Talk about talent! This guy has been able to simultaneously alienate gay marriage advocates, the Mormon Church, and the fundamentalist polygamous Mormon sects unaffiliated with the current LDS church; not to mention any people who have been troubled by the recent news about these polygamous sects.
It all started on June 11 with Gordon Smith's answer to a question about his position on gay marriage, DOMA, etc.:
Part of what I fear, as you start defining marriage -- we have a long history of doing that in this country, and my Mormon pioneer ancestors were the victims of that. They were literally driven from the United States in the dead of winter for following their religious beliefs. I don't want that coming back.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...
So Gordon Smith is saying that Mormons (in the 1800's) were discriminated against because of their religious belief in polygamy. And he's associating that history with the current conflict over gay marriage.
Oh did he step in it!
Gay rights advocates (which describes me), are offended because he puts the historical and fundamentalist form of polygamy in the same category as gay marriage. I think about those 14-year-old girls being married off to old men and I almost explode at that being equated to two adults of the same gender choosing to get married.
The LDS Church is offended because 1) Smith brings up the Church's history of polygamy, a practice from which the church is desperately trying to disassociate itself; and 2) gays and lesbians are not a group the relatively conservative LDS church wants equated with the Mormons who suffered discrimination during the establishment of the church.
While I don't know any fundamentalist polygamist leaders personally (luckily for them), I can't imagine that they are happy to be compared to gay marriage advocates. I'm sure just the notion of a woman being married to another woman rather than being part of a man's set of wives is offensive to the leaders of those groups.
And finally, people who read about and are disturbed by the polygamist cults (which again describes me), are offended at the idea of men who force young and very young women into polygamy being portrayed as victims of discrimination.
Smith's apology yesterday didn't help much, just muddied the waters more:
"My remarks referenced a point in time when a few of my ancestors were persecuted for not adhering to that belief," Smith said. "It was an unfortunate reference, and I apologize for making it...
"If you'd grown up a Mormon, and spent your life trying to get out from the shadow of that legacy -- it's an emotional scar that you carry. I meant no offense by sharing that part of my history."
http://www.oregonlive.com/...
Suddenly, in his apology he's commiserating with those church members who were against polygamy, even though his original statement was clearly in sympathy with the people who practiced polygamy.
Can't slide out from under this one, Gordy. There are people from either end of the political continuum who think your sympathies are misplaced.