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Loading ...Gay couple detained near Mormon plaza after kiss
07.13.2009 9:06am EDT
(Salt Lake City) A gay couple say they were detained by security guards on a plaza owned by the Mormon church and later cited by police, claiming it stemmed from a kiss on the cheek.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the men became argumentative and refused to leave after being asked to stop their “inappropriate behavior.” The men say they were targeted because they are gay.Matt Aune said he and his partner, Derek Jones, were walking home from a concert nearby on Thursday night, cutting through the plaza near the Salt Lake City Mormon temple.
Aune, 28, said he gave Jones, 25, a hug and kiss and that the two were then approached by a security guard, who asked them to leave, telling them they were being inappropriate and that public displays of affection aren’t allowed on the property. He said other guards arrived and the men were handcuffed.
“We asked what we were doing wrong,” Aune told The Associated Press.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said in a statement Friday that the men were “politely asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior – just as any other couple would have been.”
“They became argumentative and used profanity and refused to leave the property,” she said. The church did not immediately respond to a request for more comment.
Police later arrived and both men were cited with misdemeanor trespassing, Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Robin Snyder said.
“It doesn’t matter what they were asked to leave for,” Snyder said. “If they are asked to leave and don’t they are … trespassing.”
The church has been the target of protests over its support of a ban on gay marriage in California.
To protest, gay couples held a kiss in Sunday at Temple Square
No wonder the mormons were chased out west and murdered.
Perhaps frontier justice actually had the right idea on this one. They saw the dangers of religious extremists
My advice for this couple is to hire an attorny. They were assulted by the security personal suffering from both emotionally and physical because of this attack.
For the idiot that claims no PTA is allowed. Then no PTA should be allowed period. No gay and no straight, but you see they allowed straight couples to kiss so it is discrimination. If it is private property then they should have gates up and locked preventing people from accessing the area. Since they allow the general public to use this and the couple in question were not causing a distrubance or damage the guards over reacted. The guards are in the wrong and the police unfortunately are caught in the middle. They couldn’t let them go because the guards were pressing charges. How much would you like to bet that these guards are part of the Mormon Chruch?
It’s time to tear down these “temples” of intolerance to reality. They must be exposed for what they are. We need new ACT UP units across America. Aux Barricades!
On private property, once asked to leave for any reason fair or unfair, it’s illegal to stay, so the courts can’t help. What DOES help is public outcry, which gays came through with wonderfully, with this kiss-in. There should be more of those.
Marriage reflects the natural moral and social law evidenced the world over. As the late British social anthropologist Joseph Daniel Unwin noted in his study of world civilizations, any society that devalued the nuclear family soon lost what he called “expansive energy,” which might best be summarized as society’s will to make things better for the next generation. In fact, no society that has loosened sexual morality outside of man-woman marriage has survived.
Analyzing studies of cultures spanning several thousands of years on several continents, Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin found that virtually all political revolutions that brought about societal collapse were preceded by a sexual revolution in which marriage and family were devalued by the culture’s acceptance of homosexuality.
As an ex mormon, returned missionary, byu grad, ex mormon, I can say truly that church is full of sicky sweet totally bigoted people who love everyone they think they can proselyte and detest anything that doesn’t conform to the mormon version of general norm. I had my own run in with church security after my boyfriend and I made out in the church office tower elevator (they must have caught us on camera, as we were alone). We were escorted out of the building right after the elevator doors opened, but as a byu student leading a double life I never hesitated to ask questions! Leaving the church and Utah was the best choice I ever made in my life.
Boycott the place!!!!!!!!!1
It’s funny. They were told to stop the public display of affection. But they turned it into discrimination. Why didn’t they just stop the public display of affection? Why turn it into a discrimination issue? If I was kissing my husband at a church and was told to stop, what claim do I get to make as to discrimination?
Bot, the reason those civilations fell was not because of homosexuals being allow to start a family. Socities fall because of greed and the hunger for power. It is not because of sexual revolution or allowing people to get married or have families together. It doesn’t matter if the couple in question is straight or gay. This so-call anthropologist Joseph Daniel Unwin placed his own christian believes to justify his views.
As a student of history the problem with collapsing socities isn’t the family or who made up the family. It is the greed and corruption of power of governments and religion that lead to the fall of socities.
The idea that sexual orination is the result of all the worlds problems is full of crap. It is a small group of people who want to decided how everyone should live. That everyone should be a chirstian no pagans or non-christians should be allow to pratice. May I point out that the Salem witch trials where 100’s of people were killed for land was done by the so proper christians such as yourself.
That families are being torn apart because the family has two father or two mothers, and let’s not forget that single-parents cannot possibly raise children correctly it doesn’t matter.
You and your kind are what is distroying the family after all over 50% of straight marriages end in divorce and what is the major cause of divoces. Money.
No, this anthropologist Joseph Daniel Unwin is a christian bigot that justifies his hatred of anything or anyone that doesn’t not meet his christian believes.
Bot Said: “In fact, no society that has loosened sexual morality outside of man-woman marriage has survived.”
Toni: Which explains why there is no longer a (begin list of places that allow same-sex marriage).
Anne said: “It’s funny. They were told to stop the public display of affection. But they turned it into discrimination. Why didn’t they just stop the public display of affection? Why turn it into a discrimination issue? If I was kissing my husband at a church and was told to stop, what claim do I get to make as to discrimination?”
Toni: You’d get to make that claim if gay couples were known to kiss at the site and you were stopped and asked to leave because you are a straight couple. BTW, please PLEASE let us all know exactly which rights and priviledges you are being denied because you are heterosexual, and we’ll all help you fight to win them back. It’s what we do. Sincerely.
Obviously some of you didn’t read the article in question. Those that point out that it was private property and the couple was ask to leave. The couple in question never got a chance to leave because they were arrested by security guards and held. It is obvious by the report they were told to leave and like anyone else would ask why before they have a chance to comply with the order a new set of guards arrived and prevent them for doing so.
This was done to send a message to the gay community. That they are not welcome.
Next if this is private property then the place should have been gated and locked preventing people from using this square, but it was not.
Also since the church have allowed the square to be used by the general public that means it is considered common land. Here is the URL for what it means http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_land#Europe_and_North_America.
According to the common land and USA does follow it that couple had every right to be there.
Next, since it was late at night and there was not service going on it was not interfering in anything. That couple was not damaging anything nor were they causing trouble. They didn’t do anything any straight couple has done in that plaza.
This means that the security guards made the discission to allow straight couples to kiss while gay couples are accosted and harrassed. That is discrimiation. The rule has to be applied to everyone equally and in this case it wasn’t.
this should be a landmark for all couples to now go to and smooch for a bit
To Roger Ranjet.
I love your comment WELL SAID they better be carefull to get their magic long-jons in a court dispute.
The mormon church has the long-jons made in Bangladesh in factories that exploit children. the church pays .14 cents per item and are sold to heir members for $50.00 dollars. of course after the church puts on their magic on them.