5 April
1858 - The Bishop of Payson, his brother the
Sheriff, and several members of their LDS congregation join in shooting to
death twenty-two-year-old Henry Jones and is mother, Mrs. Hannah Jones Hatch,
for committing incest by which she had a daughter. The men also kill the infant and
also castrate the brother/father. Perpetrators are indicted next year, but not
brought to trial. When indicted again in 1889, Deseret News article criticizes
trial of this "antiquated Payson homicide" as anti-Mormon crusade
against those who were justifiably "disgusted and greatly incensed"
against "the brutal mother and son." Former sheriff is convicted of
murder, former bishop is acquitted.
 |
| Wilford Woodruff |
1895 Provo Daily Enquirer The infamous crime of sodomy brought out
with such startling effect at the trial of Oscar Wilde at London is an
Oriental Crime. It is practiced extensively by the Turks and no Turkish Bath in
Constantinople is complete without it’s retinue of boys for lewd purposes. - 1895 OSCAR WILDS is accused of the beastly crime of sodomy This recent idol of women and society who established the sunflower in the apathetic world has fallen hard and a long way. The English reports very nearly establish his guilt. We trust for the honor of the race that the revolting charge will be disproved. The Evening dispatch. (Provo, City, Utah)
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1977 Mormon dissident Douglas A. Wallace
charged that a Salt Lake City police officer, shot early was keeping
surveillance on him in a nearby residence.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported: "Mormon dissident Douglas A.
Wallace charged Monday that a Salt Lake City police officer, shot early Sunday
was keeping surveillance on him in a nearby residence. "Acting Police
Chief Edgar A. Bryan Jr. denied it. "He said his men were not keeping
surveillance on Mr. Wallace, a excommunicated member of the Church...but he
would not say what the stakeout's purpose was. “Officer David W. Olson remained
in critical condition Monday at St. Mark's Hospital, where personnel said he
suffered a severed spinal cord from a single shot in the neck. The policeman
was shot accidentally by his partner. Wallace was staying at the home of a
friend, Dr. John W. Fitzgerald, 2177 Carriage Lane. (4600 South). "He was
in Salt Lake City to try to make an appearance at the LDS World Conference last
weekend. Attorneys for the church, however, obtained a temporary restraining
order...which prevented the dissident from visiting Temple Square. "'I have
not committed any crime, and I don't intend to commit any crime. I have been
raised in the Mormon faith and I am a
man of peace...This is not Russia; this is not Nazi Germany; there is no reason
why I should be under surveillance of the police,' Mr. Wallace said." |
| Bob Waldrop |
1978- The General Manager of BYU’s radio and
television stations denied a request for air time by “a self proclaim leader”
of gays in northern Utah. Rev. Bob Waldrop, pastor of the Metropolitan
Community Church in Salt Lake said Wednesday he had asked for equal access time
to respond to an address to an address by Mr. Boyd K. Packer of the Council of
the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which owns
BYU. Rev. Waldrop’s church ministers
mostly to Gays. Both KBYU-FM and KBYU-TV
carried Packer’s March 5 address warning of the evils of homosexuality. Rev.
Waldrop called the warning, “very offensive and highly inaccurate”. Bruce
Christensen KBYU general manager denied Waldrop’s request and told the media
that KBYU “responsibility to cover all aspects of the gay rights issue and we
believe we have done that with fairness.”
 |
| Ezra T Benson |
1986 Rev. Ann Campbell Wants to Educate the
Public About AIDS (SLTribune B16-1)
1988 Unconditional Support for Gays and
Lesbians of SLC had a lesson on Self
Image.
1990 At the Gay and Lesbian Community Council
of Utah, Lynette Malmstrom, LCSW, suggested what the community could do to
protest the Evergreen Foundation’s Conference on “You Don’t Have to Be
Gay.” Calling the hospitals that the
presenters work for and question their ethics and violation of national
guidelines was one suggestion. The ACLU
also attended asking the council to strengthen its ties with that organization.
