Y. prepared for marchers
Church minimized potential for clashes with gay demonstrators
No cars or pedestrians were allowed in or out, and church security officers stood behind the barricade as about two dozen gay Christians marched down Temple View Drive directly toward the MTC.
The group didn't cross 900 East to approach the MTC entrance. Instead, the marchers paid no attention to the building, the barricades or the security guards. An MTC security guard used a traffic box to secure a walk signal for the group, which turned south toward Brigham Young University.
The barricades, quickly removed by security, were a sign of extensive preparations made by BYU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to minimize the potential for confrontation and negative publicity surrounding the visit of the Soulforce Equality Riders.
Another was the decision to have BYU police officers wear suits and ties instead of uniforms, considered by some a public relations masterstroke. BYU knew the demonstrators would stage a "die-in," falling one at a time to the ground as if dead, and that officers would then inform them they were under arrest and escort them without handcuffs to a waiting, unmarked van.
"That's a pretty smart decision in my mind," said Laurie Wilson, who teaches public relations in BYU's communications department. "Things like this that happen at BYU have a real knack for getting into international news. Often all that gets into international news is the picture, not a balanced article with both sides represented, including BYU's. If you're going to have a picture viewed worldwide, you don't want a picture of a person lying on the ground with an armed police officer over them. You'd have people drawing their own conclusion that a police officer had knocked a student to the ground."
Wilson said some might fault BYU administrators for trying to manage the story.
"You may have people criticize that they were trying to spin the story, but so was Soulforce. They made it clear they wanted to be arrested."
The picture created a favorable image for one man who said his BYU student job in the early 1970s was as an undercover informant to help expose gays on campus. Joseph Morrow said it remains the "most regrettable and shameful actions of my life."
"I must congratulate the BYU security officers for their restrained, even kind treatment of the demonstrators," Morrow told the Deseret Morning News via e-mail on Wednesday. "That picture of the security officer kneeling next to one and talking was very impressive. Back in the 70s, that was not the case."
You can be the first to comment on this story.