This Day in Gay Utah History October 9

October 9th

John Taylor

1883 - In several hours of meeting with Mormon stake presidents, John Taylor of the First Presidency  gave instructions about "Masturbation...self-pollution of both sexes and excessive sexual indulgence in the married relation." This is the first-known Mormon reference to female masturbation.

1890 The case against Frank Dunn charged with the crime against nature was taken up and tried. Those not interested in the case were asked to retire as it was one unfit to be tried in public. The principal witness for the prosecution was a small boy twelve years old Tomie Henderson upon whom the crime against nature had been committed who gave evidence of Dunn having committed the act charged against him. The defense that was set up was that of drunkenness. The case went to the jury without argument. Salt Lake Herald

Cleon Skousen

1958 Thursday Rookie Officer sends SOS on Ant-Vice Assignment. Because of a police training schedule, a rookie police officer was assigned to anti-vice squad duty with less than a month of instruction which did not include anti-vice orientation.  As a result the officer E. Bollinger was forced Tuesday afternoon to ask for advice after he had seen a felony committed and failed to make an arrest.  The rookie was assigned to work with anti-vice officer Wilford Dixon in Pioneer Park.  Officer Bollinger was stationed in the park restroom and spotted 2 men committing an indecent act which constituted a felony.  He walked outside to where officer Dixon had taken up a station and asked what to do.  Officer Dixon told the rookie to arrest the parties involved but when the officer returned to the rest room, one of the suspects had left.  The other was arrested.  Police Chief W. Cleon Skousen said the problem was not new to young officers. They are confronted with situations they have never dealt with, the chief said and need advice as they progress. The chief added he had not discussed the arrest with the new officer. (10.09/58 SLTribune Page 26 Col.1)

1964 Female impersonator, Leslie Douglas Ashley escaped from the maximum-security ward of the Texas State Mental Hospital where he had been committed after being declared legally insane during a murder conviction. “Another search for Leslie Douglas Ashley, a onetime female impersonator, who drew the death penalty for killing a Houston man in 1961 but later adjudged insane. The insanity finding kept Ashley from being tried again.” Leslie Douglas Ashley was a flamboyant drag performer who in the early 50's fled Houston for Manhattan. Failing to make it in the Gotham clubs, Ashley, still in drag, took to the streets as a prostitute. Returning to Texas, he encountered Carolyn Ann Lima, a slightly retarded 17-year-old hooker at a lesbian bar in Houston. The two joined forces, servicing clients from schoolboys to traveling salesmen. One of the pair's johns was a local real-estate agent named Fred A. Tones who--according to their later testimony--became threatening during an assignation. Lima pumped six rounds into the man, and then helped Ashley drag the body to a nearby vacant lot, where they set it on fire. Taking their victim's car, the two set out for Manhattan, pausing briefly in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. They were Picked up in N.Y.C. on a minor charge, and were returned to Texas on murder charges.  They were charged with fatally shooting a customer at a sex party in his Houston office.  After being arrested by Texas authorities, a legal battle and media circus ensued. The couple were found guilty of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair at Huntsville. In 1963, just four hours from the electric chair, the pair was given a two weeks stay of execution. Lima, who was 20 years old at the time, would have been the first woman executed in Texas in 99 years. After the stay, Ashley was still condemned to death, despite an insanity defense; but Lima plea- bargained and received time. During an appeal, it became clear that the prosecution had improperly withheld psychiatric records regarding Ashley's mental condition; therefore his death penalty verdict was overturned.  Ashley was sent to a mental hospital, where he escaped with the help of a female staff member. On April 23, 1965, FBI agents arrested Ashley in Atlanta, Georgia. He had been working as a Bobo the Clown at a traveling carnival. Another carnival worker saw a wanted poster and called authorities. After serving five years in prison, Ashley was released and underwent a sex-change operation, becoming “Leslie Elaine Perez” and became politically active in Houston's chapter of ACT-UP. Ashley was eventually pardoned; today, after a sex-change operation, she's politically active as a spokesperson for ACT UP--although Bentley indicates that her abrasive personality goes unappreciated even by that organization. Ashley was condemned to death, despite an insanity defense; Lima plea- bargained and received time. During an appeal, it became clear that the prosecution had withheld evidence regarding Ashley's mental condition, and, after a new sanity hearing, the transvestite was put in a mental institution. Ashley was eventually pardoned; today, after a sex-change operation, she's politically active as a spokesperson for ACT UP--although Bentley indicates that her abrasive personality goes unappreciated even by that organization. An engrossing look at a shadowy area of American life--and the dark underbelly of the Reagan years. Ogden Standard examiner.

