Snaps & Slaps

SNAP: Sen. Scott McCoy

Utah’s only gay Senator was right on when he told California-bound Utah couples not to sue for marriage recognition at home. “Utah courts are not likely to lead out on marriage equality for Utah (nor, arguably, should they),” McCoy wrote in the June 21 issue of the Salt Lake Tribune. “Those first legal recognition battles will be fought elsewhere in more favorable venues.” Although Utah’s laws and constitutional amendment banning gay marriage are unjust, a quixotic courtroom charge isn’t the way to overturn them. Political activism and living authentic out lives, hand will, as McCoy said, go a long way to encouraging straight Utahns that “our marriages, when it really comes down to it, are just like theirs.”  

SLAP: LDS Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meets the back of our impeccably manicured hand not for being anti-gay, but for being stupid. On June 20, church leaders sent a letter to California bishops instructing the flock to get behind a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in the state. Calling heterosexual marriage “ordained of God,” LDS leaders concluded, “Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.” But secular marriage in the U.S. is not a “sacred institution.” A man and a woman can wed at the courthouse if they are divorced, members of different religions or any number of things that would bar them from being married in many houses of worship. Also, some churches, like the Metropolitan Community Church, married same-sex couples years before the practice became a national debate. Is their definition of this “sacred institution” just not sacred enough? The government will never be able to force the LDS Church to marry anyone, so why the waste of paper? Was something more charitable and sensible like “Our best efforts are required to make sure that people have adequate shelter housing and food” just too difficult to type?

SNAP: Café Marmalade

This elegant little café has brightened the Utah Pride Center for a year now, and our community is much better for its concerts, poetry slams and, of course, it’s gourmet food. Café Marmalade, we at QSaltLake bend our longest fingers to our thumbs in your honor. Happy birthday!