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.The pair stood their ground rather than move on, as apparently the security guards asked them to do. They were subsequently roughed up handcuffed, and given a trespassing citation by the later-arriving police. Does anyone doubt that they were confronted by security because they're gay? No. But here's the rub: Main Street Plaza is now, apparently, private property."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."
The plaza has been the subject of a complex land and public easement trade between the LDS church and Salt Lake City. According to ACLU of Utah, the court ultimately ruled that although the plaza still effectively serves as a main pedestrian thoroughfare through downtown Salt Lake City, it is now private property and activities there can be controlled at the whim of the church. So technically the two men probably were trespassing if they didn't leave immediately when asked. But I have to say, looking at the picture of the central location of that plaza, that this almost amounts to entrapment. Walking that thing must be like running a gauntlet for emotionally healthy gay people living honest lives.
The LDS may have lied said that they support civil unions for their beloved defective gay brethren, but apparently they expect those unions to be affection-free. The LDS should be deeply ashamed for pulling muscle over something so beautiful as a carefree peck on the cheek.
From reading around the web this week:
• Los Angeles Times' Alcohol sales to minors an issue with self-service checkout:
Self-checkout lanes are a convenient way to purchase groceries -- and an easy way for minors to buy booze. Anti-alcohol groups want to put a stop to that, setting off a skirmish betweentween the supermarket industry and community groups over how alcohol can be sold at the grocery store.The California Senate is set to begin debating a bill today that would force supermarkets to route all alcohol sales through live cashiers, who could ensure that buyers are sober and of legal drinking age.
"Yeah, and keep those Frisbees off my lawn too!" Those kids today, taking advantage of technology!
• Examiner.com's CSU professor says, 'We're all intersex':
Colorado State University professor Gerald N. Callahan says, "We're all intersex," in a recent interview on Salon.com.Callahan is the author of the new book Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes, which profiles individuals born with various intersex conditions.
While Callahan's statement may not be technically correct, the sentiment behind it - that "none of us meet the criterion of being the perfect male or the perfect female" - is accurate and supports Callahan's argument that the binary gender system (two-gendered system) does not accurately reflect what is actually found in nature...
• San Francisco Chronicle's The best classic arcade games ever made:
Brush up on your Defender skills and download the Buckner & Garcia hit Pac-Man Fever on your iPod. The California Extreme classic arcade games show returns in Santa Clara this weekend.The Cal Extreme show is a time travel experience. You'll see kids dressed like extras from "Happy Days" playing pinball, heavy metal types resting in front of a big screen television watching Rush videos and a lot of people playing doubles on Asteroids, while debating the eternal video game geek question: What's the best arcade game of all time?
Easy. 1980 arcade game Battlezone. 
, which is number 8 on this article's list.
• FindLaw Writ's The State of the Same-Sex Union: Part One in a Three-Part Series:
FindLaw columnist and Hofstra law professor Joanna Grossman and FindLaw guest columnist and Cardozo law professor Edward Stein explain the early history of attempts to establish a right to same-sex marriage, in the first of a three-part series of columns constituting a "state of the nation" report on the legal history of the fight for same-sex marriage rights. As Grossman a nd Stein explain, attempts to establish a right to same-sex marriage began in America as early as the 1970's, but were rebuffed. However, additional lawsuits in the late 1980's and early 1990's advanced the movement, with some rights of same-sex partners being recognized. Grossman and Stein detail the rights movement's early victories and defeats -- ending this Part in their series with a discussion of the important Supreme Court decisions relating to same-sex marriage by Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Vermont. (Tuesday, July 7, 2009 )
• Opposition reading from Focus On The Family/CitizenLink's Congress Considers Politicized Bullying Bill; Legislation would require schools to create special categories for 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity.':
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a so-called bullying bill that that would require public schools to spell out special categories in their discipline policies, including "sexual orientation" and "gender identity."Family advocates say it will pave the way for a pro-homosexual, adult-driven agenda in public schools.
The name of the bill is Safe Schools Improvement Act.
..."People need to realize that gay activists will use this federal mandate as the leverage they need to get promotion of homosexuality into public schools," [Focus on the Family's Education Analyst Candi Cushman] cautioned...
Yes, that is such a bigger concern than even one child dying from bullying because he or she isn't masculine of feminine enough for his or her peers, or is perceived as gay.
• Law Dork, 2.0's EXCLUSIVE: The Letter To NCLR, Lambda and the ACLU:
Chad Griffin, the board president of the recently formed American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is supporting the federal Proposition 8 challenge brought by Theodore Olson and David Boies, sent an explosive letter (pdf) on Wednesday to lawyers for three of the nation's most established LGBT legal organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.Today, the skirmish that apparently has been going on behind the scenes since long before the lawsuit's filing poured out into the pages of The Washington Post and into the full view of the LGBT and legal communities. For the first time, though, the behind-the-scenes dispute that has gone on over the past several months is being presented here, with an accusation flying in the past 24 hours that LGBT legal groups wouldn't "zealously and effectively litigate this case" and responses that such a notion is "off-the-wall" and "unfathomable." ...
A lot of interesting detail in that piece! Related diary from UniteTheFight: LGBT Groups Who Opposed the Federal Case Against Prop 8 Now Want to Join In - Too Little Too Late?
Well, it's an open thread...What are you reading or thinking about today?
Two weeks to the signature gathering deadline for the anti-family Referendum 71, and Gary Randall finally released a progress report.Conservatively, we have a little over 75,000 signatures to date.With an ultimate goal of 150,000 signatures, it might seem that Gary's glass is half half full. However, the petition has been in circulation for a full month now, or 2/3 of the time they had to collect signatures. If Oregon Gary's Washington operatives had been keeping pace, they should have already collected about 100,000 signatures. Gary Randall is falling behind.
Consider also that most of the captive audiences (churches, political groups) would have been 
mined for signatures by now. So where will the other half come from? A public that massively supports domestic partnerships? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it's telling that Gary must sic the Knights of Columbus on the state this weekend in a last-ditch attempt to scrounge signatures. I wonder if all that donor cash spent on Larry Stickney's opulent salary and Gary' Randall's frivolous website would have been better spent on paid signature-gatherers?
Join Washington Families Standing Together in their fight to defeat Referendum 71 by clicking on the graphics below.
Subscribe to daily Email
0 comments:
Post a Comment