In an Oct. 13 speech, Elder Dallin H. Oaks made an analogy comparing the "effect" of Proposition 8 protests on Mormons to the chilling effect on African-American political participation felt during the civil rights era. The media went out of its way to manufacture a "backlash" only hours after the speech had been delivered.

Fast forward to this week to the actions of a group which is critical of the LDS Church's position on same-sex marriage. During a handcart trek Nov. 4 in Salt Lake City from This is The Place monument to church headquarters, supporters, dressed in pioneer garb, pulled a handcart and delivered a petition of "reconciliation."

I don't know about other Latter-day Saints, but to me the whole show was disrespectful. Yet, local reporters didn't make much of the analogy. Some didn't even mention it. But only weeks earlier, journalists told readers of their Elder Oaks report that seeking out reaction to a controversial analogy was just "how they do it."

Beyond the reporting, the online video of the Reconciliation Foundation, likens gays with Mormon roots to the pioneers of the Willie and Martin handcart companies. Activists, invoking the words of President Brigham Young, insist that the plight of Mormons with same-sex attraction is similar to those handcart pioneers stranded on the plains.

The video is filled with the histrionics of music, "Hair" actor Will Swenson's narration and use of photos of grave markers and of sad stories. While juxtaposing gay suicides with the LDS Church policies were meant to tug at heart strings, I felt a mix of anger and insult.

Don't get me wrong, LDS Church members should extend charity and understanding to gays, but that doesn't mean we have to put up with people figuratively scrawling graffiti on sacred symbols.

Instead of questioning the analogy, some news reports took on a sympathetic tone.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported:

"The trek drew its inspiration from the famed efforts of LDS Church leaders to rescue members of the Martin and Willie handcart companies, who struggled to reach Utah late in 1856, suffering from food shortages and cold-weather exposure. Modern Latter-day Saints often hold trek re-enactments to honor the determination of their ancestors." Notice the language used in framing the story -- inspiration, rescue, famed, struggled, suffering, and determination.

Here was how Fox 13 News covered the story:

"The Reconciliation Foundation and those backing LGBT rights, many who are also of Mormon faith, delivered a petition to LDS Church leaders Wednesday afternoon. The petition is a 'plea for reconciliation' regarding problems with suicide and homelessness of LGBT Mormons, which concerns the church's policy toward excommunication, according to the foundation. The petition also carries with it written memorials
of LGBT suicide victims."

Like many LDS Church members, I have spent time on a trek, walking the paths of handcart pioneers. It was a rare spiritual experience. In Martin's Cove in Wyoming there was silence as we honored the memory of those who suffered and died there. To watch this group twist symbols, words, meanings and history to their political agenda is tantamount to desecration of sacred memory. Advocates of same-sex marriage have taken one of the most sacred stories in LDS history and done violence to it. Journalists never questioned it.

If an LDS official makes an analogy, then journalists dig up a backlash. When a group attacking the LDS Church drums up what could be viewed as an offensive analogy, journalists don't question the tactics.

If that's just "how they do it," why wasn't it done this time?