This Day In Gay Utah History October 16

October 16th

1854-Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and author was born.

1880 Physician Perry D. McClanahan arrived in Loveland Colorado in 1871, serving the community as both doctor and deputy sheriff.  His medical practice was eventually purchased by Dr. George Taylor, who also operated a drug store after the doctor made plans to move to Utah. After coming to Provo, Utah he was eventually in trouble with the law for Sodomy and was the defendant in the first known trial in Utah under the new sodomy law He was held in jail during an investigation of the death of one of his patients. He was arrested for brandishing a knife over an ill patient that frightened the man to death. While in jail he engaged in sodomy with a 15-year-old male Charles Henry Barrett who was arrested for molesting a child. .Dr. McClanahan, was at the time of the assault was a 38 year old Union Civil War veteran recently married in 1879 to Anna Lewis Miller.  He was caught in the act of "ravishing" Charles Henry Barrett by the Sheriff John Turner of Provo.  The teenage Barrett was in jail for committing an assault on a 5 year old girl. The 1880 Census shows that he was born in England and came to Utah in about 1875. His family lived next door to the Newell Knight family in the 5th Ward. Newell Knight had a 5 year old daughter who may have been the victim of Barrett's crime.  The doctor said in his defense that he hadn’t "slept with two men for fifteen years." McClanahan endured two trials with hung juries, but the judge left him in jail for three months after the second trial, and then released him. He moved to Idaho and died in 13 July 1882 in Blackfoot, Idaho of chronic alcoholism. Mesh of Difficulties Doc McClanahan Find no Bail Yet. Territorial Enquirer Provo Utah- The 1880 Census list Perry D. McClanahan as married and living in the 3rd Ward in Provo Utah. He was 38 years old and born in Missouri. His wife was Anna Miller. The census lists him as living next door to a polygamist James Talmage and his son James E. Talmage who went on to be a Mormon Apostle and author of Jesus the Christ.  Sheriff John W Taylor earlier in the year had his son murdered in Park City by Fred Hopt and Jack McCormick. On 28 June 1880 the 24 year old John Turner left for Park City with two spans of horses to find work. On 1 July he joined up with Fred Hopt and Jack McCormick, who was traveling under the alias Jack Emerson. When last seen on 3 July Turner was driving one team of horses and Hopt the other. Turner’s body was found on 11 July. Someone had killed him with an ax, rolled the body in a tent, covered it with large rocks, and tried to burn it. Hopt was pursued and arrested in Cheyenne, Wyoming, by Sheriff Turner. At the time of his arrest, Hopt was asked why he killed the sheriff’s son. He replied, “Turner was Sheriff and Johnny used to come to feed me at the jail and one morning he abused me, and I done it to get even with him” (Salt Lake Tribune, 12 Aug. 1887). Later Hopt blamed the killing on McCormick.

1975-During a raid on a Hollywood Gay porn theater Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles is arrested. Maurice Weiner, was arrested for groping an undercover police officer.  He was found guilty of "lewd conduct" in 1976, resulting in his subsequent resignation from office.  Conviction Obituary

Gloria Steinem

1975 Ms Magazine editor Gloria Steinem spoke at the University of Utah to an audience of over 5,000 on the Equal Rights Amendment. She mentioned Utah’s Gay Community Service Center and that new consciousness raising sessions were soon to be initiated by a lesbian counselor associated with the center. Thursday Gloria Steinem spoke at the University of Utah  sponsored by the Women Unlimited Conference. Concerning Women’s Rights in Utah Steinem said the Mormon Church has hindered the feminist movement because most Utah women have grown up with limited ideas how to exist.  She said the Mormon Church involvement against the ERA should make people “recommit themselves to separation of church and state.  Steinem called organized religion the “most patriarch society of all. Religion is devoted to the perpetual glorification of the ruling class.  It enshrines sexism, and racism.  Gloria Steinem, editor of Ms Magazine and a national figurehead in the feminist movement spoke at the Women Unlimited Conference in front of an audience of over 5,000 about the Gay Community Service Center. Ms. Steinem flew from NYC to address the conference on various aspects of the feminist movement across the United States, including the ERA, discrimination, rape, and the church versus the state. Speaking about Utah programs, Ms. Steinem mentioned that Gay Community Service Center offered a 24 hour help line, and that a new consciousness raising sessions were soon to be initiated by a Lesbian counselor associated with the center. (Babs De Lay) Consciousness Raising Groups are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. This popular fad has become a steady need in Gay circles and will soon be established at the Gay Community Service Center by social  work Bab de Lay.  The purpose of the Consciousness Raising Group is to help members understand themselves better and to realize how they interact with their partners, associates and family. (10/17/1975 Utah Daily Chronicle page 1)

