Whitney Clayton seems determined to prove, over and over again, that to call a general authority of the Mormon H8 group a rat bastard, lying sack of shit is redundant.
After his H8 group’s victory last week, in which a relentless campaign of lies and disinformation was used to strip gay Californians of their constitutional rights, Clayton tried to pass the buck to his Catholic allies. According to a report by KSL Eyewitness News, “Elder Clayton said a connection to a Catholic friend is how his church became involved in Prop 8. San Francisco’s Archbishop George Niederauer, who was Catholic bishop here, wrote a letter to Pres. Monson asking for his church’s involvement in the coalition.”
That’s right. It’s not that the Mormon hierarchy hates gay folks. It’s not like they even got involved in this of their own accord. They were just trying to help out the Catholics, at the Catholics’ request.
Niederauer is only slightly less contemptible than Clayton, and there’s no doubt he welcomed Mormon assistance, especially since Catholics — who stopped giving a damn about their bishops’ opinions years ago — are harder to mobilize than Mormons. I wouldn’t even doubt that he made a call to Monson asking for help in attacking gay folks.
But Clayton can’t quite pass his hate group off as disinterested, or as being drawn in solely out of friendly feelings toward Catholicism. After all, a letter by Mormon Elder Russell Ballard noted:
California:
Anti-H.L.M. legislation through both Houses of the California Legislature appears virtually impossible at the present. There is consensus that a referendum is the only route. While expensive, there are at least two coalitions coming together with one of them showing promise as to raising money.
Richard Wirthlin has a run a survey which shows public support for our position in the mid-fifty percentile. As in Hawaii, his survey also shows the public image of the Catholic Church higher than our Church. In other words, if we get into this, they are the one with which to join.
Ballard, a member of the Mormon Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wrote that a little before Niederauer could have called President Monson — because Monson wasn’t yet the Mormon President. Ballard was writing on 4 March 1997.
Prop 8, in other words, is not an isolated example of Mormon bigotry. It’s not a cause into which the Mormon H8 group just happened to be drawn. The Mormon Church has been committed to its campaign of anti-gay bigotry and hate for years.
