What does it mean? Church supports Respect for Marriage Act (respect for same-sex marriage nationwide)

Affirmation pres. Nathan Kitchen (courtesy, from SLTrib article)

Short answer: mixed feelings, time will tell. Here are Evan’s and Marci’s musings. Start by reading the Salt Lake Tribune article, with superb insights from intellectual heavyweights (3 free articles a month for nonsubscribers. This one is worth it).

Remember, this bill was prepared to protect against the possibility that the Supreme Court might someday overturn its 2015 ruling that made gay marriage a constitutional right nationwide. But even if that were to happen, this bill would only require all states to recognize gay marriages, not require gay marriages to be performed in their state. And even that limited protection would only exist so long as a future Congress/President doesn’t rescind this new law, if passed. And some lawyers worry that passage of the bill could actually make it more likely that the Supreme Court overturns its prior gay marriage ruling - because the court could view the new law as a more appropriate way to address this issue than its own constitutional interpretation.

Brilliant thoughts from the Trib article:

Nathan Kitchen (Affirmation outgoing pres): “A great disconnect exists between the public sphere and the faith home of LGBTQ people, where Latter-day Saint families are offered less protections and equality within the church for their LGBTQ children than what is granted them by the laws of the land. No amount of religious freedom success can compensate for failure within our spiritual home.” [Touché, Nathan.]

Allison Dayton, founder of Lift+Love: “It answers, once and for all, the question, ‘Can members of the church support same-sex marriage?’ The answer is yes, and the church does, too [as long as the wedding takes place outside of the faith],” Dayton said.

This is a huge about-face from the millions of dollars and mobilizing members out of the pews in Hawaii and California. Prop 8 was only 14 years ago. Interestingly, for those who hummed "Follow the Prophet" and participated in that movement against their conscience and then regretted it, well, I wonder what they feel now? "A View From Under the Bus" comes to mind.

If God has changed positions on legal gay marriage, then maybe God can change position on the church’s doctrine about gay marriage too.

The religious liberty compromises that were added to the bill (which is the reason the church now supports it) might make things worse in the long-term for LGBTQ members - because those compromises may delay public pressure eventually mounting on the Church to change its doctrine. That pressure might have possibly come from the threat of losing tax exempt status, which the amendment to this bill now specifically protects.

Bottom line: the Church’s reversal (to support gay marriage as a legal right) is good news but it’s important to not get too excited. This is a baby step taken by the Church mostly to further protect its right to continue treating its LGBTQ members unequally. And the legal effects of the law represented in this bill could still be undone. So there remains a LOT of work left to do, both in and out of the Church.

-Evan and Marci