A second “kiss in” protest
organized by supporters of a gay couple who were detained by Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' (the Mormons) security guards
over a kiss on the cheek escalated into a shouting match between gay
activists and counter-protesters Sunday, the Salt Lake Tribune
reported.
For the second consecutive Sunday,
supporters gathered near the Main Street Plaza where the couple was
detained and later cited for trespassing. The “kiss in” drew
about 100 gay and straight couples who held hands and exchanged
affectionate kisses. Couples wore paper hearts in solidarity with
Matt Aune, 28, and his partner Derek Jones, 25, who crossed the
plaza, a walkway that connects the Mormon Temple to other church
sites that belong to the church, holding hands as they walked home
from a concert two weeks ago. Near the edge of the plaza, Aune says
he stopped, hugged Jones and kissed him on the cheek.
The couple was cuffed and detained when
they protested against requests by guards that they leave. Guards
told them public displays of affection are not allowed on the plaza.
Supporters were greeted by members of
America Forever, an anti-gay group, who jeered as supporters kissed
and held up signs that blamed gays for “leading a persecution
movement against American religions.”
At the America
Forever website, the group says it is fighting for “an America
where children and minors will have the same rights that millions of
others have had: To be raised without [the] influences of
homosexuality, in an environment that does not suggest, instigate,
entice, or pursue the practice of onanism (sexual intercourse for
pleasure not procreation).”
The AP reports no one was arrested or
cited.
The church says the couple was detained
and cited for trespassing by the Salt Lake City police because the
men were “engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd
language, and had obviously been using alcohol.”
“There was much more involved than a
simple kiss on the cheek,” the church said in a statement Friday.
A police report quotes guards as saying
the pair were told to leave church property because they were
“kissing and hugging,” and does not indicate that the men would
have been allowed to remain on the plaza even if they had stopped.