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Sunday "Kiss-in" outside LDS Temple supports gay couple
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As an update to the previous article, former city councilwoman Deeda Seed organized a "Kiss-in" Sunday morning on Main Street Plaza to support Derek Jones and Matthew Aune. They were asked to leave the Plaza for kissing on Thursday, and then cited for trespassing.
At least sixty kissers, gay and straight, showed up at the "kiss-in" to share a quick kiss as church security looked on. When a crowd attempted to walk onto the property together, security and police blocked the way.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune:
The incident became a flash point for overlapping controversies: Anger over church support of Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriage in California, and still-simmering frustration over the city's sale of Main Street Plaza to the church about 10 years ago.
It's only fair to mention that Jones and Aune are the ones claiming that it was a quick kiss and that at no point did they refuse to leave the property. According to them, they got into a verbal argument with security about whether they'd been targeted for being gay, and that it was this argument that escalated until they were detained, handcuffed, and cited by police.
A church statement said that they were "asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior just as any other couple would have been."
Unless Jones and Aune are lying, security overreacted. Not all couples are asked to leave for holding hands or kissing.
The land is private property, and the church can enforce whatever rules it likes. Those unwilling to abide by those rules can be asked to leave or risk face trespassing charges.
The "kiss-in" highlighted not only what might be unequal treatment to a gay couple, but the sheer ridiculousness of the bigger picture: that a kiss on the cheek, gay or straight, could be grounds for ejection from a popular pedestrian walkway. While the LDS church is pursuing a worthwhile goal of maintaining a clean and peaceful space downtown, banning simple displays of affection may be an extreme that only elicits dumbfoundment from the rest of us.
No one denies that the LDS church owns the ball, and they can take it home if they like. We only think it's a silly place to draw a line in the sand.
By all means, church security can confront every couple daring to kiss. The church also has a legal right to enforce a strict dress code. And we should be sure not to carry anything from Starbucks into the Plaza, or sit and quietly and read anything the church might find questionable. If anyone intends on using this particular path through downtown, they should prepare to look and act as Mormon as possible.
I'm exaggerating the point somewhat. In truth, it seems this is a situation caused primarily by these security officers and/or Jones and Aune. But as long as the LDS member's response to this is "it's private property and you should respect our beliefs" it doesn't take much to imagine a legally enforced Mormon utopia.
This is worth noting as we remember that the church is in the process of building a multi-billion dollar shopping and residential complex which could also potentially legally eject anyone who isn't Mormon enough.
Email Jonathan: slcfreethinking@gmail.com
Read Jonathan's other articles on science and religion
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