• Political Sex Change Guess who's embracing GOP family values? By Tim Fleck Thursday, Jan 13 2000  Leslie Perez ran an insurgent campaign against then-Harris County Democratic Party chair Ken Bentsen Jr. in 1990 and was rewarded with one of the great garish headlines of all time by the Houston Chronicle: "Killer Transvestite in Runoff." Although future Congressman Bentsen eventually won the race, the strong showing by Perez garnered national publicity and severely embarrassed local party leaders. Now Perez and her mother, Sylvia Ayres, have resigned from the Democratic Party, though there's a question of just how final Perez's break really is. Ayres, who over the years has also run for a number of municipal and Democratic party posts (most recently last November, when she pulled 37 percent of the vote against at-large Councilwoman Annise Parker), is actually switching to the Republican Party, citing family values as one of her reasons. Perez was once better known as convicted murderer Leslie Douglas Ashley, before receiving a pardon and undergoing a sex change operation. Over the past decade she continued to run for the party post and forced Bentsen's successor, David Mincberg, into several more runoffs. "I do have a kinda colorful background," understates Perez. "I do understand, because every time I run for something they bring everything up." Unlike other high-profile defectors from county Democratic ranks, the departure of Perez and Ayres is not likely to provoke regrets or much hand-wringing from party officials, who regard them as major pains. County Democratic Party chair Sue Schechter, who defeated Ayres in 1998 to win the position, indicated the two will not be missed. "What a great millennium present," she commented dryly. The sentiment is returned in full by Ayres and Perez. "It's just a total disaster down there," says Perez of the state of the local Democratic machine. "It's nothing from nothing." "The party has a platform that no sane person could follow," wrote Ayres in a New Year's Eve letter to Schechter announcing her defection to the GOP. Considering that Ayres's onetime son and a female prostitute killed a Houston businessman and torched his body, Ayres seemed rather easily shocked by current Democratic lapses in morality. "A president that is a total disgrace," sputtered Ayres. "Imagine being married, and having cigar sex with an intern. A party that both believes and promotes late-term abortion. Ms. Schechter, I can't follow that lead." Ayres is swearing allegiance to a new political hero on the local scene. "I find that Republican Party Chair Mr. Gary Polland is a fine man and has the leadership qualities I can follow," she wrote. "My future energies will be to elect Republicans to public office, from the court house to the White House." Polland was unavailable for comment on whether he and other GOP officials will welcome Ayres with open arms. In her letter Ayres also took a swipe at the Democrats for promoting homosexuality, an odd position for a woman whose son/daughter underwent a sex change in 1980. "I'm a strong believer in family values," wrote Ayers. "I don't embrace homosexuality. It seems the Democratic Party does." In a confusing passage, Ayers cited Democratic endorsements for "lesbianism, transgendered (transvites) bi-sexuals." Schechter expresses surprise that Ayres would oppose the homosexual and transgendered community. "It's strange to take a position against something that is at your own house," muses the chairwoman. Perez's explanation of her mother's comments hardly clarifies the contradiction. "She's just saying homosexuality leads to death which is caused by AIDS." Asked whether she considers herself homosexual, Perez issued a firm no. "I'm female -- I can't be but one or the other." Then she laughed. "I don't do anything. I'm a regular Virgin Mary." The decision by Perez and Ayres to send their resignation letters was sparked by an attempt to oust Perez from her position as Democratic chair of Precinct 542. Ayres claimed someone put up a candidate to defeat her daughter and that Ayres filed as a candidate "to help my daughter, by splitting the vote, [but] I've decided that was a mistake." While the Republicans will now have to deal with Ayres, Perez is not ruling out future involvement with the county Democratic party. "I might come back," she warns. "It was a sinking ship, and it's a sunk ship now. I couldn't do worse than what they've done."

Dr. George W. Crane

1970 Columnist Dr. George W Crane wrote in Worry Clinic “ Sodomy is thus an evidence of juvenile emotional thinking in the realm of sex, coupled with inadequate anatomical knowledge of the female body” Ogden Standard Examiner Dr. Crane Obituary

1977  " My wife and I can't stay apart but how can we stay together. I need to put spiritual things back into my life but with honesty, not deception as the Church leaders seemed to have needed to receive from me. I wish I could be what Heavenly Father wants me to be. I am so different from his plan." (diary of Earl Donald Attridge who worked with Spencer W. Kimball to cure his homosexuality)

1979 -"Chad Dobson said he was filming the documentary with my face showing. I don't know if I am up to doing the filming that way. They told me that it was time to get the issue out of the shadows and speak openly. Chad and Karl assured me if anything happened to my job the television station would endeavor to assist me in finding a new job or financial assistance until I became employed. Still I have been reviewing my journal so I can explain what I have been through in the Church.” Later I would learn from my roommate who was a radio commentator that Channel 2 News would deny even having started plans to film such a documentary. I was never given any assistance or validation from what was to follow as the end of my employment. [Diary and Memoirs of Earl Donald Attridge who was fired for appearing in a documentary on Homosexuals)]

1985-New York City mayor Ed Koch wrote a letter to the New York County American Legion asking them to reconsider their decision not to allow the Gay Veterans to participate in the annual Veterans Day Parade. The American Legion did not respond to the request.

20  Rue Jacob now Moochies

1983 Women Aware hold an organizational meeting to create a Food Co-op at 20 Rue Jacob, located at 232 E. 800 South SLC Ut . Last Chance For A Dance fund-raiser was also held at 20 Jacob Rue. Dance only netted $9.00

1987 Four members of the Utah delegation of the March on Washington Committee meet with Rep. Wayne Owens in Washington, D.C.

1987-The National AIDS Network held a ceremony to honor volunteers in the fight against AIDS. Among those present were Gary Collins, actresses Morgan Fairchild and Whoopi Goldberg, playwright Harvey Fierstein, and Congressman Gerry Studds.

 1988 A Time For Us kick off show for AIDS Awareness Week sponsored by the Royal Court of the Golden Spoke Empire held at Puss N Boots.

