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SALT LAKE CITY — A man at the heart of Utah's same-sex marriage case calls for civility on social media from both sides.
If you're on social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, you've likely run into less-than-civil comments that people from both sides are posting. After being saddened by some of what he'd seen, Moudi Sbeity posted a response, simply urging people on both sides to stop.
"I think it's important for us as a community to be respectful, because we want to be heard and understood and known as family friendly. We want to be known as civil citizens," said Moudi Sbeity, plaintiff in a same-sex marriage lawsuit in Utah.
Sbeity said he was disheartened at some of the comments he read on Facebook and Twitter.
"I just felt like I got tired of seeing those posts, and I really feel we need to stand united as a community in a very civil process," he said.
The negative comments have been popping up all along, but Moudi read some from the gay community after Governor Herbert's directive that the state of Utah would not be allowing same-sex marriage during the appeal process.
It prompted him to write his own Facebook post, saying in part that "It is not our position to correct them, nor is it our right to belittle them."
"If you direct a negative comment toward Governor Herbert saying ‘look at us, we're a family, we're normal just like everyone else,' and then some bad words here and there, that's going to nullify the message you're trying to send to him," Sbeity said. "If you direct negative comments toward a person, that's not a way to get them to listen to you, that will just push them away."
For both Sbeity and his partner Derek Kitchen, the issue of religion is especially sensitive. Kitchen's family belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are supportive of their relationship. The couple sees anti-Mormon comments as personal.
"These are people who go to church every Sunday and that believe in the teachings. And they still supported us and showed us love because they understand that if we get married, this will not devalue or ruin the fabric of their family," Sbeity said.
The couple sees what's happening now as just another step in this larger legal process of reaching an eventual Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. At this point, they said they're respecting that process.
"In the Amendment 3 case, this is a legal battle fought in the courts, and we need to respect the process that this goes through," Sbeity said.
