This Day In Gay Utah History October 27

October 27th

Sigmund Freud

1903-In "Die Zeit", Sigmund Freud was quoted as saying homosexuals are not sick and should not be treated as sick.

1951-French postal service issued stamps with gay poets and lovers Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. Rimbaud and Verlaine began a short and torrid affair when Rimbaud was 16 years old. They led a wild, vagabond-like life spiced by absinthe and hashish. Ten years older than Rimbaud, Verlaine abandoned his wife and child and fled to London with Rimbaud. Their love affair was made into a movie "Total Eclipse" featuring Leobardo diCaprio as the young Arthur Rimbaud.

1957 Salt Lake City Gay Activist Charles “Chuck” Whyte born. Charles E. Whyte served on the Central City Neighborhood Council Board Member, was  Salt Lake Citizens Congress Board's Chair, Crossroads Urban Center Board Member, Community Development Block Grant Board Member Service Awards Golden Spike Community Award, Golden Spike Humanitarian Award, DIG (Diversity Is Great) Life Time Achievement Award and Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award, 

Mike Sperry

• 2005 SLC Emperor 29 wrote: Hi Ben, This is Mike Sperry. I wanted to ask a favor of you. I am considering nominating Chuck for a national award that the court system gives out.  To do this I need to create some type of "resume" of all the charitable work/contributions he has done over the last 25 years. He is quite proud of that anniversary. And I; I am indebted to him for all of the emotional support he has given me this year. Come reign or shine ;-) But I think he has gotten every award this city has to offer. I have read the bios on some of their past recipients, and Chuck outshines many of them in my opinion. I really think he has a shot at winning this award. So, that brings me (the long way round) to the point of this letter.  Everyone that have contacted trying to piece the info together says to contact you. That you have pretty much all of this recorded somewhere.  Would you help me out with this? Sincerely, Mike 
• CHUCK WHYTE; 1999 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT Presenter

  

  Chuck Whyte

  PATTY REAGAN 1998 Lifetime Achievement Recipient Chuck has been a longtime activist in Salt Lake. As a volunteer or in a leadership position he is always willing to do whatever needs to be done, no matter how large or how menial the task. He has served on the boards of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Utah, Utah Pride Day, Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire, Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah and has served in many capacities for other organizations such as the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), the Unity Show and the Crossroads Urban Center Food Bank. His love of community has always shone through his work. Chuck has been a part of the Royal Court for 18 years. He has received many honors and titles through this organization, the first Gay/ lesbian social organization in Utah. He is the lifetime titleholder of the Keeper of the Lights for Life - for as long as they shall shine. Chuck produced the Unity Show from 1982 to 1990. He was a Board member from 1986-88. His former Court titles include Jestress IX, Imperial Cord X and Rice Patty Prince; Jestress XII, Jestress XIII, Jestress XIV, Grand Duke Regent XV, Honorary Prince of Love, Strength and Vanity; Prince Protector XVI, Royal Gossip XVII, Keeper of the Unity of the Red Ribbon and the Prince's Chatty Kathy Doll XXIII. Chuck has a long record of service on community boards, including the Chair of the Salt Lake Citizens Congress, addressing housing, utility and toxic waste issues; an executive board member of the Central City Neighborhood Community Council; on the board of the Crossroads Urban Center; and appointed to the Community Development Block Grant Committee by former mayor Palmer DePaulis. Chuck is a former deacon of the Resurrection MCC, and is a former Vista volunteer, which is a domestic arm of the Peace Corp. He served as treasurer of the Pride Day Committee, and Vice Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah for two years.Chuck has received two other community awards: the Golden Spike Community Service Award, and the Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award. He is a current board member of 'The Center", our exciting new GLBT community center. Every time Chuck thinks he would like to "retire" from all this community service, his love of community brings him back into the areas where he can be of assistance. He does so much work for us, behind the scenes and out of the limelight, and that is what we as a diverse community need. Chuck states that his one wish is that everyone could be as lucky as he to have family, community and church people who love and support him. In fact, his mother has come from California to be here tonight -and we feel lucky that she gave him birth those 41 years ago - thanks to both of you.

Midge Decter

Arthur Evans

1970-Forty members of the Gay Activist Alliance invaded the offices of Harper magazine to protest an article which presented homosexuality as a mental illness. GAA president Arthur Evans verbally attacked editor Midge Decter for publishing an article which would add to the suffering of homosexuals. The protest led to a three part television news series on gay liberation.

