Brookings Picks Up Church's LBGTQ Compromise

[ChinoCoug]

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/fixgo...101US0001-0308

The deal was warmly welcomed by gay leaders, both local and national, with the Human Rights Campaign in Washington calling it "all upside" and "a model." This endorsement was not a given: one-sided "religious freedom" laws sought (and sometimes passed) by religious conservatives in other states have deepened suspicion in the LGBT world that religious accommodations are intended as a "license to discriminate." Some LGBT folks now view any such accommodations as a poison pill. That view did not prevail in Utah, whose example suggests that good-faith negotiations and a tangible upside can still attract gay support for compromise.

I think I was reading God's mind. Back when the Church came out with support for SLC's housing protections for gays, I thought, we might as well support every gay right we can while being constrained by doctrinal integrity, and we should go all the way and make a big deal out of it.

The Brookings panel will discuss whether this can be a model for other states. So instead of being a social laggard once again, here's a chance to be an innovator.

And no, John Dehlin was not invited to the panel.