1990 Tuesday- Utah AIDS Foundation for theater buffs- a benefit performance by Salt Lake Acting Company of M Butterfly for the Utah AIDS Foundation. This homoerotic play is not to be missed. Warning ! Male nudity!

Billy Graham

1993-Evangelist Billy Graham apologized for saying AIDS may be a judgment of God for sin. The remark was made during a sermon in Columbus Ohio. "I don't believe that, and I don't know why I said it."

1993-Episcopal bishop E. Otis Charles, 67, who had been

E. Otis Charles

bishop of Utah from 1971-1986, publicly came out. In Utah, Charles served as Chair of the Board of St. Mark¹s Hospital, Salt Lake City and of Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School. He also functioned as Bishop-in-charge of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland. He was instrumental in establishing Hospice of Salt Lake City and took a leading role in creating a coalition of opposition to the development of Utah and Nevada as the launching site for the MX missile Originally from New Jersey, he served first as a priest in Connecticut. From 1968 until 1982 he was a member of the Standing Liturgical Commission, which developed the 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. In the House of Bishops, Charles was chair of the Prayer Book Committee and a member of the Bishops' Committee on Racism. Charles became Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in 1985. Charles also has significant academic achievements, including a Doctorate of Divinity, and a Doctorate of Sacred Theology. After his retirement in 1993, Charles publicly came out as gay, the first Christian bishop ever to take such a step. He currently resides with his husband in San Francisco, where he helped to found the California branch of the Oasis Commission.

1996 Page: B3 Plant Flowers to Remember Victims Byline: BY STEVE GREEN SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE    OGDEN -- They were barred from planting flowers for AIDS victims on Utah County property, but were welcome to do so at parks in Ogden and Salt Lake City.   And plant they did. Members of the Utah AIDS Foundation and the People With  Aids Coalition of Utah planted 400 flower bulbs Saturday along the Ogden River Parkway.The effort came on the heels of planting 4,000 crocus bulbs Tuesday at City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake City.  ``We're still hoping to do something in Utah County,'' said Barbara Shaw, executive director of the Utah AIDS Foundation, referring to a decision last week by the Utah County Commission to deny a request to display a memorial plaque on county property to draw attention to people who have died from the incurable disease or who have contracted HIV, which causes AIDS.   The crocuses, as well as tulips and daffodils, will bloom in the spring as a living memorial to  people who have died or suffer from AIDS   and HIV.   Ogden-area members of the AIDS foundation hope to erect a plaque at the site by Dec. 1, designated World AIDS Day.   Audrey Combe of South Ogden planted flowers in honor of her son, Jeffery Fuller, and his partner, Phillip Virtuoso, who died from  AIDS and are buried next to each other in North Ogden.  Virtuoso, 52, died in 1992. Fuller, 39, died last year.  ``Jeffery would be so proud of his mom. Phillip would be proud of me,'' Combe said.``They were wonderful companions. I loved them both.''   Combe said she hopes the flower memorial will help family members of people with  AIDS cope. ``I wish more people would not be ashamed of their children,'' she said.   The Utah Health Department says 1,305 cases of AIDS have been diagnosed in Utah since 1983, 94% of them on the Wasatch Front. Another 776 HIV diagnoses have been made.   Shaw said an estimate of people in Utah who are HIV-positive but don't know it ranges from 2,000 to 6,000.   ``We believe we can stop it,'' she said. ``We know how to prevent this virus.''   People can get AIDS by not taking protective measures before sex and by sharing drug needles.   People needing information about AIDS prevention, diagnosis and treatment are urged tocall their area health department or the AIDSFoundation at (800)-865-5004, or 487-2323 in the Salt Lake area.

1997 Thursday, S.L. hate-crimes detectives probe AIDS Coalition graffiti Associated Press Salt Lake police hate-crime detectives are investigating a vandalism at the offices of the People with AIDS Coalition of Utah. Vandals scrawled anti-gay graffiti and drew lewd pictures on a sign posted on the coalition's door, director Pam Mazaheri said Wednesday. "This is offensive," Mazaheri said. "This is the first time this has happened since I became director" in August. The incident was reported to Salt Lake police and referred to detectives who handle hate crimes. "Some people just don't understand that this is not a gay disease," Mazaheri said. "The single largest increase in HIV infection is occurring among heterosexuals." Mazaheri named director of PWAC Utah

1998 The People With AIDS Coalition of Utah   will present its Fifth Annual Community Awards Banquet  at the Hilton Hotel