1979 Women Aware, a Lesbian-Feminist organization, sponsored a “Womyn’s Dance” at the First Unitarian Church on 13^th East in Salt Lake City, Utah

John Lorenzini

1987 John Lorenzini of the National AIDS Action Council spoke at the University of Utah in the Opin student Union.  Lorenzini was the director of the Persons With AIDS Alliance and fought for more education about AIDS, including teenage outreach and changing the health communities to see AIDS as not just a “gay plague.” The John Lorenzini AIDS Hero Award was named in his honor for being  civil disobedience activist who protested an indifferent attitude about AIDS by the Reagan Administration by chaining himself to a door of the old San Francisco Federal Building.

 

1988-Thursday-Matt Wilson hosted a Halloween Party for Gay Fathers. Matt Wilson proponent of The Mythopoetic Men's Movement based on the teachings of Robert Bly; that Men should celebrate their differences from women, rather than feeling guilty about them;  that men  are discouraged from expressing their emotions and that Male inexpressivity is an epidemic and does not correspond to their "deep masculine" natures.

1990-US Congress repealed a law barring homosexuals from being admitted to the United States on grounds of mental illness.

1992- The Federal Court of Canada ordered the military to lift the ban on gay and lesbian service personnel. The Defense Department declined to appeal the decision.

Allen Schindler

1993- Allen Schindler, a Gay American sailor, was beaten to death by his shipmates. Allen R. Schindler, Jr. (December 13, 1969—October 27, 1992) was an American Radioman Petty Officer Third Class in the United States Navy and a victim of a hate crime because he was gay. He was killed in a public toilet in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan by shipmate Terry M. Helvey, who acted with the aid of an accomplice, Charles Vins, in what Esquire called a "brutal murder". The case became synonymous with the gays in the military debate that had been brewing in the United States culminating in the "Don't ask, don't tell" bill. According to several of his friends, Schindler had complained repeatedly of anti-gay harassment to his chain of command in March and April 1992, citing incidents such as the gluing-shut of his locker and frequent comments from shipmates such as "There's a faggot on this ship and he should die". Schindler had begun the separation process to leave the Navy, but his superiors insisted he remain on his ship until the process was finished. Though he knew his safety was at risk, Schindler obeyed orders. While on transport from San Diego, California to Sasebo, the Belleau Wood made a brief stop in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Afterward en route to Japan, Schindler made a personal prank announcement "2-Q-T-2-B-S-T-R-8” (too cute to be straight) on secure lines reaching much of the Pacific Fleet. "When he appeared at captain's mast for the unauthorized radio message, he requested that the hearing be closed. It was open, with two hundred to three hundred people in attendance." Schindler was put on restrictive leave and was unable to leave the ship until a few months after arriving at Sasebo and four days before his death. Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey who was a member of the ship's weather department (OA Division, Operations Department) stomped Schindler to death in a toilet in a park in Sasebo, Nagasaki. Schindler had "at least four fatal injuries to the head, chest, and abdomen," his head was crushed, ribs broken, and his penis cut, and he had "sneaker-tread marks stamped on his forehead and chest" destroying "every organ in his body" leaving behind a "nearly-unrecognizable corpse." Schindler was left lying on the bathroom floor until the Shore Patrol and the key witness to the incident (Jonathan W.) carried out Schindler's body to the nearby Albuquerque Bridge. Jonathan W. witnessed the murder while using the restroom. He noticed Helvey jumping on Schindler's body while singing, and blood gushing from Schindler's mouth while he attempted to breathe. The key witness was requested to explain in detail to the military court what the crime scene looked like, but would not because Schindler's mother and sister were present in the courtroom. "The Navy was less than forthcoming about the details of the killing, both to the news media and to the victim's family, especially his mother, Dorothy Hajdys." In the wake of Schindler's murder, the Navy denied that it had received any complaints of harassment and refused to speak publicly about the case or to release the Japanese police report on the murder. The medical examiner compared Schindler's injuries to those sustained by a victim of a fatal horse trampling saying they were worse "than the damage to a person who’d been stomped by a horse; they were similar to what might be sustained in a high-speed car crash or a low-speed aircraft accident." During the trial Helvey denied that he killed Schindler because he was gay, stating, "I did not attack him because he was homosexual" but evidence presented by Navy investigator, Kennon F. Privette, from the interrogation of Helvey the day after the murder showed otherwise. "He said he hated homosexuals. He was disgusted by them," Privette said. On killing Schindler, Privette quoted Helvey as saying: "I don't regret it. I'd do it again. ... He deserved it." "Under a court-approved bargain in exchange for his pleading guilty to "inflicting great bodily harm," the maximum penalty is lifetime imprisonment. Under the original charge, it was death." After the trial, Helvey was convicted of murder and Douglas J. Bradt, the captain who kept the incident quiet was demoted and transferred to Florida. Helvey is now serving a life sentence in the military prison at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, although by statute, he is granted a clemency hearing every year. Helvey's accomplice, Charles Vins, was allowed to plea bargain as guilty to three lesser offenses, including failure to report a serious crime and to testify truthfully against Terry Helvey, and served a 78-day sentence before receiving a general discharge from the Navy.

