8 — OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — MARCH 1999

Now the Rings on the Other Hand  

The Mormon Church and the Freedom to Marry Issue

BY LAURA MILLER

ast October, shortly
’ I before the 7 Vermont
Supreme Court heard oral

arguments in the Freedom—to-
Marry case, GLA‘AD and the
Vermont Freedom-to-Marry Task

Force held a fundraiser in St. A

Albans. At the meeting, a
GLAAD representative men-
tioned that the Mormon Church
had just channeled halfa million
dollars into efforts to ban same-
sex marriage in Alaska.

At the time, attendees could
only speculate on its political
impact. However, in light of the
November 1998 elections in both
Alaska and Hawaii, it is now
obvious that Mormon contribu-
tions may play a huge role in the
struggle to legalize same-sex
marriage, and may even have

severe ramifications within the
I state of Vermont.

That the Mormon Church
would take such a stance on this
issue is intriguing, given its own
unique past within American
society. A review of Mormon
history reveals the story of a per-
secuted minority routinely
accused of being ‘un-Christian’
and almost bankrupted by
Republicans over polygamy, the
big l9th-century ‘freedom-to-
marry’ controversy.

The Former-Day Church
While Mormons are today
associated with the state of Utah,

the Church of Jesus Christ of.

Latter-Day Saints (abbreviated
as ‘LDS’ in Mormon parlance)
actually originated in western
New York. In the spring of I820
in Palmyra, a spiritually troubled

GiVing~Back to the Community

T he Rainbow Cattle

4

av NICK BANIA
he Rainbow Cattle

I Company has a new

owner. Sort of.

Lynn Kratochvil has only
recently become the sole propri-
etor of the popular Brattleboro
bar. However, his involvement
as a partner in the venture goes
back many years.

And so ‘does the establish-
ment’s commitment to the gay
community in the town and the
region. S

The bar
represents a,
place th,a_t,iS_
inclusive ., _
5 of the gay/bi/ '

5 transgender
community.

spanner-no-a-.-.-coon-o

Kratochvil sums up that com-
mitment in his simple mission
statement: “This should be a
place to'go for the community.
People can come here for a good
-time, a family feeling, a place to
just get away to.”

And that means all kinds of
people. Kratochvil says there’s
been a misconception that the
establishment is simply a drag
bar. He quickly points out that
there is a diverse group of peo-
ple come to the bar regularly,
including friends who happen to

_ Nfeelwelcbme.‘ . ‘

Company

be straight. “There is no segre-
gation here; we’re all here
together.”

That’s not to say there isn’t
drag, mind you. Momma, Miss
Kitty, and other delightful divas
have been known to entertain
patrons with their talents in
support of the Brattleboro
AIDS Project and other causes.

In fact, the Cattle Co. has
been a key participant in BAP
fundraisers. It routinely hosts
shows and events on the organi-
zation’s behalf and donates the

, proceeds from.c.0ver charges. _

More importantly,'it’s created "
an atmosphere in which every
member of the lcom'mu_i_iity can i

BA,.P program ,. icoordinator

» Carey Johnson says that wel- I
" coming atmosphere is the reason 

ihe‘ bar has beeii" a successful

“social arm” in the project’s out-

reach and prevention efforts. j

'.That’s largely ‘been possible

because of its easygoing atmos- F
phere. “I think the bar represents‘
a place that is inclusive of the
gay/bi/transgender community.
We have realized how important
it is to fonn a partnership out of‘
each other‘s best interests.”

Kratochvil hopes to widen
the bar’s reach with some
changes in the near future. He
plans to start customized theme
nights that appeal to folks not
interested in the clubbing or
dance scene.

The one thing he won’t
change, however, is his bottom
line. lt’s not the financial bottom
line. As he puts it, he wants his
bar “to be a place where you get
a feeling of family.” V

Zion.

I4-year-old boy named. Joseph
Smith received the first of sever-
al visions from God and Jesus
Christ. In the vision, God told
him not to join any church, for
“all their creeds were an abomi-
nation in his sight.” When he
went home that night and his
mother asked what was wrong,
he said, “I have learned for

_ myself that Presbyterianism is

not true.”

As one might imagine, this
did not go over well with his par-
ents. Nor was he a big hit with
local ministers when he started
sharing his revelations. He
wrote, “I soon found...that my
telling the story had excited a
great deal of prejudice against
me among professors of reli-
gion...and though I was an
obscure boy....men of high stand-
ing would take notice sufficient
to excite the public mind against
me...and this was common
among all the sects —— all united
to persecute me,” Nonetheless,
he continued to receive visions
and record them in what later
became the Book of Mormon.

On April 6, I830, in Fayette,
New York, Smith officially
founded the Church of the
Latter-day Saints (“Jesus Christ”
was added to the name in 1838).
At the time, the church had only
six members. However, even
then, non-Mormons already
viewed the church as “a threat to
democratic self-govemment.”

