This Day In Gay Utah History January 11th
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| Alexander Hamilton |
1866 - Brigham Young, Jr. writes in his diary that "a nigger" is found dead in Salt Lake City with this note pinned to the corpse: "Let this be a warning to all niggers that they meddle not with white women."
1978 Wednesday Paul Lynde, comedian of Hollywood Squares and weekly guest of The
Donny and Marie Show taped in Orem, was busted outside the Sun Tavern in Salt Lake City, Utah for interfering with a police officer; but a charge of public intoxication was dismissed. The incident caused Lynde to lose his position on the Donny and Marie Show. Officer Scott Candland who had answered a
vehicle vandalism call at 51 South 400 West arrested Lynde after he began complaining to Officer Candland that he needed a different case investigated. He told police thieves had stolen his brief case from his black Cadillac limousine. The television comedian spent about 3 hours in Salt Lake City jail before posting $50 bond. The attorney for television comedian Paul Lynde pleaded innocent for his client after Lynde ‘s arrest for interfering with police officers. Lynde stood trial January 30 before Judge Grant. (SLTribune 01/12/78 page 14 A) Willy Marshall to Connell O’Donovan-Subject: Re: Paul Lynde in Slick City Hey Connell! Are you back in Utah, or still in Santa Cruz? I used to be a records clerk at
the SLC Police Department from 1980 to 1985. I remember looking up the file on Paul Lynde's arrest. What I remember is this: He was at the original Sun Tavern, and his car was broken into, along with several others. The police came and Paul got impatient that things weren't moving fast enough, or that he wasn't being waited on first. He was quoted as saying something like "Don't you know who I am?! I'm a big star!" The officer warned him to back off and then arrested him because he kept insisting. He was booked into the SL County Jail and gave Olive Osmond as the person to contact. Arrest records are public information, as to the date and so on. One should be able to find out the date just by asking at the jail. I don't know what more info they will provide though. Willy [Utah Stonewall Historical Society Aug 13, 2004]
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| Paul Lynde |
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| Marie and Donny Osmond |
- Brandon Burt Wrote PAUL LYNDE ARREST INFO LOL. Well, I was 10 years old at the time, and I guess I just wasn't watching the news that week. I'm pretty sure now that I had heard something about it, but I kept getting it mixed up with stories about other gay celebrities like Allen Ginsberg getting accidentally knocked over by Lou McDonough at Radio City. Stuff like that. I was doing some research about Paul Lynde and about Charles Nelson Reilly (who I'm happy to say is still alive!) and on one of Lynde's bio pages it mentioned a 1978 arrest "outside a Salt Lake City gay bar" but didn't give any details. It's hard to imagine how that cop couldn't have known he was dealing with PAUL LYNDE for god's sake ... of course he was drunk and belligerent. That's his entire charm! Silly cop. Hmm, the Osmunds fired him because they realized just then that he was gay? LOL. I suppose before that they just thought he was "talented." Now of course the bio does describe Lynde's death scene: lying dead from a heart attack with a bottle of poppers in his hand. The young man he had been fucking apparently high tailed it out of there when he keeled over. Poor Paul. I miss our long talks; we'll have to have more! XOXOX Brandon
- His Hollywood Squares responses are classics! I also liked this one, which wasn't in the rotten.com bio: MARSHALL: What are "dual purpose" cattle good for that other cattle aren't? LYNDE: They give milk and cookies... but I don't recommend the cookies.
1984-The Wall St. Journal gave writers the okay to use the word "gay" instead of "homosexual."
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| Clair Harward |
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| Bruce Barton |
1987-Ted and Debbie Fairchild spoke at Wasatch Affirmation at the 1st Unitarian Church in SLC about their relationship and the break up of their marriage with about 60 people in attendance. Debbie Fairchild would go on to found a support group in Utah County for women married to or divorce from Gay men.
1988 Wasatch Leather Men’s monthly meeting was held at Your Place or Mine club, 557 South 3rd west in Salt Lake City.
1988- Monday- First meeting of the Steering Committee of The Names Project Utah was
held. Committee comprised of four Gay men and three
Lesbians. The name of the organization changed to the Utah AIDS Commemorative Quilt Project. Committee wanted to have the quilt finished for display at Gay Pride Day “ had to get ready for the steering committee tonight. I bought some donuts and punch and made coffee. The meeting started at 8 p.m. and in attendance were John Bennett, Ben Barr, Bruce Harmon, Terry Thompson and myself. Barbara Stockton called and said she was ill but wanted to be included on the steering committee. Barbara said she wanted to do a panel for Mark LaBoa. John Bennett wanted to do a
panel for Michael Spense and Frank Godinez. Terry Thompson
said she and Laura Ferreira wants to do one each for Miles Jones and Allen Lovells. Tonight we set a date for the fund raiser for the quilt. It will be Saturday the 13th of February. We talked about printing tickets, posters, flyers, getting a written agreement from the water slide, advertising in Triangle and on KRCL, and ticket distribution. Bruce Harmon is going to come up with a statement of policy for the project so Terry Thompson can work on the articles of Incorporation. We have changed our name from The Names Project Utah to The Utah AIDS Commemorative Quilt Project. Some felt that the name Names Project Utah would be to confusing with AIDS Project Utah. The new name is more descriptive. We decided to keep a loose working relation ship with San Francisco’s The Names Project but concentrate on working within Utah. We discussed presenting the Utah Folk Art Foundation with a concrete proposal for some grant money and to talk to Babs DeLay who is with the Utah Arts Festival. Bruce Harmon is going to approach David Sharpton and the LDS Social Services about involving LDS Relief Society in this project, and perhaps Carol Lynn Pearson. We decided to meet again on Monday the 25th and to have by then a statement of purpose and to have an attorney’s opinion regarding the legal ramifications about not getting waivers from the families of the AIDS fatalities for whom we want to design quilt panels. We discussed having the quilt on tour through out the state and about having it displayed at Gay Pride Day, The Arts Festival, and at Liberty Park’s Neighborhood Fair. I am just excited about the possibilities of this really happening and becoming a healing process for those who have lost loved ones.[1988 Journal of Ben Williams]
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| John Bennett |
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| Ben Barr |
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| Bruce Harmon |
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| Ben Williams |
1992 l Page: A1 By Nancy Hobbs Salt Lake Tribune UTAH WOMEN LEARN HOW TO DO HOME ABORTIONS Utah women are learning how to perform home abortions, anticipating the day when abortion is no longer legal. ``Women are going to continue having abortions. If it becomes illegal, women are going to become outlaws,'' says Lucy
Malin, Salt Lake coordinator of the National Organization for Women in Utah. ``We will do our best to make home abortions as safe and as available as possible.'' The U.S. Supreme Court is contemplating an appeal that could overturn Roe vs. Wade. That 1973 case legalized abortion on demand nationwide as an issue of privacy. The home-abortion technique, called menstrual extraction, can be done with a canning jar, syringe, plastic tubing and an inexpensive medical instrument. About 50 people attended the Salt Lake Chapter NOW meeting this week to learn the procedure. Patty Reagan, health-information professor at the University of Utah, explained
the procedure and warned of potential dangers if not performed correctly. Several members of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum were among those in attendance. Forum President Gayle Ruzicka said she is ``absolutely appalled'' by the suggestion that women perform abortions on themselves. ``I'm a lot more naive than I thought,'' she said of the professor's candor and of suggestions that medical instruments used in the procedure would become available on the black market, if necessary. Right to Life of Utah President Rosa Goodnight, who also attended the ``eye-opening'' meeting, accused its organizers of promoting the back-alley abortions that they've been warning the public about. ``They are putting women in jeopardy with their tactics rather than vice versa,'' Mrs. Goodnight said. Menstrual extraction was popularized in the 1970s as a way to extract monthly menses in 20 or 30 minutes rather than endure discomfort and over several days. A cannula, or tube, is used to drain the uterus lining. As an abortion technique, menstrual extraction is effective in the first three months of pregnancy. NOW does not promote menstrual extraction as a means of terminating a pregnancy, said Rebecca Elliott, Utah NOW executive coordinator. Its interest is in disseminating information to women in preparation for the reversal of Roe vs. Wade.
