This Day In Gay Utah History SEPTEMBER 14

September 14th

1943 Inmate Succumbs to Razor Wound [SLC] Jack Elmer Davis, 43, died yesterday from a razor wound in the left arm which police said was self inflicted. Davis was being held at the county jail awaiting removal to the state penitentiary to begin serving a three to twenty year sentence on a charge of committing a “Crime Against Nature”.   Ogden Standard examiner.

lambda symbol
adopted by GAA
for Gay Rights

1969- In New York City, the Gay Activist Alliance protested police harassment by staging a "zap" of Mayor John Lindsay. A zap is a form of political direct action that came into use in the 1970s in the United States. Popularized by the early gay liberation group Gay Activists Alliance, a zap was a raucous public demonstration designed to embarrass a public figure or celebrity while calling the attention of both gays and straights to issues of  Gay rights. The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was founded in New York City on December 21, 1969, after the Stonewall riots, by dissident members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). Some early members included Jim Owles, Marty Robinson, Kay Lahusen, Arthur Bell, Arthur Evans, Bill Bahlman, Vito Russo, Sylvia Rae Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Jim Coles, Brenda Howard, and David Thorstad. The group wanted to form a "single issue, politically neutral, whose goal was to "secure basic human rights, dignity and freedom for all gay people." The Gay Activists Alliance was most active from 1970 to 1974. They published the Gay Activist newspaper until 1980. GAA first met at the Church of the Holy Apostles (9th Ave. & 28th St.) in NYC Their next New York City headquarters, the Firehouse at 99 Wooster Street in Soho, was occupied in May 1971 and burned down by arsonists on October 15, 1974.

1978 Women Aware held a four day Lesbian retreat and camp out at Arches National Park in Utah. Women Aware was a Utah Lesbian Feminist separatist organization to deal only with women issues.

1984 - Madonna becomes a star after her performance at the MTV Music Video Awards where she rolled around on the stage in a wedding dress while singing Like a Virgin.

1986- Educator/Counselor Ed Benson fireside speaker for Wasatch Affirmation

1989- AIDS ACT UP activists disrupted the New York stock market trading to protest the high cost of AZT.

1989-The US House of Representatives rejected a proposal by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) to deny federal grants to art projects, which included homoeroticism.

1990-A Gay man in Denver Colorado was brutally beaten while walking his dog. Nearly every bone in his body was broken, and his dog was also beaten.

1990 Friday AIDS FOUNDATION PLANS `WALK FOR LIFE' SATURDAY  The Utah Aids Foundation will hold its annual "Walk For Life" Saturday, Sept. 15, at Liberty Park. A spokesman for the event said more than 200 participants have already pre-registered for the pledge walk, which raises funds for foundation activities. On-site registration will be offered at 8 a.m. Saturday. The walk is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. The event includes musical performances, lunch and opening and closing ceremonies. For additional information, call 359-5555.

1993-Tuesday-Bente J. Trapp wrote regarding the Utah Law

Bente J Trapp

invalidating marriages of people With AIDS It is a relief that the state's officialdom has regained its senses regarding the law that banned marriage if one partner is HIV positive. To say the state was not ``dragging its feet'' is ludicrous. What this statement shows is a total lack of education and information on how HIV/AIDS progresses. Time was of the essence in this case, and for the governor to suggest that the two women wait until the Legislature was in session to rescind the law demonstrated a lack of sensitivity. I suggest that city, county and state governments call the Utah AIDS Foundation and participate in their education program. The AIDS Foundation will come to the job site and give an informative program to all employees, including the governor. There also would be an opportunity to meet people living with AIDS who volunteer their time to help educate the public. BENTE J. TRAPP Director People With AIDS Coalition of Utah Salt Lake City  09/14/93  Page: A9 SLTribune) Bente was born on November 8, 1931 and passed away on Saturday, May 28, 2011.  Obituary

