{"id":2159,"date":"2013-03-27T19:07:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T01:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/affirmation.org\/?p=2159"},"modified":"2021-10-04T08:33:31","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T14:33:31","slug":"images-of-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affirmation.org\/es\/imagenes-de-igualdad\/","title":{"rendered":"Im\u00e1genes de igualdad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curtis Penfold: \u201cI love the idea of marriage so much that I want everyone to be able to get married\u201d<\/h3>\n

Compiled by Hugo Salinas
\nMarch 2013<\/p>\n

Last week, as the Supreme Court prepared to hear oral arguments on cases related to Prop 8 and DOMA, Americans of every faith expressed their support of\u00a0marriage equality. Thousands attended candlelight vigils and rallies held across the country, and hundreds of thousands wore red or changed their Facebook profile picture in support of giving LGBT people the right to marry. The following vignettes describe LDS participation in many of these events.<\/p>\n

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In\u00a0Provo, Utah,<\/strong>\u00a0over 100 BYU students and local residents gathered at the Utah County Courthouse, where they sang the national anthem, prayed, and lit candles. \u201cI love the idea of marriage so much,\u201d BYU sophomore and organizer\u00a0Curtis Penfold told KSL5<\/a><\/strong>, \u201cthat I want everyone to be able to get married.\u201d Brook Swallow carried a \u201cGay is OK\u201d sign. Sara Vranes, a returned missionary and BYU graduate, said that she regrets having voted yes on Prop 8. \u201cNow people have repented of their votes,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cThat is exactly the journey I am on. I want to make my vote a \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"me_02\"<\/a>At the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in\u00a0Washington DC,<\/strong>\u00a0Spencer Clark, executive director of Mormons for Equality, represented Latter-day Saints during an interfaith prayer service held in support of marriage equality, where he read a scripture from the Bible. Along with wife Cherry and daughter Clementine, he marched to the Supreme Court holding a sign that read, \u201cMARRIAGE IS LOVE, COMMITMENT, FAMILY.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"me_03\"<\/a>In\u00a0Providence, Rhode Island,<\/strong>\u00a0Lexi Magnusson, a Mormon and a mother of four, was invited to\u00a0testify at the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee\u00a0in favor of marriage equality. \u201cI am Mormon, but I don\u2019t believe this is a religious issue,\u201d Lexi wrote. \u201cI believe that when you protect the rights and freedoms of others, you are also protecting your own rights and freedoms. It happened with the women\u2019s, civil, and disability movements. In each case these people received their rights and their dignity, really, and the world didn\u2019t come to a crashing end as was believed by many at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In\u00a0Salt Lake City, Utah,<\/strong>\u00a0400 supporters of equality gathered at the Main Library amphitheater, including Family Fellowship co-founders Gary and Millie Watts. Russ Baker-Gorringe, a returned missionary and BYU graduate, spoke at the event flanked by his son on one side and his husband on the other. Russ and his husband\u00a0married during the 2008 Affirmation conference\u00a0held in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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\"me_05\"<\/a>In\u00a0Bakersfield, California,<\/strong>\u00a0PFLAG supporter Wendy Montgomery\u00a0spoke at a candlelight vigil<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and apologized for having once supported Prop 8. \u201cAs Mormons, we do a lot of things right,\u201d she told the audience. \u201cThere is so much that is beautiful and good with our faith. But we have this issue wrong. And I will fight to make a place in our congregations for my son, and other gay Mormons. If they want to be there, they should be allowed to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"me_06\"<\/a>In the studios of ABC4 in\u00a0Salt Lake City, Utah,<\/strong>\u00a0Affirmation member Alasdair Ekpenyong\u00a0spoke about his involvement<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0with the Provo event. \u201cOur faith drives us, as Christ reformed the community, to explore questions of social justice,\u201d said Alasdair, who is a BYU sophomore and returned missionary. \u201cIt\u2019s the lessons that I learned in Gospel Doctrine, for years, about being who I am and speaking forth that give the courage and the innermost conviction that it is correct to go forth and speak the truth that I have within myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"me_07_250\"<\/a>On\u00a0Facebook<\/strong>, thousands of Mormons changed their profile picture to a red equality sign to express their support for equality. \u201cI changed my profile picture because I believe in love,\u201d says Amanda Klein Nokleby, a straight Mormon supporter from Durham, North Carolina. \u201cAny two people who share this love should be able to enjoy the rights of marriage in this country, and it’s time to allow our LGBTQ friends that privilege. Facebook has become a wonderful medium to share opinions and thoughts on very pressing topics like marriage equality, and I hoped that by changing my profile picture, conversations would start, and change, bit by bit, would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"me_08\"<\/a>At the steps of the Supreme Court in\u00a0Washington DC,<\/strong>\u00a0Michael Amesquita, who identifies as gay, Mormon, and Latino, participated in a rally for marriage equality. \u201cIn a country that boasts so many freedoms, it should not be this hard to be able to love the person you want to, and to have that love be equal and validated,\u201d\u00a0Michael wrote about that experience<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cThe Mormon pioneers were forced out of Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois because their neighbors thought they were different and wouldn\u2019t allow them to be who they were or live how they wanted to live. How can our fellow sisters and brothers not see the irony?\u201d<\/p>\n

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