1991 David Sharpton was at community
council tonight. He told me that he's finally on DDC
and is looking so much
better. Perhaps this will control the virus. He sure is thin and gaunt but he's
still feisty. He said that he and Dr. Ries are suing Bristol Meyers for holding
up the shipment of DDC to Utah for over four months!. Over 100,000 people have
died of AIDS in the United States! David also said that the LDS Social Services
are monitoring Queer Nation and especially Rocky O'Donovan because some mole
has told them about their plans for an action at Temple Square. [Journal of Ben
Williams]
 |
| Mike Leavitt |
1996- A week after a federal court in San
Francisco ruled that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was
unconstitutional; a federal appeals court in Richmond Virginia ruled that the
policy is appropriate.
1996 Salt Lake Tribune Editorial “Gov. Mike
Leavitt has argued repeatedly that Wednesday's special session of the Legislature
should deal only with those issues about which there is a policy consensus. Yet
on the eve of the session, details were not available on the agenda's two major
bills: how to deal with gay and lesbian student clubs in public schools and how
to structure funding for a series of projects in the state's capital budget.
Apparently these two issues have defied consensus-building, at least where the
nitty-gritty details are concerned. As of Tuesday, legislators didn't know
specifics of either proposal. Given that special sessions omit public hearings
and allow only limited time for legislative deliberation, it is prudent to
question whether these items should be rushed through a special session at all,
especially one which is supposed to last only a single afternoon. Certainly the
gay-clubs issue is too complex for such treatment. The legal details have tied
lawyers in knots for months, and the day before the special session, specifics
of the new proposal remained Utah's best-kept secret.That's no way to make policy.
Gov. Leavitt was right to veto Senate Bill 246, passed in the general session a
couple of months ago to ban the clubs by intimidating and gagging teachers who
might otherwise act as faculty advisers. But the governor should have buried
S.B. 246 after the veto rather than trying to exhume and reshape it. The
special-session process likely will end up passing a bill that also is deeply
flawed, resulting both in bad policy and unnecessary legal expenses when it is challenged, as it
inevitably will be. (SL Tribune editorial)(ACLU News Clip 18 April 1996)
- 1996 Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Gov. Leavitt was right to veto Senate Bill 246, passed in the general session a couple of months ago to ban the (Gay High School) clubs by intimidating and gagging teachers who might otherwise act as faculty advisers. But the governor should have buried S.B. 246 after the veto rather than trying to exhume and reshape it. The special-session process likely will end up passing a bill that also is deeply flawed, resulting both in bad policy and unnecessary legal expenses when it is challenged, as it inevitably will be.
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| Phillip Austin |
1996 (The Salt Lake Tribune 04/05/96 Page:
B2) NO TO KIDNAPPER The Utah Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to consider
an appeal to overturn the conviction of Weber State University administrator
Phillip O. Austin. The state's second-highest court said Austin failed to raise
the issue of faulty jury instruction at trial and therefore it is not an issue
it will consider. Austin, director of student advisement, was sentenced in
November 1994 to 1 to 15 years for the sexually motivated kidnapping of an
Ogden man. He was convicted of second-degree kidnapping for a March 12, 1994,
incident involving Colby Clifford, 20. Clifford said he was picked up by Austin
in Clearfield and sexually propositioned at gunpoint, then escaped by leaping
from Austin's car. The university started termination proceedings against
Austin after his conviction, but he remained on paid leave during the appeal.