Philip Austin

1994 WSU OFFICIAL IS GUILTY IN KIDNAPPING Byline: By Tom Quinn SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE   (Page: B1)  OGDEN -- A jury found a Weber State University administrator guilty Tuesday of holding a man at gunpoint in an attempt to force him to have sex. The jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Weber State Director of Student Advisement Phillip O. Austin guilty of second-degree kidnapping.  Austin offered Colby Clifford a ride after picking him up at a Clearfield bus stop on March 12. When Clifford refused his sexual advances, Austin allegedly pulled a gun on him to force him to have sex, the charges said.  Colby, a former Weber student, was at the school about a month later to obtain a transcript of his class record when he spotted Austin and called police. In finding Austin guilty, the jury passed over a charge of first-degree aggravated kidnapping. The guilty verdict for the lesser charge of simple kidnapping carries a sentence of 1-15 years in prison, instead of the 5-years-to-life sentence for the more serious crime.  And by finding no gun was used in the incident, the jury also rejected an added five-year penalty for using a weapon during the commission of a crime. Austin's lawyer, Don Hughes, said he would file a motion of an ``inconsistent verdict'' because his client could not have held the victim against his will if no weapon were involved.  The 43-year-old defendant told reporters the jury's verdict was a ``compromise not supported by evidence. The jury took the easy way out rather than finding me not guilty,'' Austin said. ``Two and a half days were spent talking about my homosexuality and only half a day was spent on the evidence,'' Austin said. Hughes told the jury that it was not illegal to be a homosexual and that it was not illegal for one adult to proposition another adult. Clifford is 20 years old. The lawyer said Clifford's allegation that Austin pointed a gun at him was not true. According to attorney Hughes, Austin's ``protocol'' for picking up young men never included weapons, threats or  kidnapping and that when Clifford turned down Austin's sexual overtures, the young man was let out of the car at a place designated by him. Clifford told the jury that he had leaped from the moving car at a high speed. Second District Judge Stanton Taylor tentatively set Nov. 14 for sentencing, saying that he also would entertain Hughes' motion of an ``inconsistent verdict'' that day.

1996-:  Sue Bender was main speaker at YWCA leader luncheon in Salt Lake City. Identify Inner Judge, Author Tes Group Honoring Women; Author Tells Group to Know Inner Judge Byline: BY JOAN O'BRIEN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE     Plain and Simple author Sue Bender was glowing the day she learned her book had made The New York Times Bestsellers List -- at least until she proudly relayed the news t o a friend.    ``She didn't even smile,'' Bender said of her friend's reaction. ``She said, `what number on the list are you?' '' That exchange taught Bender that in this world no accomplishment is ever good enough.  ``It showed me that whatever it is I had been seeking . . . that something was still missing,'' Bender said Friday in her YWCA leader luncheon keynote address. The exchange also led Bender to identify a harsh inner voice that criticizes everything she does.  ``I don't think everybody has a harsh judge,'' she told some 900 people at the Marriott Hotel luncheon in Salt Lake City. ``But many of us have some inner voice that has the power to undercut, to make us doubt ourselves, and that leaves us wondering why we're not more content.'' Bender urged the women and men at the gathering to identify their harsh judge before it saps the energy they need to make societal contributions. Contributing to society is what the eighth annual YWCA luncheon is all about. The record-turnout audience had gathered to honor six women receiving the YWCA's Outstanding  Achievement Awards in education, business, government, human services and medicine. -- Marie Augustine was recognized for her three decades with the Community Action Program, building parental participation in Head Start.   -- Carol Ann Dunlap, spokeswoman for US WEST before launching her own telecommunications consulting firm, was recognized for her work mentoring others and her voluntarism. -- Tomiye Ishimatsu, University of Utah nursing

Luci Malin

professor before her retirement, was honored for her more than 40 years as nurse, educator and volunteer. -- Luci Malin, reclamation specialist for the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining, was recognized for her more than 15 years at the forefront of feminist and gay-rights causes.  -- Karen Shepherd was honored for her advocacy of women's issues as magazine editor, state senator, congresswoman and currently as Common Cause board member and international emissary.  -- Maggie Snyder, Physician's Assistant at University Hospital, was recognized for her long hours of caring and advocating for people ith AIDS.  Those six women join the 40 others honored by the YWCA during eight years' worth of leader luncheons. Many past honorees attended Friday's program. Bender, who marveled at the ``feeling, care and community'' at the luncheon, said it goes without saying that the women gathered there give to their community.  They might be