Initially, the most controver-
sial aspect of the Monnon teach-
ings was the belief in continuing
divine revelation, and the idea
that Mormons had been-called
upon by God to create ajust soci-
ety called New Jerusalem or
Zion. ‘ - ”
In I83], Mormons began
gathering in Ohio, designating
Jackson, County, Missouri, as
Citizens of Ohio and
Missouri immediately banded
together to remove the
Mormons, “peaceably if we can,
forcibly if we»must.’9—" 

Between 1833 and"" ‘I847,
Mormons were driven from town
to town and jostled between
Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois,
before finally settling in the val-
ley of the Great Salt Lake in
Utah, where the vast majority of
Mormons still reside today.

Oh, No; You Don’t

But even then, non-Mormons
still felt threatened, next taking
issue with the practice of
polygamy. Polygamy is one of the
most misunderstood aspects of
the Mormon faith, in part due to
the fact that the Book of Mormon
appears to both condemn and
condone it. In July 1843, Joseph
Smith received a revelation com-
manding the practice of “plurality
of wives.” However, in October
1843, he was quick to clarify that
“no man shall have but one wife
at a time, unless the Lord directs
otherwise.”

Many Mormon theologians
have since concluded that God
“condemns plural marriage when
the practice is used to gratify

for worthy males to take multiple
wives. This ended the confronta-
tion between the church and the
US government; today, the

It may seem ironic that a church
5 with such a history of persecution
5 would completely lack empathy for

lustful desires for sensuality,”
but will sometimes issue a spe-
cific divine commandment to
“raise up seed unto God.” 2 _a

As early as the 1840s,

Mormons within the church, then ‘

headquartered in Nauvoo,
Illinois, began agitating for offi-
cial introduction of plural mar-
riage. At that time, many US
states had laws inherited from
England prohibiting plural mar-
riage. However, when the
Mormons began settling in Utah,
the area was not yet a state. In
1952, the LDS Church officially
avowed plural marriage.

This set offa public backlash,
which the Republican Party
exploited to‘ its benefit in the
1856 election. “Popular sover-
eignty” was, at that time, the
main platform of the Democratic
Party; it felt it should be the
guiding political principle gov-
erning slavery in the new territo-
ries. The Republicans, on the

_ other hand, wished to prevent the

spread of slavery into the territo-
ries and declared war on both
slavery and polygamy as “twin
relics of barbarism..” They
argued that “popular sovereign-

ty” would lead to the legalization ‘ _V a
’ by to sign onto the brief on behalf of

of both these evils. .
. By,.l862, ,Congress had
enacted the Morrill Act, mak-
ing bigamy in a territory a
crime. It turned out to be too
difficult to prosecute, so in

)l882 Congress enacted the

Edmunds Act, making “biga—
mous cohabitation” a .misde—

meanor. Within the next
decade, more . than 1300
Mormons were jailed as
“cohabs.”

Then, in I887, Congress dis-
incorporated the church and
began seizing its funds on the
ground that the church “fostered
polygamy.” An 1885 test oath
was used to ban all Mormons
from voting because of the

.. church’s position on polygamy.
By 1890, it had become clear .

that polygamy was leading
toward the total destruction of
the church; at that time, LDS
President Wilford Woodruff for-
mally withdrew the requirement

the struggles of the gay and lesbian
community against the Christian
right. Nonetheless, the LDS Church

‘ has been incredibly active against
same-sex marriage.

church remains officially against
polygamy, even though it is still
unofficially practiced in small
numbers.

And If We Don’t
Then You Don’t hither

It may seem ironic that a
church with such a history of
persecution would be completely
lacking in empathy for the strug-
gles of the gay and lesbian com-
munity against the Christian
right. Nonetheless, the LDS
Church has been incredibly
active on the same-sex marriage
issue. In fact, Verrnont’s free-
dom.-to-marry case brought
Utah’s governor and attorney
general into an open and ugly
confrontation last May.

Last spring, Nebraska and
about 10 other states decided to
submit a brief to the Vermont
Supreme Court, as ‘friends of the
court,’ opposing the legalization
of gay marriage. Lynn Wardle, an
influential law professor at
Brigham Young University,
helped draft Nebraska’s brief,
and was therefore outraged when

~-Utah’_s attorney general, Jan

Graham (the i only "elected
Democrat in the state), declined

Utah. _ ‘
Professor Wardle angrily

A repoited this to Governor Mike

Leavitt; he and GOP leaders in
the state legislature began lean-
ing on Graham to sign the brief.
They argued that legalization of
same-sex marriages in Vermont
would ‘threaten’ Utah’s laws
against them, forcing Utah to
recognize Vermont marriages
under the Full Faith and Credit
Clause of the US Constitution. 9

Graham stubbornly refused,
publicly accusing Leavitt of
playing politics with her office
and catering to the whims of the
Eagle Forum, an ultra-conserva-
tive organization currently head-
ed by Phyllis Schafly.

Utah did not sign onto the
brief. Graham eventually got
herself off the hook by publicly

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MORMON, P24