(Seattle, Washington) Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.

But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable.

The incident has exploded on local TV, on talk radio and in the blogosphere and has touched off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle.

"Certain individuals have not yet caught up. Those people see a gay or lesbian couple and they stare or say something," said Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington. "This is one of the challenges of being gay. Everyday things can become sources of trauma."

As the Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on May 26, Sirbrina Guerrero and her date were approached in the third inning by an usher who told them their kissing was inappropriate, Guerrero said.

The usher, Guerrero said, told them he had received a complaint from a woman nearby who said that there were kids in the crowd of nearly 36,000 and that parents would have to explain why two women were kissing.

"I was really just shocked," Guerrero said. "Seattle is so gay-friendly. There was a couple like seven rows ahead making out. We were just showing affection."

For Full article:

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/06/060508kiss.htm

Hmmmmm. And when a str8 couple kisses in the stands............................?

Dick

Personally, I think that an innocent kiss is one thing. But, people who make out heavily and grope each other in public places need to be escorted out of where they are if they're gay or straight. When they sober up, they usually agree with me.

Considering how purely sucky the Mariners have been this season, do they need yet ANOTHER reason to drive away fans?

On a related note, btween graduating, surgery and various other life entanglements, I attended the annual "Until There is A Cure Day" at the ballpark here in SF...lots of other gays, but one of the biggest shocks of my life occurred when between innings, they showed a montage of couples kissing on the giant Jumbotron scoreboard...and sure enough there was ME feeding a garlic fry to my date, kissing him, then pretending to "pass out" from his garlic breath!!!!! Fire engine red was my face at the mortification and embarrassment, but the crowd got a big kick out of it!

Only drawback was that the cameraman got me on my bad profile side....