M. Russell Ballard and Quentin L. Cook co-chair $1,000-a-plate award night for anti-gay crusader Robby George

x-posted at Daily Kos

Bill Marriott & Mormon Elders Cook, Ballard and Wickman recently threw a party for NOM’s Robert P. George.

Be sure to hit this link and check out the VIPs at the Annual Canterbury Medal Dinner.

Im sure plenty of folks here will recognize the various faces from NOM, the LDS church, and The Becket Fund among the photos at the above link. The first group got Prop 8 on the ballot, the second made sure it passed, and the third paid for that full-page NY Times No Mob Veto ad that ran as a show of support for the LDS church following Prop 8s passage.

Kinda nifty how that all worked out and how these folks later found themselves all together at a Georgetown party handing out medals to each other.

Jeremy filed the first report on this soire and has all the details. I just have one question left to ask: When do Bill Marriott and the LDS leadership intend to stop attending award ceremonies for anti-gay figures such as Orson Scott Card and Robert P. George?

And for your viewing pleasure, here’s an excerpt from NOM Chairman Robby George’s talk at BYU, titled “Utah will be whipped into line.” Enjoy:

October 28, 2008: Just as the nation could not endure half slave and half free but eventually had to go all one way or all the other, we will not be able to get by with a situation in which some couples are married in one state, not married when they move to or travel through the next, and married again when they reach a third. If same-sex marriage is legally recognized in a small number of states, it will spread throughout the nation, either through judicial action under the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause or by the working of informal cultural pressures. Some states – Utah would be one – may try to hold out, but sooner or later they will be whipped into line.

On the eve of the November 2008 ballot, the Mormon leadership filled an auditorium and broadcast Prof. Robert George of Princeton comparing the Prop 8 contest to the Civil War (!). One week later, the same Mormon leadership would begin issuing hypocritical, self-righteous, self-serving calls for Civil Discourse (!):

November 5, 2008: We hope that now and in the future all parties involved in this issue will be well informed and act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility toward those with a different position. No one on any side of the question should be vilified, intimidated, harassed or subject to erroneous information. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

And now, nearly two years later, that same Mormon leadership makes sure to thank Robby George for his uncivil Prop 8 help and hyperbole. (Note to self: Keep this 2009 interview with George close to hand)

Not nice. Especially you, Bill Marriott, after all your assurances that you had nothing to do with Prop 8. It’s only been two months since you went to that dinner honoring Orson Scott Card, you know, your fellow Mormon and NOM board member who said this:

“Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books … to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate societys regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens.”

Fool me once, Bill.

As it turns out, the brother of one of the Mormon men photographed at this Georgetown party has written a letter to the LDS leaders deploring the treatment of his gay son at the hands of the Mormon church and its members, in which he decries the “community of ‘Saints’ we live in [that] is so steeped in ignorance, fear, loathing, judgment …” For shame, Brethren.