KNBC Los Angeles news footage (Video: KNBC, via YouTube)
The demonstration yesterday lasted late into the night. At one point a group of men, who identified themselves as Mormons, attacked the anti-Prop-8 demonstrators sending three people to the hospital. Based on the language used by the assailants against the mainly gay and lesbian demonstrators, the police are classifying the incident as a hate crime. Earlier in the day, a pickup truck driver jumped out of his truck and punched a protester in the face.
Another Los Angeles television station has more video up on the Los Angeles Times website.
UPDATE: (11-07, 03:02 pm Pacific) UK Gay News points to a blog post by Darrell Tucci at Liberty Hill Foundation Blog with details of another instance of anti-gay violence, possibly by Mormon church members:
Having been there all day we hadn’t given it much thought. Long story short. The 20 year old woman, who I will call Amy, and I continued walking and were quickly jumped from behind by three men screaming at us that we had no business being outside THEIR temple. They knocked us on the ground and kicked us a couple times until the police ran over. Of course, the cowards ran away. The officer offered to help us up. Amy and I looked at each other, said no thank you, pulled ourselves up and brushed ourselves off.
We did choose to continue protesting as we were both hurt and couldn’t walk so well. We figured we were safe. We got to my car, turned up the side street and there were 20 more of them who tried to attack us in the car. They tried to smash my windows, while blocking the road. I closed my eyes, honked the horn and hit the gas and left the incident only with a dent in the side of my car.
[ ... ]
What I have to say to the bigots who confronted me tonight, “You knocked me down. You kicked me while I was down. You damaged my car. I might be physically sore but my spirit is strong. I shall not go away. Tomorrow is another day and we shall prevail. YES WE CAN. AND WE WILL!!
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Why the Mormons are being singled out is beyond me. So many are in support of prop 8, not just the Mormons. Here are the facts:
1. Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.
2. Mormon voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.
3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.
4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.
5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.
6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.
7. African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.
8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).
9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.
10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or her self. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with “civility, respect and love,” despite their differing views.
11. The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” The phrase “separation of church and state”, which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church as always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.
12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do – we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.
What color is the sky on Planet Kolob, Molly?
Mormon Church members raised more than $15 million to fund the deceitful advertising campaign for Proposition 8.
Proposition 8 takes away the right to marry for same sex couples in California. I hope you’re proud of yourself for playing a role, in the name of your so-called faith, in this bigoted travesty.
Your copy-and-paste talking points are standard-issue extremist religious right lies. Not even worth addressing.
Now Molly, I’ll back off the Mormon Church as soon as the Profit Monsoon dons his magic undies and crawls door to door in California apologizing to each and every one of the 18,000 loving couples whose legal civil marriages were shattered by his faith-based meddling.
Then he can start apologizing on his knees to the rest of us unmarried, gay human beings whose right to civil marriage was taken away at his urging.
Here is the link to the online petition demanding the IRS revoke the Mormon church’s tax-exempt status.
It reads:
Review the 501(c)(3) status of The Church of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons)
Target: Internal Revenue Service
Sponsored by: The Facebook group “Petition IRS to revoke Church of Latter Day Saints tax-exempt status
The LDS church contributed a significant amount of money and effort to endorse PROP 8 in California via its network of church, media, and community outlets enshrining discrimination under the law for thousands of Californians and their families.
The law reads: “In general, no organization, including a church, may qualify for IRC section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).”
What if the Great Big Head — I mean the Profit — I mean the Prophet — has a sudden, conveniently timed “revelation” that gay is OK after all? You know, like the one that occurred back in the 1970s WRT black people. Wouldn’t the LDS Church be inclined to revisit its support of hate legislation then?
You are going to have one heck of a time revoking the church of its tax-exempt status. The LDS church is one of the most well-funded churches in the world, and this campaign was just a drop of the bucket to them. And as far as the law goes, this was not a “substantial part of its activities”. Also, shouldn’t the organizations pushing for gay marriage lose their non-profit status too? The law goes both ways, and I am sure many of those organizations contributed a much more substantial part of its activities attempting to influence legislation.
Also, what you are proposing is that I, as a Christian, should check my beliefs at the door when I vote? This is not what is meant by separation of church and state, church-goers still have their rights even in the voting booth. What is interesting, is that you guys decry those who voted Yes on 8 as bigots and intolerant, when all we want is for you to stop forcing us to accept a twisted and depraved sense of morality.
Also, where do you draw the line on the definition of marriage? Ok, so man-woman, or man-man, woman-woman. What about, cousins? Siblings? Multiple spouses (polygamy-and yes, I know the Mormon church at one time practiced this, but then stopped~the traditional Christian church never supported polygamy though)? People suffering from venereal diseases? We already outlaw those from getting married, shouldn’t they have the same rights? This is not really as absurd of an argument as you will probably try to make it. I mean, technically if two male cousins wanted to get married, there would be no way for a child to be produced (suffering from the genetic maladies that could arise), so shouldn’t they be allowed be married? It is just “love” as the No on 8 campaign so eloquently puts it.
In short, “live and let live” is an admirable sentiment; on this issue, unfortunately, there is no way, as Lincoln once remarked, to please all of the people all of the time. Whichever position the state adopts, it will in important ways be “imposing its values” on those who disagree. So the question becomes how best to accommodate conflicting positions.
Hey Molly, you’re great a cutting and pasting propaganda from Mormon Apologetics. How about yout try an original thought. Or are you incapable of that since you’ve had them all replaced with church dogma?
Chris. You’re so right. We really must stop the slippery slope that will lead to people marrying anyone and anything they want.
In that vein, we need to stop this rampant redefining of religion. By golly, people out there have redefined religion so many times Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. And don’t even get me into all the different denominations/sects within each. The only solution is to have a ballot initiative. “Religion will only be recognized as a personal relationship with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
Now how do you like it when others try to forcibly impose one and only one way of living on you because *they* think it’s the only way to live?
Chris, it will only take putting a bug in the ear of the IRS.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has already filed complaints about many of the pulpit preachers who crossed the line from their “faith” into politics. Let’s be honest: many of those “churches” are nothing more than businesses that have strayed into political lobbying.
As for that Mormon funding, we’re going after that too. Post coming up.
Buffy, thanks for calling Molly out on her copy-and-paste skills. I’ve already addressed every single point she brought up. She wasn’t worth the effort to educate. I love the way she tried to diffuse responsibility by blaming blacks and everyone else the Mormon-funded campaign of deceit swayed.