d love to read what you have to say. Send it in and we can haggle later.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Someone wrote an article for Meridian about her pro-8 experience.
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/articles/081023prop8.html
The similarities to the Project Mayhem no-8 post are noticeable. It would be nice to see them printed side-by-side.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Thanks, Johnna. I’ve written to the author of that piece inviting him to participate.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Stephen,
I know the author of that Meridian piece (she’s female). I could ask her if she wants it printed (but to be honest, I highly doubt that she will).
(Johnna, I had the same thoughts about the similarities!)
November 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Oops, how embarrassing. I thought Johnna was referring to another article on Merdian.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
This past week, my husband and I took some time away to go to beautiful Lake Tahoe. We needed a relaxing break. So, as we crossed the state line, there were about 30 No on 8 protesters. And that bothered me. It only bothered me because I was getting sick of it. I had been to three temples in a two week period, and I had seen protestors at two of them. I have seen almost every night on the news that some vandals had damaged a church or protested at a temple. And I just felt bad in my heart for how this had developed.
I am not anti gay. I have two cousins who are gay. I have worked with gays and have socialized with them. My kids had gay teachers. I didn’t’ have a problem with that. I would say I am pretty progressive in my thinking. But there are a few things that propelled me to fight for my marriage and the marriages of my children and grandchildren.
#1 No matter how you slice or dice it, marriage was invented by God Himself. Not only did he make a Male and Female and declared that they “multiply and replenish the earth” but he also made a Male and Female of every species. So how would the earth replenish itself if this hadn’t happened? God knows all. He didn’t put and man and man on earth and say figure a way out cause your both equal. Men and Women will never be the same. He made us different for a reason.
#2 My marriage is protected and it’s legal. I live in a state where I have voted on Male/Female marriage being legal TWO times. How dare 4 judges in the wackiest city in the whole USA tell us, how our votes don’t count, and that THEY know better.
#3 As a grandmother of two adopted grandchildren through the church’s social services, I am worried that other families will be in jeopardy of not being able to adopt through the church. It’s been such a blessing to all the families involved with these two little children. Adoption can be a hard thing to do. Having it go through Social Services makes it easier. I don’t want someone to come in and make these rules and laws more difficult.
I do think gays can adopt. There are a lot of children that never get the right to have parents, either if it is a same sex union or a single person. Just let the people who want to place their children with Social Services as it is, have this wish.
#4 I want my church to be able to have tax exception. In talking to my accountant, she says 100% that would be in jeopardy as well. There is nothing wrong with the way this system is now. Why mess with it?
#5 Hey, my guy didn’t win. So I am not crying and marching all over the state buildings that Sarah Palin and McCain won’t be in office. It happened and I have to learn to deal with it. I think voting two times is enough But you and I know it will be back. This is far from over.
I am also ticked I had to take my Yes on 8 bumper sticker off for fear of being hurt. My business partner had a rock thrown through his window of his car.
#6 Leave my grandkids schools alone. Don’t teach them about The King and The King. Don’t take them to lesbian weddings. Don’t teach them that Susie has two mommy’s. Let my kids be smart enough and willing to teach them these things. All my older grandkids who are above the age of 5 or so, know what a lesbian is. I find that pretty sad that my daughter has to define that at this age. Instead of things being so innocent they see people on the news trying to climb the fence of the L.A. Temple. My kids and grandkids stood out on the street with signs saying YES on 8. My daughter stood on the corner with a woman with a NO on 8 sign…..and they were nice to each other. It confused my little Paige that this woman was so nice, but her friends were “keying” the cars parked with Yes on 8 stickers. The kids shouldn’t be paying the price for this. I want them to have an innocent life for as long as they can. I don’t want them learning these things at school. If they need to learn or ask, it should be the right of the parent to explain it.