1997-BET-TV withdrew an invitation to Keith Boykin to appear on a show with Angie and Debbie Winans. The Winans objected to his presence on the show, which featured their anti-gay song "It's Not Natural." Once the highest-ranking openly gay person in the Clinton White House, Boykin helped organize and participated in the nation's first meeting between gay and lesbian leaders and a U.S. President.

1999- Democratic presidential nomination candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley promised that if elected they would do everything in their power to ensure equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans.

Michael Westley

2005 Chilling out at Ice: A hot start for a new dance club REVIEW By Michael N. Westley The Salt Lake Tribune Club Ice got off to a heated start Wednesday night with a capacity crowd that exceeded even management's expectations. By 10:30 p.m., a line stretched from the building's main entrance on 500 West around the corner to 100 south. There was plenty of buzz about what to expect. Inside, Ice doesn't disappoint. The club's new owners, a collection of local and out-of-state investors, capitalized on the building's well-planned layout. The largest structural change involved moving the stage in the main dance hall toward the west side of the building and inserting two large barn-style doors on the east end of the floor that can swing open and effectively turn two dance floors into one great dance hall. It's a change that fits well with Ice's "meta-club" motif – meta standing for metamorphosis. Its multiroom design and upstairs balconies and bars make it ideal for opening and closing areas depending on the format to keep a fresh appearance. "It will be constantly changing. We don't want a stagnant atmosphere," said one of the club's general managers, who goes by Johnny New York. Decor inside the "meta" club is stark, almost bordering on dull. Gone are the outlandish colors and frills of the former Club Axis, replaced with an ocean of gray, black and white. Though simple, the new look is fresh and modern and creates a clean backdrop that allows the clientele to be the focal point. Salt Lake City residents Kelly Shutran and Jessica Forsyth ventured to Ice on Wednesday for ladies night. "This is a better atmosphere [than Axis]. It feels like a more sophisticated, high-end club," Shutran said. The club's standout feature is a dance floor cooled by several jets that spray liquid nitrogen in tall foggy columns - a feature that Ice's owners claim is used in only six other clubs in the U.S. "Everyone who walks in here will be treated like [a] VIP," New York said. "Regardless of the night or the format, everyone is welcome." The club's massive security force, members of which stood at every possible doorway or staircase, was friendly and helpful. The bartenders seemed overwhelmed by the crowd, but it was an exceptionally smooth opening night. Ice will host a ladies night Wednesdays, an alternative lifestyle night Fridays and a general dance night Saturdays with Top 40 and hip- hop music. Drinks are moderately priced and the cover charge will typically be about $5; a VIP admission will also be available (price TBA) that includes valet parking, coat check and access to a private lounge with bar. The club's dress code, which prohibits baseball hats, jerseys, athletic attire and old sneakers, is strictly enforced. Where: 108 S. 500 West When: Doors open at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays Cost: Cover charge up to $10 Bottom line: The newest addition to Salt Lake City's dance club scene is sleek and friendly and features an innovative nitrogen-cooled dance floor. Arrive early to beat the line, which is sure to wrap around the corner.

2005 Transgender Community Meeting: GLBT Community Center's Multi-Purpose Room Thursday, Please come to this community meeting where we will discuss the Transgender resources and groups already available in the community, where the gaps in services lie, and how we can go forward in a more unified manner to begin to address these needs. Please help me spread the word to all the people you know!