- [The Utah Court of Appeals refused to consider an appeal to overturn the conviction of Weber State University administrator Phillip O. Austin. Austin, director of student advisement, was sentenced in November 1994 to 1 to 15 years for the sexually motivated kidnapping of an Ogden man on the man’s testimony only. He was sentenced to more time then David Thacker who killed a Gay man in 1993. Eventually Austin was exonerated by an appeal Court ]
1997- Poet Allen Ginsberg, voice of beat
generation, died at 70 Ginsberg gave the
alienated, bohemian beat generation its best-known and most powerful poetic
voice with works such as "Howl" and "Kaddish." "I saw the best minds of my generation
destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through
the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix.” Commenting on the aftermath
of the Stonewall Riots Ginsberg said “You know, the guys there were so
beautiful — they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years
ago."1997 Sunday, Poet Allen Ginsberg, voice of
beat generation, dies at 70 His raw,
angry verse captured spirit of group of intellectual outlaws. Reuter News Service Allen Ginsberg, who died Saturday of a
heart attack at age 70, gave the alienated, bohemian beat generation its
best-known and most powerful poetic voice with works such as "Howl"
and "Kaddish." "I saw the
best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
were the oft-quoted opening lines of "Howl," published in 1956. His
raw, angry verse captured the spirit of the beat generation, disillusioned and
frustrated by the shackles of convention. The beats, a literary movement of
intellectual outlaws such as Jack Kerouac, author of "On the Road,"
Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, author of "Naked Lunch," and
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reveled in free prose, poetry readings and experimental
plays. They were influenced by an eclectic array of surrealism, dadaism, jazz,
Asian philosophy and experiments with hallucinogenic drugs. "The thing that you can say that we had
in common is an interest in an open form of some kind, spontaneity in writing,
the breaking up of old forms in both prose and poetry," Ginsberg said in a
1983 interview. "In that there was a common insight as well as the
correlative of opening up of an awareness of consciousness." The term beat
always defied definition, prompting the editor of the "Beat Coast
East" anthology once to attempt to define it by polling "an
assortment of squalid squares and plastered saints" in the streets of
Greenwich Village. The anti-establishment movement was largely centered in New
York City, where Ginsberg and others were students at Columbia University, and
in San Francisco. Not every reception to Ginsberg's work was laudatory. "Howl
and Other Poems" was the subject of an obscenity case, based on its
graphic sexual references, but Ferlinghetti, its publisher, was cleared in a
landmark decision in 1957. And some critics, such as writer Norman Podhoretz,
were outraged, condemning the beats for "expressing contempt for coherent,
rational discourse." Ginsberg published more than 40 books of poetry.
Among his best-known works are the mockingly humorous "America" and
"Kaddish," a moving lament about his mother, a mentally disturbed,
left-wing Russian emigrant. His book "Fall of America" won the
National Book Award in 1972, and he was elected to the American Academy and the
Institute of Arts and Letters. U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky, referring to
Ginsberg's line, "America, I'm putting my queer shoulder to the
wheel," once said: "He gave all of us who are queer - not necessarily
sexually - a lot to meditate on. In that one line, there's patriotism,
determination to help, beauty, ornery resistance and good humor." At the
cutting edge for decades, Ginsberg became a spokesman for the 1960s
counterculture, a ubiquitous figure at poetry readings on college campuses, a
strident critic of the war in Vietnam, an outspoken gay rights advocate and a
passionate Buddhist. He was instrumental in a broad dissemination of Buddhist
texts in the United States and an adviser for Tricycle magazine, a quarterly
Buddhist review. He traveled widely, befriending Soviet dissident poets such as
Yevegeny Yevtushenko during the Cold War and Czech dramatist and statesman Vaclav
Havel. At home, he was a friend to the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, writer
Ken Kesey and his unruly Merry Pranksters band of musicians, writers and drug
users, LSD guru Timothy Leary and musicians such as Bob Dylan, the Grateful
Dead's Jerry Garcia, punk artists Patti Smith and the Clash and avant-garde
composer Philip Glass. Ginsberg founded
the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in
Colorado, where he was scheduled to teach a class on poet William Blake this
summer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, and a longtime resident of New York City's
East Village, Ginsberg was a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn
College. He was working on a new
collection of poems and photographs at the time of his death. Ginsberg died in
his Lower East Side apartment surrounded by eight "close friends and old
lovers," said his friend and archivist, Bill Morgan. The poet was
diagnosed eight days ago with terminal liver cancer, and he suffered a fatal
heart attack, Morgan said. Ginsberg's funeral will be private. In lieu of
flowers, donations should be sent to Jewel Heart Buddhist Center in Ann Arbor,
Mich. He is survived by his stepmother, Edith Ginsberg of Paterson, N.J.; his
brother, Eugene; and several nieces and nephews. His father, Louis, who also
was a poet, died of liver cancer in 1968.
