Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

Meridian Magazine Censors Offensive Speech
Sheri Dew Had Compared Gay Rights Movement to the Rise of Hitler

By Jason Clark
September 19, 2004

Two weeks after the Human Rights Campaign and the National Black Justice Coalition called on President Bush to repudiate Mormon leader Sheri Dew for controversial remarks posted on the Meridian Magazine website, the speech was removed from the site. In her February 28 speech, Dew compared the gay rights movement to the rise of Hitler. "At first it may seem a bit extreme to imply a comparison between the atrocities of Hitler and what is happening in terms of contemporary threats against the family--but maybe not."

"Mr. President, featuring individuals on the stage of your convention who compare a group of Americans to Hitler... is divisive and irresponsible," says the letter by the Human Rights Campaign and the National Black Justice Coalition. "The American people abhor discriminatory, false and inflammatory language against any group of Americans."

The context of Dew's remarks was a Newsweek story about a gay couple who had recently adopted twins and were getting married in San Francisco. Dew, who has never married or had children, showed a picture of the family and said, "[This] is hard for me to stomach." In the version of her remarks posted as the Meridian website, this statement was revised to say that she was "heartsick."

In an ironic twist, one of the grooms Dew was decrying turned out to be Eric Ethington, a fellow Mormon who served an LDS mission in Korea.

Last March the Executive Committee of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons issued a statement expressing outrage at Dew's remarks.

Dew's offensive talk, as posted on another site