Hallmark cards celebrating the
marriages of gay and lesbian couples were removed from the shelves of
the Brigham Young University (BYU) bookstore on Tuesday.
After an image of the cards, which read
“Mr. and Mr.” and “Mrs. and Mrs.,” being sold inside the BYU
Store was posted online, staff members quickly removed the cards.
The BYU Store responded to an item
about the cards in ProvoBuzz.com:
“Thanks for letting us know! Hallmark stocks the shelves and
sometimes they get by us.”
Carri Jenkins, a spokeswoman for BYU,
referred the
AP to the school's honor code, which prohibits “all forms of
physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings,”
when asked why the cards were removed.
BYU is owned by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), which is opposed to
marriage equality and worked for passage of Proposition 8,
California's now-defunct constitutional amendment that excluded gay
couples from marriage.