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| Luci Malin |
- 1992 Because the U.S. Supreme Court was contemplating an appeal that could overturn Roe vs. Wade, Luci Malin, Salt Lake coordinator of the National Organization for Women in Utah made the statement, ``Women are going to continue having abortions. If it becomes illegal, women are going to become outlaws. We will do our best to make home abortions as safe and as available as possible.''
1993-The first of three trials began to determine the constitutionality of Colorado's Amendment 2, which sought to ban gay rights laws in Colorado.
1995- Wednesday, A YEAR IN JAIL IS SENTENCE IN ATTACK ON GAYS Associated Press A man who attacked two lesbians has been sentenced to one year in jail. "I've followed exactly Adult Probation and Parole's recommendations," 3rd District Judge David S. Young said Monday in sentencing Gilberto Arredondo. Young came under fire last year from gay-rights groups after sentencing the killer of a gay man to zero to six years in prison. The National Organization for Women has accused Young of being biased against women. Victim advocate Antonia de la Guerra acknowledged that Young "went by the book" in sentencing Arredondo, but she fears sending Arredondo to jail instead of prison is sending the wrong message. "I hope it doesn't say it's OK to go gay-bashing on Saturday night," de la Guerra said. Arredondo, 44, was the first person in Salt Lake County to be
charged with violating Utah's hate-crime law. However, the 1992 statute covers only racial, ethnic and religious bias and prosecutors ultimately allowed Arredondo to plead guilty to aggravated assault and assault charges. The gay community hopes lawmakers will pass a stricter hate-crime law this year. During the Monday sentencing hearing, the judge chastised Arredondo for his violent temper and alcohol problem. "There is no excuse for this kind of anger, bitterness and resentment," the judge said. In addition to the jail time and fines, the judge ordered Arredondo to complete during a 36-monthprobation period an in-patient alcohol abuse program and behavioral courses. © 1998 Deseret News Publishing Co.
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| Gilberto Arredondo |
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| Kelly Atkinson |
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| David Nelson & Vice President |
- January 11, 1995 The Salt Lake Tribune Column By Democratic Whip Inflames Gay-Rights Groups By Dan Harrie A gay-rights group is calling for the Utah Democratic Party to censure House Minority Whip Kelly Atkinson over comments it claims are demeaning and offensive to homosexuals. "We expect the state party to issue some sort of censuring action," said Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats founder and spokesman David Nelson. "He's inflaming a very strong and loyal part of his party." Nelson referred to comments Atkinson, D-West Jordan, made in a political column last week in The Deseret News. Atkinson is quoted as saying most Democratic legislators are "probably anti-gay rights." He goes on to say that "special interest groups . . . can't define the party any longer." Gay rights and pro-choice issues are "really fringe issues. They come to the forefront only occasionally," Atkinson was quoted as saying. In an interview Tuesday, Atkinson confirmed he had made the statements. He said he was sorry for implying that gays are a "fringe" group in the party. But Atkinson stood by his main premise that Democrats in Utah need to stick with their core constituency of middle-class workers by addressing tax fairness and other mainstream issues. "Our central message has been lost because Republicans have been very successful in defining us by our special interests rather than our central interests," Atkinson said. "If I'm homophobic and want homosexuals out of the party, why am I saying gays and others will always be welcome?" Atkinson said. "The Democratic Party always stands for inclusion." Nelson told Atkinson the group's attorney was "checking the quotes as they appeared in The Deseret News for any possible liable or slander action." Nelson said unless Atkinson issued a full retraction and apology, or the party censured the legislator failing a retraction, Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats would stage a large demonstration at the party's central committee meeting this weekend. He also warned that failure to patch things over could mean the party's loss of support from the 200-member organization that raised more than $25,000 in the last election for Democrats. January 13, 1995 Deseret News Gay Demos won't stage protest Group accepts lawmaker's explanation for using words "fringe groups." By Bob Bernick Jr., Staff Writer Utah Gay and Lesbian Democrats will not protest as planned before a party central committee meeting this weekend. They accept House Minority Whip Kelly Atkinson's explanation of statements he made in a recent Deseret News political column. Atkinson, as reported previously by the Deseret News, said he regretted the use of the work "fringe" in talking about groups - such as homosexual Democrats - and their impact on the state party. He added that he didn't mean to imply, and didn't think he did imply, that Gay and Lesbian Democrats were anti-family. Gay and Lesbian Democrat founder David Nelson threatened to sue him, Atkinson said earlier this week, over statements Atkinson made in the column. But apparently all has been forgiven. Nelson wrote in a press release Friday: "Gay and Lesbian Utahns understand that our issues haven't been and should never be the single issue that this party addresses. I'm pleased that Rep. Atkinson has looked beyond that fact and recognized that our issues and our work should be valued by the party. We look forward to working with him for a successful party this year and a successful election next year." Originally, Nelson demanded that the central committee censure Atkinson or Gay and Lesbian Democrats would demonstrate at its next committee meeting. But state party Chairman Dave Jones said no one had ever been "censured" by the state party, he didn't know what that meant, and that Atkinson wasn't speaking for the party in any case - just as an individual - so the central committee had no action to take. Atkinson said he stood be his statements in the column, which appeared January 6, and would continue to speak out on how he believes the Utah Democratic Party must change its image. However, he did regret the use of the wording "fringe groups" in talking about a variety of "single issue" groups active in the party.
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1997 Saturday, GAY ALLIANCE RENTS SPACE AT EAST HIGH FOR MEETINGS State board considering new policy to allow such clubs to form at schools. Associated Press Despite efforts of the Legislature, the governor and the Salt Lake City Board of Education, the East High School Gay-Straight Alliance meets at the school. Last spring, the district school board banned all clubs not related to school curriculum to prevent the alliance from meeting. Yet there they were after school Thursday, meeting in classroom 308-A, talking, confiding and supporting one another. "We are still meeting because we are a well-spun support system, and we need each other," said alliance member Julia Sartain. The Utah Board of Education is considering a new policy that could ultimately allow gay clubs to form as part of approved public-schools activities. Officials from the state Office of Education believe the new policy would be a good compromise. It meets the requirements of the federal Equal Access Act while adhering to the law passed by the 1996 Legislature in a special session called by the governor that gives school boards authority to forbid clubs that "materially or substantially encourage criminal or delinquent conduct, promote bigotry or involve human sexuality." Meanwhile, under the state's Civic Center Act, any group can rent space from a public school after hours. The Salt Lake City School District Cottonwood High School
1998- 11 January 1998-Sunday- Councilwoman Deeda Seed wrote: Gay and lesbian
