Since mid July over 100 members of the Mormon church have pledged to 'resign' from the church in protest over the church's fundraising efforts for the Knight Initiative in California. On August 18, Utah activist and former Mormon Kathy Worthington, who is coordinating the letter-writing campaign, said she already has copies of 60 resignation letters that have been mailed to Mormon church headquarters. Worthington said she has the names and addresses of more than forty additional church members from across the country who have made commitments to write and mail their 'resignation' letters.

Worthington and some coworkers and friends in Salt Lake started the letter writing campaign in late July when they heard that LDS Church leaders in California were doing well-orchestrated fundraising for the Knight Initiative, using church membership rolls and putting direct pressure on members to donate money to help promot passage of the ballot measure, which is scheduled to be voted on on March 7, 2000.

"For some members of the church, this latest effort was the final straw," says Worthington. "A lot of people, including friends and families, are now giving up any hope they had that the church is going to suddenly become more loving and accepting of gay and lesbian people. For some, it's time to let go of the church and go on with their lives and they're deciding that this is the perfect time to do it. For a lot of the people who are doing this, it's liberating to leave behind a church that has brought them pain and sorrow instead of love and acceptance."

News of the letter writing campaign has been spread principally by word of mouth and by email, so the majority of the first letters were mostly from people in Utah. As the word spread, however, more inquiries and letters started coming in from across the country and even from overseas. As of August 17, Worthington had received letters from Florida, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, Hawaii, . . . and, of course, Utah and California. Worthington has also gotten inquiries from church members in Hong Kong, Australia and Canada, but she has yet to get any letters from those places.

The California effort is the third time in two years that the Mormon church has put it's financial clout behind a measure meant to limit the civil rights and benefits of gay couples. During similar ballot battles in Alaska and Hawaii in 1998, the church wrote checks for a $500,000 and $600,000 to bankroll the anti-gay side of the campaigns. The funds donated were used to pay for advertising that was meant to send messages that giving legal recognitions to gay relationships would somehow be a threat to 'traditional' (heterosexual) marriages and the 'American way of life'.

Worthington is offering information and assistance to anyone interested in the letter writing campaign and she can be contacted via email at KathyWUT@aol.com or by phone at 801-963-7922.

*notes FYI:
1) The Mormon church keeps a person's name on the records forever unless the member or a church leader makes an effort to get the name removed from the membership rolls. Even if a person is completely 'inactive' - that is, he or she doesn't attend church or contact the church in any way for many years, they are still considered a member and counted as one.

2) In California about 2% of the population is Mormon. In Hawaii and Alaska about 3% are Mormon. The church claims they are just "doing our share" of fundraising for these efforts. In Alaska, no other church donated any significant amount to the campaign. In Hawaii, the Roman Catholic church donated just $12,000, yet 20% of Hawaiians are Catholic. The LDS church, with just 3% of the populace, donated $600,000. Yep, "just doing their part".

Feel free to call any of the following. Tell them I gave you their name and number and ASK them if they'd be willing to talk to you about the letter-writing campaign and the Mormon church.

ANGUS, Mark mark.angus@dsw.com
BACKMAN, Karl Michael MBackman@levi.com
BELL, Carolyn BellCADDAC@aol.com
BLANPIED, Kelly Jean SABLA@aol.com
CADOUX, Yves cdxy@webtv.net
CATE, Genelle BellCADDAC@aol.com
CORRY, Michael R (510) 482-3987
ENSIGN, David densign@mediaone.com
FACKRELL, Royal happyfunball@prodigy.net
KENNEY, Eric ekenney@enbc.com
MCGUIRE, Andy and Kathleen kathleen@enol.com
MEGOWAN, Tori grmercy@apex.net
MORTENSON, Lee mortenle@uvsc.edu
SEARS, Rollo
SNIDER, Michael maico93@juno.com
THOMPSON, Marq piman_eman@hotmail.com
WOODALL, Steve UTWoody@aol.com
WRATHALL, Debora
ZIMMERMAN, Alan ALZ123@aol.com