Jerry Buie & John Cottrell

2006 Need A Break? Come enjoy a relaxing weekend retreat in Spring City, Utah at the Wind Walker Ranch, October 27-29. This will be a gathering of gay men to explore our personal relationship with ourselves. Through group activities and dialog, discover the masks we wear and the negative messages we carry.  Through traditional rituals, we will expel those messages and adopt new and positive images and messages about ourselves. The weekend will include discussion groups, activities, movement, socializing, and will end with a traditional Native American sweat lodge. It only costs $350 which covers your room, your meals, and the retreat activities. If you bunk with a friend, they receive $100 off  the retreat cost. You don't need to bring much. We'll take care of you. The Wind Walker  Ranch has comfortable accommodations and will serve us ranch-style hearty meals. Bring an open mind and the willingness to explore and  try something new. This will be a weekend you'll remember for a long time. For more information, please visit our website: www.queerspirit. org  or contact one of the facilitators: Jerry Buie (jerrybuie@mac. com) or  John Cottrell (skiutjohn@yahoo. com). It's not too soon to register. Do it today! Celebrating Queer Spirit A Gay Men's Retreat October 27-29 Wind Walker Ranch - Spring City, UT $350

Cyber Sluts

2006 Dear Community Members: On Friday, the Cyber Sluts will host a show at the PaperMoon.*  With any of the CyberSlut shows, it is always entertaining and never a dull moment. The cost is $5.00 at the door.  I am asking that you consider spending your Friday evening with this entertaining group of individuals.  I believe that the CyberSluts are a group that contributes greatly to our community. They have been present at events within the community that directly benefit other community members or other service organizations. Now it is our time to show our appreciation to them for all of their outstanding support towards every one of us!  Thanks, hope to see you there. In Service, Kim Russo Emperor XXXI

27 October 2008 SPRINGDALE - Many newlyweds advertise their nuptials with tin cans strung from the rear bumper and a shaving-cream message in the car window. Derek Streeter and Stephen Eiche strapped "Just Married" signs to their backs and marched in a parade. In Springdale for the Southern Utah Pride Festival, the St. George couple celebrated their recent California wedding after being together for 19 years. Their T-shirts declared the marriage date: Aug. 30, 2008. "We have talked about this for a really long time," Streeter said. "If it had been legally recognized, we would have done it in 1989."

Streeter and Eiche are one of a number of gay couples who have traveled to California from Utah - even from conservative Washington County, which the U.S. Census Bureau mistakenly estimates has zero same-sex-partner households - to be married.  A California Supreme Court ruling legalized the unions in May, although the decision could be overturned by a ballot measure on Election Day, and the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples June 17. Streeter took that as a sign. He popped the question to Eiche in a birthday card on that very day. Eiche's sister staged the wedding at her Poway home in San Diego County, where the pair frequently visits to spend time with Eiche's family, including his mother.  "For us, it was like getting married in our hometown," Eiche said. "We knew in St. George it would never happen." The story of how they met is almost as unlikely. Eiche, 46, grew up in Tomahawk, Wis., one of 12 children in a devout Catholic family. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and eventually landed at Clearfield's Hill Air Force Base as a computer specialist. Streeter, 59, hails from London, where as a teenager he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served an LDS mission in France and later worked at the Missionary Training Center in Provo for 16 years. Both came from backgrounds - religious and military - that discouraged being openly gay. Both had moved to Salt Lake City in hopes of finding a more welcoming community. One Sunday in 1989, they locked eyes at St. Mark's Cathedral, a downtown Episcopal church. Eiche and Streeter insist the age-old cliché is true: It was love at first sight. They count that day, April 23, as their anniversary. As theater lovers, they relish that it's also considered to be Shakespeare's birthday. The couple settled in St. George after an eight-year stint in Minnesota that left them weary of cold weather. Streeter directs an English as Second Language program in Cedar City, and Eiche works as an accountant for a St. George paving company. They spend weekends visiting art galleries, attending plays and exploring Utah's National Parks. They make frequent Saturday trips to nearby Las Vegas - not to gamble, but to shop. The gregarious couple are well known - even in San Diego, where they visit several times a year to see family. "Everyone just loves them out here," said Eiche's sister Norma Flood, who hosted the couple's wedding in Poway. "Most of the store owners in San Diego know Steve and Derek. I'll go places and no one really knows me, but everyone knows them." George and Cherie Stoddard threw an impromptu reception at their Ivins home after learning about Eiche's and Streeter's marriage. "They are as committed a couple as I've known in my lifetime," said George Stoddard, who is a marriage and family counselor. "It's a huge thing for them personally, but also, I believe, for the institution of marriage." Stoddard has donated to efforts in California to defeat Proposition 8, the fall ballot initiative that would stop gay marriage in California. If the proposition passes, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said in published reports, it would not be retroactive: Same-sex marriages, like Eiche's and Streeter's, that already have been performed still would be recognized. But backers of the gay-marriage ban argue, in the official voters' information guide, that a "yes" vote on Proposition 8 means "only marriage between a man and a woman will be valid or recognized in California, regardless of when or where performed." It's possible the issue would be settled in court. The ballot measure prompted Streeter and Eiche to be married before November - they gave Eiche's sister about a month's notice to prep her backyard for the Labor Day weekend wedding. The couple asked a Unitarian Universalist minister to officiate. They wanted their marriage recognized by a church, even if it is ultimately dissolved in California. "We have a commitment that is, and has been, very strong and sure," Streeter said. "For now, at least, we are recognized by a church . . . and a government." After November, they know their marriage still will be valid in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut.  And, maybe, California.