1999-McDonald's Hamburgers added sexual orientation to
its non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies.
 |
| Russell Henderson |
- 1999-Romaine Patterson, a friend of Matthew Shepard, staged a counter protest to an appearance by anti-Gay activist Fred Phelps. She had designed angel costumes for protesters to wear that would shield others from the signed held by the Phelps clan.
2000 The Salt Lake Tribune Page: A1 Mayor
Outlaws Gay Bias Anderson makes good on campaign promise; Executive Order Bans
Gay Bias In S.L. City Hall BY REBECCA WALSH Quietly, but deliberately, Salt
Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson signed an executive order Tuesday night that is
meant to protect Gay and lesbian city workers from discrimination. “This goes
beyond legal ramifications. It's not merely symbolic," Anderson said.
"It's going to
be very effective in sending the message that we will not
tolerate discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Salt Lake
City." Besides adding "sexual orientation" to city
nondiscrimination policies, Anderson signed two more executive orders. One
requires city managers to consider diversity when hiring. And another restricts
city workers' acceptance of gifts. Anderson's unilateral decision to bolster
city anti-discrimination policies fulfills a campaign promise and puts to rest
an issue that divided current and former City Council members. "Doing it this way will send a positive
message without a lot of the divisiveness we saw in the community when the
council dealt with this issue," Anderson said. In 1997, former
Councilwoman Deeda Seed, now Anderson's chief of staff, sent her council
colleagues into convulsions when she proposed adding "sexual
orientation" to Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination laws. The council
adopted the change at the end of 1997, but a group of newly elected council
members repealed it a month later. Ultimately, council members avoided the
troublesome words, replacing the list of protected groups with a requirement
that city bosses base hiring and firing decisions on "job-related
criteria." Current Council Chairman Carlton Christensen, one of those who
repealed the ordinance, wonders why Anderson bothered with an executive
order. "Why doesn't our current
ordinance meet the needs?" But Anderson said those broadly worded
guidelines are not enough. "It's extremely important that laws or
ordinances or administrative orders confront the issue of discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation directly," he said. Anderson's order -- basically the language
Seed originally proposed -- will change city personnel policies, but leaves in
place the council's ordinance. The University of Utah adopted a similar policy
in 1991. And Salt Lake County commissioners added protections for Gay employees
eight years ago. Cities such as Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Ann Arbor, Mich.,
have similar ordinances. The issue dogged Mayor Deedee Corradini during her
1995 re-election bid. Challenger Rich McKeown said he would sign a memo
protecting Gay and lesbian city employees from discrimination. Corradini never
responded. And two years ago, during the council's machinations, Corradini
stayed out of it, despite pleas from the Gay and lesbian community -- and
Anderson -- to veto the repeal of the original ordinance. Anderson promised to
sign an executive order protecting Gay city employees from discrimination
during the 1999 mayoral race. He makes no apologies for leaving council members
out of it. "This should come as no
surprise to anyone." But council members were shocked when they received
copies of the orders. "I'm disappointed that he's issued executive orders
without briefing the council first," said Councilman Keith Christensen.
"The council is the policy-making body of this city and all of the sudden
we're seeing executive orders that deal with policy decisions that we haven't
discussed." Civil-rights
advocates praised Anderson's action Tuesday. "If someone loses their job
because of discrimination based on sexual orientation, they have recourse now,"
said Paula Wolfe, director of the Gay and Lesbian Center of Utah. Wolfe would
like Anderson to consider extending city benefits to partners of Gay and
lesbian employees as well. The mayor's order does not include such benefits.
Anderson said he supports the idea, but City Council members would have to
change benefits policies. Anderson said
his two additional executive orders remedy other lapses in city laws and
policies. When he took office, Anderson appointed a group of attorneys,
professors and professionals to review city ethics laws. After months of
meetings, the committee recommended revisions to a city ethics ordinance that
restrict employees' acceptance of gifts.
