HRC Launches Response to Untruthful Advertisement About Prop 8 in NY Times

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, responded forcefully today to a full-page ad in the New York Times that implies there is an organized attempt by the LGBT community to foment mob intimidation and violence toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Church recently ended a $40 million campaign which dehumanized lesbian and gay people in fighting for the passage of Proposition 8, which stripped gay families of the right to a civil marriage in California.

The ad was sponsored by NoMobVeto.org, a project of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

"Several signatories to the ad are generals in the culture wars," said Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Church (Episcopal) in Pasadena, CA.

"They lied about gay people in the campaign, and now they are lying again when they say we are in favor of mob intimidation and violence. I personally talked legitimately angry demonstrators in California out of such action and every credible LGBT organization called for peaceful resistance to the Prop 8 travesty. Many of the leaders cited in this ad preach hate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, then look the other way when LGBT people are the victims of hate crimes. This ad is an act of individual and corporate hypocrisy."

Human Rights Campaign is urging people to take action online. By visiting the website, supporters can write a letter to the New York Times; send an email to the Beckett Fund, the organization that paid for the misleading New York Times advertisement; and share their personal story with NoMobVote.org and let them know how the passage of Prop 8 affected their life.

"As an African-American, I've heard this before. A few frustrated members of a minority group respond in anger to a new indignity and the oppressor calls them anarchists. Satan, sometimes called the Father of Lies, is at work when powerful people seek to dehumanize those who are less-powerful," said Bishop John Selders of Amistad United Church of Christ in Hartford, CT.

"I am always struck that those in power, those who manipulate the truth to maintain oppressive structures, present themselves to the public as the ones being persecuted. Make no mistake, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a powerful organization with an agenda of imposing a narrow religious view upon the rest of America. As we Hispanics say, 'que verg?enza' (what a shameful act)," said Rev. Dr. Miguel de la Torre of Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO.

"While I agree that violence and anti-religious bigotry need to be combated, we must also demand an end to the violence undertaken by those religious institutions that not only encourage but also fund bigotry against lesbians and gay men," said Rev. Dr. Ken Stone of Chicago Theological Seminary. "Where will the Becket Fund be when we call for endorsements of hate crimes and employment protection legislation for LGBT people?"