citizens of the United States, Utah and Salt Lake City suffer discrimination and have since the founding of the Republic. To deny this would be to deny that other long-suffering minorities also have been discriminated against in this country. It is not optional, but imperative, that government leads the way in openly identifying and honestly recognizing any group of people who are obvious, undeniable targets of discriminatory and hateful behavior in a society that is governed by the words found in the United States Constitution. Salt Lake City 's Anti-Discrimination Ordinance already contained specific language aimed at protecting groups of people who have been the historic victims of discrimination in this country. Therefore, members of racial minorities, various religions, people of different ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities and people who would face discrimination because of their gender were already singled out for special status by Salt Lake City . It is irrefutable that people within those categories have been the main targets of discrimination in American life. However, even a cursory examination would disclose the obvious omission in the language of the ordinance was mention of ``sexual orientation.'' Anyone who has ever listened to a stinging array of on-the-job jokes and comments about ``homosexuals,'' ``queers,'' etc., knows that such an under current of bigotry presents an ominous threat to any person, declared or undeclared, who does not adhere to a ``heterosexual'' lifestyle. Beyond it being an ominous threat, it is well-documented that many career paths have been denied to people who were merely suspected of homosexual behavior. Much of the most violent discriminatory conduct toward gay and lesbian people in this country has been fostered in the name of` `religion,'' with ``morals'' as the justification for this behavior. This is blatantly illegal under the U.S. Constitution and is a compelling example of why the Constitution's authors insisted that the Republic be operated by a government free of the strictures of any organized religion, lest the moral code of any one religion result in the denial of rights bestowed upon all Americans regardless of their backgrounds. That is why I find the current episode surrounding the passage and impending repeal of language that added ``sexual orientation'' to the Salt Lake City Anti-Discrimination Ordinance profoundly sad. When I followed through on a campaign promise to do my best to protect from discrimination members of a group that long has been the target of blatant discrimination, I did it because it was the right thing to do, the legal thing to do. When, in December, the City Council voted 5-2 to prevent an employee's ``sexual orientation'' from being a factor in personnel decisions, council members did the right thing, according to the U.S. Constitution, the very document we swore to uphold when we took office. In addition, the outgoing members sent the right message to people of the city, state, country and, as hosts of the 2002 Olympics, the world. That message was clear: Salt Lake City stands for individual human rights, without equivocation, for all people within its borders. This is precisely the kind of message Utah needs to continue sending in 1998. After decades during which Salt Lake City and Utah have been subject to unflattering misconceptions concerning matters of individual choice, it is time to be clear and firm about where we stand when it comes to upholding the law, keeping a distinctive line between church and state and respecting each other as human beings No amount of quibbling over ``process'' can disguise that attempts to repeal the city's amended Anti-Discrimination Ordinance are driven by a sense of morality, not politics. That two words -- ``sexual orientation'' – inserted into a municipal ordinance declaring on what basis discrimination in city employment will not be tolerated have created such furor among council members is proof of the obvious. And if the repeal effort succeeds, the obvious will be reported far and wide -- accurately or not – as an example of local attitudes -- bigoted at the worst, insensitive at the least. Even as people should not be discriminated against by government because of religious beliefs, religious beliefs should not shape government policy so as to prevent protection for those apt to be singled out for illegal and immoral discrimination. Not certainly in a society governed by a basic document -- the U.S. Constitution -- which commands this must not be allowed. Deeda Seed is a Salt Lake City Council member representing District 4. 01/11/1998 Salt Lake
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| Deeda Seed |
1998- Sunday- Spanish Fork teacher Wendy Weaver, a lesbian, may have the American
Civil Liberties Union to back up her free-speech case, but the lawsuit opposing her has God on its side, according to the attorney for Weaver's angry accusers. ``Miss Weaver may win her federal lawsuit,'' said Matt Hilton, a Utah County Salt Lake City . ``The hysteria and small-mindedness that
this [Utah County Spanish Fork High School gym and psychology teacher, is suing the Nebo School District Spanish Fork High School parents and other Utah County
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| Matt Hilton |
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| Rick Van Wagoner |
1998 The Salt Lake Tribune How Gay, Lesbian Politics Came Out of Closet in Utah By Paul Rolly Utah's gay and lesbian community began stepping out of the closet and flexing its political muscle in the mid-1980s. One of the state's few Democratic legislators, Ted Lewis, who represented Salt Lake City's west side neighborhoods, was a respected, conservative Democrat. He was an attorney, an astute student of the legislative process who sided with LDS Church positions on moral issues, including opposing gay-rights issues. He was defeated for re-election in the Salt Lake County Democratic convention by a political newcomer, Pete Suazo, in a political upset for which the Gay and Lesbian Utah
Democrats (GLUD) took credit. Afterward, GLUD began organizing in more neighborhood mass meetings, electing more delegates to county and state Democratic conventions and pressuring legislative forums and local government commissions and councils to begin recognizing the gay community as a political player. Long before a few students at East High School turned Utah's political landscape on its ear because they wanted to form a gay club, GLUD leader David Nelson earned a place at the table in Democratic Party strategy meetings. Republicans jumped in with the establishment of a Utah Chapter of the national Log Cabin Club. Bruce Bastian, millionaire co-founder of WordPerfect, supported the fledgling movement by opening his impressive checkbook. Endorsements by the gay and lesbian community were a blessing and a curse. Their organization was such that they made a difference in Democratic Party conventions. Their money was welcome. But their endorsements were a feared kiss of death in morally conservative Utah. Indeed, the Utah Democratic Party faced a perceived crisis in 1986 when the late Scott Matheson, one year removed from the state's governorship, chaired the newly formed National Democratic Party Policy Commission, an organization designed to hold forums throughout the United States on selected issues and write a platform statement to be used as sort of a road map for future Democratic candidates. Matheson was to chair a Family Values forum in none other than Salt Lake City, capital of a state that boasts of being the family values capital of the world. But in Washington, D.C., where the political money changers held court, the gay and lesbian organizations were pressing to have a representative on the panel. The crisis: Democrats would either have to offend the gays and risk losing candidate donations by denying them a place at the table, or offend the moderate and conservative groups they were trying to attract by giving gays and lesbians an equal voice in family-values discussions. Image won out over money. The gays and lesbians had no representative on the panel, but it was a gut-grinding decision for the Democrats. When Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Rich McKeown was endorsed by GLUD in the 1995 race, someone photocopied a Salt Lake Tribune story about GLUD's endorsement and McKeown's support of a gay-civil-rights ordinance. The copies were placed on the windshields of cars in LDS Church parking lots the Sunday before the election. McKeown, himself an active Mormon, lost to incumbent Deedee Corradini by a mere 500 votes. Less known was the fact that Corradini had been given $25,000 for her campaign by Bastian. The Utah gay and lesbian political machine hit its stride in 1997 when Jackie Biskupski, who is openly lesbian, was one of the two primary election winners in the District 5 Salt Lake City Council race, and the Salt Lake City Council passed an ordinance that specifically protected the rights of gays and lesbians in the workplace. But like any political group, the more successful and larger it becomes, the more factionalized its members become. GLUD was backing Biskupski. But the Human Rights Coalition, another gay and lesbian rights advocacy group, backed another candidate, Claudia O'Grady. When O'Grady lost, the Human Rights Coalition, instead of backing Biskupski, worked for the election of Roger Thompson, also a Democrat who remained prudently silent on the gay-lesbian workplace rights issue. That election caused a split in the gay-lesbian community. The leadership of GLUD eventually resigned, leaving that organization seemingly dormant. Thompson beat Biskupski by a few dozen votes and then tipped his hand in the first meeting of the new council. He will vote with three others to repeal the gay rights ordinance that was passed in December. ET TU BRUTE?
