{"id":3921,"date":"2009-07-13T18:29:39","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T23:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/?p=3921"},"modified":"2009-07-13T14:06:25","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T19:06:25","slug":"your-friendly-neighborhood-mormon-church-arresting-lovers-one-kiss-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/3921","title":{"rendered":"Your Friendly Neighborhood Mormon Church: Arresting Lovers One Kiss At A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

You must remember this
\nA kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
\nThe fundamental things apply
\nAs time goes by.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

Last week, a same-sex couple was arrested in Salt Lake City’s "Main Street Plaza".  Their crime was kissing.  That’s right.  They kissed, they got thrown on the ground, handcuffed and arrested<\/a>…<\/p>\n

\n

Matt Aune, 28, and his partner, Derek Jones, 25, crossed the plaza holding hands, according to Aune.  About 20 feet from the edge of the plaza, Aune said he stopped, put his arm on Jones’ back and kissed him on the cheek.  Several security guards then arrived and asked the pair to leave, saying that public displays of affection are not allowed on the church property, Aune and Jones said.  They protested, saying they often see other couples holding hands and kissing there.  "We were kind of standing up for ourselves.  It was obviously because we were gay."<\/p>\n

Jones said that the guards put Jones on the ground and handcuffed him.  Aune said he was also cuffed roughly, suffering bruises and a swollen wrist.<\/p>\n

LDC Church spokesperson Kim Farah said the two men "became argumentative," refused to leave, and used profanity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And goodness knows no heterosexual would swear at a couple of rent-a-cops for arresting them for kissing their date.  Oh…and this all happened in a public place too…right?\n<\/p>\n

Wrong<\/a>…<\/p>\n

\n

The path where they walked is officially church property, but is used as a pedestrian avenue open to the public. That’s because it was<\/em> a public walkway until 2003, when, reports the Salt Lake Tribune<\/em><\/a>, "in a controversial land-swap deal … the easement became private property, allowing the church to ban protesting, smoking, sunbathing and other ‘offensive, indecent, obscene, lewd or disorderly speech, dress or conduct,’ church officials said at the time. In exchange, the city got church property for a west-side community center."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dig it.  That space was public property.  And then one day the church that teaches its flock that they too will become Gods, decided it needed more control over that public space.  So they asked the city council nicely if they could have it in exchange for some pretty worthless property somewhere else.  And all the Mormons on the city council gave it to them. <\/p>\n

This is what people are missing in this story.  That city space was a popular tourist zone…particularly for couples…<\/p>\n

\n

An LDS Church spokesperson, in a written statement, denied that 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."<\/p>\n

The spokesperson declined to comment on what is considered inappropriate behavior, and on the rules governing the plaza.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Salt Lake City sold the property to the LDS Church in the late 1990s.  It is a popular pedestrian thoroughfare, and reportedly a site where couples often pose affectionately for photos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This isn’t about this oddball God Is A Being From Another Planet religion’s bedrock of anti-gay animus.  It’s about its need to control…well…everyone.  Mormon or not.  It wasn’t a swarm of same-sex couples all necking in that plaza that made the church decide it needed to grab ownership of it away from the public.  And this isn’t Las Vegas we’re talking about here…it’s Salt Lake City…where until just this month, by law you had to fill out an application, pay a fee and become a member of a private club before setting foot in a bar<\/a>…<\/p>\n

\n

The Mormon church has always helped shape alcohol policy here, and the change to the law this year was no different.  Only after consultation with church leaders and an agreement that DUI penalties would be stiffened, did lawmakers make progress on the changes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Mormon church "helps" shape all public policy in Utah.  Never mind the bible belt, which may consider itself Christian America, but isn’t under the thumb of any one particular church…it is Utah that is as close to a theocracy as can be managed under the U.S. constitution.  In Utah, the Mormon church wants, the Mormon church gets.  Whatever was going on in that plaza before the Mormon church ate it, it couldn’t have been much.  This is Salt Lake City not Key West.  But for theocrats there is never enough control, especially over lovers. \n<\/p>\n

\n

The Salt Lake Police Department on Friday denied a request by the Salt Lake Tribune for a full police report on the incident, citing Utah laws giving them five business days to respond to records requests.<\/p>\n

Sgt. Robin Snyder of the SLC PD refused to name the reason security guards gave for alerting police, saying it is "irrelevant."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They’re getting their stories straight.  I would bet money that every single person who had a hand in writing that police report, when it finally comes out, is a Mormon.<\/p>\n

What you need to understand about the leaders of religions like this, is that it isn’t sin they’re waging war against.  Their sworn enemy isn’t the devil.  Theocracy hates the human heart.  And fears it.  Because the heart acknowledges no master other then Love…<\/p>\n

 And when two lovers woo
\nThey still say, "I love you."
\nOn that you can rely
\nNo matter what the future brings
\nAs time goes by…<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You must remember this A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. The fundamental things apply As time goes by. Last week, a same-sex couple was arrested in Salt Lake City’s "Main Street Plaza".  Their crime was kissing.  That’s right.  They kissed, they got thrown on the ground, handcuffed and arrested… […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,18,116],"class_list":["post-3921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-gods-and-monsters","tag-gratuitous-anti-gay-hate","tag-joseph-smiths-talking-hat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}