This Day In Gay Utah History SEPTEMBER 3rd

September 3rd

Prison at Sugarhouse

1891 Salt Lake Tribune Utah Central Litigation  page 8 WANTS A PARDON "Frank M. Wilson who was given three year in the pen for “Crime Against Nature” writes to the governor for pardon" on the ground that he was innocent of the crime. 

1913 Walter Rackins Case No. 3346 Third District Judicial Court Complaint: On this 5th day of Sept. A.D. 1913 before me, N.H. Tanner, Judge of the city court within and for Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, State of Utah personally appeared S.W. Tucker who on being duly sworn by me on his oath did say that Walter Rackins on the 3rd day of Sept.  A.D. 1913 at the County of Salt Lake, State of Utah, did commit the crime of attempted indecent as follows to wit: That the said Walter Rackins did at the time and place aforesaid did wilfully (sic), unlawfully, and feloniously attempt to make an assault upon Leonard Williamson, a male child under the age of fourteen years, to wit, of the age of 13 years, and did then and there wilfully (sic), unlawfully, and feloniously attempt to take indecent liberties with the private person of the said Leonard Williamson without committing or intending or attempting to commit the crime of rape of the said Leonard Williamson: Information: Walter Rackins, having heretofore been duly committed to this court by N.H. Tanner, a Committing Magistrate of said County, to answer to this charge, is accused by E.O. Leatherwood, District Attorney of the Third Judicial District of the State of Utah, Salt Lake County, by this information, of ATTEMPTED INDECENT ASSAULT committed as follows, to-wit:  That the said  Walter Rackins at the county of Salt Lake City, State of Utah, on the 3rd day of September A.D. 1913, did wilfully (sic), unlawfully and feloniously attempt to make an assault upon Leonard Williamson, a male child under the age of fourteen years to wit, of age thirteen years, and did and there willfully (sic), unlawfully and feloniously take indecent liberties with the person of Leonard Williamson without committing or intending or attempting to commit the crime of rape of the said Leonard Williamson: Contrary to the provisions of the statute of the State aforesaid, in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Utah.” Rackins is not listed in the 1910 US Census however there is a Rackins family in Provo.  He may have been a transient. The Williamson family lived near 8th South and 8th East in the Liberty Park area.

1933-A New York Times book review praised Lesbian author Gertrude Stein's "Autobiography of Alice B Toklas". The book was, written in the guise of an autobiography authored by Alice B. Toklas, who was Stein's lover.

1939 Sheriff’s men reveal Vicious Circle of Vice-Also in the Weber jail under $1000 bail was Perry Buck Campbell Foster, Negro, 65, of 230 25^th Street charged with sodomy. He waived preliminary hearing when arraigned before city Judge Belnap and was bound over to Second District Court for trial. Sheriff John R Watson who made the arrest said the Negro is involved with a number of boys. Ogden Standard Examiner

1957-In the UK, the Wolfenden report was published. It had studied legal approaches to homosexuality and recommended the decriminalization of sex between consenting adults over the age of 21.

1969-The American Sociological Association became the first national professional organization in the US to issue a statement supporting gay and lesbian civil rights.

1979 "Stanger and Child Protest Utah Law - Lunnen, Oaks Refute Critics of 'Y' Security Powers", Daily Herald, September 3, 1979; Ronald Stanger was the attorney for David Chipman. Stanger "a good Mormon" took on Chipman's case "because he feels that such activities by the BYU police is legally and morally wrong and the Church has no business being involved in such activities."  Stanger was also the lawyer for Gary Gilmore the first man executed in Utah after the Supreme Court had reinstated it.Picture of Ron Stanger

Michael Aaron

1987 Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah held meeting at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church  . Michael Aaron agreed to chair the Anti-Gay Attacks committee because of his involvement in his own Anti-Violence Project. Satu Servigna was representing the Triangle Magazine now as it undergoes a transformation.  Its more of a community digest now. "Randy Olsen called me to tell me about GLCCU. He said he saw John Bennett there and that he has moved back to Utah from California. Reina Horton from the Youth Group was elected to replace John Reeves as Vice Chair."

