Christians Hold Protest Outside Gay Nightclub in Utah
Prompt police response prevented impending trouble when a handful of anti-gay protesters picketed outside a Salt Lake City club at around 11:00 p.m. Friday. The protesters, numbering about 20, gathered on the sidewalk near Club Jam in the area of 750 north and 300 west.
The protestors had large signs and T-shirts with anti-gay messages including "Homosex is sin" and "Romans chapter one reads your sin of sodomy of sodomy is worthy of death." They also shouted anti-gay comments at people coming and going from the club.
Police assistance was summoned when the arguments between the protesters and club patrons became heated and confrontational. The cops said they received complaints about noise in the area. They added that the protestors were cooperative, and one of them stopped using the megaphone when politely asked.
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Shane Curtis, who lives across the street, said the protesters wanted a confrontation. "Some of them came out there and it looked like a tussle was going to ensue, and then like seven cop cars with red and blue lights rammed up and broke it up or else it probably would have gotten pretty physical," he said.
"For the most part, it's a religious group that is preaching against homosexuality," Lt. Scott Smalley described the picketers. Club owner Brandon Purser said he advised his employees against engaging the protesters even when they became hostile. There was an unusually high number of people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community that time for the Pride festivities which kicked off that night.
The merriment culminated with the 42nd annual Gay Pride parade that Sunday where an anti-gay group put on its own protest. About a dozen of them stood along the parade route holding signs condemning the LGBT community while chanting and yelling at the passing floats.
