After greeting cards celebrating same-sex marriage were stocked on the shelves of the Brigham Young University (BYU) bookstore Tuesday, they were promptly removed. An outside vendor had brought in the Hallmark cards, reading "Mr. and Mr." and "Mrs. and Mrs." unaware that these cards violated school policy of acknowledging same-gender relationships.
BYU is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the school's honor code states that although being gay is not necessarily a violation, acting on those feelings is prohibited.
The university has a contract with Hallmark, a greeting card company that has been ahead of the curve in terms of putting out cards celebrating same-sex unions. Hallmark was the first to release cards when marriage equality first came to California in 2008. The company also expanded its Mother's Day and Father's Day collections this year to include families with two moms or two dads.
BYU spoke to Hallmark about the cards and the company agreed to leave cards like this off of university store shelves in the future.