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Gays arrested for holding hands in Utah
Hand Holding Leads to Handcuffs in Salt Lake City
Following a free evening concert last Thursday in Salt Lake City, UT, Derek Jones and his boyfriend Matt Aune took advantage of a warm summer evening to walk home hand-in-hand. As they crossed Main Street Plaza around 11 p.m., Aune leaned over to give his boyfriend a peck on the cheek. That's when, according to the couple, that the trouble began. Security guards from the Church of Latter Day Saints assailed the two gay men. The couple claim that they were handcuffed, searched, and detained by the security guards for their public display of affection. Jones says that at one point he was even forced to the ground. “They said they wanted us to leave because of the public display of affection, and that they do not allow any sort of public displays of affection on the easement whatsoever,” Jones says. Aune says that he tried to find out from the security guards what they had done wrong. The guards allegedly told the pair that their behavior was “unnatural” and “just wrong.” Aune says, "I was trying to get the real reason out of them, which obviously was they were targeting us because we were a gay couple."....The Salt Lake City police did arrive and issued the two men misdemeanor citations for trespassing.
Following a free evening concert last Thursday in Salt Lake City, UT, Derek Jones and his boyfriend Matt Aune took advantage of a warm summer evening to walk home hand-in-hand. As they crossed Main Street Plaza around 11 p.m., Aune leaned over to give his boyfriend a peck on the cheek. That's when, according to the couple, that the trouble began. Security guards from the Church of Latter Day Saints assailed the two gay men. The couple claim that they were handcuffed, searched, and detained by the security guards for their public display of affection. Jones says that at one point he was even forced to the ground. “They said they wanted us to leave because of the public display of affection, and that they do not allow any sort of public displays of affection on the easement whatsoever,” Jones says. Aune says that he tried to find out from the security guards what they had done wrong. The guards allegedly told the pair that their behavior was “unnatural” and “just wrong.” Aune says, "I was trying to get the real reason out of them, which obviously was they were targeting us because we were a gay couple."....The Salt Lake City police did arrive and issued the two men misdemeanor citations for trespassing.
...Main Street Plaza only looks like a public space, but following a controversial 2003 land-swap deal between the Mormon church and the city, it is actually private property owned by the church. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed an unsuccessful lawsuit over the deal after it was discovered that a "public easement" granted by the church for public use of the formerly public space came with restrictions on behavior...
See why it's a good idea to privatize everything? Under the statist iron fist of democracy, Americans lose their God-given freedom to dictate other's behavior. But when places are privatized, like this plaza, and someday all the parks and roads and land and oceans, we finally have liberty! No more horrible laws and regulations and jack-booted thugs trampling on our rights, just security guards carrying out the enforcement of contracts. If people don't like our "no filthy deviants" clause in the contract, they can buy their own plaza.
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