Utah Lesbian Mayor Takes on The Anti-LGBT Mormon Church Stance

Jackie Biskupski Will Pressure The LDS on its anti-LGBT stance.

Salt Lake City made history when it elected Jackie Biskupski, an openly lesbian woman, as mayor of the metropolis. The city is also the seat of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). The organization is infamous for its stance against LGBT rights not only in Utah state, but all over the U.S. The LDS has political influence in Utah as well.

Utah Lesbian Mayor Takes on The Anti-LGBT Mormon Church Stance[/tweetthis]

Biskupski is now poised to create another chapter in Utah history. She will pressure the said Mormon Church for its anti-LGBT stance. This view came to widespread attention during recent months when leaders of the LDS church threatened to excommunicate all church members who have had same-sex marriages. They have also decided to ban children from same sex families to get baptized in any LDS church.

Jackie Biskupski is a Democrat and won her mayoral election by enjoying the confidence of 52 percent of total votes cast. She is at present engaged to Betty Iverson, who was once a Utah State Representative. Biskupsi's inaugural speech was made by Iverson in the same stage. The Democrat -also the second woman to be elected as a Salt Lake City mayor- spoke eloquently about the manner the LGBT issues that enthused her to enter politics.

Biskupski told the assembled audience of gay rights battle which took place about 20 years before- and which compelled her to enter the world of politics. After the East High School in the city created the city’s first gay-straight alliance club in 1995, Salt Lake City School District promptly banned every non-curricular club to block it. This decision was reversed a number of years later after a lot of protests and lawsuits. The incident ignited in Biskupski a responsibility for her own community. She then went on to show how far the Utah LGBT movement has come. She remembered that after her first stint as a lawmaker who is openly gay, a number of her colleagues declined to shake her hand. They also hesitated to make eye contact.

Jackie Biskupski – first openly gay or lesbian mayor of Salt Lake City. I'm proud to have her as my mayor! https://t.co/1jsouZEGAv

— Don Carlos (@Momonomo) January 14, 2016

In her speech, Biskupski said that Salt Lake City has been very progressive compared to rest of Utah, even in the face of a conservative presence like the LDS Church. She mentioned that the Mormon Church also showed much more tolerance when it backed a LGBT anti-discrimination bill that is inclusive of broad religious exemptions: a significant climb down from its earlier hard stance.

Resources

• MTV
• Huffington Post

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