Maggie Snyder

able to offer even more if they learn to give to themselves, she said, adding ``It takes courage to know who we are and what we want.'' Bender's second book, Everyday Sacred, is about the search for what really matters. The conversation with her friend about the bestseller list convinced her that she needed to conduct such a search.  Bender's first book was about the simple life among the Amish. She applied lessons she learned among them to her own life. The result is her second book about acceptance.  The family therapist and artist found teachers of acceptance all around her. Among them was a potter who deliberately breaks his bowls and reassembles them because they're more interesting that way. She found another teacher in her own son, who sends a greeting card to his paternal grandmother every week. That taught her the ``extreme importance'' of small things.  Most people at the Marriott Friday, she surmised, are too busy making societal contributions to give themselves time. She urged them to pause every once in a while to give their souls a chance to catch up.  ``It's very important for us to stop and call our spirit back.'' Page: B1 The Salt Lake Tribune

Orrin Hatch

1996 The Anti-Gay Nineties   Is there any palpable difference between the following two legal arguments?   1. ``In determining the question of reasonableness, it [the legislature] is at liberty to act with reference to the established usages, customs, and traditions of the people, and with a view to the promotion of their comfort . . . ''   2. ``The moral and religious sensibilities of millions of Americans will be overridden if this legislation becomes law.''   Well, the chief difference between the two is 100 years. The first is an excerpt from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, which was used to justify nearly six decades of ``separate but equal'' racial laws in America. The second is a quote attributed to  Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch Tuesday in defense of his vote against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which aimed to protect homosexuals from workplace discrimination. Obviously, the circumstances are not the same, but the issue is: discrimination. And the Senate, showing much the same deference to majority sensibilities that the Supreme Court mistakenly did a century ago, decided by a solitary vote to deny gay and lesbian Americans workplace protection from biased treatment. So, in the 41 states that do not provide such legal protection, homosexuals can still go unhired or be fired if their sexual orientation is discovered.   This was a disappointing vote, half of an anti-gay double-header in the Senate Tuesday, the other half being a lopsided tally in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act. This one, which reflects Americans' unreadiness to grapple with the issue of same-sex marriage, is an election-year non sequitur that addresses a not-yet-existent problem -- but a very existent raw nerve among voters. Surely, if the senators are interested in a ``defense of marriage,'' they could address factors that are threatening this cherished institution a lot more than same-sex partnerships do. As it is, they passed a bill that invokes states’ rights in allowing states to decide if they want to recognize same-sex marriages, and then turns around and issues a federal definition of marriage. A neat trick.   While the American public does not now accept same-sex marriage, though, it also clearly does not accept workplace discrimination against homosexuals. That the Senate should perpetuate it by defeating the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is appalling; the only consolation is that it shouldn't take a century to correct this line of faulty reasoning Page: A10  Tribune Editorial 

Jay E. Jensen

1997  A Different Kind of Conversion: LDS Leader Aims to `Heal' Gays Byline: BY SHAWN FOSTER THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A Mormon leader told ``recovering'' homosexuals and their families Saturday to let the church's doctrine heal them of the sin of same-sex attraction. To do that, according to Elder Jay E. Jensen, a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gays must allow the faith's theology to ``inoculate'' them against homosexuality. ``When the Lord speaks to us, he speaks to our spirits as if we had no body at all,'' said Jensen, a member of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy. ``When the adversary speaks to us, he speaks to the flesh. All of the appetites, all of the passions are to enslave us.'' The trick of overcoming the competing desires of righteousness and sin, Jensen said, is to immerse yourself in true doctrines of the church. About 300 gay men and women gathered with their families to listen to Jensen and participate in workshops with titles such as ``Resisting the Struggle and the Temptations,'' and ``Meeting Female Emotional Needs.'' The conference was sponsored by Evergreen International, a group committed to the principles of ``reparative,'' or ``conversion'' therapy, in which therapists try to change gays into heterosexuals.   For years, the reparative approach has been discredited by most mainstream therapists. Indeed, the American Psychological Association-- the leading society of psychologists – passed a resolution in August that aims to limit the controversial practice of reparative therapy. The position was