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun Hitler

1999 MORMON CHURCH BAPTISMS AND OTHER 'ORDINANCES' BY PROXY STILL INCLUDE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS, HITLER AND OTHERS - LDS Struggle to Keep Proxy Baptisms Appropriate THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Four years after the LDS Church agreed to stop posthumous baptisms for Jewish Holocaust victims, perhaps the best-known of death camp martyrs -- Anne Frank and members of her family -- continue to pop up in Mormon temple and genealogical records. Further, the records show temple work has also been done vicariously for the Holocaust's chief perpetrator, Adolf Hitler, and many of his Nazi henchmen. Mormons believe proxy baptisms give the dead an opportunity to join the church in the spirit world. Similarly, dead spouses and their children can be "sealed" for eternity, just as living Latter-day Saints enter into eternal marriages and families are "sealed" together in the faith's temples. Only Mormons "in good standing" -- those who regularly tithe, live moral and law-abiding lives and adhere to the church's prohibitions against alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea -- are issued "temple recommend" cards that allow entry to temples. [C]hurch genealogical records contain a "Who's Who" of historical figures targeted for Mormon baptism for the dead, family sealings and marriages in the hereafter... The list spans both the noble and ignoble, famous and infamous; Joan of Arc,Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Columbus, Beatriz Enriquez Harana,- the explorer's mistress, Buddha and the mysterious "Mrs. Buddha," King Henry the VIII, along with several of his six wives, Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung and Ho Chi-Minh, Herod the Great,was baptized in the Logan Temple in 1994; Ivan the Terrible, Dracula (Vlad "The Impaler," Prince of Wallachia) and Rasputin, spiritual adviser to the doomed Romanov family of Imperial Russia. And then there is Hitler, whose dreams of a German Third Reich resulted in the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews and the deaths of tens of  mllions of others during World War II. It took only seconds recently to retrieve Der Fuehrer's record – and that of wife Eva Braun -- from the LDS Church's Ancestral File via the FamilySearch Internet site (www.familysearch.org). One, LDS man man, however, acknowledged having been baptized for Hitler and several of his lieutenants -- among them Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhardt Heydrich and Joseph Goebbels -- in the Los Angeles Temple. "I firmly believe [Hitler] will be in Outer Darkness [the Mormon equivalent of hell]," said the man, a longtime LDS Church member who agreed to talk only on condition of anonymity. "But I'm not the judge." "Policy is to remove them as soon as possible. Moreover, in the case of the names in question, Hitler, Eichmann, etc., the temple ordinance work for these individuals has already been nullified," LDS Officials said. The fact that such figures of infamy continue to crop up in LDS genealogical records at all angered Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which operates the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. "Whether official or not, the fact remains that this is exactly the kind of activity that enraged and hurt, really, so many victims of the Holocaust and caused alarm in the Jewish community," Cooper said. "Whatever framework in which it is presented, the notion of performing these sort of rites for Hitler, Himmler and other Nazis . . . is beyond [understanding]. "It also can be utilized by forces who always are looking to marginalize the murderous behavior of the Nazis and in many ways try to rehabilitate them," he added. "Even if that wasn't the goal of the people who did this, in the real world that is what could happen." (My question is why was it permitted in the first place? How brain dead are temple workers that they don't recognised the name Adolf Hitler? Second why would Hitler and Eva Braun be allowed to be sealed...just because they are heterosexuals? Now that is perverted!)

9 October 2000 The Salt Lake Tribune Page: B2 East High Students Honored In 'Coming Out Day' Party BY LORI BUTTARS  THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Fresh on the heels of the decision to reinstate Gay clubs in Salt Lake City schools, students from East High School were honored Sunday at Utah's National Coming Out Day celebration at Sugar House Park. "They've fought the battle for four long years," said organizer Gareth Atkinson. "Now, every child in Utah knows that it's OK to be Gay, thanks to the East High Gay, Straight Alliance."    Natalie Taylor, East High student organizer, accepted the award. "This award is for all of you previous students," she said. "I know we have it much easier today because of what you went through." Sunday's celebration attracted about 1,000 Utahns, who gathered for a barbecue and to listen to politicians. The celebration has been held every year since Oct. 11, 1987, when the Human Rights Campaign for Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgendered people marched on Washington, D.C. With the November election just around the corner, the celebration took on a political theme. Guest speakers included Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and state Rep. Jackie Biskupski. The only politician who spoke that is running for office in November was Karen Crompton, candidate for the new Salt Lake County mayor. Atkinson said that Crompton's opponent, Nancy Workman, was not invited because of "statements she's made publicly that don't put her in harmony with what we are doing here today." Anderson outlined some of the changes that have occurred in the area of Gay rights since the Stonewall riots in 1969. He got a big cheer from the crowd when he concluded with his own executive order "to promote and retain people of diversity" with in city government. "Hopefully, one day, the rest of the country will be looking at Salt Lake City and saying 'If they can do it there, we can do it, ' " he said. "Wouldn't that be something?" Salt Lake County has had a similar policy for 10 years, Crompton noted as she vowed to include "everybody in as we come together as 15 communities in one county." As the state's first openly Gay legislator, Biskupski shared her own coming-out story, which she said did not occur until she decided to run for public office. "Hiding was stifling for me," she said. "I'm happier . . . I'm able to share and be more in control of my own life and it's time that we all felt we are more in control of our own lives." Thirteen years after the first National Coming Out Day, things are getting easier for Utah Gays and lesbians, Atkinson said, adding that "the battle is far from over." He called on Utah leaders to get behind hate-crime legislation that would include sexual orientation along with racial, religious and other special interest groups.    "Things have changed, the reversal by the school board to include a club for Gays, chief among them," he said. "We also have politicians in our midst today. Thirteen years ago, we were talking at them. Now we are talking with them." 

