“I’m a Mormon” Campaign Features Minorities, Gays, Rockers
Say goodbye to Donny and Marie; say hello to Brandon, Valentin, and David, some of the new public faces of Mormonism.
The “I’m a Mormon” TV and web campaign, running since August 2010, now includes a world-renowned rocker, a rainbow of racial minorities, and—in an unprecedented move—at least four men who self-identify as gay.
“My name is Brandon Flowers, I make music and sing songs,” says the lead singer of The Killers, a rock band that has sold more than 15 million albums, in one of the most recent ads. Seven years ago, Flowers called himself an ex-Mormon, drank, smoke, and had a considerable gay following; he is now the latest poster child for the “I’m a Mormon” campaign, featured in an ad that is over four minutes long.
“It’s definitely not normal in this business at my age to have a wife and children, but for me it all heads back to my roots and the examples from my parents,” Flowers remarks over images of him playing at home with his two young children and posing in a garden with his wife. “My name is Brandon Flowers,” he concludes. “I’m a father, a husband, and I’m a Mormon.”
But the campaign is not just about rockers: from a black musician in an interracial marriage to a working mother of three, from a mother and artist who doesn’t believe a woman’s place is in the kitchen to a Latino grandfather and granddaughter, the ads present Latter-day Saints as a diverse, life-loving bunch. Several of the ads present urban, fast-paced stories of youthful individuals in hip professions, including a surfer, a skateboarder, and a motorbike racer.
“The ads are blasting apart those stereotypes that people have of who Mormons are. It’s a big tent,” LDS spokesperson Kim Farah told ABC News when the campaign was first launched. “We have members that are very diverse, and I think people are very surprised to see that.”
The Church’s website at Mormon.org has recently taken a further surprising step: presenting stories (though no videos yet) of at least four men who identify as gay and Mormon. “I’m gay. I’m a Mormon. I’m so much more. I believe in Christ!” writes David, who includes his picture (rather than retaining anonymity). “If I can, I will answer any question you ask me.”
In response to a question about homosexuality and same-sex marriage, David writes that the LDS stance on same-sex relations “puts gay Mormons like [me] in a precarious position.”
“Sadly there are not many definitive answers to questions about homosexuality in the Church,” David admits. “Instead, many are met with the answer of ‘We don’t know.’”
Mormons Help Oust Russell Pearce
Last January, Mormon lawmaker Russell Pearce was at the height of his power: he was president of the Arizona State Senate, a Tea Party favorite, and a solid conservative with strong LDS support in his Mesa district. Less than a year later, he no longer holds public office: a grassroots movement that included many fellow Mormons recalled him and elected another Mormon to his seat.
Pearce was the sponsor of Senate Bill 1070, an enforcement-only immigration law often described as one of the most draconian in the country. Signed into law in April 2010, the bill was hailed by the Tea Party, denounced by the ACLU, and blocked in the courts by the Justice Department. Pearce also pushed for denying birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
Not all Mormons were happy with Arizona’s new law—especially after the LDS Church came out against enforcement-only legislation.
“The [Church] is concerned that any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating each other as children of God,” an official June 2011 statement declared. “The history of mass expulsion or mistreatment of individuals or families is cause for concern especially where race, culture, or religion are involved. This should give pause to any policy that contemplates targeting any one group, particularly if that group comes mostly from one heritage.”
ISSUES OF CHARACTER
More than his stance on immigration, Pearce seems to have precipitated his political fall from grace by claiming that Church headquarters supported his position. At a videotaped meeting of Arizona Republicans, Pearce asserted, “I got hold of Church headquarters in Salt Lake, too, and they said they absolutely do not oppose what Arizona is doing, and none of their statements should reflect that.” In the same video, Pearce maintained that he agreed “with all” of the Church’s June 2011 statement.
Reporter Brahm Resnick, who recorded Pearce’s remarks, broke the story for NBC’s Channel 12 News in Arizona. After viewing the video at Resnick’s request, Church spokesperson Michael Purdy sent Resnick a statement reaffirming the Church’s position that “an enforcement-only approach is inadequate.”
