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Accused of Bias, LDS-Owned Paper Relents, Publishes an Editorial for Marriage Equality August 2008 After science fiction novelist Orson Scott Card continued to use his Deseret News column to attack marriage for gay and lesbian couples in California, The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) asked the Salt Lake City-based paper to ensure fair and inclusive coverage on its editorial pages. The paper, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, initially told GLAAD it would not print anything critical of their owner’s position on the California ballot measure Proposition 8, which would repeal marriage for gay and lesbian couples in the state. Working with the Utah Pride Center, GLAAD continued to demand the paper print inclusive opinion pieces and provided research and support for an op-ed written by The Center’s Executive Director Valerie Larabee. After continued pressure and calls for journalistic integrity, the Deseret News agreed to print the op-ed which appeared in the paper on July 27. “Religious organizations, including the LDS Church, should feel empowered to teach according to the dictates of their own faith,” Larabie wrote, “but the government should not be in the business of picking and choosing what religious tenets to codify into law and which not to recognize.” GLAAD and the paper are currently negotiating how to fairly include LGBT and allied voices in its editorial pages. The full editorial by Valerie Larabee is available at www.affirmation.org/learning/ logic_doesnt_support.shtml
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www.affirmation.org