Two years ago, city leaders adopted the ethics ordinance in the wake of
Corradini's gift-gathering scandal, setting a limit on gifts at $50. Again,
Anderson said that is not enough. "A bright line needs to be drawn
prohibiting all gifts, without regard to the intent behind the gift or
consideration of whether or not the gift would in fact exert influence,"
the order states. "Over time, an unfortunate perception has arisen that
citizens with money have better access to the chambers of power than those
without money. Other professionals, like judges and journalists, abide by
strict codes of conduct that forbid acceptance of any gifts. Salt Lake City
employees ought to ask no less of themselves." For months, Anderson
avoided accepting even a free cup of coffee. His executive order is less
stringent, however. Employees can accept social gifts such as meals or
honorariums from Sister Cities. But they cannot solicit or accept additional
gifts through their jobs. "We ought to ask ourselves, 'Would I be getting
this if I didn't work for Salt Lake City?' " the order says. "If the
answer is 'No,' then the gift should be refused." gain, both Councilmen
Carlton Christensen and Keith Christensen are skeptical. They worry the new
gift policy could lay an undue burden on city employees. But Anderson said workers will be able to
decide for themselves if a gift or meal is "a reasonably necessary part of
doing the job for the taxpayers."
"It's a matter of judgment," he said. Anderson's final executive order sets an
aggressive agenda to diversify city government.
"The city will take affirmative action to recruit, hire, train,
retain and promote qualified individuals who will add to the diversity of our
work force," the order states. "Salt Lake City managers shall make
every effort, to the extent allowed by law, to have a work force that reflects
the diversity of our community." Anderson was chagrined recently to find
the city has no affirmative action program, as required by federal law. The
mayor has staffers working to draft a plan. Meantime, his order will require
city directors to annually review internal barriers to diversity, outline
strategies and analyze their successes and failures. "We will take
measures to bring diversity to city government," he said.
2000 On April 5, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson proposes and signs an executive order which prohibits discrimination in city-government employment based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or disability. The order is adopted.
 |
| Rocky Anderson |
2000 On April 5, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson proposes and signs an executive order which prohibits discrimination in city-government employment based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or disability. The order is adopted.
2001 Page: B2
Justices Ponder Charges in Domestic Dispute Family allegedly beat woman
for being gay BY STEPHEN HUNT THE SALT
LAKE TRIBUNE The Utah Supreme Court is pondering the appropriate criminal
charges for four members of a Sandy family who allegedly beat another family
member because she is a lesbian, and then attempted to send her back to their
native country of Jordan. Prosecutors argued Wednesday that because the four
threatened to kill 23-year-old Muna Hawatmeh with a knife, they should be tried
on charges of first-degree felony aggravated kidnapping, punishable by up to
life in prison. But defense attorneys
insisted the high court should uphold the decision of a preliminary hearing
judge, who last year ordered the defendants to stand trial on lesser counts of
second-degree felony simple kidnapping, which carry a maximum prison term of 15
years. The judge also ordered them to stand trial on charges of third-degree
felony aggravated assault. The arguments, which were taken under advisement,
were a result of the prosecution's pretrial appeal of 3rd District Judge
William Barrett's decision. Barrett had cited a recent Utah Supreme Court
ruling in which the justices threw out aggravated kidnapping charges in a rape
case. The high court ruled that the woman's detention during the sexual assault
was part of the rape and could not be the basis of a separate charge. Using
that criterion, Barrett ruled the Hawatmehs could not be tried for aggravated
kidnapping in connection with Muna Hawatmeh's beating and the death threats
against her, which allegedly occurred at her parents' home Oct. 13, 1999. All
of the events of that day, Barrett ruled, were part of the aggravated assault.
