If you thought Election Day would settle everything, you thought wrong.

In the battle for gays and lesbians to be accorded the same rights to marriage as everyone else, the fight is still going on - and will be hitting the streets of Salt Lake City tonight.

Those who believe in gay rights are organizing a protest at 6 p.m. at the corner of North Temple and State Street - right in front of the Church Office Building, world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Leaders of the LDS Church encouraged Mormons to support California's Prop. 8, a ballot measure that would amend the state's constitution to ban gay marriages - which have been legal in the Golden State for the last 4 1/2 months thanks to a state Supreme Court decision.

The ballot measure narrowly passed with California voters - after a bitter and divisive campaign that brought an estimated $22 million in donations from Mormons on the pro-Prop. 8 side.

About 3,000 protesters marched to the gates of the Mormon temple in L.A. on Thursday, as gay-rights groups have channeled their wrath on the LDS Church's role in the Prop. 8 campaign (even though other churches also supported the ban).

An online petition now circulating is demanding the IRS investigate whether to revoke the LDS Church's tax-exempt status. Backers of the petition quote the section of the IRS code that states: "In general, no organization, including a church, may qualify for IRC section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying)."

(Speaking of taxes, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge wrote a post on The Daily Beast, arguing that she and other gay Californians shouldn't have to pay state income tax if they don't have full rights. "That would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books," Etheridge wrote.)

Meanwhile, opponents of Prop. 8 are also mounting a legal challenge, arguing that California's initiative process was abused - because only small, technical amendments can be passed through initiative, not substantial changes to people's human rights.

An LDS Church spokesperson issued a statement in response to the L.A. protest: "The Church acknowledges that such an emotionally charged issue concerning the most personal and cherished aspects of life - family and marriage - stirs fervent and deep feelings. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information."

That last sentence might draw a hollow laugh from Prop. 8 opponents - who have a detailed list of "erroneous information" (or, as they are sometimes called, lies) trumpeted by supporters of the ban.

This battle is far from over, and it's not limited to California.

(Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Labels: LDS, politics