2003 The Utah Stonewall Historical Society's Quarterly Board Meeting was held 9 October 2003. In attendance were Mike Romero, Mark Swonson, Chuck Whyte and Ben Williams. New Business Cancellation of Honor's Banquet was discussed with remaining executive committee agreeing to assume any financial responsibility. It was agreed to let Eric Marcus retain his plane ticket and refund Jim Dabakis' generous contribution. Other fiduciary expenses will be addressed as they are presented. Cathy Cartwright emailed that she was unable to attend but that the awards were almost ready. It was agreed that the awards will till be presented to the honorees either at a private function or a public one in January. Mark Swonson, Secretary, reported that The Pillar was very understanding and cooperative with canceling advertisements for the event. Chuck Whyte, Treasurer, reported that he is in contact with the Sheraton to settle any contractual obligations. Ben Williams, Historian, reported that from email correspondence, it appeared that Eric Marcus was somewhat relieved to not have to heading to SLC the day after his graduation and was very sympathetic to our position.  Chad Keller's resignation from the board was accepted and Ben Williams was nominated to serve as temporary director until January's Quarterly Meeting. He accepted. It was proposed and passed: That membership fees will be rescinded and refunded. The Yahoo Group Site will be open to all individuals who abide by our mission statement. Monthly meetings will be suspended until January. The UHSH will be a cyberspace entity until further notice The USHS will focus primarily as an educational resource to the Lambda Community rather then fundraising events. The executive committee thanked in absence Chad Keller as being a co founder of the UHSU and wished him good luck on future endeavors.

Rebecca Walker

2003 Keynote Address at University Pride Week, Rebecca Walker Author of Black White and Jewish  Thursday Union Ballroom, Noon Considered one of the most audible voices of the young women's movement, and recently named by Time magazine as one of the fifty future leaders of America, Rebecca currently speaks on Third Wave feminism and the many forms of activism at colleges and conferences across the United States and Canada. Rebecca Walker was born in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, to an interracial "movement" couple who married in defiance of Mississippi's anti-miscegenation laws. She grew up in San Francisco and New York City, and attended Yale University where she graduated Cum Laude in May 1992. After graduation, she founded Third Wave Direct Action Corporation, a national non-profit organization devoted to cultivating young women's leadership and activism. In their first summer, Third Wave initiated an historic emergency youth drive that registered over twenty thousand new voters in inner cities across the United States. Rebecca is also a writer and has been a contributing editor to Ms. magazine since 1989. Her writing, which engages such issues as reproductive freedom, domestic violence, and sexuality has been published in Essence, Mademoiselle, The New York Daily News, SPIN, Harper's, Sassy, The Black Scholar, and various women's and black studies anthologies including Listen Up (Seal) and Testimony (Beacon). Most recently, she has edited an anthology exploring young women's struggles to reclaim and redefine feminism entitled, To be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (Anchor/Doubleday, November 1995). In January 1996, Rebecca added "socially mindful entrepreneur" to her list of activist activities when she and partner Angel Williams opened Kokobar, a Cyberlounge/Expresso Bar/Bookstore in Ft. Greener, Brooklyn, designed to provide Internet access and education to urban multi-cultural communities. Equally concerned with communicating with people who do not read, Rebecca has hosted a television forum on inner city teen violence (WGBH-Boston), as well as about pregnancy and drug abuse. She has also produced segments for young activism among homeless teens, and the youth-response to nuclear weaponry (KRON-San Francisco). For her work, Rebecca has been featured on CNN, MTV, The Charlie Rose Show, The Joan Rivers Show, and in The New York Times, The Chicago Times, The Atlanta Constitution, the San Francisco Examiner, Harper's Bazaar, Working Woman, Elle, Esquire, and U.S. News and World Report. She has received the "Feminist of the Year" award from the Fund for the Feminist Majority, the "Paz Y Justicia" award from the Vandguard Foundation, and the "Champion of Choice" award from the California Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL). 

Adam Benson

2003 Minorities speak for Pride Week By Adam Benson Struggles with sexual orientation can be compounded for ethnic minorities, as they fight to be accepted by two cultural circles. The topic of ethnicity and sexual orientation was the subject of a panel discussion in the Union Theatre Wednesday afternoon as part of U Pride Week. "I've lost a lot of ties with my racial community because of my coming-out experience," said U student Amanda Gonzalez, who hails from a biracial family and is bisexual. "I don't really fit into one box, and if I did, I'd really feel like I'd be losing part of myself," she said.  Gonzalez was joined by students Patrick Lagua and Tony Shirley and Planned Parenthood employee Maui Drabner, who all share the bond of being minorities in both ethnicity and sexual orientation. Tony Shirley grew up with his grandparents on a Navajo reservation and as the Inter-Tribal Student Association adviser for the Center of Ethnic Student Affairs, he told the audience of fewer than 10 people that his experiences as a gay man on a reservation differed from those of others in ethnic minority groups. "Within the Native American society, there's a wide acceptance of being gay because there's so many stories of creation...I think spirituality is the main struggle," he said. Planned Parenthood employee Maui Drabner, a Tongan who was raised by his Hispanic stepmother, said that fitting into a specific culture-whether gay or racial-poses unique challenges. "I think that in any community you find yourself in, there's some pressure of conformity...I think it's OK to wear one hat at a time to explore what each trait means to us," he said. U student Patrick Lagua, a gender studies major of Filipino descent, said his experiences as a gay man created a rift with his ethnic identity. "For most queer people of color, there's this necessity to fracture your identity, and that doesn't work...For the time I've been out, I've sort of neglected my identity," he said. Though the four panelists grew up in different ethnic circles, all agreed that maintaining an individual identity is vital. "Before coming out, it was very important for me to cross over to the gay community...I found that if you're uncomfortable talking about your own sexuality, people will feel uncomfortable being around you," Drabner said. Shirley agreed, adding that staying true to oneself makes cultural identification easier. "I went through a trial where I had to watch what I say and watch what I do, but then I realized I don't have to do that, because this is who I am...I don't think I really change the things I do or how I act when I go home," he said.