[Derek Streeter and his lover Stephen Eiche were married in California in 2008 and live in St. George-Derek Streeter, St George, Utah - Proposition 8 in California As a member of the LDS church, I am sad to see its leaders straying so far from the teachings of Christ about tolerance and love. John tells us that anyone who loves is born of God. He doesn’t make exceptions to this, so gay people in committed relationships are born of God. I was married to my partner, Steve, in California on August 30 because California has recognized that our love and commitment is just as valid as a straight relationship in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of God. It’s really too bad that you are using an amendment to take away basic rights from us when it is absolutely clear from scripture that we are loved in the eyes of God. Perhaps you need to study His words better. You have strayed away from His teachings and committed yourselves to hate and division, and turned your faces from God.]

2009 Gay groups disagree with Elder Oaks Published: Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 11:25 p.m. MDT Four gay advocacy groups that include Mormons and former church members released a joint statement Friday disagreeing with points made earlier this week in a speech on freedom of religion by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The statement called the church's decision to advocate for traditional marriage an attempt to force its belief system on others and strip existing rights from people and religions. The statement was signed by the Foundation for Reconciliation/LDSapology.org, Mormons for Marriage, Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons and the LDS Safe Space Coalition. The groups called for the LDS Church to reconsider the funding it has provided for public campaigns to support traditional marriage.

