Florida Agenda

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.”

PHOENIX, AZ –  A gay couple is furious after they were chastised by a hotel restaurant manager and told to “get a room” following a mutual kiss during an anniversary celebration. Last Sunday, Aeimee Diaz and her partner, Kenyata White, celebrated their two-year anniversary at the District American Kitchen and Wine Bar, which is located inside the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

“My partner and I were reminiscing,” White recalled to the Arizona Republic. The couple were seated “in one of the tall booths,” obscured from sight by other patrons at the restaurant, where White and Diaz, both 38, had originally met.

“I had my arm around her neck, and she had her hand around my waist. I gave her a hug for about a minute, pulled myself away to give her a quick kiss, and then we continued talking,” remembers White. At that point, the restaurant’s manager approached the couple, “and said we should get a room. That our behavior was inappropriate and we should leave the establishment,” reported White.

Diaz and White were angry at the rudeness and presumption of the manager, and reported the incident to the Sheraton Phoenix, where officials released a statement this week that read, in part: “At District American Kitchen and Wine Bar, we embrace diversity and are proud supporters of the LGBT community. We are taking this incident very seriously.

We have cultivated strong relationships with organizations dedicated to diversity. We have supported and we will continue to support many events that are specific to gay, lesbian and allied individuals. Additionally, we take pride in having a very diverse workplace–a workplace that offers benefits for domestic partners. Our restaurant is open for all to enjoy and we sincerely regret that this incident took place.”