#7 It’s not a Civil issue………it’s a MORAL issue. So don’t liken this to the Civil Rights movement. This one just ticks me off. I’m not even going to go there. The way Blacks were treated, was unspeakable in this country. I think it degrades what people of color went through. We are not treating people like animals or taking their right to vote away. And don’t get me going on Woman’s suffrage! I am WOMAN, hear me roar.
#8 And Most Important……..GOD SAID SO. Either you believe in this church or you don’t. That means, either President Monson is a Prophet or he isn’t. I don’t like how people go all gray on these things. There are gray matter’s in life, but this isn’t one of them. Either he is a Prophet or not. He is the head of this church or not. God said so , OR NOT!!! Gray comes into play with politics and life in general. You’re not going to be an atheist and a believer at the same time. If you don’t believe in President Monson’s decision…..then maybe you ought to think about what you do believe in.
I believe in God. And that President Monson has our best interest at heart. I would never follow a person blind. I know in my deep soul, he knows what he is doing.
We are all God’s children. He loves the Straight and the Gay. I believe that with my whole heart. Because I am active LDS, I truly believe he doesn’t love me anymore than he loves my gay neighbor…(he is by the way).
If we don’t protect our sacred marriages, who will? My marriage is worth fighting for. And that’s why I fought so hard to keep it as God intended it …….between a Man and a Woman…..
I might not be “Sunstone” intelligent. I am just an average woman, wife, mother and grandmother. It’s not a bad life at all. Gay’s have the right to be happy too…….just don’t take away right of having my marriage redefined.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 am
Just a little skirmish, a passive agressive one, perhaps on both sides. I would put up a Yes On 8 poster in front of my property and someone would take it down. I put up another, and it was taken down. I took out my marker and wrote, “Please allow me my 1st Amendment Rights to Free Speech, leave this poster alone.” It was taken down too. By the time of the election I had put up six posters. Two days before the election someone put up a No on 8 Poster in front of my property. I left it alone. I do believe in the 1st Amendment, even though it was on my property that the sign was posted. After the election was over, I did remove this sign and gathered up the handfull of metal frames that had held up my posters. I’ll take them in for recycling. I feel sad. I wish I could have talked to the person who had taken down my signs, or at least established a dialog with marker messages.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
In this hotly contested issue Mormons have taken the firm stance that Prop 8 is not a civil rights issue it is a moral one. Let’s just agree to disagree on this point. However if one truly believes it to be a moral one fine. Morality is what churches are for. Let moral issues be debated in church meetinghouses and let civil rights be discussed in legislatures. Just as the government shouldn’t waltz into a chapel and hold a democratic election on what religions should believe, churches shouldn’t waltz into the political arena and create religious legislation on their version of morality.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
During the heat of the Prop 8 backlash on all things remotely Mormon, people on the opposing side have sometimes let their emotions rule their head. Mormons on the other hand have quietly congratulated themselves on their civil behavior during the campaign, feeling that they have taken a stand for their religious beliefs in a dignified manner. But thats just it, those are YOUR religious beliefs and they are not shared by so much of the rest of the nation.
In the Prop 8 battle if the Yes on 8ers had lost nothing would really have changed for them. They would still be able to go home to their families, and wake up next to their spouse and their spouse would still be religously and civily their spouse.
On the other hand opponents of prop 8 went home stripped of a civil right, a family was legally dissolved and holding the message from Mormons stating they while they are loved by Mormons, they are loved in a second class way.
Its no wonder the No on 8 side is angry, So before you bear your self congratulating testimonies next Sunday and pat yourselves on the back please remember that its easy to be respectful when you have nothing to lose and ask yourselves if you would have behaved differently if someone was voting away your family.
After all, the last time Mormons truly felt their families threatened they didn’t just quietly hold protest signs, they lashed out in what historians call “The Mountain Meadows Massacre”
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Gay marriage is a GOOD thing and helps support and strengthen straight marriage. It will help prevent gay men from marrying your heterosexual daughters.