1990 Monday It was the Full moon tonight and the Sacred Faeries had a circle tonight, held over at Carla Gourdin's house.  It was magical. Those present were Woman of Power (Carla Gourdain), Devorah, (Debbie Rosenberg), Luna (Kathryn Warner), Marie, Puck (Mike Pipkim), Gillian (Robert Smith), and myself, Gayflower.  Devorah had us learn the words to Holly Near's "Sky Dances", which we sang, and we danced and did Magick. Luna taught us a song "I walk in Beauty", which I really like.  We also planned to meet every Wednesday for Crafts and to meet next Saturday as a Faerie presence at the "Say Yes

to Life Celebration" at Liberty Park.  Our next Faerie Circle is on October 5th which we have consensually agreed will be separate male and female circles so that we can work on some gender issues. Luna also suggested that we go to the Lava Hot Springs for Samhaim which is Halloween. After closing the circle, we all went down to the Federal Building on 1st South and State Street for the Peace Watch and Candlelight Vigil.  About fifty people attended including the Sacred Faeries.  Rocky O'Donavan and Robert Erichssen, who just got back from their trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming were able to be there. Curtis Jensen and some of his friends also showed up. Mostly I think the Candlelight Vigil was made up of Quakers and queers and Queer Quakers.  (Journal of Ben Williams)

Herman Moore

1996 - Herman Moore aka Empress XII Donnie Marie of the Royal Court of the Golden spike Empire died. Empress XII was the first Native American to be crowned an Empress in the Imperial Court System.    "A kind and gentle man"  Herman Moore, 43, was born November 4, 1952 in Window Rock, Arizona, passed away September 3, 1996 in Salt Lake City, Utah due to complications resulting from AIDS.  Graduate of Provo High School, 1970; graduate of BYU, 1974. Worked as an accountant for the last 22 years (most of which were with First Security Bank).  Preceded in death by mother, Flora and brother, William Jr. Survived by brother, Ernie and his wife, Margie; three nieces, two nephews, and one great-nephew. He also left behind his many close friends who were his life in Salt Lake City. Herman was always there when his friends needed him and saw them through the good and bad times. Seldom seen without a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye. His arms were always open to reach out and touch. Special thanks to Dr. Kristen Rees and Maggie Snyder and special friends, Ron and Scott, for their undenying support. Memorial services celebrating Herman's life will be held on Saturday, September 14, 1996, 2 p.m., at The Sun, 702 West 200 South. In lieu flowers, please donate to the RCGSE AIDS Fund, P. O. Box 11793, S.L.C., Utah 84147.

