H/T Blender Brian. The Salt Lake Tribune reports
A gay couple says they were detained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints security guards after one man kissed another on the cheek Thursday on Main Street Plaza.“They targeted us,” said Matt Aune, 28. “We weren’t doing anything inappropriate or illegal, or anything most people would consider inappropriate for any other couple.”
The pair stood their ground rather than move on, as apparently the security guards asked them to do. They were subsequently roughed up handcuffed, and given a trespassing citation by the later-arriving police. Does anyone doubt that they were confronted by security because they’re gay? No. But here’s the rub: Main Street Plaza is now, apparently, private property.
The plaza has been the subject of a complex land and public easement trade between the LDS church and Salt Lake City. According to ACLU of Utah, the court ultimately ruled that although the plaza still effectively serves as a main pedestrian thoroughfare through downtown Salt Lake City, it is now private property and activities there can be controlled at the whim of the church. So technically the two men probably were trespassing if they didn’t leave immediately when asked. But I have to say, looking at the picture of the central location of that plaza, that this almost amounts to entrapment. Walking that thing must be like running a gauntlet for emotionally healthy gay people living honest lives.
The LDS may have lied said that they support civil unions for their beloved defective gay brethren, but apparently they expect those unions to be affection-free. The LDS should be deeply ashamed for pulling muscle over something so beautiful as a carefree peck on the cheek.




44 Comments


Can someone…….……please explain something to me? I simply do not understand why gay people or people who love them continue to go to this state or choose to live there. Every impression I have of this place is negative. Why do buy anything that is made or comes from this state?
I know other states are bad (Texas) but for heaven’s sake — these people are horrible.
Sound like time for a kiss in to me.Pull a 'flash mob.' and do a kiss in.
So can they also call the police on people whoare smoking, or drinking Coca-Cola, or are dressed immodestly and who don’t move on quickly enough?
They won’t arrest youif you go for a jaunty Sunday walk with your five wives
D:
Where are the signs?Don’t private property signs need to be posted if such is the case? Otherwise it is entrapment.
Some are stuck there; some like it thereSome like it there. I know a few exmos who have escaped and some who can’t for one reason or another.
And I don’t see why the onus is on gays to move.Pfft. The issue is equal rights. Period.
From the mouth of a Utardsuigenerousia-
Most of the people who do live here aren’t here by choice. Trust me.
kudo451-
There aren’t any signs posted, but that’s because the plaza is this sort of half public, half private thing no one knows what to do with. People are allowed to walk there, and have free speach, yet the church can kick them off. It’s an odd set up that really should have never been.
Lurleen-
The map you show is a bit misleading. The plaza is only the first portion of the red line, between North Temple (at the top of the map) and South Temple. The little circle is a “reflection pool” they’ve installed.
BusinessesI wonder how the businesses located on this street feel about this harassment of their customers? The LDS moral gestapo may be scaring potential customers away.
First hand account: Face down on pavementBlue in Red Zion blog has a first hand account of one of the men:
Obviously, the LDS seem to think that two men kissing is an act of gay terrorism that requires an entire squad of guards responding in force.
LDS guard impersonating a police officerFrom the same account in Blue in Red Zion:
Main Street Plaza?I thought the LDS church owned ALL of Utah!
Local TV report
Reflecting on what other folks are doing, I’m sure.They should be reflecting on their own shenanigans.
Or who think the Osmonds suck? Or who aren’t plurally married?
Is this the same place where Bill Maher ran afoul of MormonCops in Religulous?
I like this!!What a great idea.
As longas the wives all walk the proper few paces behind you, that is.
And it helps if your name is “Partridge”…
thank youthanks for that clarification. in a way it make an even stronger case of how entrapping the pulic/private mix is there. making one block of a multi-block thoroughfare private and subject to strong-arm surveillance seems unwise and begging for trouble.
Here’s a question:What will happen when (and at the rate things are going it’s definitely when rather than if) the person who gets pushed around/beaten up/hospitalised/killed (amend as necessary) by one of these thugs is a foreign citizen? Because that is soooo going to be very messy in the media.
nothing, is my guessforeigners get killed periodically by american police or thugs and nothing happens. sadly, in general, americans don’t care very hard about what happens to “one of them”.
I would prefer LGBTs and straight but not narrow youths leave UtahThat is their decision, unfortunately it’s a beautiful state, I summered in Utah every year until my 20′s, my entire maternal side of my family are Utah Mormons, but not strict Mormons since my great grandmother.
There are steps LGBTs and allies in Utah can take. Have straight youths kiss on the Plaza, and video tape them being ignored. let every shop on the Plaza know LGBTs and our friends won’t shop with them, as long as hateful Mormon thugs/security guards discriminate against us.
One thing that might help hurt Utah …significantlyThey are desperate for tourism, especially Japanese, and Europeans…if a few queer tourists willing to kiss and be arrested, causing HUGE international BLOWBACK….might be a useful strategy.
Thnings must have gotten worsesince I left SLC in 95. My hubby and I exchanged a kiss on temple square, and no one kicked us off. I guess the Prop 8 thing has stirred them up.
I remember the Pride March (it was – and still should be – a protest march in Utah), as we’d go by the temple the chant would change to “2, 4, 6, 8, how do you know your prophet’s straight?” I always laughed.
