This Day in Gay Utah History September 7th

September 7th

Dr. G Frank Lydston

1889- An 1879 graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical School in New York, Dr. George Frank Lydston became a specialist in genito-urinary surgery and venereal disease.  He taught, wrote prolifically in his field, managed what was said to be an extremely lucrative private practice, and became professor of criminal anthropology at Kent College of Law as well. In 1889 Dr G. Frank Lydston gave a lecture at the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons in which he claimed that sexual perversion was a result of moral, physical, and mental defect. He said that those who prefer their own sex are often effeminate and have an inferior physical make up, are likely to recognize one another and congregate together, and are more frequently male than female. Other sexual perversions he discussed included bestiality, and oral sex with a member of the opposite sex. In an 1893 "open letter" published in the Virginia Medical Monthly, Hunter Holmes McGuire, a Richmond physician and president of the American Medical Association, asked for "some scientific explanation of the sexual perversion in the Negro of the present day." McGuire's correspondent, Chicago physician G. Frank Lydston, replied that African-American men raped white women because of "[h]ereditary influences descending from the uncivilized ancestors of our Negroes." Lydston suggested as a solution to perform surgical castration, which "prevents the criminal from perpetuating his kind."  Recognizing that the balls are the source of sperm led many doctors to attempt to cure even erectile dysfunction with transplants. In 1914, Dr. G. Frank Lydston implanted the testicle of a suicide victim into his own scrotum, kicking off a wave of experiments that saw doctors doing all kinds of shenanigans down there. One California doctor implanted testicles from death row convicts as well as injecting men with solutions made from boar, ram and goat testes. Needless to say, none of this stuff had any positive effect, despite their claims to the contrary. 

1972 Six Clearfield Job Corpsmen, two of them juveniles are being held by Salt Lake authorities on armed robbery, kidnapping and sodomy charges from two separate incidents last weekend.  In the other incident job corps officials said three males forced two men and a woman to take them for a ride early Saturday morning threatening to use a gun if they did not. The suspects allegedly forces the victims to perform sodomy officials said. Ogden Standard Examiner

1986-Wasatch Affirmation moved from the Crossroads Urban Center at 347 South 400 East  to the Unitarian Church Fellowship Hall at 569 South 1300 East. The Crossroads Urban Center allowed several Gay organizations to use their meeting rooms. Michael Ortega was then the director of the center and as a Gay man allowed organizations to meet there for free.

Mason Rankin

1988 - Mason Rankin held a demonstration in front of the Wallace Bennett Federal Building on State Street and 1^st South to protest Orin Hatch’s remarks about the Democratic Party was the party of homosexuals.  Mason Rankin was a Gay Republican. 

Rocky O'Donovan

1989 The Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah met at the Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church.   Connell "Rocky" O'Donovan was elected chair of the Community Council’s Education Committee

1990 Friday-  THE BRIDGE Becky Moorman and Alice Drake are the publisher and editor of a new magazine for the Gay community called The Bridge.  They said it would be more of an arts and entertainment magazine then was the old Triangle but will still carry a resource guide and a community calendar.  I guess they have invested heavily in the hard and software which they will need to operate a news magazine, so their commitment to it is evident. I do like Becky, I just disagree with her on Lesbian separatism and was upset over the unkept commitments she made to me last year.  But that is water under "the Bridge" now so to speak.  I've spent the last year chewing Becky's ass. I now suppose I'll have to start kissing it.  Oh Well.  Media is everything when trying to accomplish anything. I invited Becky and Alice to the Mabon Festival because I know that they are pagans. Perhaps that will be enough of an Olive Branch. (Ben Williams Journal)

David Sharpton

1990 Friday At community council tonight David Sharpton said that Governor Bangerter isn't declaring October AIDS Awareness Month so we need to get on the horn about that. ACT-UP is being formed October 6th and of course David will be right in the middle of it. He has enough anger, fluster, fury, and bluster to be a one man ACT-UP. [Journal of Ben Williams]

1996 Saturday Report detects an increase in assaults on freedom to learn in U.S. schools. GROUP VIEWS UTAH GAY-CLUB TIFF AS AN ATTACK BY RELIGIOUS RIGHT By Lee Davidson, Washington Correspondent Many Utah officials saw efforts to block creation of a gay-lesbian-straight club at East High School as an effort to protect morality in public education. But a national civil rights group said Wednesday that it is an example of an attack by the religious right on the freedom to learn. People for the American Way, which describes itself as a nonpartisan civil rights organization, each year issues a report on the number of attacks it finds on education nationally. Usually, the report gains most attention for examples of book censorship that it finds - but it found a decrease in such censorship during the past year. But it said it found an increase in what it sees as more general attacks from the religious right. And it used the East High School flap - one of only two attacks on education it found in Utah during the year - as an example. It noted that the Salt Lake City School Board originally voted 4-3 to ban all non-curricular clubs in order to block the proposed gay club. It noted the Legislature later passed a law to circumvent the need for such a total ban by requiring school boards to deny access to any student group that would encourage criminal conduct (sodomy is illegal in Utah), promote bigotry or involve human sexuality, and it allows boards to decide whether to require parental permission for students to join clubs. The new report says