Vince Iturbe

1996 Reaching Out to Those Who Have AIDS; Volunteer Loves Helping Patients Cope Byline: BY ANNE WILSON THE SALTLAKE TRIBUNE    Vince Iturbe's first encounter with AIDS   still haunts him.   It was 1984, the early days of the epidemic, when the disease was a death sentence that almost guaranteed social exile. Iturbe was as ignorant as anyone.   His Roman Catholic priest told him about a sick man who needed help and was deserted. When Iturbe learned the man also was dying of   AIDS, he was afraid.   He agreed to a visit after the hospice nurse assured him there was no risk of infection. But he was not prepared for what he saw.   ``It was kind of like looking at a poster child for Ethiopia, when they were starving to death,'' says Iturbe.   Since that day, Iturbe has spent untold hours with people dying of AIDS – feeding them, reading to them, listening to their hopes and fears, buying their burial plots, planning their funerals and comforting their grieving families.   He is paid for none of it.  Iturbe is a volunteer for Community Nursing Service's Journey Home program, which provides comprehensive care for people in the latter stages of AIDS, from skilled nursing services and occupational therapy to counseling and companionship.   Volunteers are a critical component of the hospice team, supporting patients and families frazzled by the physical demands of caring for a terminally ill loved one.   ``Vince has been the biggest blessing in my life. He's given me the will to live,'' says 42-year-old David Johnson, Iturbe's current patient. ``He's like a big brother to me.''   Journey Home coordinator Ann Stromness says Iturbe has an ability to ``read'' patients and sense what they need. Most want to talk, but she has known Iturbe to sit next to a patient’s bed for hours, in comfortable silence.   ``People feel they can talk to him and tell him anything. He's very nonjudgmental and understanding,'' she says.   Iturbe pauses when asked why he is willing to help strangers die of a disease that once was so reviled that he didn't discuss his hospice work with friends.   ``I don't know. I can't explain it. I just couldn’t envision not taking care of them,'' he says.   Maybe it was his Italian mother's penchant for rescuing wounded animals from the streets of the New York City neighborhood where he grew up. More than once, Iturbe and his three siblings coaxed wounded birds back to health by feeding them with an eyedropper.   ``My mother showed me how to love animals,'' says the 50-year old Iturbe, watching his calico cats, D.C. and Logger, stalk through his Salt Lake City condominium.   His mother's philosophy of ``what's mine is yours'' may also have played a part.   ``If you came into the house when we were eating one hamburger, you got a bite of the hamburger,'' says Iturbe. ``Some of that rubbed off on me.''   Or it might have been the tour in Vietnam, when Iturbe began to question the meaning of his own life. It was October 1968, and Iturbe's first real venture outside the paved world of his boyhood.  ``If you want to see something funny, look at a kid from New York City in the jungle,'' Iturbe chuckles, shaking his head. Humor became his coping mechanism, a way to deflect the pain of events he could not control.  ``I had to laugh. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it worked . . . If I'm not lighthearted, I can't seem to quite deal with things,'' he says.   During his 18 months in the jungle, Iturbe watched half of his eight-man squad die. He left Vietnam with valuable survival and people skills -- and a renewed belief in an afterlife.  But he wondered about his purpose in life. ``My Vietnam experience changed the way I believed my life was going to be,'' Iturbe says. He knew he had to make a meaningful contribution. What that might be did not become clear until the mid-1980s, after Iturbe had settled into a career with the U.S. Department of Labor. He first worked for the federal government in New Jersey, but felt a nagging desire to see the West.  In June 1976, Iturbe arrived in Salt Lake City in his Volkswagen Beetle. It was a warm, perfectly clear day, the sky was deep blue and the grass glowed an early summer green. He was smitten. He got a part-time job with the Utah Department of Employment Security, which soon offered him full-time work. Iturbe worked and skied through the winter and got promoted. In 1982, he jumped at the opportunity to work for the Labor Department in Washington, D.C., for two years. When he returned from the big city life that was so familiar, Salt Lake suddenly seemed like a backwater. Iturbe fell into a funk. It was then that his parish priest hooked him up with the hospice nurse. Iturbe helped that first patient as he was dying. Then, there was another man. And another. Iturbe read all he could about AIDS. The more he knew, the harder it became to excuse the social prejudice against people with AIDS. ``I have found my patients to be nurturing, loving, creative people who wouldn't hurt a fly,'' says Iturbe. ``I have to deal with the flipside of that, a society that wants to judge, condemn and harass an AIDS patient.''   The stigma has lessened, but it lingers. When David Johnson came home to die, his family's life changed forever, says Johnson's mother, Blanche.   At one point, the Johnsons were administering 57 different medications to their son. Some had to be given every two hours, meaning Blanche and her husband, also named David, slept in shifts. That stress was compounded by the ignorance of some friends and relatives.   ``There's so many people who don't understand about the AIDS disease,'' says Blanche. ``We should live to be more Christlike. We shouldn't judge everybody.''   Johnson is unlike most of Iturbe's patients: He has become so well, he no longer needs hospice care. In Iturbe's 12 years of volunteer service, that has happened only twice. Plus, Johnson has the support of his family.   Johnson's improved health means Iturbe will be assigned a new patient, probably within a couple of months. In the meantime, he will resume his life: early morning gym workouts, work, reading, hiking and listening to classical music. Occasionally, Iturbe serves as a speaker for the Utah AIDS Foundation. And he has taught a class on   HIV/AIDS at a vocational school in Davis County. When the call comes, Iturbe will be ready.   ``I have the ability to make the patient feel comfortable, to laugh.  . . . They come to the realization on their own that they're still worth something,'' he says  Page: B1 The Salt Lake Tribune

