The MSM finally picked up on a story about a Church of Latter Day Saints memo that Kos ran last week. The 1997 document from then LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley details the church’s strategy for defeating same-sex marriage, which stresses including the Catholic Church in the fight. The memo looked at the Hawaii civil union decision and uses it to survey the California political landscape. After determining that in California:

“Anti-H.L.M. (presumably “homosexual legal marriage”) legislation through both Houses of the California Legislature appears virtually impossible at the preent.Â There is a consensus that referendum is the only route. While expensive, there are at least two coalitions coming together with one of them showing promise as to raising money. Richard Wirthlin has run a survey which shows public support for our position in the mid-fifty percentile. As in Hawaii, his survey shows that the public image of the Catholic Church higher than our Church. In other words, if we get into this, they are the ones with which to join.”



ABC 4 is reporting that opponents of Prop. 8 say more documents like this exist. What’s clear from the document is that the LDS have had a concerted long-term strategy to defeat gay marriage in California– a strategy that bore a narrow, but powerful win for the Church.