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| Pete Suazo |
1999 Monday Ida Underwood Stoker, 65, died Monday, January 11, 1999 at Ogden Regional Medical Center Salt Lake City , a daughter of Forest Ivan and Nellie Alfreda Stanley Underwood. At the age of 12, she moved to Clearfield . Ida was active in high school and was elected Prom Queen and Rodeo Queen. She graduated from Davis High School Ogden Canyon
2002 Half of Royal Navy Was Gay The Admiralty, terrified that rampant homosexuality in the Royal Navy would be used as a basis for subversion and blackmail, launched a repressive policy in the 1960s to rid the institution of homosexuality after a report claimed that half of the sailors had had homosexual sexual relations, according to documents released by the Public Records Office on Wednesday. In 1969, a great number of photographs showing Royal navy servicemen and their ships indulging in gay sexual relationships were found in Bermuda , where up to 400 sailors had been involved in acts of “gross indecency”. Elsewhere, it was revealed that many British sailors on leave in Singapore had been tricked by transvestites into having sexual relations when they were drunk. Admiral Sir John Bush, Commander-in-Chief of the Western Fleet, claimed in November 1969, that “there is, regrettably, ample evidence that homosexual practices are rife in the Fleet” from the MacIntyre Report, issued in 1968, which claimed that a “considerable” number of men had indulged in homosexual practices, and that “on the security side there are many difficulties” since it was feared that a sailor who wanted to keep his tendencies hidden, would be more open to blackmail. It seems that Winston Churchill’s description of the Royal Navy as “rum, sodomy and the lash” was far from being untrue. John ASHTEAD PRAVDA.Ru London United Kingdom
2004 SL Tribune Gender, sexual identity complicate AIDS education among American Indians By Judy Nichols Gannett News Service In most of the world, gender is an either-or option. You're either male or female. In American Indian and other indigenous societies, the issue is not so clear. That makes it more complicated for AIDS workers who try to advocate safer sex; men who don't label themselves "Gay" won't connect with the education materials distributed in the white world. Part of the difference is terminology and part is attitude, said Wesley Thomas, a Navajo who is an assistant professor of anthropology and international studies at the University of Indiana. He is also co-editor of the book, Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. American Indians are flexible about letting people choose gender roles -- social roles rather than biological identity -- not always based on their sexual identity, Thomas said. "The Western perspective is a binary gender class," Thomas said. "You're either a man or a woman. It's so inflexible; it's static. Native Americans have more flexibility." In this world of movable gender lines, the label "Gay"for men who have sex with men doesn't always fit. If a man has sex with a male who presents himself to the world as a female, he may not call himself Gay. For a party on National Coming Out Day in October, Mattee Jim dressed in the long-sleeved velvet top and tiered skirt worn by Navajo women on special occasions. Jim, 31, was born male, but it didn't seem to fit. Friends use the female pronoun to describe Jim, who is biologically male but presents herself to the world as a woman. "It's all labels," Jim said. "I'm first and foremost Navajo. I'm just me." She said men who sleep with transgenders like her often don't call themselves Gay. Sometimes they're married. And they're having sex with someone who presents themselves as a woman. "These men are at great risk for getting infected with HIV and can carry HIV home to their wives," said Jim, who works with the Navajo AIDS Network. "It's hard to work with them. They don't identify as Gay. They're not visibly out." Thomas, who is working on a book on Navajo gender identities, said that historically many tribes accepted and revered hermaphrodites, people with ambiguous or both male and female sex organs. "Some placed them on pedestals, most had important roles within the tribe," Thomas said. "What they gave to the community took precedence over who they were sleeping with." There were also people whose sex was not in dispute, but who took on both gender roles. "Each tribe had tribal names for people who occupied these roles," Thomas said. "The roles were created in the creation story, and identities evolved out of tribal religions. So many of these people functioned in religious roles, as medicine men or medicine women." In the 1950s and '60s, as Indians relocated to urban areas, many sought out urban gay and lesbian communities. But feeling they didn't fit in, they searched for a place somewhere between the reservation and the urban Gay community. Today, they use a new term for themselves: two-spirits. "The term cannot be translated into any Native language," Thomas said. Homosexuality and Native Americans Native societies were highly polarized along sexual-gendered lines with a strict sexual division of labor seemingly common among all Native Americans. While Cultural Anthropologists generally affirm the sub-ordinate position of women in Native American cultures, there have never been any extensive studies on the role of the homosexual in Indian society. Nevertheless four fairly definitive studies here mentioned are considered the best for insights into the world of the homosexual Native Americans. One of the earliest works detailing samesex love among the Indians is found in The Origin and development of Moral Ideas (1908),by Edward Westermarck. Westermarck's work contains a chapter on "Homosexual Love" with numerous primary references to Native American Homosexuality. This pioneer study was followed by Edward Carpenter's Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk; A study In Social Evolution (1914). Carpenter was a prominent authority on homosexual behavior and a Gay man himself. These last two works are the most recent studies, The Status of the Hermaphrodite and Transvestite in Navaho Culture (1935) by W.W. Hill and The Institution of the Berdache Among the North American Plains Indians (1975) by Donald Forgey. Gay historian Jonathan Katz succinctly states that from our study of Lambda American Indian history "one fact that emerges clearly here is, the Christianization of Native Americans and the colonial appropriation of the continent by White, Western 'civilization', included the attempt by the conquerors to eliminate various traditional forms of Indian Homosexuality-as part of their attempt to destroy Native culture which might fuel resistance-a form of cultural genocide, involving both Native American and Gay people. Today the recovery of the history of Native people's homosexuality is a task in which both Gay and Native peoples have a common interest." SAMPLING DATA: 1528-1536:Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Spanish Explorer commenting on the Indians of Florida: "During the time that I was thus among these people I saw a devilish thing, and it is that I saw one man married to another, and these are impotent, effeminate men (amarionados) and they go about dressed as women, and do women tasks, and shoot with a bow and carry great burdens and they are huskier than other men." 1540: Hernando de Alarcon, Spanish Explorer commenting on Indians of California: "There were among these Indians three or four men in women's apparel." 1562-1567: Capt. Rene Goulaine De Laudonniere, French Explorer's observations of Florida Indians: "There are in all this country many hermaphrodites, which take all the greatest pain and bear the victuals when they go to war." 1564: Jacque Le Moyne De Morgues, French artist's memoirs and sketches of Florida Indians: Hermaphrodites, partaking of the nature of each sex, are quite common in these parts, and are considered odious by the Indians themselves, who however, employ them, as they are strong, instead of beasts of burden. When a chief goes to war, the hermaphrodites carry the provisions. When any Indian is dead of wounds or disease, two hermaphrodites take a couple of stout poles, fasten cross pieces on them, and attach to these a mat of woven of reeds. On these they take the deceased... Then the hermaphrodites take thongs of hides three or four fingers broad, fasten the ends to the ends of the poles, and put the middle piece over their heads, which are remarkably hard; and in this manner they carry the deceased to the place of burial. Persons having contagious diseases are also carried to places appointed for the purpose, on the shoulders of the hermaphrodites, who supply those ill with food, and take care of them until they get quite well again." 1595-1616: The Confessions asked by Fra Francisco de Pareja, missionary to the Timucuan Indians of northern Florida: "For Lesbians- "Woman with woman, have you acted as if you were a man?" "By Chance have you had intercourse as if you were a man?" For Sodomites: Have you had intercourse with another man? Or have you gone around trying out or making fun in order to do that? For Boys That Are In the Custom of Doing This: Has someone been investigating you from behind? Did you consummate the act?" 1673-77: Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, French explorer commenting on the Illinois Nation: "I know not through what superstition some Illinois, as well as some Nadouessi, while still young, assume the garb of women, and retain it throughout their lives. There is some mystery in this, for they never marry and glorying in demeaning themselves to do everything that the women do. They go to war, however but can use only clubs, and not bows and arrows, which are the weapons of proper men. They are present at all the juggleries, and at the solemn dances in honor of the Calumet; at these they sing, but must not dance. They are summoned to their councils, and nothing can be decided without their advice. Finally, through their profession of leading an extraordinary life, they pass for Manitous- That is to say for Spirits-or persons of Consequence." 1702: Pierre Liette's memoirs of the Miami Indians of the Chicago River in Illinois: "The sin of sodomy prevails more among them than in any other nation, although there are four women to one man. It is true that the women although debauched, retain some moderation, which prevents the young men from satisfying their passions as much as they would like. There are men who are bred for this purpose from their childhood. When they are seen frequently picking up the spade, the spindle, the axe, but making no use of the bow and arrows, as all the other boys do, they are girt with a piece of leather or cloth which envelopes them from the belt to the knee, a thing all the women wear. Their hair is allowed to grow and is fastened behind the head. They also wear a little skin strap like a shoulder strap passing under the arm on one side and tied over the shoulder on the other. They are tattooed on their cheeks like the women and also on the breast and the arms and they imitate their accent, which is different from that of the men. They omit nothing that can make them like the women. There are men sufficiently imbruted to have dealings with them on the same footing." 1711-1717: Customs of the American Savages, Compared with the Customs of Ancient Times- by Joseph Francois LaFitau-Jesuit Missionary in French Canada concerning the Illinois, Sioux, and Yucatan Indians: "If there were women with manly courage who prided themselves upon the profession of warrior which seems to become men alone, there were also men cowardly enough to live as women. Among the Illinois, among the Sioux, in Louisiana, in Florida, and in Yucatan, there are young men who adopt the garb of women, and keep it all their lives. They believe they are honored by debasing themselves to all the women occupations; they never marry, they participate in all religious ceremonies and this profession of an extraordinary life causes them to be regarded as people of a higher order, and above the common man. The view of these men dressed as women surprised the Europeans who first encountered them in America; as they did not first guess the motives of this species of metamorphous, they were convinced that these were people in whom the two sexes were confounded. To be sure our old Relations called them no other then hermaphrodites. Although the religious spirit which made them embrace this state causes them to be regarded as extraordinary human being, they never the less are really fallen, among the savages themselves, into the contempt into which the priests of Venus Urania and Cybele were held of old. Whether they effectively attracted this contempt upon them selves to shameful passions, or because the ignorance of Europeans as to the causes of their condition caused shameful suspicions to fall upon them, these suspicions so entered into their (the Europeans) minds that they imagined the most disadvantageous things that could be imagined. This imagination so kindled the zeal of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the Spanish captain who first discovered the South Sea, that he put a large number of them to death by setting wild dogs upon them, which those of his nation had used to destroy a large part of the Indians."
