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This week in Salt Lake City and San Diego, the protest continued over the recent roughing and cuffing of two gay men caught kissing on an LDS “public” thoroughfare. Sunday’s event in Salt Lake City involved about 200 prokissers of various sexual orientations. Although met with sign-holding anti-affection shouters, the group wandered onto LDS property and kissed without incident. As with the first kiss-in protest, LGBT allies were prominent and outspoken in their support.
[S]everal gay couples moved to the plaza for kissing and hand-holding, along with straight couples such as Peter Saunders, a Salt Lake City software designer, and his wife of 37 years, Gerda.“There’s no need for controversy and hatred, especially in a beautiful environment like this,” said Saunders, raising his right arm toward the temple.
LDS Church members in support of the protest, and troubled by their church’s support last fall for California’s Proposition 8, also made a showing. One handed out fliers promoting an online petition for reconciliation between the church and the gay and lesbian community. Another, 25-year-old Brigham Young University graduate Kate Savage, attended with her boyfriend, Tristan Call.
“It’s as if the doctrine of the importance of families we’re taught is used to destroy other people’s families, and we don’t understand that,” Savage said.
Another kiss-in was held outside a San Diego Mormon temple on Wednesday. In contrast to the Salt Lake City affair, the 30 or so prokissers snogged in the sunshine free of counter-protest.
Shall we take LDS Church spokeswoman Kim Farah’s unwillingness to comment on the latest kiss-in as a sign that her employer regrets it’s earlier iron-fisted crushing of affection?
UPDATE: Join the Impact is organizing The Great Nationwide Kiss-In on August 15th in response to several recent arrests of gay couples kissing in public in TX as well as the UT case described here. We’ll have more on this later, but for now check out JTI’s page.
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Related:
* Kiss’ll get you cuffed in Salt Lake City
* Kiss-in on Main Street
7 Comments
UnbelievableThe homophobia in America is unbelievable. With Proposition 8 in California and now the pressure on gays in Salt Lake City for kissing in public, it’s absolutely insane. I don’t understand why people have such a discomfort for it and won’t allow gays the same rights and freedoms allowed to everyone else.
I’m happy to see the protesters mobilizing in such an… interesting way.
I swore I’d never set foot in Utah, but this almost makes me want to reconsiderShall we take LDS Church spokeswoman Kim Farah’s unwillingness to comment on the latest kiss-in as a sign that her employer regrets it’s earlier iron-fisted crushing of affection?
Don’t hold your breath. SLC is playing the out-of-sight, out-of-mind game and hoping that if they ignore it long enough, it will go away. Utah mormons are like that; if they don’t want to see something – or if their “church” leaders don’t want them to see it – then they don’t see it. Mass cognitive dissonance at its best.
Is it wrong or petty that I would love to show up there with Beloved and just kiss her for an hour or two in front of temple square on a day my parents go? Though, given their penchant for ignoring what they don’t want to admit, they probably wouldn’t even notice me there.
It is so pathetic that people who don’t know LGBT truly believe LGBT live sad and miserable lives. Most LGBT people I know are very happy with their lives, but are pissed of for having their government treat them like second class citizens.
Meanwhile many religious people claim to be happy but seem so obsessed with how LGBT people are living their lives. The way they suffer from Projection is unbelievable at times. And they claim to be living the way god told them to and they have to cheat on their wives and husbands basically destroying their families.
I think it would be great if you did show up and I honestly don’t believe they could avoid seeing you. But they would be the ones who would have to wonder LOVE is a bad thing, especially when it comes to their own child. Don’t they claim that god loves everyone? When did god become selective on who she loves?
something tells methat if you and Beloved did that, your parents would absolutely notice. of course noticing isn’t the same as acknowledging that they noticed.
I’m kind of sorry this is such a big LGBT storyIt just seems a little disappointing that this is completely a Mormon vs Gay issue when it is more like a Mormon vs everybody issue. Gays and Str8s are actually in this one together for the same reason and that should be reflected more in the story. Other than that, Kiss On!
I dedicated the entire quote boxto what the LGBT allies involved had to say. I did the same in my previous post about the first such demo. Those involved, at least in Utah, are most definitely both LGBT and allies.
Just in case this might be useful for anyone planning locally …The LDS church is organized geographically, so there is probably a Mormon building in your city or town. Here is a useful tool for finding your nearest LDS chapel: https://maps.lds.org
The list of LDS temples is here: http://www.lds.org/temples/alp…
IMHO, if you do have an LDS temple nearby, that should be the first choice. If not, second choice should be a stake meeting house. Otherwise, simply locate the nearest ward building.