opposed by psychologists, psychiatrists and Christian groups that have advocated the practice and that successfully defeated a more strongly worded resolution two years ago.   But several gay and civil-rights groups, however, praised the move, which extends a 1975 APA decision to endorse the idea that homosexuality is not a mental illness.   ``This is a welcome addition from the scientific community to the condemnation of these anti-gay efforts,'' Judith Schaeffer, deputy legal director of People for the American Way, a Washington-based civil-rights organization told The Washington Post. ``The idea that homosexuality is a condition from which one should be cured is old-fashioned bigotry passing as science.''   The new resolution warns that ``societal ignorance and prejudice about same-gender sexual orientation put some gay, lesbian, bisexual and questioning individuals at risk for presenting for [seeking] `conversion' treatment.'' It says there is no scientific proof that such therapy works and some potential for harm.   But groups such as Evergreen disagree.   ``Evergreen attests that individuals can overcome homosexual behavior and can diminish same-sex attraction,'' according to the group's mission statement. ``Evergreen provides education, guidance and support to those involved in the transition from homosexuality.'' The organization offers support groups, group counseling and sponsors sports activities. Evergreen organizers believe that sports are key. Many sexually confused men never were good at team sports and were teased for being sissies, they argue. Mastering baseball and basketball promotes masculine self-esteem and helps men see other males as pals, instead of potential sexual partners.   Evergreen is not officially a part of the LDS Church, but the group sustains the doctrines and standards of the church ``without reservation or exception.''

LATTER-DAY SAINTS   The Gay and Lesbian Mormons will hold the sixth semi-annual Mission Reunion, Friday,  7:30 p.m., in the Metropolitan Community Church, 823 S. 600 East, Salt Lake City. For more information, call 534-8693.   -- The Gay and Lesbian Mormons will host a conference Sunday Fireside,  Oct. 5, 5p.m., at the Metropolitan Community Church,823 S. 600 East, Salt Lake City. For more information call 534-8693 09/14/97Page: B3

2015 Gay Men Aloud—NEW Supportive Group to Begin Gay Men Aloud is a new group for maturing gay men. The group is open to all gay men, and will meet the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month at the First Baptist Church. 777 S. 1300 E. in the north end cultural hall at 6:30pm. Parking is behind the church and entry to the gathering also in the rear of the building. There will be signage to direct people to the new and exciting group. There has for sometime now been a request for gay men to meet and discuss issues relevant to their lives, their experiences, and their aging, hence the creation of GMA. There will two formats for the two monthly meetings, one—an open forum with questions about an important topic to gay men, and second—an expert presenter, who will focus on an exact topic, and then lead a Q & A from the group. GMA is also for reconnecting as maturing gay men, sharing, learning, interacting, making friends, and discussing relevant issues and concerns. Aging in general can be a process that can be laced with many stressors; physical limitations, a gradual dependency on an already over-burdened healthcare system, suitable housing, and sufficient income, navigating governmental and community systems, and isolation from limited family resources. Although the stressors of aging are similar between gay and straight males, they are compounded for maturing gay man by certain societal stigmatizations and surviving in a youth-centric gay culture. Invisibility increases regardless of social involvement, as does blatant and subtle ageism and even discrimination in certain individuals. GMA will explore solutions to these aging issues, along with many other topics the group will determine. Gay Men Aloud will be and open and affirming group, with the desire to have the group create the programming that best meets their current needs, issues, and concerns. GMA is a safe sanctuary for open-minded, lively, and courteous discussion, as well as information gathering, learning, and creating sustainable lives for all its gay maturing members. If you’ve questions please go to Gay Men Aloud on FaceBook and join our group. We anticipate and are planning a robust and exhilarating time.