Gay union poses trouble for Bountiful
 From religious shock to immigration issues, wedding dumps a mess in politicians' laps
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
By all accounts the first same-sex marriage in the polygamous community of Bountiful in southeastern B.C. was a quiet, women-only affair on a Tuesday evening in early December.

The brides purchased the marriage licence at the government agent's office in Creston and the ceremony was performed by a woman from outside the fundamentalist Mormon cult. It was the first ceremony Barbara Archibald had performed since she had only recently been appointed a marriage commissioner.

It was also the first legal marriage for the two women, although both had been brides in so-called celestial marriages.

Both had been joined "forever and all time" in a fundamentalist Mormon ceremony to Winston Blackmore, one of the community's leaders, when they were in their mid-teens. Each has borne several of Blackmore's 100-plus children.

The brides asked to be married in Archibald's home. When she refused, the women married at a home in Bountiful.

Although Archibald wouldn't comment on the wedding, when contacted she did say she'd never forget it.

One bride is Lorraine Johnson, an American, sent by her family to "marry" Blackmore, who was then the powerful bishop. She was his 18th wife. It's not clear whether Johnson immigrated legally to Canada or simply came across the border and stayed.

The other bride is Shelina Palmer, a Canadian born into a polygamous family in Bountiful and assigned to Blackmore. She is wife number 22.

For a number of years, the two women have lived together in Lumberton, just outside Cranbrook and close to the mill site that Blackmore has recently had to forfeit to HSBC for failing to meet his mortgage payments.

Palmer works and Johnson stays at home with their nine children.

What is not clear is whether this is a love-match made legal in defiance of the community's beliefs or whether it is a marriage of convenience aimed at ensuring Johnson is not deported for living illegally in Canada.

Whichever it is, it has shocked the small town of Creston and fundamentalist Mormon communities here and in the United States.

Both brides grew up in families who rejected mainstream Mormonism. They grew up with the teachings of Rulon Jeffs, the former prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"We hear a lot in the nation today about a liberation movement of women," Jeffs said in a 1970 sermon that is reprinted in Purity in the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage.

"I want to tell the world and anybody who is interested, the only true freedom of woman is in the abiding of the holy Celestial Law of Marriage [polygamy], submitting herself to her husband and head, and living his law as he lives and abides the law of God."

Jeffs died in 2002. His son, Warren, is now the prophet and is on the FBI's most-wanted list for evading prosecution on charges involving sex with minors. Because of the succession, Blackmore and about half of Bountiful's 1,000 residents split with the church; the rest follow Jeffs and take orders from his Canadian bishop, Jim Oler.

Warren Jeffs taught at an FLDS private school in Salt Lake City, while his father was the prophet. Tapes made at the time and subsequently are required daily listening for his followers, including the students at Bountiful elementary-secondary school, which is funded by B.C. taxpayers.

"The people grew so evil, the men started to marry the men and the women married the women," Jeffs says on one tape. "This is the worst evil act you can do, next to murder. It is like murder. Whenever people commit that sin, then the Lord destroys them."

When homosexuality was mentioned while former cult member Debbie Palmer was growing up in Bountiful, she says: "It was with a lot of disgust and horror. It was something that had horrible consequences and was mentioned in the [biblical] burning of Sodom and Gomorrah."

And she says it was only after she left the group that she even heard about lesbianism.

"Within fundamental Mormonism, homosexuality just meant men with men. I truly had no comprehension that there was such a thing as women with women until after I had left."

In an interview that aired on CBC's Fifth Estate in January, Winston Blackmore claimed that he didn't know that two of his wives had married each other.

And in an e-mail, Blackmore told me that he accepts the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees of free association and equality for all people.

"I have some friends that are openly gay and I have decided a long time ago (say around 1986-87) that I was not going to be their judge in their private life. I also have many friends that live common law and I don't judge them either."

Although Blackmore says he didn't know right away about his wives' wedding, Attorney-General Wally Oppal knew about it within 48 hours and so did the RCMP, who are investigating allegations of abuse in the community.

Janice Ferguson, spokeswoman for the Canadian Border Service, knew about it in late December.

However, Ferguson refused to say whether Johnson is one of several of Blackmore's American wives who were under deportation orders in late 2005, citing privacy legislation.

Immigration Canada also cited privacy legislation and refused to say whether Johnson has applied for landed immigrant status now that she is legally married.

If she has, however, the women must prove that theirs is a legitimate marriage and not one of convenience.

They may be asked to provide documentation including photos, written details of their relationship and so on.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Rob Hughes, who has acted for several same-sex couples, says they will have to satisfy Immigration Canada that they have an intimate, conjugal relationship that is sexually exclusive.

"They would ask about things like other marriages, other common-law partnerships and Immigration Canada would have to be satisfied that those previous relationships have been terminated," he said. "They [immigration officers] do get quite intrusive in their questioning."

Another Vancouver immigration lawyer, Zool Sulemon, said Immigration Canada isn't so much interested in sex but that the officers are trying to determine the "intertwined-ness" of the relationship and whether the pair are committed to a same-sex lifestyle.

When told of the Bountiful marriage, Sulemon said: "I would be surprised if it went through since it clearly appears to be a ruse. There are lots of red flags."

But the red flags raised as a result of that one civil ceremony won't be limited to Immigration Canada.

Whether wittingly or not, what these two young women have done is link polygamy and same-sex marriage in a way that no one -- neither evangelical Christian opponents of same-sex marriage nor gay-rights activists -- could ever have imagined.

And with one simple marriage, they've dumped the whole mess into the laps of provincial politicians already reluctant to deal with polygamy and federal politicians, most of whom are desperate to put same-sex marriage behind them.

dbramham@png.canwest.com
 
canada.com
Originally published April 7, 2006
 
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