2003 The Daily Utah Chronicle - Opinion Gay and lesbian community should respect rights of opposition By Bart Gatrell With the rainbow flags waving in the breeze, there couldn't be a better time for a voice of reason as mine to speak on such an important issue. For freshman and transfer students, let me bring you up to speed. When the flags came up last year during Gay Pride Week, I wrote a letter that opposed their display, which I perceived as excessive freedom of speech. An information booth or desk outside the Union is totally cool-I just thought the flags were too much because other groups would never be allowed the same privilege. I believe in equality. However, some of my fans called me a right-wing Christian fanatic and other ugly things. So if they're going to make it a religious issue, I'll reluctantly play along. And since members of the gay and lesbian community pride themselves on promoting an open dialogue, I'm sure they'll welcome this article. Hopefully, they'll respond more appropriately then their tirade of last year that followed my letter. In this column, I hope to give some guidance and explanation to both the gay and lesbian community and the Christian right. Jesus of Nazareth and his followers taught tolerance and love, but they also taught obedience-and homosexuality, along with adultery, sorcery, lying, lust and other actions, is a sin. The gay and lesbian community are not the only target of the Christian right today. I admit that they are the most persecuted of these behavioral groups, but it pales in comparison to other groups' suffering. Members of the gay and lesbian community use the term "diversity" as a nice buzzword because it is difficult to oppose and it places them in the same camp of other persecuted minority groups. The problem is that instead of seeing "sexual diversity," some of us see "sexual perversity." In reality, there is no sexual diversity in the United States because some sexual acts are so perverse they are illegal. Where are their freedoms? Why are they not socially acceptable? It's all about perceptions, and some of us perceive homosexuality as being perverse. If the gay and lesbian community doesn't defend all sexual activities or try to make them legal, then they're hypocrites. And if someone doesn't draw the line, who's to say that in a few decades from now, illegal practices will become acceptable through grass roots protest? Should homosexuality be illegal? No, but being opposed to "sexual diversity" is not the same as opposition to "racial diversity," and you know it. The First Amendment guarantees me the right to label any practice morally wrong. However, the Fourth Amendment states that people have the right "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects," and "shall not be violated" without due process of law. Therefore, any "Christian" that conducts his or her own form of vigilante justice against the gay and lesbian community should be thrown in jail for hate crimes. On the other hand, the gay and lesbian community should never use the deaths of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena to silence any form of opposition-and it does. Where's the open dialogue in that? It's no different from the Zionists using the Holocaust to expunge Palestine of its native inhabitants since 1948. So why does the gay and lesbian community meet so much resistance? First of all, Christian groups today resist practices they view as immoral-and homosexuality is a practice, along with drug use, pornography and gambling. Secondly, anyone who tries to make his or her private behavior into a public lifestyle is asking for trouble. Let's hope that the Christian right and the gay and lesbian community keep their debate in a legal framework-let democracy work. As far as this article and last year's letter is concerned, I'm not sorry for what I've said. I am sorry if you are offended, but I tried to explain in the simplest way I know how. Maybe I don't understand your point of view. Then again, maybe you don't understand my point of view. Maybe we should all try to understand each other.

2003 The Daily Utah Chronicle - Opinion Tolerance is not enough, pride is the best means for healing.By Kristopher Cannon Though people may find me at various protests and rallies, I usually lack the enthusiasm to shout slogans like, "We're here and we're queer"-possibly because I find my queer identity fiercely evident. In trying to cope with the social responses to my queer identity, life becomes a battle to constantly heal wounds-not always physical wounds, but more often wounds of social alienation and rupture. This is to address those that create the wounds with the enactment of homophobic candor, whether intentional or not-those who wade in the shallow end of the acceptance pool. Because these wounds originate at a societal level, the responses to most adequately heal them generally arise through public address. With the many problems that arise because of social biases against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and otherwise questioning individuals, and the escalation from these biases to crimes of hate, a public venue to affirm and dispel myths is necessary. Gay pride functions as one of the most visible and large venues to assist in this endeavor. Queer pride offers me, and many others, a response to the biased and hateful individuals within our society. Pride offers not only the visibility of self-love that each queer person has, but a reassurance of the communal dignity that queers and their allies share. University Pride provides this same function in the university community. I actually wonder why anyone would find offense seeing two men kiss. I can probably say that with ease because I am homosexual, but it still baffles me. It seems that there is a social pressure by many people to condemn such behavior because of moral convictions that reassert heteronormativity within the world community.  I would never advocate anyone to deny their his or her convictions, yet question how queers within the community even affect these people who appear to be so morally appalled. Kathryn Stockton asserts, and I concur, that it requires identity displacement for anyone to be psychologically harmed from the visibility of homosexuality or queerness. It seems that the archnemesis to queerness in Utah, Gayle Ruzicka, confuses herself for one of the homosexually engaged when she sees two women holding hands at the mall. Merely seeing such an act would have no psychologically damaging affects on Ms. Ruzicka, unless of course she is somehow confusing her identity with one of the homosexually engaged-and from all of the nasty and hateful comments that seep from her mouth, I have no reason to believe that she is confused. Ruzicka actually has the power to enact her biased opinions because she embodies so many powers from "the man." This force comes from the white, heterosexual, Christian, middle- and upper-class male persona. Every pride movement by a marginalized group attempts to disengage the hierarchal power of "the man" and create a more equal society. Queers just happen to be one of the largest populations remaining that is wounded by an overwhelming assumption that our subjugation is acceptable. So many people find ease in laughing at sitcoms like "Will & Grace" or the queer eyes that are making over so many straight guys, but lend little assistance to enact hate crimes legislation or befriend an estranged transgender classmate. Think about how the visibility of queers actually affects your life, your identity and your moral actions. You may find that you are not morally responsible for the actions of others and that the actions of others are not immediately affecting your physical or psychological well-being. From here, we may find the social Neosporin to heal the many wounds that marginalized groups embody. This Neosporin will not come from tolerance or acceptance, but the pride and celebration of individual difference.

