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Legislators unveil new gay-rights legislation

Finally! Something positive that both sides of this fight can get behind!

I'm happy to see the gay community is reaching out to find common ground. Let's see if the Church is willing to do the same.
Let the healing begin.

To repeal part two of Amendment 3 is wrong. Parts 1 and 2 go hand in hand, and each is necessary for Amendment 3 to accomplish its goals.

So the gay rights movement really expcet the LDS Church to abandon the following principles? Good luck with that one:
"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. ..Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity...We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society" PROCLAMATION ON THE FAMILY

I voted that marriage is defined by man and woman, and I will stick to that. But I do hope that good things happen. I'm fine with the ideas that these people are proposing.

Honestly, I think the government has no business condoning marriage for anyone. I think that the individual churches should decide and that the government should approve it with a civil union. However, this also means that churches that approve of gay marriage should be able to do so. Religious Freedom works both ways.

Excellent development. If the LDS church is true to the words it spoke, it will line up behind this. If it does not, then I'm not sure how you make sense of all their many statements that they support these legal rights for gay couples. This will be enlightening.

Yes, good for your law makers! But these rights are currently guaranteed under California family law. Still this community insists on more in California. I hope we can find a common ground. I wonder... who will invite who first to the table to talk? I pray it is not too late....

Recently when the 4 California judges negated the previous electorate choice regarding the marriage issue, what happened? Were there demonstrations and inappropriate measures taken towards the gay & lesbian communities? No!

While Churches (many, not just the LDS Church) voiced opposition to what had taken place, they did not demonstrate, and do all that type of stuff. But INDIVIDUALS, of all religious and political persuasions, as well as those who are not affiliated with any church, took the matter up in a legal way in the form of a constitutional amendment. This was all done without kicking and screaming in an immature way.

It is certainly immature to single out a church, demonstrate and show disrespect etc. for something that was put before the people who then spoke their desires via the ballot box.

Character counts. We look forward to the gay and lesbian community and their supporters to do whatever they do from this point on, in a way that shows REAL character, not immaturity and pettiness.

We can disagree, but hopes are that it can be done in a civil and respectful way.

To all the church members out there who have been feeling a bit queasy about the church's role in Prop 8 (and I know there are a lot of us) this is a good chance to encourage our church leaders to throw their support behind these ideas and to take a big step toward closing the rift caused by Prop 8. Let's hope that the church stays true to its word and offers support for these proposals.

I am not sure where you get, "I'm happy to see the gay community is reaching out to find common ground.", from. Where does this article say anything about the gay community? It is Utah Legislators that are acting, or reaching out, not the gay community.

I am living in Arizona. And I voted for Prop 102 in AZ. I would be in favor of these kinds of proposals that would extend these basic rights to gay couples in Arizona. I feel, as Elder Whitney said in his statement about Prop 8, that the purpose of this amendment is not to punish gays, but to keep marriage from further denigration and to protect our religious rights.

So you're going to make out-of-wedlock births illegal?

What about divorce? If marriage comes from God, how can the government/society create divorce?

If you re-read that "proclamation", you'll find that it has NOTHING in it that prohibits the church's support of gay marriage. Nothing.

I hereby issue this PROCLAMATION: "We should honor God's plan for us, and honor everyone AS CREATED BY GOD."

There. That wasn't hard, was it?

WHO is denigrating marriage?

I think Bristol Palin's teenaged unwed pregnancy is more denigrating to "marriage" (as you define it) than a thousand gay people marrying.

Notice Little Miss Palin hasn't married yet? And won't? So there's another child bereft of a father....as you see it?

When it comes down to it, marriage is a legal contract between two people that guarantees a certain amount of rights. This fact has nothing to do with religion. Thinking that denying these rights to gays and lesbians equates to religious freedom is illogical. This really equates to shunning people from society and not allowing them to have rights. And what's really going on here is that a particular religious faith and belief system is being forced onto others in the name of "Freedom of Religion" while it's actually encroaching on other religion's freedoms that don't happen to follow yours. All of this just because two people want to live and know for sure that they are guaranteed the same rights as other couples.

So, a group of legislators want to use another back door to promote same sex marriage, ignoring the clear majority of the people, to say nothing of the the history of ALL civilizations and ALL religions?Democrats, what a surprise!

so lets see if the LDS church will actually show some honor for once or if it was all just more hollow rhetoric to get their way.

It is exciting, after all the protests & proposed boycotting, to see people actually going through proper channels to petition.
I don't agree with their ideas, but I do agree that they have as much right to put something to a vote (and let the people's voices be heard & respected) as anyone.

the proposals are from equality utah a GLTB organization the Legislator's that the article were talking about are all gay

Listen. Prop 8 was voted on and did not pass. We cannot attribute its failure to a single organization.

People vote for what they morally feel is right. Politics is not amoral. Laws are derived from who we are.
This is not a church voting against gay marriage or against rights of any kind. Any non-profit organization has a constitutional right to voice its opinion, as many did in this case. This is America saying, state by state, no thank you. You vote how you want and I'll vote how I want and see what happens. When America is ready to accept gay marriage, America will vote for it. We all win and lose in a democracy, vote by vote, election by election.

Both sides are just doing what they feel is RIGHT. That is democracy. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.