I don’t think the battle is over yet, as the Prop 8 results suggest. And, more to the point when we’re talking about motivation for the strong opposition, heteronormative folks don’t think it’s been lost. Of course, some may think that loss is inevitable, and that’s almost certainly accurate.

But, in the end, if the pariah status actually becomes strong enough to really be a problem for the organization, history (polygamy, Blacks & the priesthood) suggests that God will come through with revelation to let the Church off the hook.

This is a Catholic fight which has nothing to do with us. Let’s talk about the Wirthlins complaining that their kids were forced to read a book meant to instill the fact that perhaps it was a bad idea to beat the crap out of a kid whose family had a non-traditional marriage. Mormon all around.

Re: Your comment (#110): I disagree. I think those particular issues have everything to do with the legalization of SSM–and further legalization of SSM (especially in CA) will only codify any resistance to Gay “rights” as an issue of discrimination.

I’m no lawyer, bit it seems to me that when the courts speak what we get is a precedent that will influence further related court decisions–sometimes for generations. It is no coincidence that legalized SSM and and gay anti-discrimination law suits are happening side by side.

But hasn’t that already been lost, Drew C? What percentage of the American population believes that only celibate singles and married heterosexual couples are fully moral and “normative”? It isn’t close to a majority any more, that’s for sure. In vast swathes of American society, you’d already fall under social condemnation if you openly described a gay couple as immoral.

The longer I engage in these Bloggernacle discussions, the more I realize just how polarized our culture is right now. Anybody else notice that?

Let’s not forget that LDSFS is operating in Massachusetts right this minute. So whatever happened to CC’s operations related to to gay marriage or gay adoption rights, if we look around in the most elementary way, we can note that LDSFS was not shut down.

If we look just a moment longer, we see that CC’s trouble with the state of Mass predates gay marriage being made legal. sigh.

I think that’s a good question. First, I think lots of LDS folks would be in favor of banning those sorts of things as well; but those issues don’t happen to be on the national agenda. But I think that issues around homosexuality are different because they are about an identity category, not just about behavior. So if you are anti-adultery, you are not seen as bigoted against adulterers, because it isn’t a category that people self-identify with, it’s just a behavior. In addition, not outlawing adultery is not the same as saying it’s ok, but just that it’s something that the state shouldn’t regulate.

State sanction of gay marriage is, however, very much a statement that homosexuality is ok. But being heteronormative is to believe that homosexuality is wrong. And since heterosexuality is an identity category, being heteronormative is to assert that a fundamental self-definition of a group of people is, in fact, an immorality. Now it’s not too socially inconvenient to categorize a whole group as being fundamentally immoral if most of society believes the same thing (like it’s not socially inconvenient to believe that blacks are not the equals of whites in a society where most folks believe similarly). But if society accepts homosexuals as ok and fundamentally on equal moral ground as heterosexuals, then to believe otherwise means that you will be seen as bigoted by the majority society. So the stakes for losing the battle on heteronormativity are very high for people who believe that homosexuality is evil (and, by implication homosexuals as well), because losing that battle will make them social pariahs, just as racists are now.