Dec 12, 2008   | COMMENTS     

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s Roman Catholic archbishop says he invited leaders of the Mormon Church to get involved in the campaign to pass a gay marriage ban in California this year at the request of his fellow bishops.

Archbishop George Niederauer wrote in a column published in a diocesan newspaper last week that he wanted to address the “many misunderstandings and hard feelings” resulting from the adoption of Proposition 8.

It’s the first time the archbishop has commented on how churches organized to help push through the initiative, which overturned the California Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Mormon leaders had given a similar account of how its members, who represent about 2 percent of the California residents with a religious affiliation, came to play such a prominent role in promoting Proposition 8.

Niederauer said that after the state’s Catholic bishops endorsed the measure, staff from the California Catholic Conference told him the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had actively supported a similar ballot initiative eight years ago.

Niederauer, who previously served as bishop of Salt Lake City, said he sent a letter to Mormon leaders in which he “urged the members of their church, especially those in California, to become involved.”

By some estimates, contributions from Mormon supporters accounted for 45 percent of the $38 million raised by the Yes on 8 campaign. In the month since the election, Mormon temples around the country have become targets of protests, and some gay rights activists have called for a boycott of Mormon-owned businesses.

Niederauer defended the active involvement churches played in the campaign, saying, “religious leaders in America have the constitutional right to speak out on issues of public policy.” He also noted that while he knew many gay people felt “hurt and offended,” both sides “need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable.”

“We need to stop talking as if we are experts on the real motives of people with whom we have never even spoken,” he said. “We need to stop hurling names like ‘bigot’ and ‘pervert’ at each other. And we need to stop it now.”

Appeals court keeps ‘Don’t Ask’ challenge alive

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Rebuffing the Air Force, a federal appeals court has kept alive a challenge brought by a former military nurse to the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays.
Last week’s action by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals keeps alive a challenge filed by Margaret Witt, a former Air Force nurse who attained the rank of major.

Witt and her partner, a civilian, lived together in Spokane from July 1997 through August 2003. A year after the couple broke up, the Air Force launched an investigation into allegations that Witt was a lesbian. Witt was suspended from the Air Force after a military board found she had practiced and declared her homosexuality. She was honorably discharged in October 2007.

The U.S. District Court for Western Washington tossed out a 2006 lawsuit challenging her suspension as a violation of her rights under the Constitution’s equal protection clause. She appealed to the 9th Circuit.

In May, a three-judge panel of the appeals court denied Witt’s equal protection claim. But the panel sent the case back to the district court to determine whether the application of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to her case furthered the government interest in “high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion” in the armed forces.

The appeals court noted that the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 struck down a Texas criminal statute penalizing homosexual conduct, and said Witt’s case should be evaluated in light of that ruling.

In their appeal, the Air Force and Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked the 9th Court to hear the issue with all the judges present. In a 4-3 decision, the court said no. That means the case will go forward, said attorney Sarah Dunne of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, which represents Witt.