“Pearce’s suggestion that he has the Mormon Church’s blessing could swing the vote in his heavily Mormon Mesa district,” Resnick predicted. “Illegal immigration is the dividing line between Pearce and recall opponent Jerry Lewis. Lewis is a former church leader whose views on illegal immigration are in step with LDS positions.”
In the recall election, Lewis received 53.4 percent of the vote to Pearce’s 45.4 percent. Pearce conceded the race but made no apologies for his tough stances on immigration.
“Mr. Pearce was the man,” Lewis told the Salt Lake Tribune in the wake of his own electoral victory. “He was SB1070. He was the president of the Senate, the architect of that bill and that was his claim to fame. That message was defeated tonight. I don’t think there’s anything . . . Arizona could’ve done more significant than this.”
According to a Project New West survey, Pearce was ousted over “character” issues, not immigration. More than 40 percent of LDS voters said they recalled Pearce on issues like “personal shortcomings” or “his dishonesty or corruption.”
MORMONS IN UTAH DIVIDED
Some LDS lawmakers in Utah, including Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, praised the Arizona law and vowed to pass similar legislation in the Beehive State. However, their efforts were cooled by Church support for the Utah Compact, a declaration of five principles which reaffirms that immigration is a federal issue and opposes “policies that unnecessarily separate families.” The document was endorsed by the state attorney general, two Republican former governors, religious leaders, and a host of other civic groups and citizens. Although the LDS Church did not sign the declaration, in November 2010 it issued a statement supporting the compact.
The compact resulted in a packet of immigration bills that included both enforcement legislation and a guest-worker program. When the bills were signed into law last March, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton attended the signing ceremony, along with other religious leaders, and spoke in praise of the legislation.
“Our presence here testifies to the fact that we are appreciative of what has happened in the Legislature this session,” Burton said on behalf of Church officials. “We feel that the Legislature has done an incredible job on a very complex issue.”
Sandstrom and other Mormon hardliners lamented the Church’s involvement in the issue, which included sending Church representatives to the state capitol to lobby Utah lawmakers. “If the church had been silent, the [guest-worker] bill wouldn’t have passed,” Sandstrom told the L.A. Times. “It’s an absolute tragedy for the state of Utah.”
For Ron Mortensen, also a Mormon and the co-founder of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration, the fact that the LDS press release last June lacked the signatures of the First Presidency diminishes its authority.
“I have never known the church to make doctrine by press release,” Mortensen told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I cannot conceive the church doing that.”
Fellow Mormon Michael Clara, chairman of the Utah Republican Hispanic Assembly, retorted that Mortensen was grasping at straws to dismiss the Church’s statement.
“The church will come out with a position and people say, ‘Well, it didn’t come from the prophet,’” Clara told the Salt Lake Tribune. “But if it’s signed by the prophet, they’ll say, ‘Well, I’m not going to believe it until I hear it from Jesus Christ himself.’ It’s a moving goal post.”
Open Stories Foundation Sponsors LGBT Conference
Over 200 LGBT Mormons, along with supportive family and friends, attended the Circling the Wagons Conference held in Salt Lake City on 4–6 November. Sponsored by the Open Stories Foundation, the conference provided a space where LGBT Mormons and their allies discussed issues, bore testimonies, and celebrated a common Mormon heritage.
The conference featured poet Carol Lynn Pearson, BYU scientist Bill Bradshaw, Utah LGBT rights promoter Jim Debakis, author Jimmy Creech, LDS bishop Kevin Kloosterman, and psychologist Lee Beckstead.
“Over the past year, I have felt promptings from the Spirit that I needed to learn all I could about these issues,” said Bishop Kloosterman, who leads an LDS ward in Illinois, at the conference’s closing Sunday devotional. “And as I read these stories and as I learned more about these issues, I began to see the emotional wounds and the scars that many of you still have today. And I seem to ask the question, ‘Where did you get these wounds?’ and unfortunately the answer was, ‘In the house of my friends.’”
“I wish we could have a really good historical look at what’s happening,” said Carol Lynn Pearson, who has written extensively on LGBT Mormon issues and launched a 2009 initiative called Proposition Healing as a response to the conflicts generated around California’s Proposition 8. “We can look back and see the ending of the slave trade; we can see all of these markers; but I think we ought to really appreciate the marker that we are enacting right here and right now of bringing a whole new consciousness to what homosexuality means.” The conference theme was inspired by Pearson’s book, No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons around Our Gay Loved Ones.
