Protesters, including straight couple, hold kiss-in at the Mormon mother ship

This is in response to the Mormons performing an apparent citizen's arrest on a gay couple that had the temerity to share a kiss in front of their church in Salt Lake City. Here's the Salt Lake Tribune's account:

Wearing bright red lipstick, Isabelle Warnas smiled and planted a big kiss on her husband's cheek, something she said she has done often under the spires of the LDS Church's Salt Lake Temple.

"Nobody has said a thing to us," the 50-year-old Salt Lake City resident said.

This time, though, they had an audience of more than 100. They were gathered for a "kiss-in," staged Sunday morning at Main Street Plaza to show support for a gay couple who say they were detained by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints security guards after one man kissed the other on the cheek Thursday.

"My husband and I can not understand the discrimination," Warnas said. "This is not right."

USA Today reveals that the city gave the Mormons the land in a swap deal a few years back. Read More...

Another gay bar raid in Texas

At this point, regardless of whether it's motivated by homophobia, the Texas authorities really out to give it a rest. You've already got one guy with a severe head injury threatening his brain, and accusations of massive homophobia by the local police chief, so what do Texas authorities do? They raid another gay bar. More from AP. Read More...

Latest on gay kiss controversy in El Paso

It really is amazing that we're still having to fight battles over where and when and whether it's permissible to kiss in public. Read More...

NAACP refuses to take a position on gay marriage; discounts connection between black civil rights and gay civil rights

I covered this over on AMERICAblog. Should a civil rights group get ahead of its members on the civil rights of people they don't necessarily represent? Or phrased another way, should a civil rights group let its members veto its support for the civil rights of others? Read More...

Update on Dallas bar raid

An excellent, and lengthy, piece from the Dallas Morning News summarizing what happened, and where things stand, in the Dallas bar raid two weeks ago that left one man with a dangerous blood clot near his brain. Read More...

US Postal Service takes down gay pride display

It didn't "fit" their "qualifications." From the Journal Sentinel:

Maggi Cage was thrilled when she was asked to help set up a gay pride display in the lobby of Milwaukee's downtown post office.

The organization she leads, the Milwaukee Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center, alerted its members to head down and check out the photos of famous gay people, historical information and a giant AIDS awareness stamp in glass cases.

"I started getting calls saying, 'I can't find that exhibit at the post office,' " Cage said. "I sent some of my staff down there, and the cases were empty."

The display had lasted less than four hours. It was created the morning of June 1, the very day President Barack Obama proclaimed LGBT Pride Month in America, and came down that afternoon.

Marge Oehlke, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in the Milwaukee area, said she removed the material.

"It did not fit our qualifications," she said.

Read More...