Thursday, June 10, 2010

Mormon Church Gets Slap On The Wrist For Illegally Contributing Tens of Thousands To Prop 8

The Mormon Church has acknowledged not declaring in a timely manner significant sums that it spent in supporting a highly divisive campaign to ban marriage equality in California in 2008.

The church has agreed to pay a fine of $5,538 imposed by The California Fair Political Practices Commission. That sum equals 15% of the total money the church acknowledges not having declared in a timely manner, a sum of $36,928, the Associated Press reported on June 8.

That money took the form of work performed by church staff in bolstering efforts to rescind then-existing marriage rights for gay and lesbian families in California. The battle focused over a ballot initiative, Proposition 8, which put the marriage rights of gays up to a popular vote. The measure narrowly passed, ending marriage equality in the state. A court later ruled that the 18,000 families that had wed during the period when marriage parity was legal would still be legally valid.

"The proposed fine under consideration by the commission addresses all the issues within the complaint," California Fair Political Practices Commission executive director Roman Porter told the press.

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