Joni Weiss

2009 Q Salt Lake Joni Weiss: Putting the T at the Center by Joselle Vandergriff Joni Weiss has only been back in the state of her birth four years, but based on the service she has given to Utah’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, you would think she had never left. At present, Weiss is a member of the Pride Interfaith Council, the organization that puts together gay and transgender-affirming religious and spiritual gatherings—most notably the Utah Pride Festival’s annual interfaith service and the Community Inroads Alliance, an organization dedicated to supporting gay and transgender-friendly businesses and their work in the community. This January, she also became a member of the Utah Pride Center’s board of directors, 17 individuals who handle a number of the center’s most vital tasks, such as helping bring in funding. After joining, Weiss helped the board undertake another important job, one that she was surprised the board wasn’t doing already: Starting a diversity committee. “You wouldn’t think we’d need one, but we now have one to focus on issues for people of color and transgender people and bisexual people. Those parts of the community who tend to feel a little bit left out,” said Weiss, who identifies both as transgender and pansexual—that is, attracted to people regardless of gender identity or biological sex. “Being new to the board, I guess the diversity committee is the biggest thing I’ve been involved with, and just in general trying to represent the transgender community and bisexual community on the board in discussions and board meetings,” she continued. It’s a lot for one person to have taken on in just four years. Although Weiss grew up in Salt Lake City, she moved to Denver at age thirty shortly after marrying. “When I got married my wife and I decided we didn’t want to [stay here],” said Weiss, who was observed male at birth. “The Mormon influence was kind of hard for her and the pressure to have children was great and neither of us liked that, so we wanted to get away.” For the next 18 years, Weiss worked for AT & T until her job was outsourced to IBM after 2000 (“they sold me with the furniture to IBM,” she jokes). She describes her current job with the computer giant as a “jack of all trades” position. “I’m a bottle washer. I do some training, I do some training documentation, some automated programming for an internal product at IBM, which is my favorite piece. If I had to [say anything in particular], it would be that, and production support.”  When Weiss came out as transgender in 2005 and began the process of transitioning, she said the company supported her every step of the way. “They are very supportive of transgender and gay people,” she explained. “They have human resource policies that protected me once I came out and they had a program in place within HR that assisted me in coming out. It was very well orchestrated.” Although she didn’t come out until later in life, Weiss said she had known she was “female inside for most of my life.” “In kindergarten I didn’t want to play with the boys, I knew I would rather hang out with my sister and her girlfriends,” she explained. “What was I supposed to do as a boy wasn’t really fun for me … and when puberty hit I would cross dress and I would feel more comfortable in a dress. I wanted to do what all the girls were doing, but I couldn’t. So I knew then that something was wrong, but I still didn’t know what transgender was.” Weiss didn’t know the term until roughly 2003 or 2004, when she began doing some research on the internet.  She describes one Web site, run by engineer and computer scientist Lynn Conway as particularly helpful in teaching her what transgender meant.  “I really struggled with [being transgender] because I thought it was wrong and I didn’t think that I would be able to come out and do anything about it,” Weiss explained. “I prayed and prayed — I’ve always been a spiritual person — for it to go away all my life. And it just never happened. … and when it didn’t go away was when it really hit me that I didn’t really have any other choices. I had to come out and face whatever the consequences were.” When Weiss came out in March of 2007, she and her wife divorced. More happily, she began involving herself with the local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, attending workshops, making friends, and volunteering for a number of groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign’s L Word night at Mo Diggity’s (a lesbian sports bar that closed its doors in 2008) and the Sundance Film Festival’s Queer Lounge, the independent film festival’s annual queer-friendly forum.  “It wasn’t very long before there were people who were newer to coming out than I was,” she laughs. In volunteering and in making and talking to her new friends, Weiss said she began realizing that the transgender community in Utah had a lot of unmet needs—including the need to socialize with and meet people “outside a support group environment.” “It just really struck me that it was hard for people like me to realize that there are people like us out here,” she said. So when Weiss’ friend and Utah Pride Center board member at large Brenda Larsen asked her to consider applying for the board, Weiss took her up on the offer. She was elected to the board last November and says she looks forward to several more years of advocating for bisexual and transgender people as a board member. When not busy at her job or with her duties for any number of volunteer organizations, Weiss said that she spends much of her time “cat-proofing” her house for the litter of kittens she cares for and playing the drums for a band she describes as a combination of “rhythm and blues and rock and roll.” But no matter what she does, Weiss is dedicated to helping the community — which is often largely focused on issues pertaining to white, lesbian or gay people — find ways to welcome and serve all of its members.

2013 Meet David Pruden M.A the new Director of NARTH (The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) a self described “non-profit, educational organization dedicated to affirming a complementary, male-female model of gender and sexuality NARTH explains in their mission statement “clients have the right to claim a gay identity, or to diminish their homosexuality and to develop their heterosexual potential.” They claim to attain this through years of reparative therapy, (also used interchangeably with the terms conversion therapy and sexual brokenness) a practice the American Psychiatric Association says can “lead to depression, anxiety and self destructive behavior, may reinforce self hatred and suicide.” David Pruden, is the former executive director of Salt Lake City-based Evergreen International. A former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, describes his experience of Mormon conversion therapy at  Evergreen International under Prudens leadership and calls it a “sucide mill” He states: Of the 15 men that were with me [in the Evergreen program] in the Denver area, one third of those men committed suicide. … The success statistics in Evergreen are based on how many people are still going to the meetings. They don’t care if you’re feeling better. Success is if you’re still going to church, you’re paying your tithing … you haven’t divorced your wife. In 2010, George Rekers, a psychologist and  scientific adviser to NARTH, was photographed at Miami International Airport with a 20-year-old male prostitute who had accompanied him on a 10-day European vacation. Rekers insisted he had hired the man, who advertised his services on Rentboy.com, merely to carry his luggage. The man disagreed. He told reporters he had given Rekers daily nude massages that included genital contact. Conmen, grifters, and murderers the lot of them.