Font ResizeSupporters of two gay men who say they were detained by LDS Church security guards after one man kissed the other on the cheek will hold a "Kiss-in" near Main Street Plaza on Sunday.
Participants are asked to gather at Main Street and South Temple at 9 a.m. and wear paper hearts on their sleeves. Supporters will show "gentle" displays of public affection, said former Salt Lake City councilwoman Deeda Seed, one of the organizers.
"It should be OK to show your love for someone else," Seed said. "What makes us essentially at our best as human beings is when we feel love for someone else."
Word of the event spread on Facebook and other social media, and Seed said she expects at least 50 to attend. They will attempt to gather on the church-owned Main Street Plaza, but expect to end up on the nearby public sidewalk, she said.
Organizers hope the event will lead to a meeting between church officials and leaders concerned about the incident.
Derek Jones, 25, and Matthew Aune, 28, said they were walking home from a concert Thursday and crossed through the church-owned plaza near the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake Temple.
Aune said LDS Church security guards approached after he put his arm around Jones and kissed his cheek. The couple was asked to leave. After they argued with the guards, the men said they were handcuffed and their pockets emptied. Salt Lake City Police later cited the two for trespassing.
Church officials have said the two were "politely asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior -- just as any other couple would have been. They became argumentative and used profanity and refused to leave the property."
When their story became public, Seed said, it "closely resembled a scab being pulled" from still-raw wounds over the city's controversial sale of the Main Street Plaza property to the church in the late 1990s. When the city also gave up an adjacent public easement in 2003, the entire plaza became private, allowing the church to ban any activities deemed inappropriate, from protesting to sunbathing.
Seed was opposed to the sale of the Main Street property to the LDS Church.
