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NORTH SALT LAKE - A Utah-based conservative group is asking cities and counties across the state to put a "family filter" on their policymaking.
In a letter mailed last month, Paul T. Mero, president of the Sutherland Institute, urges mayors and council members to pass a nonbinding resolution sanctioning the "natural family as the fundamental unit of society."
Mero even provides a sample resolution for elected officials to use in their official proclamations.
The document calls for cities to "envision a local culture" that:
l "Upholds the marriage of a woman to a man, and a man to a woman, as ordained of God."
l "Celebrates the marital sexual union as the unique source of new human life."
l "See[s] our homes as open to a full quiver of children."
l "Envisions young women growing into wives, homemakers and mothers; and . . . young men growing into husbands, home builders and fathers."
Nearly a dozen opponents attended Tuesday's North Salt Lake City Council meeting, where the resolution died for a lack of a motion.
"I don't care if the neighbors have no children or 10," said 70-year-old North Salt Lake resident Dale Elton. "The City Council should stick to what it does best, plenty of water and good sewage."
Councilman Conrad Nelson said he had recieved several "not very nice" e-mails regarding the resolution.
"Please don't assume that just because we receive something in the mail that it has been accepted," he said.
Salt Lake City and other several other cities say they haven't seen the letter. South Jordan received it but decided against putting it on the council agenda. In conservative Utah County, Mapleton's City Council discussed the measure last week but shot it down.
Mapleton Councilman Jim Brady said Tuesday that his city had "several reservations" about the definition of the natural family and the roles spelled out for women and men.
"We were also concerned that it specified we make protecting the natural family our first priority," Brady said. "We have lots of concerns as a city but decided defining this was not our highest priority."
Contacted on Tuesday afternoon, Mero said he had not checked with any cities to see if they were adopting his proposal, but he was pleased that some considered it.
"They [the cities] are sending a message throughout Utah and the world that there are places where family values are safe and in place," he said. "Utah, where 68 percent of the mothers with children under age 6 work outside the home, is often dishonest in saying this is a family place because when you look at the statistics, we look a lot like the rest of the country."
Mero calls the resolution a "vision statement" for local government to use, and not a list of do's and don'ts.
"By using family as a filter, things begin to look different to people considering a tax policy, an environmental policy or whatever," he said.
The resolution troubles, among others, advocates of rights for women and gays.
"It violates so many of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I don't know where to begin," said Amber Moore-Emmett, president of the Utah chapter of the National Organization for Women. "This definition of the natural family is unrealistic and disrespectful to the many people who are raising thriving families as single or adoptive parents and in same-sex relationships."
Moore-Emmett also emphasizes that the reference to marriage between a man and a woman as "ordained of God" crosses the line separating church and state - if a city were to officially adopt it.
Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City and an openly gay member of the Utah Legislature, wrote North Salt Lake officials Tuesday and urged them not to embrace the resolution, saying it was nothing short of strapping "on the blinders and see[ing] only a particular segment of the population."
North Salt Lake Mayor Kay Briggs says he sees "some benefit" to the city making a statement on families, but he concedes Sutherland's proposal might rankle residents.
''People might read that [resolution] and say, 'Kay Briggs thinks all women should stay home and make strawberry jam' or that I'm totally against people raising a family in whatever situation gives them the most comfort and solace,'' he said. ''I didn't read that into it, and I'm not opposed to discussing it.''
Salt Lake City Council Chairman Dale Lambert doubts the resolution would gain any traction in the capital, where officials are trying to extend health benefits to domestic partners.
Such resolutions, Lambert said, "tend to be divisive and distract us from our fundamental work."
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Tribune reporters Heather May and Jacob Santini contributed to this story.