I just read an article in the Deseret News about the gay & lesbian community now threatening to "blacklist" supporters of California's Proposition 8, after staging destructive protests at LDS temples and other church property in California and in Utah, organizing a Utah boycott, and lobbying for the church to lose its non-profit status.

This behavior shows exactly how much "tolerance" this contingent really has of other opinions. "I accept everyone and I believe in democracy, but anyone that disagrees with my liberal point of view is a hateful bigot who has no right to speak out" seems to be the order of the day. Now, as an attorney, I understand that to opponents of Prop 8, the matter is a constitutional issue of civil rights and not one to be put to a majority vote. However, a constitutional point-counterpoint analysis is beyond the scope of this blog, and in fact, I usually make a concerted effort to keep politics and religion off my blog altogether.

But I'm making an exception to that today to say enough is enough. A church has every right to participate in the political process and mobilize its members in the political process, just as any liberal non-profit organization, such as PETA, NARAL, or like organization does. And a political process can never take away a right that never existed to begin with until it was created by a panel of activist judges.

One exit poll on election day conducted in Southern California showed that the same African-Americans who turned out to vote Obama into office also voted in support of Proposition 8 at rates in excess of 70%. I don't see any gays or lesbians organizing protests or boycotts in Compton.

After observing the reactions of the gay and lesbian community over the past week since the election, especially those directed at the church, one verse from 1 Nephi comes very prominently to my mind about the guilty taking the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.