GAYS, MORMONS CLASH AT SECOND ‘KISS-IN’ AT MORMON PLAZA
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533900,00.html?test=latestnews
SALT LAKE CITY — A mass-kissing protest near the Mormon church temple Sunday drew a shouting match between gay activists and their critics.
For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a “kiss-in” to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both gay and straight couples exchanged kisses during the protest.
Demonstrators were greeted at the south entrance by a group of protesters carrying large signs that denounced homosexuality, prompting a heated verbal exchange.
Police say no one was arrested or cited, despite a large group exchanging kisses by a reflecting pool at the plaza’s center.
“We didn’t call the police. We didn’t do anything,” church spokeswoman Kim Farah said.
The church bought one block of Salt Lake City’s Main Street to build a plaza in the 1990s alongside the Temple, where Mormon marriages and other religious rituals take place.
Matt Aune has said he and his partner, Derek Jones, exchanged a modest kiss at the plaza 11 days ago, but church officials contend their behavior was lewd.
“There was much more involved that a simple kiss of the cheek,” Farah said in a statement Friday.
“They engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language, and had obviously been using alcohol.”
The men have said they were walking home from a nearby concert and cutting through the plaza on their way home.
A police report said they sat down for a kiss and were approached by a pair of church security guards, who asked them to leave because their behavior was “unwanted.”
Both were handcuffed and Aune was pinned to the ground.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I can’t help but think that the story below this one ought to be at the top of the page instead. Why is this story even on this blog? Was Romney at the kiss-in?
July 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Romney is rightly associated with the defense of traditional marriage. He is also a member of the LDS church, as are many of the readers and contributors to this site.
For these reasons, I thought it was newsworthy for our readers.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
classless behavior on the part of the protesters.
July 20th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
The AP leaves out crucial detail. Perhaps they purposely want to make the LDS church look unreasonable. They were asked to leave, may have been handcuffed, then pinned to the ground. That may be true, but the one detail is that prior to being handcuffed, they refused requests for them to leave private property. They had ceased being guests on the property and once refusing to leave, they became trespassers. They were cited for trespassing.
A better title for this article “Defenders of Lewd Trespassers Stage New Offensive Against Property Rights.”
July 20th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
ok, not only were they kissing, but there were witnesses that say they were full fledged making out complete with hand groping.. (only one place for men to grope and that is disgusting!) etc. This was (in my opinion) a staged event planned only for the purpose of embarrassing the LDS church. If only they were smart enough to be embarrassed by their own behaviour, but alas, they are not that smart! Tragic
July 21st, 2009 at 7:09 pm
I also do not see why this was posted on a pro Romney site. We are trying to promote him as the most qualified candidate for President and want people to judge him on his accomplishments and not base it on his religion. I don’t see the connection to this story and Romney.
July 21st, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Mk, please see John’s explanation above. I think it is to draw a contrast between what Mr. Romney believes and the beliefs of those crazy people in SLC…. And here, it is quite a contrast. It shows the morality of the LDS of which Mitt is a part.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:12 am
Here’s something relevant. Someone finally thought to ask Romney, the only one with real experience in health care coverage, about how Obama’s doing.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/07/21/romney-on-obama-s-push-for-health-reform-slow-down.aspx
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
This is all Obama’s fault, all those people are unemployed and that’s why they are walking the streets, causing problems. I’m unemployed too. But I don’t do that.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:24 am
This article has more to do with Mitt’s Faith in America speech. Here the media is obviously showing it’s bias against Christianity and judeo-christian values. The “journalist” often chose not to use the official name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the word “rituals” rather than ceremonies has a slightly skewed connotation to it.
If the men were kissing , groping, using profane language, and had obviously been using alcohol, -in public- for anyone of all ages to see- right outside a revered landmark- I would expect any church would want them escorted off their property. What would West Minster, the Vatican, or synagogues do?