, "The bill, crafted in secret by the governor, GOP leaders and the Utah Eagle Forum, was never subjected to public testimony before the votes by the two houses."Architects of the bill included Robin Riggs, Gov. Mike Leavitt's legal counsel; former U.S. Attorney David Jordan; Salt Lake attorney Dan Berman; and Utah County Attorney Matt Hilton, who has represented conservative groups, who were assisted by a few Republican lawmakers. Leavitt was out of town during most of the discussions but was kept abreast of the group's work, said spokeswoman Vicki Varela. "He was not involved on a day-to-day basis as it was worked out," she said. The bill was kept secret until it was dropped on lawmakers' desks late in the afternoon of the one-day special session last April. While no public comment was sought during the special session, the issue consumed the Legislature's regular session. Committee meetings, during which public comment is heard, are not conducted during special sessions because of time constraints and rules that prohibit committees from meeting while either house is in session. People for the American Way said it saw an big increase in such "broader-based attacks on education" by the religious right. Also lumped into that category were such actions nationally as seeking voucher programs to allow parents to choose to use public education money for private and sectarian schools; attempts to inject prayer and religious activity into the official school day; and fights to add creationism to science classes. It said the number of such "broader-based" attacks nationally increased to 175 last year, up from 120 the previous year. Meanwhile, it found the number of attempts at book censorship fell to 300, down from 338 the previous year."It shows that many of these people have political or ideological agendas to promote. And it shows that the largest organized effort to limit what's taught in the schools is coming from the religious right," said Carole Shields, president of People for the American Way."I have four grandchildren. I want them to learn not what to think but how to think. And this report shows that many attack son public education mirror our national debates about racism, poverty, sexuality, crime, drug and alcohol abuse and AIDS."We must analyze this report and decide as a nation: Will we bequeath to our children the tools and information they need to address these complex issues as they grow into adulthood? Or will our gift to them be ever-narrowing horizons of thought and speech?" she said. The report also released a list of the most frequently challenged books nationally. They include: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," by Maya Angelou; "The Giver," by Lois Lowry; "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain; "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck; and "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker. The report listed what the group said was one attempt by a parent in Salt Lake City to remove "The City of Gold and Lead “by John Christopher from an elementary school library because of violence and supposed references to child abuse. A committee reviewed the request but decided to retain the book. The report said 475 attacks on education occurred nationally last year - which it said was a record - and occurred in 44 of the 50 states. Only 10 states had fewer than the two incidents reported in Utah. © 1998 Deseret News Publishing Co.

Laura Milliken Gray

1997- Jimmie Miller & Laura Milliken Gray sponsored the 1^st Annual Two Mile Rainbow Fun Run/Walk held at Memory Grove. Proceeds went to Benefit the Anti-Violence Project of Utah.

1997  The Fourth Annual Stonewall Classic softball tournament was held at Jordan Park as a benefit for the Utah Stonewall Center.

1997- Fund raiser was held for Auntie De [Dean Walton] who had open heart surgery.  Mad Woman Empress Wilma and Emperor 18 Marshall Bruner hosted “Hollywood Canteen, A night of Uniform” benefit.

1997 Page: J3 Salt Lake Tribune Luncheon Program Honors Six Outstanding Women The 1997 YWCA Outstanding Achievement Award Winners will be honored Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Leader Luncheon IX. The event is at the Salt Lake Marriott, 75 S. West Temple. Admission is $35 a plate; call 355-2804.  This year's

Luci Malin

winners were chosen by last year's honorees, Marie Augustine, Carol Ann Dunlap, Tomiye Ishimatsu, Luci Malin, Karen Shepherd and Carol M. ``Maggie'' Snyder. 