Jacob Orosco

1997 Jacob Lawrence Orosco (1980-1997) committed suicide. Although Jacob Orosco wasn't a Mormon, he lived in Utah, a state where the teachings of the LDS Church profoundly influence public policy and the atmosphere in the schools. State law forbids Utah's public school teachers from saying anything in the classroom that would imply acceptance or advocacy of homosexuality. When Jacob and nine other friends tried to form a Gay/Straight Alliance, a group of students at West High, across town, formed SAFE--Students Against Fags Everywhere. A state legislator talked of "serious concerns about the group's moving into recruitment of fresh meat for the gay population." Jacob was out of the closet, not just to friends and family but to the entire community. He had helped found a gay club at his high school, a move that had prompted the Salt Lake City school board to shut down all extracurricular activities rather than grant the club official status. Jacob was highly regarded by his friends and peers in the East High School Gay/Straight Alliance. He was gentle, funny, and warm-hearted. He was slated to be the Alliance's president in the 1997-1998 school year. When he took his life in his mother's home on September 3, 1997, he was 17, a senior in high school. In his final days, Jacob had been busy reorganizing the club. Despite the ban on extracurricular clubs, the Gay/Straight Alliance had held evening meetings last spring at his school, East High, which is required by law to rent space to community organizations. In his final days, he had been dealing with a new obstacle, finding $400 to buy a $1 million liability insurance policy demanded by the school before the club could resume its evening meetings. "Jacob stood out as a dynamic, funny and seemingly confident young man," wrote Jeff Dupre and Eliza Byard, two documentary filmmakers who interviewed Jacob and others involved in the club for their film, Out of the Past, on the history of gays and lesbians in the United States. "He was an accomplished athlete, a talented gymnast and an inspiration to the fellow members of the [Gay/Straight] Alliance... a vibrant and impressive young man who turned handsprings on a sunny lawn to the applause and admiration of his friends." Words by Jacob: "To me, taking clubs from us is like putting a gun in our hands and waiting for the trigger to be pulled."

•  Jacob Lawrence Orosco: February 17, 1980 – September 3, 1997 By Katie Barnes, Member of the East High Gay/Straight Alliance If you ever observed a tall, strong, strapping, hurdle-jumping East High track star with big brown eyes, golden skin, numerous piercings, glitter, orange hair, and platform shoes, you too have been in the effervescent bubble that was Jacob "Hey Girlfriend!" Orosco. Always sharing his lunch time goober sandwiches and always giving with his loving time, whoever you were, he gave you his full electric attention. Whatever your problem, be it a new hairdo or your latest clothing article, he was always there. When sadness got to you and the corners of your mouth were drooping, Jacob had the ultimate dry-land ice skating routine, complete with his starry voice accompaniment, to rev your happiness motor. This athletic whip-tip boy was the energized flamer who would shop feverishly all day and still absorb in the techno and club all night. No disco ball was safe from his grooving shake-shake, matched with a precisioned glow-stick baton swirl. Still, he balanced his child, "coco-man" charm with a respectable job as a Mervyn’s sales clerk. Those who knew him barely understood how he kept his job with his horrific color-code reorganization skills. Luckily, his smiling, driving, helpful ambition kept him employed.  He was a genuinely loving, sugary-eccentric guy, who was not afraid to be who he really was: a seventeen year old gay teenager. He never hesitated to tell the whole world to, "Go home!" *snap-snap* Jacob Orosco, you will live through time with your love of shoes, shopping, track hurdles, perfumes, Rocky Horror Picture Show, serenading, hair dye, make-up, fake ID’s, Barbies, dresses, glitter, synthetic fur, hugs, and sloppy kisses. Always and forever in our hearts, we love you Jacob. Jacob Orosco, one of the founding members of the East High Gay/Straight Alliance, committed suicide on September 3, 1997. He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him. 

Jacob Orozco took his own life reportedly by hanging himself in his mother's home after a two-year battle against school district apathy toward gay and lesbian students' needs. Along with school mates at East High School in Salt Lake City, Jacob had formed a Gay-Straight Student Alliance, a support organization for students dealing with issues related to teen sexuality and homophobia. Recently, the school board had reportedly placed additional financial obstacles in the way of the group meeting. Jacob was slated to become the next president of the East High School Gay-Straight Alliance. The Alliance gained public attention in 1996 when its straightforward quest to provide support to kids in need was met by a wave of homophobia in the Utah State Legislature. Effectively condemning these kids , the Salt Lake City School District banned the meeting of ALL extra-curricular activity groups during public school hours rather than permit the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet. The members of the GSA took a lot of flak from fellow students for being perceived as the reason the clubs were all banned. A memorial service for Jacob will be held in Salt Lake City, Friday, September 12.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