Sue Ann Post

2003 Thursday LGBT Fundraiser Dinner & Auction 23rd Floor, Wells Fargo Building, 6-10pm Featuring Keynote Speech by Australian Lesbian Comedian Sue Ann Post

2004 Subject: Mormon humorist Robert Kirby on Gay Marriage 

Robert Kirby

Kirby: A political hot button headache By Robert Kirby Salt Lake Tribune Columnist  Rusty and I have been friends for more than 30 years. The fact that he is a homosexual only rarely comes up, usually when I want to tease him about some stupid gay stereotype. This time he brought it up by reminding me to take some time to vote against something horrible called Proposition 3. ''What's that?'' I asked. Seriously, I didn't know. It was the wrong thing to say. Rusty went off on a tirade about whether or not he should be allowed to marry another guy: Prop. 3, a constitutional amendment that would further prohibit them from tying the knot, was unnecessary, unfair and probably fascist. ''Wow, I didn't even know you were dating somebody?'' ''I'm not,'' he said. ''Then what's the big deal?'' This was worth another hour of political harangue that did less to inform than it did to give me a migraine. It was worse than the time I told Bammer's daughter that the importance I placed on the spotted owl was somewhere below that of a ham sandwich. I hate it when stuff I don't care about becomes a political hot button, in this case whether or not homosexuals should be allowed to marry. It's fine with me as long as they don't register someplace pricey. Being indifferent was OK for a while. But I vote. And now that some fathead has decided to put it on the ballot, I have to choose a side. I could rely on theology to help me make up my mind. Most churches including my own say that homosexuality is a sin. But I don't care about that, either. I have my own problems with lust. As a committed heterosexual, it's a full time job for me just to keep from mentally undressing  attractive female parishioners during church. I spend so much time trying not to do that I really don't have time to worry about what gays are doing. But maybe it's time that I did. I can't imagine homosexuals ever causing more pain and bloodletting in the world than organized religion already has, but I could be wrong. I was wrong about disco. While it is possible that homosexual marriages will cheapen and degrade heterosexual marriage, I'm just a little fuzzy on exactly how. Gay sex - which has been going on for a long time - hasn't done a thing to cheapen or degrade my attraction toward the opposite sex. Maybe gays - who can't reproduce ''naturally'' - will eventually destroy the family as we know it. This would be the same family we know that already ends in divorce half the time, right? I am completely open to the possibility that socially accepted homosexual marriages could bring upon us the wrath of God. But maybe this wouldn't be such a big deal if other non-sexually specific things weren't already bothering him; stuff like greed, bigotry and hatred. Proposition 3 is a tricky issue. How am I going to vote on it? I think the best answer now is the same one I would have given back when I was falling in love and deciding whom to marry: None of your business.

2005 RCGSE AIDS WEEK EVENTS Octoberfest at The Trapp, 4:00-6:00pm, $5.00

2005 PWACU Awards Reception This event honors those who have made a diffference in our community and who have been assistance to the PWACU Organization. 

2006 Homosexual officers work to overcome stereotypes By Michael N. Westley The Salt Lake Tribune Article Police officers must work hard to earn the respect and trust of their peers. For those that are gay, the challenge increases, as they work to overcome stereotypes within their departments and the community. Such were the sentiments of a five-officer panel who spoke Saturday during a session of the 6th annual Gay Men's Health Summit in Salt Lake City on Saturday. The group shared their stories about being gay in law enforcement and warned of the dangers of the "party and play" phenomena - ingesting crystal meth and having unprotected sex - which has plagued the gay community in recent years. Two of the officers asked not to be

Corbett Ford

named but the other three, Capt. Tracy Tingey of South Salt Lake police, Corbet Ford of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and Tim May, of Clearfield Police, were proud to go public about their homosexuality. "It's important for us to prove ourselves on the streets," said Tingey, who was dragged from the closet more than 20 years ago by other officers who could see that his internal conflict was affecting his work. Now, he said, he is supported by his department and his partner is treated just like any other spouse. The men agreed that overall, they are embraced by their counterparts and valued most for their dedication to their jobs. Though they are allowed to work within the gay community, none of the men were in uniform - which, they said is a product of police officials who remain hesitant to allow openly gay cops to fully represent their departments