July 1721 Jesuit explorer Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix 's Journal of A Voyage to North-America-an account about the Seven Nations especially the Iroquois, the Illinois, and others of the Louisiana area (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois): "It must be confessed that effeminacy and lewdness were carried to the greatest excess in those parts; men were seen to wear the dress of women without a blush, and to debase themselves as to perform those occupations which are most peculiar to the sex, from whence followed a corruption of morals past all expression; it was pretended that this custom came from, I know not what principle of religion; but this religion had like many others, taken its birth in the depravation of the heart, or if the custom I speak of had its beginnings in the spirit, it has ended in the flesh; these effeminate persons never marry, and abandon themselves to the most famous passions, for which they are held in the most sovereign contempt." 1751-1762 Jean Bernard Bossu's Travels in the Interior of North America concerning the Choctaw Indians of Tennessee and Kentucky: "The people of this nation are generally of a brutal and course nature. You can talk to them as much as you want about the mysteries of our religion; they always reply that all of that is beyond their comprehension. They are morally quite perverted and most of them are addicted to sodomy. These corrupt men, who have long hair and wear short skirts like women, are held in great contempt." 1775-1776 Diary of Pedro Font, a Jesuit Missionary to California
regarding the Yuma Indians of Arizona and California: "Among the women I saw some men dressed as like women with whom they go about regularly, never joining the men. The commander (Juan Bautista de Anza) called them ammaricados, perhaps because the Yumas called effeminate men Maricas. I asked who these men were, and they replied that they were not men like the rest, and for this reason they went around covered like this way. From this I inferred they must be hermaphrodites, but from what I learned later I understood that they were sodomites, dedicated to nefarious practices. From all the foregoing I concluded that in this matter of incontinence there would be much to do when the Holy Faith and the Christian Religion are established among them." 1777 Fra Francisco Palou, biographer of Father Junipero Serra, an account of the California Indians from the Founding of the Santa Clara Mission: "Two laymen arrived at the house of a convert, one of them in the usual clothing, but the other dressed like a woman and called by them a Joya <Jewel> (since that is the name they are given in their native tongue.) Once the priests had been alerted, the head of the Mission went to the house with a sentry and a soldier. The couple was caught in the act of committing the nefarious sin. They were duly punished for this crime, but not with the severity it properly deserved. When they were rebuked for such an enormous crime, the laymen answered that the Joya was his wife! They were not seen again in the Mission or its surroundings after this reprimand. Nor did these disreputable people appear in the other missions, although many Joya can be seen in the area of the Canal de Santa Barbara; around there, almost very village has two or three (of Them). But we place our trust in God and expect that these accused people will disappear with the growth of the missions. The abominable vice will be eliminated to the extent that the Catholic faith and all the other virtues are firmly implanted there, for the glory of God and the benefit of those poor ignorants." Diary notes by Nicholas Biddle on the Mandan Indians of Montana and Idaho and other notes from The Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expeditions; "22 Dec 1804 A number of Squaws and men dressed in squaw's clothes came with corn to sell to the men for little things. April 1810- Among the Minitarees if a boy shows any symptoms of effeminacy or girlish inclinations he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them, and sometimes married to men. They submit as women to all the duties of a wife. I have seen them- the French call them Birdashes." 1819-1820 Edwin James and T. Say accounts of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains in the years 1819 and 1820: regarding the Kansas and Omaha Indians along the Platte River in Nebraska and Missouri: "Sodomy is a crime not uncommonly committed; many of the subjects of it are publicly known, and do not appear to be despised, or excite disgust; one of them was pointed out to us; he had submitted himself to it, in consequence of a vow he had made to his mystic medicine, which obliged him to change his dress for that of a squaw, to do their work, and permit his hair to grow. Among their vices (the Omahas) may be enumerated sodomy, onanism, and various other unclean and disgusting practices. What is related of the Illinois by Hennepin, a French Jesuit Explorer and Missionary, may, with equal truth, be applied to the Omawhaws. But to the honor of humanity, it may be remarked that those abominable traits of character are not generally conspicuous among them." 1828 Isaac McCoy's History of the Baptist Indian Missions-regarding the Osage Indians of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa: "Among the uncultivated tribes to the north there are instances, through rare, of men assuming the office of women. They put on women's apparel, and mingle with them and affect the manner and appearance of females, as much as possible, and continue this folly during life. While I was at the Osage villages, one of these wretches was pointed out to me. He appeared to be about 25 years of age, was tall, lean, and of a ghost-like appearances. His presence was disgusting, and the circumstances of the case so unpleasant, that I spoke not a word to him, and made few inquiries, about him. He was said to be in a declining state of health, and certainly his death would not have been lamented." 1832-1839 Artist George Catlin's Letters and Notes on the Customs and Conditions of the North American Indians: "The Sioux, Sacs, and Foxes of North and South Dakota dance to the Berdashe is a very funny and amusing scene, which happens once a year or oftener as they choose, when a feast is given to the "Berdashe" as he is called in French (or I-coo-coo-a) in their own language), who is a man dressed as in women's clothes, as he is known all his life, and for extraordinary privileges which he is known to possess, he is driven to the most servile and degrading duties, which he is not allowed to escape and he being the only one of the tribe submitting to this disgraceful degradation, is looked upon as medicine and sacred. This is one of the most unaccountable and disgusting customs, that I have ever met in the Indian country, and so far as I have been able to learn, belongs only to the Sioux, and Sacs and Foxes-perhaps it is practiced by other tribes but I did not meet with it; and for further account of it I am constrained to refer the reader to the country where it is practiced, and where I should wish that it might be extinguished before it be more fully recorded." 1889 Dr. A.B. Holder's "The Bote, Description of A Peculiar Sexual Perversion Found Among North American Indians" commenting of the tribes of Montana: "The word bo-te' I have chosen as being the most familiar to me and not likely to convey a wrong impression, since I shall be the first, perhaps, to translate into English and define it. It is the word used by the Absaroke Indians of Montana and literally means "not man, not woman". The practice of the bote among the civilized races is not unknown to specialists, but no name suited to ears polite, even though professional, has been given it. The practice is to produce the sexual orgasm by taking the male organ of the active party in the lips of the bote, the bote probably experiencing the orgasm at the same time. Of the latter supposition I have not been able to satisfy myself, but I can in no way account for the infatuation of the act. Of all the many varieties of sexual perversion, this it seems to me, is the most debased that could be conceived of. There is moreover, a difference in the method of the practice of their vocation (between pederasts and Botes). Pederasty is by no means unknown among the tribes of Indians where the bote is found, but the bote is less than any other pederast. With him it is the oral and not the rectal cavity into which he admits the male organ." CONCLUSION In July 1975 Barbara Cameron and Randy Burns founded the first Gay American Indian Liberation organization in San Francisco. Cameron claims that "probably the most together tribe in the country, the ones who have best retained the old ways and traditions are the Pueblos, (where) Gay people are still accorded positions of respect in the tribe. Some are healers and medicine people. The re-asserting of the wisdom of Native American tribes concerning Gay people will (only) benefit all of us.