3 September 1999 UTAH FUNDRAISER FOR CALIFORNIANS FOR FAIRNESS  - SEPT 3 On September 3rd The Trapp, along with GALPAC and Utahn's For Fairness will beholding a fund raiser for Californians For Fairness. The cost of entry is $5.00 dollars,  and all proceeds go directly to CFF's fight to kill the Knight Initiative. Joe Redburn is very excited for this event, and encourages all to come and join in the out giving. Please tell all your friends. UTAHNS FOR FAIRNESS Also help us spread the word about the importance of sending donations to CFF to counterbalance the Mormon effort in California. Send donations to Californians for Fairness  505 Howard Street San Francisco, CA  94105.  If anti-gay Mormons can give $100 or $200 to the other side, surely we can each give $5 or $10 to OUR side. We are still encouraging unhappy Mormons to take their names off the records of the church as part of our campaign to send the church a message.  Please call or write to your friends, ask if they're still Mormon and if they'd be willing to do this.  I have instructions and a sample letter for anyone who is interested. Kathy Worthington

Chad Keller 1969-2007

2002 Chad Keller to Todd Dayley Subject Community Leadership Forum: The next Community Leadership Forum will be September 12, 2002 at Angles Coffee Shop located at 511 West 200 South at 7:30 p.m. Organizational Host Michael Mitchell of Unity Utah will give a brief presentation on how to encourage members to encourage our memberships to vote, and how to keep members informed of the issues they may be facing, The Group will also have a crash course workshop on Effective Press Releases.  As a Group we will be exploring two options on supporting each other and keeping the entire community visible in the press year round. In our In-Service segment we will discuss Building a Better Board Meeting.  The information we have gathered for participants on this issue should help give them assistance in shortening board meetings, keep meetings on task, and relieve some of the hassle that we all face once a month or more in "those" meetings.  Being on a board is work but should be fun too!  As always the Pillar's Community Leadership Forum is there to serve the leadership of the community and its many organizations.  Meetings are tailored to the needs that our local groups have.  Our intent is to provide to the leaders, present and future of the community with the training and tools to be strong and resilient.    We meet at various locations provided and hosted by our community supporters. The best is that refreshments are always provided!!  Remember there are incentives to attending the Community Leadership Forum. One being that attending organizations are featured in the monthly Community Calendar published each month starting in September in the Pillar.  Attending Organizations will also be featured in the upcoming Online Pillar Master Calendar.  Other Discounts to local businesses for goods and services are in the works.  Everyone is welcome and we highly encourage the leaders of GLBT or community friendly organizations to attend.  Meeting are held to 1 to 1.5 hours, as we all have other things to do. Starting in October due to Group need will move to Wednesdays at 7:30.. The Community Leadership Forum and Roundtable is a project of the Pillar & Pillar Publications.

2002 Chad Keller to Utah Gay Rodeo Association and the Wasatch Leathermen Association: To The Brethren of WLA; UGRA Rodeo University 2002  is just a few days away. Attached is

an application to assist you in expediting registration.  Get it to your friends, it will be fun, and you should have a great day with all that has been planned. They can bring the applications it with them Saturday Morning to the Trapp (a private club).  Don’t be late we will leave on time at 9:00 am, as we have a big day ahead of us, and it seems that there are many organizations that are doing events and community outreach the evening of the September 7 2002, (a social hazard for a growing community) The Application fee is $20.00 and includes all of meal and breaks.  For those that would like to participate but are on a strained budget, there are scholarships and approved fee waivers available. Remember there is a $100.00 Cash prize for the Non Profit organization that has the most members participate over 6 people, and $50.00 for the most promising/most improved participant. If you are unable to attend the days activities, I hope that you will join us at the UGRA End of Summer BBQ/Rodeo University Celebration Sponsored by Bud Light and The Trapp (a private club).  We will return at around 6:30, and if God willing with tons of Rodeo University footage of many people and lots to talk about.  The cost for just the BBO is $5.00 for non members.  It will start at 6:30, and should prove to be interesting. If anything besides getting out and enjoying the last days of summer it is a perfect chance for some to see the great extent the UGRA has gone with IGRA [International Gay Rodeo Association] to see to the Health and Safety for the Animal Contestants.  They don’t call the IGRA Bud Light Rodeo Series the "Kinder Gentler Rodeo" for nothing. On behalf of UGRA and the RU2002 faculty thanks to all of you for your support, and I hope you are planning on joining us September 7th Thanks! Chad Keller & the Faculty of RU2002 PS word has it that there is some betting pools on some employees of two bars bar that will remain nameless.....hhhmmmmm this will be good!  PPS If your not present there will be no footage of me....so no proof of what a klutz I am!  That should be incentive enough! 