Julie Jensen

2009 Q Salt Lake Julie Jensen: Two-Headed Playwright by Joselle Vandergriff A list of Utah’s most talented writers working throughout its 113 year history would not be complete without Julie Jensen, Salt Lake Acting Company’s resident playwright and the mind behind such critically acclaimed plays as The Last Lists of My Mad Mother, Wait! and, perhaps most notably, Two-Headed, about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, polygamy and desire as seen through the eyes of two LDS women, conservative Hettie and troubled Lavinia, whose love for a deceased female friend from her childhood is as essential to the plot as the violence that drives Hettie and Lavinia together. While many people think the play’s title comes from a two-headed calf mentioned early on, Jensen says “two-headed” is a metaphor for the way a gay or lesbian person navigates the heterocentric world. “That’s the way you feel; you have one head that goes out into the world and another head that lives someplace else,” she explained. “And if you’re a gay person, particularly a gay person in the closet, it’s exactly split. You have two heads.” It’s a metaphor with which Jensen can easily identify.  “In my early life I thought there were only two gay women in the world: me and somebody who lived in Seattle,” she explains. “So [when writing Two-Headed] I thought, well, if that were the way you imagined the world to be, and you had no other recourse, you would live in your head and that would be the romance in your life. It would be imaginary.” Jensen’s interest in LDS history and culture and its intersection with gays and lesbians is closely tied to her own history. Born and raised in Beaver, Utah, she can trace her ancestry all the way back to the railroad’s arrival in Utah during the 1860s. In fact, her mother’s family was originally excommunicated from the church for not agreeing to practice polygamy. Ironically — and perhaps fitting with her description of herself as “more like Lavinia than Hettie” — Jensen somewhat re-enacted her forebears’ struggle when she demanded that the church excommunicate her a few decades ago—a request with which the church, eager in the 1970s and 80s to purge its rolls of inactive members—readily complied. “I asked them to do it, they were bugging me,” she explains. But while Jensen’s roots are in Utah, she has lived all over the country, working for producer Norman Lear in Hollywood for five years, teaching college classes in Sacramento and Indiana and earning a Ph.D in playwriting in Detroit, after which she taught playwriting at the University of Las Vegas for several years. “I jumped all over,” she says. And during all that jumping, she was also slowly jumping out of the closet. In the early part of her teaching career (which was Jensen’s day job until her recent retirement), Jensen taught at a Catholic college which she describes as “a threatening place to be for a gay person.” However, by the time she reached UNLV’s theatre department, she says he was “pretty much out.” “I just didn’t talk about it a whole lot,” she remembers. “I wrote what I wrote [frequently plays featuring lesbian leads] and nobody really worried about it, it seemed. I mean, I’m living with my partner now, so there’s no pretense at all. But it was gradual, as these stories go.” Eventually, Jensen left UNLV and returned to Utah because she had received “two big grants” through Salt Lake Acting Company to write plays, one of which was The Dust Eaters, a drama about the intertwined lives of two families, one white Latter-day Saint and one Goshute, living in Western Utah. While she initially thought the move would be temporary, Jensen has remained in Utah since and considers herself to be more or less settled here.  She also considers herself to be, more or less, exclusively a playwright. To date, she has written fifteen full length plays, of which six are published, and 10 ten-minute plays. Currently, she is working on a commission for Penn State University’s graduate acting class — seven actors and 14 characters instead of the two to four characters Jensen is used to writing.  “It’s kind of fun to play with a bigger palate than is normally the case,” says Jensen, noting that professional theatres are typically reticent to touch plays with more than four actors because of the cost of salaries. “But college productions want a lot of actors in the play so they can give a lot of kids experience.” There is also She Was My Brother, her latest full-length play based on the life of We’wha, a two-spirited Zuni and two white Victorian ethnologists  — a man and a woman — who meet and fall in love with her while studying her tribe. The play, says Jensen, is a meditation not only on the complexities of desire and gender and the way white people “make up” stories and personalities about non-white people, but a meditation on the problems of being emotionally dishonest. Jensen says she is convinced that the historical ethnographers’ Victorian sexual baggage and their uneasiness with their feelings about We’wah prevented them from writing honestly and respectfully about two-spirited people. “I’m convinced [the historical ethnographers] decided not to write about it because they couldn’t because of their own Victorian stuff,” she explains. “And had they been able to, maybe it would have changed things for us. When you self-censor like that, it’s frightening what it can do or what it perpetuates.” Whether writing about Southwestern Native American tribes, Mormons or harried lesbian daughters dealing with ailing parents, Jensen’s work always has one thing in common: it is never anything but a play. “I like to say that I set out every time to write something else [besides a play], and then in about two pages they’ve said something and somebody said something back and I’m off on the dialogue and that’s the end of it!” she laughs. “I was interested in theatre very early on,” she continues. “I always think that experiences in theatre, when they’re good, are better than anything else, any other art form. It’s problematic a lot of times, but when it works, there’s just nothing like it. If you write a novel, it’s so distant.”  In fact, she says the same of writing itself. “My life is writing. I have a partner and we go up the canyon and over to Antelope Island and we travel some, but I’m always thinking about when I can get some more time to work,” she says. She Was My Brother recently premiered at Borderlands Theatre in Tucson, Arizona.