From the Salt Lake Tribune: "Gay couple cuffed, cited after kiss near LDS temple."
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."
Aune and his partner, Derek Jones, 25, were cited by Salt Lake City police for trespassing on the plaza, located at 50 East North Temple, according to Sgt. Robin Snyder.
In a written statement, church spokeswoman Kim Farah denied the two were singled out for being gay.
"Two individuals came on church property and were politely asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior -- just as any other couple would have been," she said. She declined to comment on what is considered inappropriate behavior, and on the rules governing the plaza.
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"The stupidity of this badly mismanaged situation is that it reminds the public that, in Salt Lake City, "Main Street Plaza" is owned by the Mormon Church."
That hits the nail right on the head. It doesn't help that the majority of Salt Lakers did NOT approve of the sale of Main Street to the LDS church, even more were opposed to the city giving up its easement on the property. That one block plaza has been on of the biggest influences in the anti-mormon movement in Salt Lake City (that and the church's bigoted views on gays and history of racism).
This is yet another example of a saying that my temple worthy roommate came up with "the church has a good habit of shooting for the stars and a bad habit of shooting themselves in the foot while reloading".
"under current law a church does not have to apply for 501(c)3 status - it has such status automatically."
Yup, even "C Street" is filed with the IRS as a "Church".
"Of course a church or religious organization can lose such status if it doesn't act like a "church"
I don't think subsidizing overseas prosyletizing trips is "acting like a Church", nor counselling (aka protecting) the hypocritical adulterers, nor subsidizing their rents.
It all worked out. Charges were dropped in this case. Not by the LDSers, but by the city prosecutor (source: http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_12937788). Interesting information from that article:
Gill said a misunderstanding occurred between Jones and Aune and the security guard.
He said Jones and Aune weren’t intending to commit criminal trespassing because they perceived the walkway was open to the public.
In addition, Gill said, “there is a reasonable basis to believe the alleged trespassers did not think the LDS staff who confronted them could legally eject them from the property. Under this scenario, the alleged violators wanted law enforcement to be called because they believed they had a right to be there.
“There were no signs clearly indicating the ‘at will’ capacity to eject — for any reason — persons who entered this private property. Under this statute when the property is ‘open to the public’ Utah law provides that even if there is a violation of the statute, there is still the affirmative defense for the defendant that such conduct did not ’substantially interfere’ with the owner’s use of the property.”
erm... Everything below my initial paragraph was supposed to be in italics, BTW.
Is there a sign proclaiming the plaza as "private property, no trespassing"?
Much ado about nothing...now if the guys were having "sex", naked on the plaza...then reason to interfere...
Would this have happened if the couple had been a male/female? Probably not.
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