Web sites back gay unions

Prompted by their church's support for a California initiative to ban gay marriage, some Mormons are voicing opposition to the proposed ban on the Internet, saying in cyberspace what they might not be able to express in church buildings.

"We need a place where people can have a discussion and get information," said Laura Compton, a contributor at MormonsforMarriage.com. "And people need to know that it's not coming from an anti-Mormon place, or a gay Castro district place. It's coming from a faithful place."

Mormons are taught that gay sex is a sin, but celibate gays can remain active in the church.

Church leaders see marriage as a moral issue and since the 1990s have been active in efforts to defeat gay marriage legislation nationwide. In 2000, church members supported and helped pass California Proposition 22, which prohibited state recognition of same-sex unions that were legal elsewhere.

Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the 13 million-member Salt Lake City-based church, said church leaders are satisfied that a majority of members understand the teachings that surround the gay marriage issue and overwhelmingly support Proposition 8.

"The church, of course, recognizes and accepts that some among its very large membership may view the issue differently," Farah said in a statement. "Church leaders teach important principles and invite our members to govern their lives by those principles. We do not desire to compel them, nor can we do so."

But local leaders may consider church disciplinary action against members who act in clear opposition to church doctrine, Farah said.

MormonsforMarriage is one of a handful of Web sites to spring up since June, when top LDS leaders distributed a letter to be read from California pulpits to call the faith's 750,000-plus members there to contribute money and time to help pass Proposition 8.

The Nov. 4 ballot initiative would amend California's constitution to recognize marriage as only between a man and a woman. In May the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, although an earlier plebiscite had taken an opposing view.

"When I heard and saw the letter that the church leaders had read in sacrament meetings, I was appalled," said Carolyn Ball, a lesbian who was excommunicated in 2002 for refusing to choose the church over her partner. "So I said, 'That's it.' I want Mormons to know that there are gay people in their congregations, every Sunday."