AP PHOTO/STEVE C. WILSON
BIG LOVE
the mid-1990s, to join with other
conservative groups in publicly
condemning same-sex marriage.
“THE FAMILY is ordained of
God. Marriage between man and
woman is essential to His eternal plan,” the church declared in
a 1995 document, “The Family:
A Proclamation To The World.”
“We warn that the disintegration
of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations
the calamities foretold by ancient
and modern prophets.”
The church’s single largest
contribution to the fight against
same-sex marriage came in 2008,
when members shelled out a
combined $20 million and doz-
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
ens boarded buses bound for
California in an effort to generate support for Proposition 8, the
state’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Observers on both sides of the
issue say this Mormon campaign
was largely responsible for tipping the scales and securing Prop
8’s victory at the polls.
But if the church entered that
fight looking to make friends
among mainstream Americans,
it made a critical mistake in failing to anticipate how much their
attitudes on same-sex marriage
would shift over the next few
years. The first signs of a backlash
against the church’s stance appeared almost immediately, when
thousands of protesters shut
down Temple Square in Salt Lake
City in early November 2008. A
Davida
Wegner,
center
left, and
Molly Ryan
Butterworth,
center right,
hold an
enlarged copy
of their recent
marriage
license during
a rally at the
Utah State
Capitol in
support of gay
marriage on
Jan. 10, 2014.