Kiss-In Protests Mormon Bigotry

A couple days ago Pharyngula covered a story about two men who shared a kiss outside of the Mormon’s headquarters in Utah. Security guards detained the men because the formerly public plaza is now property of the LDS church, and apparently gay kissing is considered to be “offensive, indecent, obscene, lewd or disorderly speech, dress or conduct.”

First of, fuck you, LDS church.

Ahem. Thankfully there are a bunch of awesome gay people in Salt Lake City, and they decided to hold a peaceful kiss-in on the square:

This kind of stuff needs to happen every time gay rights takes a hit somewhere. It’s peaceful and shows that gays are normal, loving couples just like heterosexual couples. I don’t want to live in a world where it’s not cool for a gay couple to kiss in a bar, but then I have to watch a straight couple basically having sex at their table.

And yes, I guess the plaza is private property now. And even though the LDS church promised this sort of stuff wouldn’t happen, that isn’t legally binding and they can theoretically do whatever they want. But you know what, whatever tiny modicum of respect I had for the LDS church completely went out the window when they fucked over California with their ridiculous funding of Prop 8. So screw you, Mormon bigots. I hope gays make out in front of all of your temples every day until you wise up.

*end rant*

(Video via Womanist Musings)

Yay Vermont!

Vermont is the next state to legalize gay marriage, and the first do to so through the legislature instead of the courts. It was a big win too. “The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.” Vermont’s not quite as much of a shock as Iowa, but still great nonetheless!

I really hope we see a snowball effect, with more and more states allowing gay marriage. I wonder if we can thank Prop 8 for getting the rest of the nation worked up enough to do something about it. Would be an ironic, lovely twist.

Gay Marriage Legalized in Iowa

Woooo! Though I’m sure you’ve heard it in a billion other places already.

Good job, Iowa. I used to lump you with all the other conservative backwards states (including my own), but you’ve proven me wrong. I take back (most of) the bad things I may have said about you. If Iowa can do this, it gives me hope that a lot of other states will soon follow suit.

As long as Indiana isn’t the last state to legalize it, I’ll be happy. I have low standards for a state with such a bad track record with homosexuality.