Mrs. Betty Bowers: "Less is Mormon" (Video)

"America's Best Christian" and "Most Saved Baptist", Mrs. Betty Bowers takes on Mormons and other lesser religions. (If you subscribe via e-mail, you gotta stop by to see this one.)

Mormons back new gay rights laws in SLC

The Associated Press reports that Salt Lake City passed civil rights protections for sodomites in housing and employment with the full backing of the LDS church. Michael Otterson, spokesman for the Mormons, who literally pulled their doctrine out of a hat, said, "The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage."

That's right, queers, you have the right to work and have a place to live, but once you clock out or retire, or die, you and your family are on your own. The home that you and your partner spent your entire working lives to afford and maintain can still be taken away from the surviving partner by your bigoted family who rejected you years ago, when one of you dies. But no matter, you'll probably lose your home anyway, because you can't collect social security, pension or other retirement survivor benefits, because marriage is a sacred contract between a man and his wives.

But what do we care? We'll just retroactively convert you to Mormonism after you're dead anyway, so eventually, you'll see things our way. We'll do the same to your surviving partner once they kick too, then we'll all be one big happy family.

Gay Protesters Stage 2nd Kiss-In at Mormon Temple

(From AP)
"A mass-kissing protest near the Mormon church temple Sunday drew a shouting match between gay activists and a group of faithful Mormons.

For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a "kiss-in" to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both gay and straight couples exchanged kisses during the protest.

Demonstrators were greeted at the south entrance by a group of protesters carrying large signs that denounced homosexuality, prompting a heated verbal exchange.

Police say no one was arrested or cited, despite a large group exchanging kisses by a reflecting pool at the plaza's center.

"We didn't call the police. We didn't do anything," church spokeswoman Kim Farah said.

The church bought one block of Salt Lake City's Main Street to build a plaza in the 1990s alongside the Temple, where Mormon marriages and other religious rituals take place.

Matt Aune has said he and his partner, Derek Jones, exchanged a modest kiss at the plaza 11 days ago, but church officials contend their behavior was lewd.

"There was much more involved that a simple kiss of the cheek," Farah said in a statement Friday. "They engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language, and had obviously been using alcohol."

The men have said they were walking home from a nearby concert and cutting through the plaza on their way home.

A police report said they sat down for a kiss and were approached by a pair of church security guards, who asked them to leave because their behavior was "unwanted."

Both were handcuffed and Aune was pinned to the ground."

Queers Protest Tacos and Temples with Same-Sex Lip-Locks

The gays are on the march again. Protests were staged in El Paso ,TX and Deseret, UT on Sunday in separate incidents involving same-sex kissing.

From The El Paso Times)
"EL PASO -- A boisterous demonstration supporting gay rights took place Friday outside an East Side Chico's Tacos where five men say they were kicked out after two of them kissed almost two weeks ago.

About 100 people picketed in front of the Chico's on Montwood, where they hoisted signs that read, 'El Paso is Diversity,' 'What About Our 1st Amendment Rights?' and '...With Liberty and Justice For All.'

Protesters lined both sides of the street outside the restaurant, chanted and urged motorists to honk in support.

Carlos Diaz de Leon, one of the five men and a leader in the protest, claims that about 12:30 a.m. June 29 he and four others were at Chico's when two of his friends kissed, prompting a private security guard to use an anti-gay slur in Spanish and to call police, who cited a statute on homosexual conduct declared unconstitutional six years ago.

On Thursday, Chico's owner Bernie Mora told Channel 7-KVIA that the restaurant serves tacos, not discrimination, and that during its 56-year history has welcomed everybody."

Attorneys from the ACLU have taken on the case and are considering legal action against Chico's Tacos, the security company and the El Paso Police Department.

Meanwhile in Deseret, UT, just south of Salt Lake City, about 60 demonstrators staged a PDA protest outside the local LDS temple over a similar incident involving a gay couple that were ejected by security guards from Temple Square over a same-sex lip-lock that took place last week.

(From the Deseret News)
"Former Salt Lake City Councilwoman Deeda Seed launched the idea from her Facebook page after two gay men, Derek Jones and Matthew Aune, were asked to leave the church-owned pedestrian walkway between North Temple and South Temple Thursday because of 'inappropriate behavior.' The men said they had been holding hands and kissed. Church officials called police, who cited the men for trespassing, after they became argumentative, used profanity and refused to leave the private property, said Farah.

'We're giving a visual demonstration of the power of love,' Seed said. 'And saying that it should be OK for people to show affections regardless of their sexual orientation or age.'

Salt Lake City Councilman Luke Garrott attended the event but was less pragmatic than Seed in his evaluation of the incident that sparked the demonstration.

'It's another instance of indignity being visited on gays and lesbians,' Garrott said. 'I knew this couple personally, they're friends of mine, so it hits close to home.'

'The big picture seems still to be lost on the church leadership,' Garrott said. 'The church is coming across not as defending traditional marriage but as being cruel to gay and lesbian couples. … I represent downtown Salt Lake City, and it's unacceptable to me.'"