Fred Karger of Californians against Hate has filed additional accusations, based on leaked secret memos, against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church) with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission.
Read the full text of Karger’s letter at the CAH blog.
Tony Semerad, writing in the Salt Lake City Tribune, has more:
Leaked memos: Gay rights group make new charges over LDS Prop 8 role
A California group is urging election authorities to widen a probe into whether the LDS Church failed to report the full extent of its financial involvement last year in supporting a successful ban on same-sex marriage.
In new charges filed Thursday with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the Los Angeles-based Californians Against Hate accuses the church of creating the National Organization for Marriage in California as early as summer 2007 as a front group for its agenda, while failing to report the costs as required by California law.
The amended complaint also adds six other charges that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints delayed disclosure or vastly underreported other nonmonetary contributions to the campaign, including the costs of compensated staff time for senior church officials and production of 23 sophisticated TV and Web commercials.
The Mormon church promptly denied the new allegations, saying they have “have no basis in fact.”
”The church did not establish the National Organization for Marriage,” LDS spokesman Scott Trotter said, adding that the church has disclosed its entire contribution to the pro-Proposition 8 effort. Karger, said Trotter, ”is entitled to his opinion but not to his own version of the facts.”
The head of the National Organization for Marriage bristled at the new charges, describing the group as a multifaith coalition and calling the allegation it was a LDS Church front group “outlandish.”
”There was no interaction between me and Salt Lake City with regard to us going to California at all,” Executive Director Brian Brown said.
That the National Organization for Marriage is now accused of having been founded by, or at least embraced, the homophobic Mormon church in its all-out crusade to eliminate marriage equality in California in 2008 comes as no surprise. NOM and its leadership have a history of deceit and shady entanglements involving a number of extreme right-wing religious and political organizations.
In 2005, Howard Kurtz, writing in the Washington Post, accused NOM’s President Maggie Gallagher of receiving payments from the Bush administration to promote the President’s “healthy marriage” initiative. Gallagher testified a number of times before Congress, without revealing she had been paid $21,500.00 by the Department of Health and Human Services for her favorable testimony. Gallagher responded saying, “I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it.”
Kurtz also reported:
Gallagher received an additional $20,000 from the Bush administration in 2002 and 2003 for writing a report, titled “Can Government Strengthen Marriage?”, for a private organization called the National Fatherhood Initiative.
In addition, readers will recall that, during the trial of the four firefighters who sued the City of San Diego claiming their brief ride in the 2007 gay pride parade amounted to sexual-harassment and resulted in afflictions ranging from stress to irritable bowel syndrome, the National Organization for Marriage sponsored the Firefighters Defense Fund website and solicited online donations:
The Firefighters’ Defense Fund is a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund, a 501 (c) (3) organization. We receive no state or federal financial assistance. The Firefighters’ Defense Fund project is supported by the generosity of our contributors, through their individual donations. Donations are tax deductible.
The National Organization for Marriage’s association with the firefighter’s attorney, Charles S LiMandri, who claimed to be working pro bono despite the online fundraising, by extension, connects NOM to the right-wing Thomas More Law Center and the Alliance Defense Fund — another legal arm of the radical religious right.
The National Organization for Marriage is anything but secretive about its associations with other right-wing organizations. The only criteria for these joint efforts seems to be that the collaboration oppose equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens.
Why are they so defensive about their alleged association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
Californians against Hate is aggressively looking for the answer to that and other questions. Consequently, CAH has set up a new website, Mormongate.com, to expose the depth of the Mormon church’s involvement in opposing marriage equality in California. CAH further maintains, “They were involved to some degree with all 30 state elections outlawing same-sex marriage.”
The purpose of Mormongate.com is to tell the real truth about the Mormon Church’s massive involvement and cover-up of this issue. Nearly all of their activities are intended to be highly secretive. This strategy has served them well over the past 20 years; however, we have recently received documentation of just how they operate.
We will continually update Mormongate.com as we receive new information on Mormon involvement in leading the fight against equality throughout the U.S. We are constantly seeking the public’s help in providing us information on the Mormon Church’s activities around their opposition to same-sex marriage. All tips will be kept strictly confidential. Please help us to lift the Mormon Church‘s veil of secrecy.
The site solicits telephone and email tips about the Mormon church’s involvement and provides links to the leaked LDS memos and additional materials.
Click here for additional articles about Fred Karger, Californians Against Hate and Mormongate.
