The protests against California’s Proposition 8 – the voter-passed measure which sought to overturn a state Supreme Court decision in favor of same sex marriage – which spread around the country on Saturday were no big surprise in many places. Large rallies in Seattle and Portland – local officials (including Portland’s gay mayor-elect) even lending their support – were pretty much what you’d expect. But another regional story jumped out:

The Idaho Falls Post-Register (the story is behind a pay wall) reports today that on Saturday, “Roughly 50 people gathered in front of the Bonneville County Courthouse with signs such as ‘Say No to Hate,’ ‘Hate is not a family value’ and ‘What if your children grow up to be gay?’”

They did not specifically take aim at the LDS Church, key members of which were central in the push to pass Prop 8. Or the array of local community leaders who sent the big bucks to California to support its passage. (The Post Register reports that $100,000 came from the prominent VanderSloot family, among about 50 area residents who sent in $1,000 or more each.) But their visible presence on the street, in Idaho Falls, had to come as something of a shock.