2003 The Utah Stonewall Democrats sponsored a Forum for the Mayoral Candidates in Salt Lake City, in the "black box theatre" at the Gay and Lesbian center, 355 North, 300 West. All five of the candidates for mayor were invited and commitments from Mayor Anderson, Frank Pignanelli and Moloni Hola.

2005 Annual women's potluck camp out Labor day weekend in New Harmony Utah! Mark your calendars for an awesome retreat, Starts Saturday anytime. Bring your tents, food(byob) and a bathing suit(or not) for the hot tub! This is a private party on 10 secluded acres, plenty of room to romp and be yourself! Adults only please. For more info and directions call Penny.

2005 Michael Dee Walters from AIDS. He was born November 23, 1940 in St. Anthony, Idaho.  Michael was an amazing and creative interior designer. His popular designs included Gastronomy Restaurants, the most recent being the Market Street Grill at Cottonwood. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the Utah AIDS Foundation, Michael's family would like to thank the following individuals for their never ending generosity and tender care: Tom Guinney, John Williams, Tackett Nunnery, and the angel Dr. Kristen Ries. Also a special thank you to CareSource Hospice. Eternal rest grant unto him O' Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

2005 Ben Williams wrote: This message is in response to a request to speak at LGSU October 24th. USHS will be happy to speak just let us know what topic you are interested in and where and when. Sincerely Ben Williams

• 8 Sep 2005 From: "LGSU Presidency" Subject: Re: Utah Stonewall Historical Society Ben, This is Bonnie Owens I am one of the LGSU co-presidents.  I am so glad that you will be speaking to our group.  We were hoping that you would talk to us about Gay history in general.  You are welcome to use an hour of our meeting time at your discretion. The meeting starts at 7:30pm.  It is in room 161 on the first floor of the Union Building. Here is a map and the address. Again thank you and feel free to email with any questions. Bonnie Owens

Ben Williams

2007 "Seth L. Bryant" wrote: Dear Ben, I have had the hardest time trying to reach you over the last few months; every email I have sent to various addresses has bounced back. Fortunately, I just read the Trib article on slavery and Mormonism, which led me to your Yahoo Group, which gave me this email address. This time I hope it goes through. Allow me to introduce myself: I'm a graduate student in the Religion Department at the University of Florida. My research involves the Latter Day Saint movement and specifically the cultural response of Latter Day Saints to homosexuality. As the "unofficial historian" on this subject, I would really love to discuss your experience and writings. I have read your blog at gayflower.blogspot.com with great interest, but was really frustrated that the month of August is missing (or, rather, the entries for July have been copied onto August). In terms of your relationship with the RCJC, the month of August appears to be very important. And, in that I am seeking out information on the history of the RCJC, that missing month appears to be very important to my research. I feel like I've invested hours into a putting together a puzzle only to find that the center piece is missing. Your help would really be appreciated. Regards, Seth. 

• Ben Williams wrote:  Hi Seth I am happy to help. I do believe the entire blog is on the Affirmation group site. When I first was posting Bloggers changed formats and so I switched over and have not really got back to check them out. I can also just send as an attachment the month of August if you like. By that time I was weaning my self away from participation in the church as Tony Feliz's influence was growing. I have a "360 degree " address for Marc LaMar who was also active in the church then but didn't have a leadership role. I also have Robert McIntier's address who probably would give you an entirely different perspective since he went on to become President of the Church. I was becoming a pain I think to those who saw the purpose of the church differently then I. I no longer have any real connection with Affirmation, Reconciliation, the RCJC or anything LDS in general. It was a part of my coming out process and now just a part of my personal history. 