2005 The 2004 Utah Legislature starts on Jan. 19 and there are already plans to change the way we protect the rights of gender-and sexual-minority Utahns and of those of us who are firearms advocates and owners. But we have our own plan to watch this 45-day process unfold. We'll keep our attention focused on those legislative ideas that would disproportionately affect us ... and share ways to help these ideas get adopted or defeated. This is gonna get fun! David Nelson Salt Lake
2005 The following is both for your information and distribution to those you feel may have an interest. On the January 11th edition of "What's On Your Mind / Talk Radio With Dave White", Leonard Olds of Log Cabin Republicans will join Dave for a discussion of the past election, politics within the Gay community, current issues and opponents such as Traditional Values Coalition. You are invited to provide questions, comments and input as well. Broadcast on internet radio station KSAV.ORG, the program runs live from 7:30PM until 9PM Pacific time on Tuesdays and is rebroadcast at the same time on Thursdays. This program is one of an ongoing series featuring topics and persons of interest to the GLBT community as well as others. Dave's program features a humorous and imaginative style which makes the discussion both interesting and fun. Callers may participate by calling our nationwide toll free number (800)407-KSAV(5728). Visit our website www.ksav.org for details and instructions on how to listen. Questions, comments or problems getting connected or listening should be e-mailed to studio@ksav.org. Dave can be reached at talk@ksav.org. The program will be rebroadcast Thursday, January 13th, at the same time.
2005 A Hale-storm of controversy at theater over actor's dual roles By Dan Nailen The Salt Lake Tribune Hale Center Theatre's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" ended last month in West Valley City, but a lingering controversy over lead actor Richard Wilkins' opposition to same-sex marriage has some theater people crying Scrooge. The flap stems from Wilkins' decision to sell a reprinted edition of the Dickens classic to patrons in the theater lobby during performances of the show, which closed Dec. 27. As Wilkins stated in the show's program and in a recorded announcement before the curtain, all proceeds from sales of the book benefited BYU's World Family Policy Center Utah 's constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Some gay and gay-friendly theater professionals bristled at Hale Center Utah 's theater community. Mathie was a pianist for the show. He argued that Hale's unspoken support for WFPC was a slap in the face of its many gay actors, designers and crew members, and encouraged them to consider boycotting the theater. "I, for one, cannot work for a company who actively works against the best interests of my close friends," wrote Mathie, who, incidentally, is not gay. His e-mail sparked similar reactions from other theater folks, one of whom wrote back, "I'd never set foot on a stage with Richard Wilkins. His bigoted, poisonous views have vexed me for several years." Hale Center Theatre co-owner Sally Dietlein said she thought proceeds from the book would go to Wilkins' pocket and resents implications that the theater harbors any prejudice. "This is not a public stand the theater is taking," she told The Tribune. "We've got directors we adore who are gay . . . actors who've been with us for years who we respect and adore. It makes me angry that they might have been hurt by this." Wilkins is bewildered and upset by the controversy and says he was careful to inform patrons that profits from book sales would benefit the WFPC, not Hale Center Theatre. The WFPC has taken no formal position against gay marriage, he says. "I know that some people think what I do at the WFPC is controversial," he said. "If people don't agree . . . they didn't have to buy the book." Wilkins also wonders why Mathie waited until late December – a month after "A Christmas Carol" opened - to object. "If someone had raised this [complaint] during the show, I would have stopped selling the book," he said. "These are my friends. I don't want to hurt anyone." The parties involved have until November to work things out. That's when "A Christmas Carol" returns to Hale Center Theatre, with Wilkins back as Scrooge. He says he plans to sell the book, with proceeds again going to the WFPC, unless the theater tells him otherwise.
2006 Wednesday- The family message Salt Lake Tribune I was heartened to hear that theater managers and Larry Miller are looking out for my children by refusing to show "Brokeback Mountain" in Miller's Jordan Commons movie theater complex. Seeing such a movie at a young and easily influenced age would surely result in their becoming homosexuals. Since we still wanted to spend time as a family attending a movie at the same complex, our remaining choices included a movie about gratuitous torture (including one very family-fulfilling scene where severed body parts and blood are prominently displayed), and another about rampant drug use and prostitution patronage resulting in a grown man being unable to support himself. I guess the family message here is that we could always move in with grandma. I'll have Larry Miller to thank when my sadistic, drug- addicted, prostitute-patronizing, destitute adult children move in with their grandmother in a few years. But thank goodness (and Larry Miller) at least they won't be homosexual. Kary Ginsburg Salt Lake
2006 Daily bigotry Salt Lake Tribune Last week my partner and I were not shocked to hear that Larry H. Miller had decided to pull "Brokeback Mountain Utah 's population belongs to the LDS Church Utah homosexuals feel on a daily basis. Thank you, Larry H. Miller, for showing us and the rest of the country the bigotry that seems to consistently revolve around the LDS Church Zakrey Coon Salt Lake
2006 'Brokeback' squelch has spotlight on Utah again Reaction: The film's star calls the
decision 'immature'; TV's Leno and others make jokes By Brandon Griggs The Salt Lake Tribune Megaplex Theatres' cancellation of a scheduled engagement of the gay romance "Brokeback Mountain" in Sandy is being felt as far away as Australia, where Heath Ledger, one of the movie's stars, called it "immature." "It's all just really unnecessary," Ledger, in Melbourne for the film's Australian premiere, told Australia 's Nine National News. "Personally I don't think the movie is [controversial], but I think maybe the Mormons in Utah do. I think it's hilarious and very immature of a society." Ledger's comments were the latest in a flurry of reactions, both in Utah and around the world, since the Larry H. Miller-owned theater yanked the movie from its schedule Thursday. Articles about the snub have made international headlines. NBC's Jay Leno and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann joked about it on the air Monday night. An Ohio movie critic wrote that he could "sniff bigotry from approximately 2,000 miles away." Miller has said nothing publicly about pulling the provocative film from his Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons Brokeback Mountain Utah gay-rights organization is encouraging its 2,500 members to shun Miller's businesses. "Vote with your hard-earned dollars!" wrote Valerie A. Larabee, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center of Utah, in an e-mail to GLBTCC members Monday. "Consider the first of many important steps and avoid the following list of Larry H. Miller holdings in Utah as you look for places to spend." Larabee stopped short of calling for a boycott of Miller's more than 50 businesses, which include the movie theater chain, a string of car dealerships and the Utah Jazz. But she labeled her e-mail campaign a "Community Call to Action" and urged members to show Miller that "treating queer people as 'controversial' . . . is a poor business move." "Brokeback Mountain ," which opened in Utah Dec. 28, is a critically acclaimed drama about two Wyoming cowboys who maintain a secret romance for two decades. Considered a front-runner for the Academy Awards, it's playing this week at four theaters in Utah . The Megaplex at Jordan Commons is the only theater in the nation to cancel a run of "Brokeback Mountain Jordan Commons Brokeback Mountain Utah talk-show host Doug Wright, who reviews movies for KSL Radio, said that were he in Miller's position he would not have pulled the movie. But he defended Miller's right to book whatever films he chooses. "It's his theater," he said. "His is a movie store. And he's perfectly within his rights to carry what he wants in his store."