Cleve Jones

1987-AIDS quilt organizer Cleve Jones was named "Person of the Year" by ABC anchorman Peter Jennings.

1988 The Utah Valley Men’s Group reported that BYU is threatening Gay students with expulsion unless they agree to undergo “reorientation therapy”.

1988-Chuck Whyte presented the 7th Annual Unity Show, a variety performance to unify the Gay community. At the Unity show held at Backstreet I sat with Chris Brown and Mark Kraft. Neil Hoyt performed for Affirmation.  Dr. Patty Reagan spoke for the Salt Lake AIDS Foundation and she was great. (Ben Williams journal)

  

Becky Moss

1995- AIDS Meet: Laughter Can Heal Byline: By Jay Baltezore Page: D3 THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE AIDS is not considered a funny matter.  But when Becky Moss strolled to the podium at the weekend Living with AIDS Conference in Salt Lake City wearing a horned viking cap and a white apron, it quickly became evident the audience would get a few laughs. The apron declared in red letters: ``It ain't over till the fat lady sings.'' ``I heard someone on the radio the other day say that AIDS is caused by gay sex,'' Moss stated seriously. Her reaction: ``So, don't have fun when you have sex.'' The 37-year-old native Utahn addressed nearly 70 conference participants Saturday on the healing power of laughter at the University Park Hotel. The fledgling standup lesbian comedienne says she has lost more than 50 friends to AIDS – the closest one being her sister, Peggy Tingey, who died in March. Tingey, a board member of the People With Aids Coalition of Utah, apparently contracted HIV from a former fiancé. She unwittingly passed it to her son, Chance, who died of pneumonia brought on by AIDS in July 1994, at the age of 4. ``Peggy found a lot of humor in her condition,'' said Moss, who has gained a following as producer of the weekly KRCL-FM radio program Concerning Gays and Lesbians. During a memory lapse, said Moss, her sister told family members she would begin a job the next morning as an assistant manager at a Hardee's restaurant. ``We would tell her the funny things when she came out of it,'' said Moss, ``and we would all laugh.'' Moss' stage act, which she inaugurated at  the Gay Ski Week in Park City in January, is a mixture of gay- and lesbian-related jokes, personal stories and a put down of myths surrounding alternative lifestyles. And, like other gay comedians, she makes full use of the curious and absurd. Although raised in a Mormon family as one of seven children, Moss long ago strayed from that faith. She conservatively sprinkles her humor with vignettes from Utah's predominate religion, but also strives for a more ecumenical flavor. ``A friend told me the Pope soon will release a new book, in which he supports gay rights, abortion rights and priesthood for women,'' she said. ``It's called `Pope Fiction.'''  Cracking jokes about AIDS serves as a release valve for Moss, who claims that humor can result from depression over one's health or personal affairs. ``Maybe it's macabre that I can make humor out of the memory of my family members and friends,'' she said. ``You can express frustration through anger or humor. But anger creates walls, while humor opens doors and lets people see you.''