Seth L. Bryant" wrote: Hi Ben, I wasn't able to find the blog on Affirmation's site; if you would forward the entries for August as an email attachment, I'd really appreciate it. Rick Phillips, at the beginning of 'The Case of Gay Mormons,' states that "people use religious beliefs to construct their worldview and order their reality, yet ... sexuality, or sexual preference, is an essential element of ones identity. Thus, the homosexual Mormon is caught between two conflicting statuses, both of which are often highly salient. On the one hand, the person is sexually attracted to members of his or her same sex, and, on the other, the person can possess strong religious beliefs and deep spiritual convictions that make it difficult for him or her to leave the church. This book attempts to show how people who hold these two incongruent statuses struggle to reconcile the contradictions in their lives" (1-2). While Phillip's work is groundbreaking, it says very little of the RCJC as a reconciliatory mechanism and viable alternative to the contradiction. I found your blog fascinating because it seems that your experience mirrors that of other individuals--and not only gay Mormons, but any LDS who has a crisis between their membership and some other "highly salient" aspect of their identity. In your case, it seems to me that the RCJC served as a temporary gateway or crossroad institution. Once the transition was effected and your identity crisis resolved, you were then able to move on and leave the RCJC and Mormonism behind (please add to or take away from that conclusion as you see fit; I would appreciate your input). While arriving at the crisis point under different circumstances, LDS academics, feminists, or others may undergo a similar transition, possibly seeking out something like the New Order Mormon (NOM) support group. Or, if they are ready to make a clean break, then the "www.post-mormon.org" billboards across Utah point the way to support groups and communities of persons on a parallel journey. Either way, there is usually something that helps in the transition (or, in the case of NOMs who remain in the church, perpetually reconciles the paradox) The fact that these groups are gateways to a new identity, a chrysalis of sorts, explains why they rarely retain members beyond a year (if that). I believe Affirmation has problems with keeping new members, having a core group that remains in the gateway and watches many come and go, and would bet that as time goes on, post-mormon.org will face similar issues. Because I am working on this from a distance, I would really appreciate any information that you could provide on the RCJC, or contacts with persons involved in it at any point. A few months ago I contacted Affirmation, and they gave me Robert McIntier's email and phone number, but after emailing him and calling his house, I haven't received a response back. I also tracked down the phone number to the RCJC church building in SLC and left a message, but again with the same result. If you're not opposed to an informal interview, I'd like to speak to you over the phone at some point. Using Google, I've been able to find some of your articles, and would be interested in reading other items that you have written. Please forward me anything you think would be pertinent and are willing to share. Thank you,  Seth. 


Ben Williams to Seth Bryant: You are right on the money about using Affirmation and RCJC as transitions even though I did not realize it at the time.  I was an unhappy person for a long time but I could not have just dropped my religious convictions to live as an openly Gay man.  I always maintained that Gay Mormons need Affirmation to transition because of the trappings and jargons that are familiar to them.  It would be too great of a shock to the spirit to just jump from a Mormon identity to a Gay identity.  I always saw Affirmation as a place of healing, overcoming and moving on. However I clashed often with those he felt that Affirmation should be a holding pen until the time the LDS church accepts Gays are they now welcome blacks.  I left the RCJC because I saw many in the church wishing it to become a Gay version of the LDS Church instead of the greater mission that I envisioned.  I also saw Tony consolidating power much in the way I imagined Joseph Smith began consolidating his...but more so I stopped believing in Joseph Smith's Restoration Churches. If I no longer could accept Smith as a prophet of God then it didn't matter whether I was in the LDS Church, the RLDS Church of the ALDS (All Latter Day Saints) Church.  Affirmation became more of a hindrance to my personal and spiritual growth as I became more in tune with what I call the Queer Spirit whether others call it the Light of Christ, Holy Ghost, Enlightenment etc. I went to the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of Affirmation where Connell O’Donovan, an old friend of mine, spoke. I went to see old friends, to record the event in my records but not out of any sense of belonging.  I looked around and saw a gather of middle age men, middle age couples, who I had the sad sense that they were trapped in an institution that neither affirms or validates them as human beings...but that's just me.   I truly see some of these people as being in a Mormon limbo neither being able to go back or forward.  Still I miss the camaraderie that Affirmation provided for those who believed. As the   song says some thing's gained but some thing's lost.   Good luck on your project  PS  I am rather explicit in some of my writings and hope you are not offended.
From: "Seth L. Bryant"  to  "Ben Williams"  Thanks for the attachment. Don't worry about offending me; I was a sergeant in the US Army (in what now seems like a former life), and so your journal is nothing compared to "barracks talk." I'll be in touch with a few questions once I get a chance to go over your entries again with the missing month in place. Seth Chaplain Seth L Bryant US Marines