2006 Since when is a gay romance worse than torture and drug use? Editor: Larry Miller
always struck me as a no-nonsense kind of guy. I was therefore surprised and disappointed to hear of the last-second decision to pull "Brokeback Mountain " from Jordan Commons Brokeback Mountain Brokeback Mountain Jordan Commons Jordan Commons Jordan Commons more than "Brokeback Mountain
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| Larry Miller |
2006 It is inconceivable to homophobes that two men can truly fall in love and want to express that love in a sexual manner. Homophobes have built their whole concept of a heterosexual world view on the premises that homosexuality is simply lust the same lust that drive straight men to seek out prostitutes and "loose women". However since men in this homophobic world believe being male is superior to women who in their minds are designed to be passive, men who are passive to another man therefore become the same as a woman. Someone to abuse sexually if not guarded by marital property rights. Losing one's masculinity by being passive is akin to having a person' balls cut off. Broke Back threatens this whole world view and Larry Miller subconsciously fears for his whole sports empire that is built on masculine competion -Ben Williams
2006 Wednesday, 5:00pm – 7:00pm Baci “OUT for Equality” Kick-off Social event similar to the “OUT Against Amendment 3” events held at Panini during the “No on 3” Campaign of 2004. Come nibble on appetizers, have a drink with friends and learn about the upcoming legislative session from those who are making it happen. Special Guest: Senator Scott McCoy
2006 Utah Business Guild Meet and Greet When: Wednesday, January 11, 2006- Light Hors d'oeuvers will be provided Where: The Gay and Lesbian Center 355 N 300 W, Salt Lake City Why: To meet other GLBT Business Guild members, to join Utah GLBT Business Guild and to promote/network yourself or your business There will be raffle prizes for those attending please join and come have some fun. Utah GLBT Business Guild Board Members: Karl Bennion, Rachel Langston, Ken Bowman, Jim Rengstorf, Dave Harris
2007 "Chad Keller" To: "Michael Aaron" Oh the drama, just add liquor! I guess the community got a taste of what the letter from Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton will look like to Mr. Blackwell. Both Mark and I do fit a stereotype that is for sure. Our imposed stereotypes change depending on who one talks to, and Utah ’s inversion. We have received numerous letters of laughter and support about our New Years column. In reading my words again, I clearly complimented the two that took umbrage. We meant no harm. Obviously stereotypes came into play and harm is perceived. Since before the article was written and on way to press my Latin boyfriend has grabbed his throbbing basket and asked me to take a whack at his piñata. That statement since New Years helped me get more Latin group dick than I have time for, so there are those that got that joke.
- On 01/10/07 my lawyer and I met over lunch with a UDABC compliance officer and a Salt Lake Vice Officer. They laughed hysterically at the column and stated that IN SEARCH OF was nothing they would they would ever pay attention due to its sarcasm and humor. They assured me they only have time to look at ads. They further stated we wrote nothing that they did not already know or expect from the gay community. It was a fruitful and productive meeting as I did settled on an offer to sit on a alcohol and drug task force to represent the gay perspective. I could respond to my attackers 820 some odd word rant. I will only say for the record I still play with the ‘Big Dawgs’ in the world of creative marketing and event services. Those that are important to me, client or friend, know my caliber, class, and creativity. They are all that matter. Brava on the semi fluent rambling about arrogant manipulation, self centered ways and bigotry. Personally I love the nasty to the core street version better. Our detractor seems to forget the many times I brokered for him higher levels of sponsorship for a mere two pots of coffee that always went unused. He clearly knows better how to work the community for his own personal benefit. I challenge our detractor to lay mine and Mark's service records next to his and just who are the better people. While he and many others have not been paying attention I have grown up, stopped crying in my beer, stopped looking for my next line or shot, stepped out of the cigarette smoke and chose to again exploring all of life’s possibilities. I learned to laugh again. By leaving the daily bar scene it does not mean I am not thankful or that I do not appreciate our bars. Believe it or not I do appreciate what the owners do for the community. I am thankful for the experiences and memories (what I can remember) each bar has provided. Each in their own way contributes to the color of a portion of our community. Each bar provides us spaces to escape back to our safe community space. For those that are offended it is obvious we missed out on getting to know each other when I parked my ass on a bar stool for a weekend and blew a wad of cash. Yes we left many doors wide open for interpretation in our column. That is the fun a tongue and cheek article. We merely went looking for a place to go for New Years. We did it in fun, and tried to give some extra promotion based solely on your advertisements. We shared our thoughts on what we found. Sorry for it not being personally fun as planned for each of you. Again compliments were given, but clearly overlooked. This has been a lesson the new and serious face of the gay community. Sincerely
2010 Legislature may let SLC's gay-rights measures stand Politics » But GOP leaders not
ready to embrace them for the state. By Rosemary Winters The Salt Lake Tribune :01/10/2010 Salt Lake City's landmark protections for gay and transgender residents appear likely to take effect after surviving the last hurdle: the Legislature. But most legislative leaders say it's doubtful those provisions against discrimination in housing and employment will be expanded statewide during the 2010 session -- despite a historic endorsement from the LDS Church. "The Legislature is more inclined to give the Salt Lake City ordinance[s] a year," says Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, "just to kind of see how [they work] and if we need to work any bugs out before we sponsor anything statewide." Still, Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, plans -- for the third time -- to push a statewide fair housing and employment bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing state laws that bar bias based on a person's race, religion, sex, national origin or other characteristics. A recent poll shows 69 percent of Utahns support doing so. It's one of two comeback bills from last year's expansive collection of gay-rights measures, dubbed the Common Ground Initiative. The initiative garnered support in public opinion polls and a Republican endorsement from then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. but wilted in the conservative Utah Legislature. Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, says Common Ground, despite promises made last
year, will not return as a campaign in the 2010 Legislature. Instead, she says, the group will continue to work on the initiative's issues -- health care, anti-discrimination and probate rights -- at the community level. There have been some successes. In November, Salt Lake City passed two ordinances -- the first of their kind in Utah -- that ban housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Exemptions are made for religious organizations, their wholly owned subsidiaries and small employers and landlords. At a City Council meeting, LDS Church spokesman Michael Otterson said the measures are "fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage." This past week, Salt Lake County followed Salt Lake City's lead, and Park City is on deck. "I certainly understand the argument for observing how Salt Lake City and other municipalities succeed," says Johnson, one of the Utah House's two openly gay lawmakers. "But I think that we have nationwide examples of states that have implemented a statewide nondiscrimination policy and suffered no ills." Johnson points to 21 other states, including Colorado and New Mexico, that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Most of those states, along with the District of Columbia, also bar gender-identity bias. Stephenson says he supports Salt Lake City's ordinances, but he's not yet ready to endorse statewide measures. "It's worth looking at," he says. Salt Lake City's policy "doesn't give a right of action for anyone [to sue], but it still acknowledges if somebody blatantly discriminates against someone because of gender [identity] or sexual orientation on housing or employment, there ought to be some consequences." House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, says he expects Johnson's fair housing and employment bill to fare as well as it did in 2009. It died in committee. "Nothing has changed," he says. "The result will probably be the same as last year." Of course, one big change has occurred since then: The LDS Church backing Salt Lake City's ordinances. Even an LDS apostle, Jeffrey R. Holland, has suggested those measures are "shareable." Garn expects Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination ordinances to survive unscathed. The measures were set to take effect in April after the legislative session. "It reflects what they believe ought to be done in their city," Garn says. "I just don't think the Legislature is going to try to micromanage that decision by the Salt Lake City Council." But the Sutherland Institute, which initially called on lawmakers to overturn the capital's ordinances, now is urging the Legislature instead to alter them. The conservative Salt Lake City-based think tank wants the religious exemption expanded to include religious adherents. A lawmaker has not yet agreed to carry the effort. Such a change essentially would gut the protections, says Ben McAdams, senior adviser to Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and an incoming Democratic senator. At a City Council meeting last week, McAdams predicted the Legislature will not be "narrowing or broadening" the city's ordinances this year, allowing Salt Lake City to be a "laboratory" for anti-discrimination efforts. But Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, is concerned that other communities, including Salt Lake County and Park City, aren't waiting for Salt Lake City's lab results. "The Legislature is getting irritated that no one else is sitting back," he says. "I'm guessing we won't sit back either." He adds, "If everybody's going to do it, we'd just as soon weigh in as wait. It's harder to overturn 20 than to overturn two or three." Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, says he supports a "wait and see" approach on expanding Salt Lake City's protections for gay and transgender residents statewide. "I don't have any desire to see [Salt Lake City's ordinances] overturned," Killpack says. "That would be a mistake." McAdams says anti-discrimination ordinances in Salt Lake County and Park City also could serve as proving grounds for a statewide law. "Protections at home and at work," he says, "are something that is a basic human right." McAdams replaces gay-rights champion Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, this session. The incoming senator plans to run McCoy's wrongful-death measure -- one of last year's failed Common Ground bills. The legislation, which will not bear the Common Ground moniker this year, would allow same-sex partners and others to sue when a breadwinner suffers a wrongful death. "It speaks to the importance of life," McAdams says, "and recognizes that individuals who are in financially dependent relationships need security." Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, promises to revive -- for a third run -- her adoption bill, which would restore the ability of gay and lesbian couples to adopt children. This year, she says, the bill could focus on second-parent adoptions: for instance, when a biological mom wants her lesbian partner to be the child's legal, second parent. (The adoption bill was not part of last year's Common Ground Initiative.) Johnson plans to push a second bill related to gay-rights: a resolution calling on Congress and President Barack Obama to end the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which bans openly gay service members. Expected bills in the 2010 Legislature Discrimination » Rep. Christine Johnson plans to sponsor a bill, similar to the ordinances recently adopted by Salt Lake City, that would provide a statewide ban on housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Wrongful death » Sen. Ben McAdams plans to run legislation to allow same-sex partners and other financial dependents to sue when a breadwinner suffers a wrongful death. Currently, only spouses, parents and children can. Adoption » Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck plans to push a bill that would allow unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian pairs, to adopt children. Military service » Johnson has filed a resolution (HJR 4) urging the president and Congress to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which bans openly gay service members. Salt Lake City trump » It's unclear whether someone will introduce a bill to challenge local governments' ability to pass anti-discrimination ordinances. The Sutherland Institute is pushing for a law that would expand the religious exemption in Salt Lake City's ordinances to include religious adherents.