Maggie Snyder Kristen Ries

  The winners, all from the Salt Lake City area, are:-- Barb Barnhart, Human Services: Barnhart, diagnosed with AIDS, is committed to educate about the virus.   Her goal is to alleviate fear and misconceptions through education. She has kept every speaking engagement despite surgeries and life-threatening setbacks. Barnhart struggles daily to keep living 

and continue to have a positive impact on the community.   -- Laura Boardman, Business: 

Boardman is owner of an interior-design company. She is a founding member and has been president of the Salt Lake Chapter, National Association of Women Business Owners.   Besides working with women in business, Boardman educates the community about teen pregnancy, welfare reform and single parenting. Her example as a teen parent helps other women overcome barriers to attaining success.   -- Ann Erickson, Education: Erickson's education career began as a Murray High School math teacher and concluded as dean and vice president at Salt Lake Community College.   Erickson's 30 years in education include founding the women's center at SLCC, beginning summer math-anxiety workshops and founding Math, Engineering, Science Achievement, a college-based program to support expanded career opportunities for women and minorities.   -- Eileen Hallet Stone, Arts/Communication: Besides publishing her first book, Missing Stories, Stone edits a graphic-arts magazine and an Intermountain West community magazine and photographs historical projects. In May, Stone received the Volunteer Service Award of Honor from the National Council of Jewish Women, Utah Section. Ten years ago, she developed a plan for NCJW to prepare and serve holiday meals to the homeless and homebound, a project that today includes serving 1,000 people each year.-- Elizabeth Hammond, Science/Medicine/Technology: Hammond has been chairwoman of the pathology department at LDS Hospital since 1992. Throughout her medical career, she has worked to open doors in medicine to women, by speaking and encouraging women to pursue their career aspirations. Hammond combines career and family, emphasizing that her best talent is rearing three children.   -- Brandy Farmer, Government/Public Service: Farmer is coordinator for Utah Atty. Gen. Jan Graham's ``Safe at Home'' anti-domestic-violence program. Since 1994, 50,000 Utahns have heard the program's message that everyone has the right to peaceful homes and relationships.   Farmer shared her story in the KUED-TV documentary ``My Husband Is Going to Kill Me'' and the Woman's World article ``A Promise Kept.''

Hugo Salinas

2003 Page: AA6 Gay and Lesbian Mormons decry apostle's remarks By Hugo Salinas Members of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons are embarrassed and saddened by recent statements by LDS Church Apostle Russell M. Ballard at Brigham Young University (Tribune, Aug. 21). It is difficult to understand how LDS leaders today could be so invested in condemning and making illegal an alternative family model when early Mormon leaders were so persecuted and excluded for practicing another alternative family model. Elder Ballard and other LDS leaders view the prospect of same-sex unions as nothing short of apocalyptic. But many of us have been living for years with same-sex partners, raising children and providing for our families. And the sky has not yet fallen. We do not understand how this aggressive crusade

Russell M Ballard

against same-sex unions will help strengthen families, but we do see daily how the rhetoric of exclusion helps destroy lives. We see it among many who are excommunicated from their religious communities and ostracized by their families; we see it among those who undergo horrific so-called "treatments" in order to repress their natural feelings; we see it among those who turn to suicide in a desperate attempt to alleviate their pain and alienation from the church. When Elder Ballard condemns gay and lesbian families, he is not addressing some abstract satanic force at play in Canada, or in the Netherlands, or in San Francisco. He is condemning thousands of Mormon families here in Utah; condemning your neighbors, your children, and your siblings; in effect, asking that you reject your own.  -----   Hugo Salinas is associate director of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons and lives in Salt Lake City. His commentary represents the organization's executive committee.

2005 Subject: Salt Lake Suicide Prevention Vigil Wednesday, September 7 6:30 p.m Memory Grove around the Meditation Chapel Dear Russ, Paul, Gary, Edgar, Duane & Aaron: Is any of you planning to take some pictures during the Candlelight Suicide Vigils to be held September 7? On the Affirmation website I intend to report on this event, and I would love one or a few pictures to go along with the story.. Digital pictures are of course welcome. But if anyone has a conventional camera that could also bring to the event, please email me ASAP. Affirmation might be willing to pay for developing and mailing the film. Thanks! I expect to see some of you next month in Denver ;) Hugo in North Carolina

2006 Thursday *Invenio—**Utah's Gay Men's Health **Summit** Presents*: Human Rights or Gay Rights? The Utah AIDS Foundation is proud to announce *Invenio—**Utah* *'s Gay Men's Health **Summit** Presents*: Human Rights or Gay Rights? Thursday, September 7, 2006 7:00 pm GLBTCCU Multipurpose room  361 North 300 West SLC UT *Does it seem that the yellow and blue equals sign is everywhere?* *Where are all those rainbow colored stickers we used to see?* *Has the HRC symbol replaced our rainbow?* *Are we OK with that? What might it mean?*