1998 A 13-year-old boy at Provo Utah’s Centennial Middle School stepped to the microphone and wished that “gay men be crucified on Main Street and lesbians be burned at the stake.’’ . Boy suspended

1998 Zipperz Salt Lake’s First Gay Video and Social Club opened at 155 W 200 S

2005 Boy’s Don’t Cry starring Hillary Swank at the Post Theater at the University of Utah.

2002 UTAH STONEWALL HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND ARCHIVES RESUMES MEETINGS SALT LAKE CITY -- Former Utah Gay and Lesbian Historical Society Director Rocky Donovan said in 1989 at the state Pride celebration that Gays and lesbians have displayed a heritage worth recovery and safeguarding. Gay- and lesbian-history leaders and supporters announced in October their plan to resume actively researching, gathering and publishing gay and lesbian history in the state as the new Utah Stonewall Historical Society and Archives. An introductory group presentation is planned for 7:00 p.m. on Nov. 27 at Angles Deli-Coffee-Gallery at 511 West 200 South. Group leaders are inviting the sexual-minority communities along the Wasatch Front to become actively involved in preserving their collective history. Ben Williams served as a co-founder of the original group and remarked at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall revolution that Freedom and justice must be struggled for. They are never finality. Gays and lesbians understand this. We are extenders of freedom. We are the bravest, strongest, most courageous people I know. Williams serves now as the founder of the new group and said that What was true then is even truer today. The struggle for civil rights in the state as a sexual minority is worthy of remembrance. Unfortunately, the vast majority of gay men and lesbians grow up without knowledge of this struggle and, thus, are unaware of the significant contributions made by all of us in a broad range of endeavors, Williams said. This often can develop into a strong sense of cultural isolation especially in conservative states such as Utah. Recognizing the complex issues of the culturally and sexually diverse communities we have in this state, our group will strive to support the values and strengths of all sexual minorities and try to archive the culturally relevant, gender-specific documents and relics that will empower all of us to make positive changes in our lives and the communities in which we live, Williams said. Our group needs help in providing accurate and complete information about our communities, Williams said. If we fail at this task, its probable that historical accounts of our lives now and in the past may be reduced to gossip and the unfriendly observations and prejudices of others.

2005 Friends, I wanted to remind you that The GLBT Community Center is hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, October 16 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Jubilee Center (100 S 300 E) Auditorium. Themed "The Unheard Voices," featured guests will include Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and Salt Lake County Deputy Mayor Karen Suzuki-Okabe. The Town Hall Meeting will focus on representing the diverse and varied experiences within the GLBT and allied communities. A reception/social hour will follow from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Hope to see you there, Jere Keys

2005 -RCGSE AIDS WEEK EVENTS Live for Life at St. Paul's Cathedral, 300 S 900 E, 7:00pm $5.00 cover

2006 Homage to victims of violence By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News Lita Montelongo sobbed as she described what happened to her friend, Norma Hernandez Espinoza. An assailant stabbed her multiple times and "her head was stomped repeatedly, over and over again." Rachael Norton, center, attends Sunday's candlelight vigil. Norton is the mother of 5-year-old Destiny Norton, who was slain in Salt Lake City earlier this year. Kim Raff, Deseret Morning News Children watched, horrified, and onlookers tried to pull the man away from Espinoza. But she died, and Montelongo believes the reasons for the attack involve the fact that her friend was gay. Now Montelongo wants to stand up for her and "other women who have gone back into the closet because of that," she said.  "When will Norma — when will she have justice?" Hers was a terrifying story, but the violence she described applied to scores of Utahns whose lives and deaths were remembered Sunday night. The occasion was this year's dedication of the 12-year-old Wall of Remembrance in the Salt Lake City-County Building.The wooden wall is about eight feet tall and 14 feet long. On it are the names of 64 people who died violently last year in this state. "Nineteen died at the hands of a loved one," said Anne Burkholder, Utah YWCA chief executive officer. Sponsored by the YWCA, the occasion drew victims, family members, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, among other sympathizers. Special attention was focused on domestic violence, but the YWCA's Annual "Week without Violence" encompasses all who suffer violence. Many participants wore black. After speeches inside, the group gathered at the back of the building for a candlelight vigil. Beyond them, near 200 East, were fields of small white flags on staffs stuck in the ground, symbolizing the 3,626 men, women and children who took refuge in the 16 domestic violence shelters throughout Utah in 2005.