2014 Love Elevated Mass Wedding Reception for all same-sex couples and allies married since Judge Shelby's ruling that Utah held at The Rail Event Center SLC. Fundraiser for Restore Our Humanity — a Mass Wedding Reception to honor those pioneers who stood in the long lines to get the first marriage licenses in the Beehive State
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| Christine Johnson |
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| Brandi Balken |
2014 Love Elevated Mass Wedding Reception for all same-sex couples and allies married since Judge Shelby's ruling that Utah held at The Rail Event Center SLC. Fundraiser for Restore Our Humanity — a Mass Wedding Reception to honor those pioneers who stood in the long lines to get the first marriage licenses in the Beehive State
2014 Utah’s same-sex newlyweds toasted at big reception Fund raiser • Sister Dottie Dixon warmed up “Love Elevated,” celebrating weddings. BY KIRSTEN STEWART THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Sister Dottie S. Dixon says the opening prayer at Love Elevated at the Rail Event Center Saturday January 11, 2014. Love Elevated, a celebration of same-sex marriages that occurred during the 17 days between U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby’s ruling striking down Utah's ban on gay marriages and the Supreme Court's stay on further marriages pending an appeal by the state, took place in Salt Lake City. Many close family members couldn’t make the hastily-organized ceremony, and they expected the state of Utah to contest their union. But 13 days after a federal judge overturned Utah’s ban on gay marriage, 63-year-old Marsha Hopkins and 67-year-old Marge Willingham sealed their 25-year relationship with an intimate wedding at their Bountiful home in the presence of family, friends and their four dogs. And on Saturday the couple shared their first dance as newlyweds at a group reception at the Rail Event Center in Salt Lake City to mark the legal marriage of more than 1,000 same-sex couples in Utah. “I told her, ‘It’s going to be a bumpy ride because the state’s going to fight it,’” said Hopkins, recalling the night she proposed. “But I’d rather be on a bumpy ride than not at the carnival.” Saturday’s party doubled as a fund raiser for Restore our Humanity, the group that mounted the legal challenge to Amendment 3. U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled the law unconstitutional just days before Christmas, spurring hundreds to flock to county clerk offices to request marriage licenses. Those marriages are now on hold as the state appeals Shelby’s ruling. “If the state of Utah is going to spend $2 million [contesting the ruling], we ought to raise that much, too,” said Michael Aaron, publisher of QSaltLake, which sponsored the event. Instrumental music played as the first of thousands of guests entered the Rail Event Center. Among them: Michael Ferguson and Seth Anderson, the first same-sex couple to receive a license and be married in Utah, and Kody Partridge and Laurie Wood, one of the three couples named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. There was a cake-cutting ceremony and champagne toasts delivered with humor and solemnity. Comedian Sister Dottie Dixon started an opening prayer by thanking the Lord, “For letting me live long enough to see Hell freeze over.” On a more serious note, she asked “to help us keep perspective about the process we are all a part of. Let us remember to be better in all our behaviors and ways than those who choose to oppress us, hate us or misunderstand us.” Some, like 31-year-old Amanda Habas, came to show support. “I flew in today from Chicago. I’m here in honor of them,” she said, pointing to two long-term friends who were recently engaged. Others were there to celebrate change. “I never thought I’d see this, not in my life time,” said 64-year-old Vietnam veteran Connie Collier of Salt Lake. For Hopkins and Willingham, it was another chance to seize a fleeting moment. “It was our time and it might not come again, so we took it,” said Hopkins of their decision to marry even though it meant some of their six children and four grandchildren wouldn’t be able to attend. The two met at a restaurant Willingham managed. Hopkins, a native of Spanish Fork, had applied for a job there to supplement her day job. “She was recently divorced and in the dumps,” recalls Hopkins. I guess the cook thought I could cheer her up.” They’ve long wanted to be wed, but as they’ve gotten older they’ve felt more of a sense of urgency. Hopkins wants assurance that her wife will receive her federal retirement benefits should something happen to her. “It’s the final thing I can do to make sure that if I go first, she’s taken care of,” she said. If Utah prevails in court they may have to retire to a state that recognizes their marriage. “It’s not what we want...People in Utah have been very kind to us,” said Hopkins. “But we need to be able to look out for one another.”
2016 The Advocate today unveiled its seventh annual “Queerest Cities in America” list and once again, Salt Lake City takes among the top honors. While locales such as New York and West Hollywood are widely known to be LGBT-friendly, this list spotlights some unexpected cities not afraid to fly their LGBT-friendly flags. “There are only a few true LGBT megalopolises in America — and that’s often by virtue of their sheer size,” says Matthew Breen, editor-in-chief of The Advocate. “What’s more fun, and more illuminating, is to look at the queer quotient of some less-expected locales, using criteria that don’t focus on more expected factors. The results are always unanticipated, and this year’s list delivers some absolutely surprising cities. We love sparking conversation in those places about what makes a city LGBT-friendly—and whether that city’s spot on the list is honestly earned.” Using its own unique and irreverent criteria, The Advocate found a surprisingly diverse group of cities. While the criteria does include important elements such as non-discrimination protections and LGBT sites on the National Register, it also includes more light-hearted factors such as LGBT film festivals and tours of Janet Jackson, Ariana Grande, Carly Rae Jepson, and Madonna that have passed through the city. The Advocate noted last year’s election of the city’s first openly gay mayor, Jackie Biskupski, Janet Jackson stopping by the city on her Unbreakable tour, LGBT film available through the Utah Film Center, the Damn These Heels film festival, and Utah’s annual transgender conference, Genderevolution. The raw score is then divided by the population to provide a ranking based on a per capita LGBT quotient.
The 2016 “Queerest Cities in America” are:
15. Berkeley, CA
14. Manchester, NH
13. Waterbury, CT
12. Eugene, OR
11. Rochester, NY
10. Boulder, CO
9. Edison, NJ
8. Salt Lake City, UT7. San Francisco, CA
6. Washington, D.C.
5. New Haven, CT
4. St. Louis, MO
3. Cambridge, MA
2. Inglewood, CA
1. HARTFORD, CT
15. Berkeley, CA
14. Manchester, NH
13. Waterbury, CT
12. Eugene, OR
11. Rochester, NY
10. Boulder, CO
9. Edison, NJ
8. Salt Lake City, UT7. San Francisco, CA
6. Washington, D.C.
5. New Haven, CT
4. St. Louis, MO
3. Cambridge, MA
2. Inglewood, CA
1. HARTFORD, CT
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