Julia Hunter, a musician from Boston, spoke of her experience attending a singles ward, dating Mormon men, and finally deciding that she was attracted to women. Coming out was very difficult, she said, in part because after the Church’s involvement in Proposition 8, the message seemed to be that “Mormons hate gay people.”
“I found myself caught in the middle of this trap,” Julia said. “I identify so strongly as a Mormon, and I loved it, and I loved the social atmosphere, and I felt I was using so many of my talents in that environment. But at the same time, I knew that I loved my roommate, and that what I felt about her was totally different than anything on these millions of dates I’ve been on with all these guys.”
Bishop Kloosterman said that he had felt compelled to fly to Salt Lake City to attend the conference. He clarified that he was speaking on behalf of himself and not the LDS Church.
“Zion is not lost,” Kloosterman concluded. “It begins with one person at a time. It begins with one relationship at a time. And the only thing I can say to those of you who have been so patient, and have gone through so much, is for you to watch and look for any small changes with your loved ones, with your wards, with your leaders. And encourage them in this repentance process . . . I know that we truly are, all of us, straight, gay, lesbian, transgendered, queer, our Heavenly Father’s children, and that we do have Heavenly Parents who love us.”
A video and a transcript of Bishop Kloosterman’s remarks are posted on the Mormon Stories website, at www.mormonstories.org.
BYU’s Student Review Resurrects
The Student Review, a defunct independent publication run by BYU students, has returned from the grave—appearing this time in both paper and online editions.
“We had heard about the Review but hadn’t seen anything like it so we went to [BYU’s] special collections and saw old issues,” BYU student Craig Mangum told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We were inspired by what they were doing, the idealism of it more than anything. We loved the fact that it was funny and could find humor with some of the unique things BYU culture has to offer.”
The first issue includes stories about Mormons and Masons, sexual intimacy in marriage, the “I’m a Mormon” campaign, the new BYU group for LGBT students, and an interview with Muslim BYU professor Shereen Emara Salah.
“We at the Student Review believe that a true education can only occur through the interaction of different ideas and viewpoints, an interaction we have hoped to facilitate in the pages you are currently holding,” the editors wrote by way of introducing the inaugural issue. “We hope it will spur you to new thoughts, increased conversation both at home and in the classroom and if nothing else, a lot of laughter. We make no claims to perfection but we do uniformly reaffirm our deep desire to try.”
Like the original Student Review, published between 1986 and 1997, the new publication cannot be distributed on campus. On the other hand, through the miracle of the internet, anyone can read the stories by visiting www.thestudentreview.org.
LGBT Group Allowed at BYU
One small step for a college—a giant leap for Mormonism? A discussion group of LGBT students, supporters, and friends is being allowed to meet at Brigham Young University. Lacking official sponsorship, but functioning with knowledge of the administration, USGA (Understanding Same-Gender Attrac-tion) meets every Thursday at 7:00 PM in a classroom in the Talmage Building, attracting between 30 and 40 people.
“[There’s] a big emphasis on the understanding [part of our name],” explains organizer Bridey Jensen, who identifies as a lesbian. “Especially in a place like BYU where we’re just trying to learn about ourselves. It’s a place where we can come together and hear each other’s stories and get a better understanding of love in general.”
The group is not allowed to advertise on campus, but it has a Facebook page. Stories about USGA have appeared in the Student Review and on the website of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons. Although the group does occasionally invite speakers, most of the time attendees just talk amongst themselves.
“We have all sorts of different people,” says Jensen. “We even have people that really don’t have anything to do with being gay, but feel that we are different and accepting. And we have all different levels of people being out all over the spectrum of LGBTQ, and a lot of straight allies too—more than we really expected at first.”
“When I caught wind of a group of BYU students meeting to discuss the non-discrimination ordinances [being passed in several cities in Utah], I had to attend,” wrote Utah gay activist Eric Ethington on his blog. “I was blown away . . . Imagine my shock when I walked in and found 30 students who meet regularly, many of whom are openly gay.”
“Things are changing,” says Jensen with a smile. “And it feels good.”