2014  The little gay-marriage case in Utah that roared & made history Derek Kitchen's name will live on in law books — along with his partner's — as three plaintiff couples who brought down Utah's Amendment 3 and propped up same-sex unions across the nation. Marissa Lang The Salt Lake Tribune  Long before strangers began stopping him on the street, open armed and grateful, before he became the face of a history-making movement, Derek Kitchen was being chased down his high school hallway by a mob of students hurling crumpled-up newspapers at his head. He was 16. The year was 2004. The election was all anybody could talk about. On the ballot, after president and governor, was a proposal to officially outlaw gay marriage in Utah: Amendment 3. Kitchen was too young to cast a vote. But when a student journalist asked him how he would — if he could — Kitchen said he wouldn't support any candidate, or measure, that was anti-gay. By then, Kitchen had only just begun to find words for feelings he'd had all his life. They were the same words he heard tossed around school hallways as insults, accusations, shame. When the school paper identified Kitchen as a gay student in its election coverage, he still hadn't said the words aloud. But it didn't matter. He was outed, and there was no going back. That night, Kitchen went after Amendment 3 with a black marker. It was his first battle in a war that would change Utah, and the rest of the country, forever. — "Famous people" • Years from now, when history recalls the first time a federal judge overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage, it will remember Utah. It will remember Kitchen v. Herbert. "My name is on it." He's not alone. Kitchen is one of six gay and lesbian plaintiffs who sued the state for marriage rights. Their names — Karen Archer, Kate Call, Kody Partridge, Moudi Sbeity, Laurie Wood — will be forever tied to the case that brought same-sex marriage to Utah and set a groundbreaking precedent that began a wave of similar decisions across the U.S. Bans on same-sex marriage have been overturned in 25 states and counting. Kitchen's name — and Utah's case — is cited in almost every one.It's little wonder that in Salt Lake City and beyond, Kitchen and his partner, Sbeity, have become overnight celebrities.Their names carry the weight of a movement. Their faces have been shown in newspapers, television broadcasts, websites and magazines around the world. In the park, on the street, at the supermarket, the couple said, they get recognized. Recently, as they stood in a Harmons debating the merits of canned fruit, a shopper stopped. She nearly dropped her groceries. "Famous people!" she exclaimed, eyes widening in recognition. Sbeity, who is never quite prepared for the shock and awe with which he and Kitchen are sometimes greeted, gave her a hug. They get smiles from strangers, notes from long-lost acquaintances, high-fives from customers buying hummus from their booth at the Downtown Farmers Market. As he was leaving the gym recently, Kitchen said, a man he's never spoken to stuck out his fist for a congratulatory bump. Partners • The leaves in Logan were changing when Sbeity and Kitchen first met. Sbeity, who was evacuated to Utah from his home in Lebanon, was studying at Utah State University and keeping a blog about economics and philosophy. Kitchen, a student at the University of Utah, was a frequent commenter. The two began exchanging emails, getting to know each other through intellectual debates and daily musings. When they met in person five years ago, on Oct. 10, 2009, the men say they just knew. "It felt so natural right away," Kitchen said. "It was love at first sight." After that, hardly a day has passed when the two are not in touch. They maintained a relationship between Logan and Salt Lake City with frequent calls, emails, texts. They drove back and forth. In Christmas of that year, Kitchen went to Lebanon to meet Sbeity's family. When the couple moved into a shared apartment behind the Utah Capitol, they bonded over a shared love of cooking. In February 2012, they quit their jobs to start a business: a homemade hummus-making operation called Laziz. They now sell to more than 30 businesses and man a stand at farmers markets year-round. They're partners, Sbeity said, in every sense of the word — in business, in love, in life. When they speak, they look to each other for cues, place a warm hand on one another's shoulder, chest, knee. They find each others' eyes when they talk about how in love they are. Anyone left watching feels as if, for a moment, they've forgotten anyone else is in the room. "He makes me a better person," Sbeity said. "He really is my best friend. I've never gotten sick over the past years of spending 24/7 with him." In 2013, the couple registered as domestic partners. It was the first time marriage even entered their minds. They always assumed they would have to leave Utah to wed, though they wanted to have and rear a family here. That changed in December, when a federal judge ruled that all Utahns — gay, straight or otherwise — have a "fundamental right to marry." For 17 days, same-sex couples rushed county clerk offices across the state. More