CHICAGO, IL – A kiss by two gay men briefly interrupted a rally in support of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Friday night held at a Christian school in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.

While Santorum addressed the crowd at Christian Liberty Academy, two men in the back of the auditorium stood up and started yelling, “Mic check, Mr. Santorum!” in the fashion of the Occupy movement. Once they had the assembly’s attention, the couple castigated the former Pennsylvania senator for his stance on LGBT rights.

“This will never be an equal country for families –” they began, but feeling the crowd of 2,000 people’s attention slipping away, the two men—identified in the Palatine Patch, a local newspaper, as Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford- -embraced in a prolonged kiss that lasted for at least five seconds.

Thus provoked, the crowd began to chant “USA! USA!” as security escorted the men out of the facility.

Tross said their kiss was neither a symbolic gesture nor a pure display of affection. “I don’t think the message should be about what my sexuality is.

It’s the message that [Santorum] is saying about sexuality that matters.”

DES MOINES, IA – The state capital was awash in same-sex marriage events this week, and both sides were wellrepresented. On Tuesday, the Family Leader, a conservative Christian organization, held a rally in the Capitol Rotunda which was meant to convince the state Senate’s Democratic leaders to allow a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit marriage equality.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the Hawkeye State, after a 2009 state Supreme Court decision invalidated a state law barring such marriages. Since then, conservatives attempted to write a ban into the state constitution. Iowa’s Republican-led House approved such an amendment last year, but it has stalled in the state Senate. A constitutional amendment requires lawmaker approval of the proposed amendment in consecutive legislative sessions before it is then put to popular referendum.

One Iowa, an organization that advocates marriage equality, likewise held a rally on Tuesday, which featured speakers in support of same-sex marriage, including members of Iowa Republicans for Freedom, a GOP group that favors marriage equality, and the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.

As reported by MSNBC, Bill Browning, editor-in-chief of The Bilerico Project said that as the holiday approach, the Salvation Army bell ringers are in front of stores asking shoppers for donations. He went on to say that if a LGBT person cares about equal rights, they will skip making a donation to the Salvation Army and make a donation to a charity that doesn’t discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network told MSNBC that the organization is urging a boycott of the Salvation Army because it uses its selective interpretation of the Bible to promote discrimination against LGBT people in employment benefits and leadership positions.

The Salvation Army, a charitable evangelical Christian organization that provides aid and services to the needy, denies that it discriminates against anyone.

Lt. Col Ralph Bukiewicz, a divisional commander of the Salvation Army said that nothing could be further from the truth and that the Salvation Army does not determine eligibility for any service within the agency on a person’s sexual orientation and that they don’t even ask for that information.

Gay-rights advocates contend the organization has a history of lobbying for anti-gay policies and legislation. Browing said that in 2004 the Salvation Army threatened to close all their soup kitchens for the homeless in New York to protest the city’s decision to require vendors and charities doing business with the city to adhere to the state’s civil rights laws forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation.