BIG LOVE
riage fight have already begun to
file their own briefs to the appeals
court. The state’s team is lead
by Gene Schaerr, a Mormon lawyer. In an email to colleagues that
was later leaked to the legal blog
Above The Law, Schaerr explained
that he took the position in order
to “fulfill what I have come to see
as a religious and family duty.”
Depending on what the appeals
court decides, the Supreme Court
could end up hearing the case by
the end of this year.
Activists for marriage equality
and religious liberty alike believe
the coming months will provide a
critical “moment of opportunity”
for promulgating their views, as
Paul Mero, president of the conservative Salt Lake City-based
advocacy group The Sutherland
Institute, put it. Sitting in his
office by Temple Square, Mormonism’s gray, granite answer
to the Vatican, he said the institute planned to run TV ads and
to sponsor lectures and debates.
“Win or lose in court,” he said,
“you still have to capture the
hearts and minds of the people.”
A painting by the Mormon artist Minerva Bernetta Kohlhepp
Teichert hung on the wall, depicting a traditional pioneer family
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
— man, woman, child — steering
their iconic handcart down into
the valley. From his seat beneath
the painting, Mero favorably compared the plural marriages that
were common in those days to the
same-sex relationships he hears of
today. “The women were not married to each other,” he pointed out.
Polygamous marriages were “natu-
“Win or lose in court,
you still have to
capture the hearts and
minds of the people.”
ral,” he insisted, “and that doesn’t
exist with a same-sex relationship. In terms of public policy, for
me, you have a loving committed
friendship. That’s what you have.
You don’t have a marriage.”
Three weeks after her Christmas Eve explosion, Sally decided
to give the ritual of the family
dinner another go. This time,
there weren’t any cold words or
tears. There was chicken parm.
After the plates were cleared, the
family sprawled around the living
room, the kids watching the Golden Globes and texting furiously.
Sally sat on an easy chair by the
TV, listening quietly as her sisters
and their husbands took turns