Here are some details about that November 2004 ballot proposal: 1) there was already in place a Utah
law strictly banning same - sex marriage, which I fully supported; 2) all three candidates for the office
of attorney general
of Utah (the chief
law -
enforcement officer in the state) opposed the amendment, including the LDS (Mormon) Republican incumbent, Mark Shurtleff, mostly because they considered it a poorly drafted amendment; 3) I refused to endorse the amendment, but I did not urge people to vote «no»; 4) the leadership
of the LDS Church, which has a record for being as strongly opposed to same - sex marriage as the
Catholic Church, did not issue a statement urging its
members to vote one way or the other; 5) inasmuch as two thirds
of Utahans belong to the LDS Church, this means that the leadership
of at least 80 percent
of Utah churchgoers did not urge a «yes» vote on the amendment.
The unionist community, through its political representatives — the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which has been the largest and most popular unionist party since the last elections held for the NIA in November 2003 — must be satisfied that Sinn Fein: is genuine in its support for the
law and order agencies
of the province; encourages Catholics to join the police; ensures representatives sit on the local police boards, which supervise and monitor the police; encourages
members of the
Catholic community to accept the legitimacy
of the police as the only
law enforcement agency in Northern Ireland; and will co-operate with them in all
law and order matters.