Lips will apparently be locked tonight outside the San Diego Mormon temple near La Jolla, as a gay rights group plans to hold a mass kissing showing.
The event is reportedly to show support for two gay men who were cited for trespassing in Utah after they kissed on church property. The couple reportedly refused to vacate the plaza when security guards who witnessed the kiss said the behavior was inappropriate. The two men said they were just showing affection for each other, while authorities said that the two were groping each other and were intoxicated at the time they were cited.
According to officials from the Empowering Spirits Foundation, the "kiss-in" will hopefully serve as a peacefully rally to bring about dialogue between officials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gay community. The La Jolla area Mormon property is considered sacred grounds to its members, located near Nobel Drive.
Honestly, as long as no one is breaking any laws, if two guys or two girls want to kiss each other in public, more power to them.
Hopefully constructive conversation between the Mormon community and the gay community will come when radicals on both sides realize that dialogue is the way to go.
Comments
Dialogue has never been sufficient as a tonic against bigotry.
Of course the Mormon church won't mind if people kiss eachother on temple grounds.
However, the situation in Salt Lake apparently wasn't a simple kiss. According to police, witnesses, and the two men themselves they were drunk and groaping eachother. Then after being asked to stop they wouldn't because they were beligerent. (See the article from the Salt Lake Tribune) Only after the fact did it become a "simple kiss".
People who drunk and disruptive on peaceful temple grounds are asked to leave no matter what their sexual orientation.
Jeremy in the OC must be Mormon and never read the police report. Yes they did say they had been drinking but the police report, the security guards and and the two men said that the kiss was on the cheek and they shared a hug. Get things straight and quit trying to make the Mormon Church look good in this situation. You are like many on other forums who say the same thing as you. Too many Mormons lie to make themselves look like the victim. The victim is not the Mormon Church. You make you and your Church look even worse by lying.
"According to officials from the Empowering Spirits Foundation, the "kiss-in" will hopefully serve as a peacefully rally to bring about dialogue between officials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gay community" Yes, that will work, "bring about dialogue" through intentionally offending someone.
It's silly to think that this type of protest will open a dialogue. Even if the protest is peaceful, it will be seen as an act of aggression. Also, here's a statement from a witness to the event:
“How funny that these guys try to claim that they were victims. I witnessed the whole thing. First of all, these two gentlemen did much more then hold hands and kiss, they were completely all over each other. Second of all they were given ample opportunities to leave, these security guards told them politely they could stay on this easement as long as they weren’t all over each other. The two men turned things around quickly, they were drunk and completely obnoxious and rude to the security guards, cussing at them and calling them all sorts of names. That’s when they arrested them for trespassing not kissing. Funny how these two “victims” claim to be victimized, when in reality they were just picking a fight, and wanted some attention which they got.”
Dialogue may not be what comes from this but I do believe it is far more destructive if the gay community does nothing. More power to all those participating in this peaceful protest. I wholeheartedly support you.
Jeremy in the OC - " According to police, witnesses, and the two men themselves they were drunk and groaping eachother."
Um, that's simply not verifiably true. The police report said that one of the two men had alcohol on his breath. There was no mention of intoxication. There was no mention of "groaping." One would assume that if public drunkenness or indecent behavior had been involved, it would have been mentioned in the original report, no? The men themselves did not say they were "drunk" or "groaping." And if there were reliable witnesses involved, it would be nice to get a cite...I have yet to see reports of them.
Instead, the LDS has had an after-the-fact revelation - perhaps by sticking its collective head in a hat? - that those things took place. But then, making up "history" has always been a Mormon strong suit.
OK, I stand corrected, sort of. A witness report was in fact cited in a previous post, though when I googled it, I couldn't find such a report in an actual news story. I did find a similar account anonymously posted on a Desert News board by "I Was There." I haven't been assiduously following every news story, but has someone actually come forward and, under his own name, made those claims? Cite, please. And, of course, the police report doesn't confirm the anonymous witness' testimony, regardless.
Hey, I can say that I was there and saw the Angel Moroni trying to prevent the arrest. Unaccountability is a wonderful thing.
The Mormon Church, of all people, should be very, very quiet when marriage is discussed.
Their amazingly convenient "divine revelation" got them statehood, but to enjoy the polygyny (inaccurately called "polygamy") which they renounced during their earthly fleeting life does not deny them its joys in their Heaven, where apparently they are not even limited to 72 women per man as the Muslim terrorists are.
Had Congress not said "No" to the Mormons, they would now be ruling over San Diego. Their "Deseret" theocracy was planned to extend to the ocean, and our Bay was to be their seaport.
JDD: "It's silly to think that this type of protest will open a dialogue. Even if the protest is peaceful, it will be seen as an act of aggression."
Sorry, but many of us see the LDS' actions around 8 - pouring in money to actually REMOVE a civil right from the CA constitution, as "Agrression," no matter how you wrap it up in pieties.
Dialogue? For 31 years - yes, THIRTY-ONE years - Affirmation, a group of LGBT Mormons, sought a meeting with the church hierarchy. In February of 2008, the new church president agreed to schedule such a meeting. But in July, less than three weeks before the meeting, the hierarchy backed out. So who really wants a dialogue, and who merely wants to throw its weight - whether money, threat of excommunication, or overzealous guards - around?
Who is the Empowering Spirits Foundation?
Another example of half-baked journalism. It clearly states in the police reports that these "men" were behaving inappropriately, and were intoxicated. "Lewd and groping," were the words. And, this is private property. If it were my property, I might have shot them for tresspassing. And, by the way, that's legal.
Pete: "It clearly states in the police reports that these "men" were behaving inappropriately, and were intoxicated. "Lewd and groping," were the words."
Pete, how can I put this? Um, you're lying. LYING. Have you no shame? No honesty? No suspicion that the rest of us can Google?
I can't include a URL in my post, but simply Googling "Mormon kiss police report" will get you to a page with a link to the full report, GO SL 2009-122152.
Read it.
I DARE you to find the words "lewd" and "groping," lest you be taken for a vicious, lying, homophobic excuse for a "man."
Go on, I DARE you.
Appalling.
It's a fact that homosexuals have a long history of using civil disobedience to get thrills by having strong policemen man-handle them.
The main goal of The Empowering Spirits Foundation in staging this protest is to get cheap thrills at tax payer expense.
jib: "It's a fact that homosexuals have a long history of using civil disobedience to get thrills by having strong policemen man-handle them."
Yeah, and it's a fact that homophobes - when they're not getting cheap thrills by actually bashing gays - get their jollies by spewing idiotic, vicious lies.
So what's yer point?
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