than 1,200 married. Suddenly, marriage seemed less of an abstract idea and more real. It wasn't just a dream, Kitchen and Sbeity said. It was possible. At a Valentine's Day fundraiser, Kitchen got down on one knee and offered Sbeity a ring. He said yes. What's in a name • The first time Kitchen and Sbeity were approached about joining a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex unions, they said no. Gay-rights activist Mark Lawrence approached the two at a meeting of the Utah Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in 2013. He said they would make strong plaintiffs. He asked them to meet with two attorneys who agreed to take the case. Sbeity refused. His family remained in Lebanon, where, until this year, people could be imprisoned for having sex with someone of the same gender. He feared what would happen if he and Kitchen joined a high-profile case, what would happen to his family if the news traveled overseas. But Kitchen was intrigued. He got Sbeity to talk to the lawyers. James Magleby, one of the lead attorneys in the case, said the moment he saw them, he hoped he could persuade them to join. They were responsible, fresh-faced, warm. They owned a business. Kitchen was a homegrown Utahn; Sbeity was living out the American dream. "Not to mention," Magleby said. "I thought they'd make cute plaintiffs." He went over the risks, which, at the time, he said, felt more than possible — they felt like virtual certainties. "I've had cases with death threats, we've gotten hate mail and email," Magleby said. "We thought this case was going to be that on steroids." The couple left the meeting with Magleby and attorney Peggy Tomsic without giving a final answer. They wanted to ponder it, talk about it with their families. Kitchen's mother, Joni Jensen, begged him not to do it. "It scared me to death," Jensen said. "I was afraid for his safety. I was afraid people would lash out at him. I was afraid his business would suffer. I was afraid how the family reaction would be. More than anything else, I was very, very terrified for his safety. I pleaded with him to stay out of it." Ultimately, Kitchen and Sbeity said it was something they had to do. They agreed. In their second meeting, mere days before the lawsuit was filed with the U.S. District Court in March 2013, Kitchen made a request: "If I'm going to do this," he said. "I want to do it all the way." The person whose name came first would receive the most attention, the most scrutiny and, perhaps, be in the most danger, Magleby had warned. "Amendment 3 is more than just an unjust law," Kitchen said. "It's the reason I came out. It's personal." Victory • Every win seemed like an impossibility until it happened, Kitchen said. First, at the district court, when federal Judge Robert J. Shelby overturned Amendment 3 on Dec. 20, 2013. Then, at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, when a panel of two out of three judges found that Americans were entitled to a fundamental right to marry, and no state law could ban same-sex couples from exercising that right. On Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court's sudden rejection of the Kitchen case and six others like it effectively legalized marriage in Utah and 10 other states in one fell swoop, Kitchen said he was stunned. After a whirlwind year in which the case was at the forefront of everything he and Sbeity did, discussed and thought about, it felt like the floor had dropped out from under them. "This case has been our lives for a year and a half, and we just weren't expecting it to end so abruptly," Kitchen said. "It's like our other plaintiff, Laurie, always says: It's like you're training and you're in the preseason and you make it all the way to the playoffs, but then the other team forfeits. So you're thrilled that you won, but maybe a little disappointed that you didn't get to play." Sbeity said he, too, felt joy, but with a touch of mourning. "It's the end of a journey with people that you care about," Sbeity said. "There was a real sense of purpose." But now, the couple said, they can move forward. They can plan their wedding — a big affair in a public space where any well-wishers would be welcome. Together, they can start the rest of their lives. They're working on plans to open a Middle Eastern deli downtown. They want to leverage their newfound fame and name recognition to advocate for new causes: transgender rights, equality in the Middle East, youth outreach.When they have kids, Sbeity said, he wants them to share a name with the case that changed countless lives. Kitchen shrugs off the suggestion that he's any sort of hero. He points to his lawyers, his fellow plaintiffs, his partner. For him, it's enough to finish the battle he started 10 years ago, as he crouched, Sharpie in hand, making his first mark on Amendment 3.On white signs that dotted his South Jordan neighborhood urging Utahns to "vote YES on 3," a young Kitchen crossed out the words and wrote "NO" in big block letters.He stole signs, threw them in the trash.But new ones, it seemed, would always appear. In November 2004, the measure passed. For so long, it felt like a fight Kitchen couldn't win. Until he did.