Monson to Speak at SUU
Southern Utah University announced Feb. 2 that LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson will be the main speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony.
Monson will also receive an honorary degree from the school.
The move has angered many in Southern Utah’s gay community because of the stance Monson and LDS leadership have taken against gay marriage. In June 2008, Monson released a letter to Mormon bishops in California. The letter, read aloud in ward houses across the state, encouraged Mormons to oppose the recent legalization of gay marriage in their state by donating money and time to campaigns to pass Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that sought to re-ban gay marriage.
The LDS Church’s involvement made national headlines and attracted widespread criticism from gay activists and groups advocating the separation of church and state. Ultimately Mormons donated more than $22 million to pro-Proposition 8 efforts.
California voters narrowly passed the measure on Nov. 4, touching off anti-Proposition 8 protests across the nation.
Dean O’Driscoll, Vice President for University Relations and commencement committee chair, told the school’s newspaper, The SUU Journal, that commencement organizers were aware of and had discussed the controversy surrounding the church president, though he did not elaborate on the nature of this controversy.
“A university is the perfect place to have differences of opinion,” he said, adding that “a place for protest will be planned for if need be.”
The school may very well have such a protest on their hands. On Feb. 12 members and allies of Southern Utah’s gay community met in the school’s English building to discuss a response to the school’s choice. Groups such as SUU’s Queer Student Union and Southern Utah’s chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays were in attendance.
Although details for the response to Monson’s speech are still developing, Chris McArdle, the former president of Southern Utah Pride Association, Inc., said that community members were considering bringing in a speaker of their own to speak at an off campus event. According to him, Mormon author Carolyn Pearson was one name mentioned in the meeting. Pearson is the author of the hit play Facing East, which follows a Mormon couple’s struggles to come to terms with their gay son’s suicide.
“They’re going to try and put something separate together off campus, not at the same time, but a different kind of event,” he said, noting that QSA had also asked the university’s “different diversity groups” to participate.
“They don’t want it to be [just] a gay thing,” he said.
He stressed, however, that all involved wanted to get their message out “with the least amount of disruption to the students.”
For more information about alternative events on SUU’s graduation day, or to express interest in participating, email CommonGroundSouth@gmail.com.