micropolisnyc:

Some Mormons are Democrats.

So says Katrina Peterson, a biochemist who works at NYU and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

“One thing that I have found surprising is that people often assume that because I’m Mormon I’m going to vote for Mitt Romney, and…” she laughs (she often laughs), “I’m not going to vote for Mitt Romney.”

“He has a different opinion on abortion than I do, he has a different opinion on gay marriage than I do. I don’t have a problem with gay marriage. I don’t think it’s a question of morality, it’s a question of equal rights.”

Petersen is happy Romney got the GOP nod and thinks he’s a good guy, and a good Mormon. But she worries that his shift to the right will only reinforce America’s impression that pretty much all Mormons are conservative (despite such groups as Mormon Liberals). And even she thinks most of them are, in contrast to other countries where she’s lived, like Brazil or England, where the Mormon electorate, she argues, is much farther to the left.

“There are a lot of us, especially in New York, that are ready for the election to be over,” she says. “Because it’s caused a lot of conflict just within members of the Church.”

“We’re trying to stay away from Facebook as much as we can.”