This is on the front page of HuffPoA little late, but nonetheless:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
I am disturbed by the viciousness of some of the comments to the piece. Quantitatively, the balance seems to be in favor of pro-”affection-equality”. But qualitatively, the frothing hatred/fear/disgustedness or whatever motivates some of the others, the ‘phobes are frightening.
Salt Lake City is lucky I’m not thereI would be as annoying as the operation rescue folks are towards abortion clinics, locks of businesses would somehow get super glued, grafitti and militant queer posters would be plastered their shop windows and every other object in sight.
great…now I’ll have Partridge Family songs stuck in my head all afternoon. Thanks Louise!
wowIsn’t the role of a security guard to watch, remember and wait for the real police? I didn’t know they could detain.. maybe in Utah they can!
Talking about practicality, not onuses.If a car is bearing down on you, it’s probably a good idea to get out of the way. “But the car isn’t supposed to be there; it ran a red light!” Fair enough. But still, get out of the way.
This is what happens when a religion owns the government.Creeping theocracy is a vicious thing. The LDS Church is a tumor on America.
I’ll tell ya whyBecause I have as much right to live here as they do.
Because if we let them chase us off to “safe” states like California, then kids growing up LGBT is Utah have NOBODY looking out for them.
Because it’s a beautiful state, and I like it here.
Because I enjoy tweaking the haters by defiantly refusing to leave, no matter how much they want me to.
Because I’d no sooner cross their land than I’d allow them access to my living room — and I have only a smidgen of sympathy for young, privileged, clueless gay men who can’t be bothered to consider the possible consequences of snogging on the property of a hate group like the LDS Church.
Um. Well, that’s almost like saying, “Why don’t the poor move out of blighted areas?”People would love to live in safe areas and not worry about crime, be it bashing or rape or any type of violence. But many people don’t have the luxury of picking up and moving for many reasons like economics, redlining (still happens, y’all), proximity to work, family, etc.
Thinking about it practically, a lot of GLBTQ kids run away and they often face other dangers on the streets.
So, what do you do? You stay in the closet in the Morridor (Utah, parts of Idaho, Colorado and Arizona). You marry someone of the opposite sex and have kids. Why? Because the religion tells you from the time you were very, very tiny that that’s part of the process of becoming exalted.
Getting out of that area and that church aren’t easy.
It’s still better’n Alabama!They wouldn’t have been cited… they’d have been SHOT.
It’s a GO!Facebook: ”Silent Kissing Protest”
http://www.facebook.com/event….
Craig’sList:
http://saltlakecity.craigslist…
Better watch-out LurleenAccording to your rules, you don’t have a right to criticize what they’re doing in Utah.
Although, you might argue an exception since you are simply reporting. If so, please be careful you don’t cross over the line and make any suggestions for a protest or other response.
I’d hate to see the Utah LGBT community send a bunch of thugs to create an anti-gay backlash in your hometown — You know, like you threatened to send to Dallas when I made a suggestion to those in Washington state of which you, in your role of FINAL ARBITER OF ALLOWED THOUGHT AND DICTATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, disagreed.
Hit and runKiss in and scatter..
and if you can time it it upset an LDS wedding ceremony, so much the better…
My thoughts exactly! Humongo Kiss-In, withposters and signs and LOTS of pictures!
That would be a hillarious stuntGet an ugly old man to walk down this Mall with 5 women all done up with those butt-ugly hair do’s, and matching dresses made from printed drapes. I’d bust a gut laughing.
http://politiken.dk/archive/00…
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/p…
extra points if half the “wives” are drag queens
buh hahahahaha
polygamous marriage those photos creep me out! Especially that second one.
These dresses might do: http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/…
don’t forget the puffy sleeves!
http://media.bonnint.net/slc/1…
A mask manufactured of these FLDS polygamist wivesWorn by EVERYONE like the Guy Fawkes mask in V is for Vendetta, or the smiling Asian mask the torturers wore in Brazil….would chafe the Mormon elder’s butt RAW.
It could become a tourist attraction like the singing guy in Time Square in his underwear. A Twitter or Facebook contest of people posting images/videos of themselves at every Utah monument, and tourist spot…could send this GLOBAL.
Have these prim proper wives have the Mimi stripper outfit from RENT under those ugly dressesthen have boom Boxes crank on OUT TONIGHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
This could be expanded to every Mormon temple, or future temple sitesIt might be safer to try this out in CA, NYC, Illinois, Kansas City…where Mormon temple thugs don’t have the political clout to have the street performers arrested.
Video taping and posting these performances could be very cool.
Here is a particularly CREEPY article on FLDS cult’s fashions http://danicalo.blogspot.com/2…
The level of control, and family members who can all criticise and REPORT slight varying from the strict rules, gave me the heebee jeebees.
Not in Salt Lake City proper…I remember my first political science professor would tell this story to every class she had.
This professor was born in Brazil and still speaks with a strong accent. She went to university in Utah. One night she gets a phone call from a couple of friends who were visiting a small town. They had been arrested for kissing on a park bench–not making out, just kissing. This couple was made up of a man and a woman. Turns out in this particular town kissing in public is against the law–for both gay and straight couples.
Makes me want to find that town (she never mentioned the town’s name) and get together a large group of friends and do a kiss-in.