However, Barrett said the victim's parents and two brothers could be tried on
lesser kidnapping charges for allegedly forcing Muna Hawatmeh to go to the
airport with them the following day. The
defendants are brothers Iehab Hawatmeh, 32, and Shaher Hawatmeh, 33; their
father, Jamil Hawatmeh, 64, and their mother, Wedad Hawatmeh, 54. The trip to
the airport was cut short when Iehab Hawatmeh got a call on his cell phone from
Sandy police, who had been alerted to possible trouble by Muna Hawatmeh's
girlfriend. On Wednesday, Assistant Utah Attorney General Fred Voros said not
only was the kidnapping still in progress during the drive to the police
station, it was aggravated because Muna' Hawatmehs other brother threatened to
kill her if she told police the truth. Voros said Muna Hawatmeh tried to lie to
detectives but found she could not "parrot what she'd been told to
say" and "let the truth spill out." Defense attorney Earl Xaiz countered that
after Iehab Hawatmeh turned the car around, there could be no kidnapping.
"You can't have a kidnapping while you're on the way to the police
station," Xaiz argued. The Hawatmehs have denied wrongdoing. They have
maintained they were taking Muna Hawatmeh to the airport to visit her sister in
San Francisco, hoping the trip might cheer her up. They say Muna Hawatmeh had
been "unstable, confused, depressed" and, at one time, suicidal.
Iehab Hawatmeh and his parents are permanent U.S. residents. Shaher Hawatmeh is
a citizen. The brothers came to America 15 years ago, and their parents and
sister came about five years ago.
 |
| Wendy Chandler [Weaver] |
2003 Subject: UPNET: NGLTF reception On April
8 at 6:30 p.m., the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Utah Inc. will host a
reception for National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference
Coordinator Sue Hyde in our gallery room at 361 North 300 West in Salt Lake
City. Sue is here on a site-inspection tour of the city in consideration of
placing the conference here. For your information, the conference is the
largest gathering of LGBTQQS grassroots activists in the country. It draws
between 3,000 and 5,000 people annually depending on its location. I have been
attending the conference for the past six to eight years, and usually find it
helpful. Sean Burke developed an LGBT
Convention Bureau and submitted the proposal. I know very little about the
proposal. However, the reception will give you an opportunity to meet with and
talk about the city as a potential site for the conference and/or to learn more
about this event and the NGLTF. The reception is open to everyone, so please
feel free to share this information widely. R.s.v.p. is not necessary but would
be helpful. Paula Wolfe Executive Director Gay and Lesbian Community Center of
Utah 355 North 300 West 1st Floor Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
2006 Miller explains why he chose to pull
'Brokeback' The Associated Press Salt Lake Tribune After months of silence,
Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller has explained his decision to pull ''Brokeback
Mountain'' from one of his movie theaters. He took the action because he was
worried about the breakup of the traditional American family, he told KTVX-TV
in an interview. ''Getting away from the traditional families, which I look at
as the fundamental building block of our society, is a very dangerous thing,''
he said. In January, Miller canceled showing of the R-rated Western gay romance
story at the Megaplex at Jordan Commons in Sandy. That had been the only one of
his theaters that had been scheduled to show the movie, but it was shown at
other theaters in the area. Miller's decision on Jan. 5 came just two hours
after he was told about the movie's subject matter by a KCPW-FM reporter.
During the KCPW interview, he said booking a movie like ''Brokeback Mountain''
was a business decision, and ''It's something that I have to let the market
speak to some degree. I don't think I'm qualified to be the community censor.''
Miller drew both support and criticism within Utah. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual
Transgender Community Center of Utah has urged people to avoid Miller's
businesses. Miller said many Utahns responded by buying cars from him. ''I had
12 people call and say I bought a car from you today, 'because', and then 27
the next day and then 12 the third day,'' Miller told KTVX. Miller said he
stands by his decision to pull the movie. ''I clearly hurt some individuals'
feelings and for that I regret it, but I don't think it should change my
opinions and views,'' he said. Miller is to deliver a speech at the University
of Utah on April 21, over opposition from some on campus.
- 2006 posted by Toni Palmer RE: [gay_forum_utah] Larry Miller Speaks Hey... Does anyone know if there is a protest planned for when/if Larry H. Miller speaks at the U???
- Charles Milne RE: [gay_forum_utah] Larry Miller Speaks Yes there is a protest being planned as we speak. Students, Faculty and I have been coordinating with the Director of the Union to allow a protest at the speech. We are reviewing policy to determine what exactly can take place. I will in touch with what plans are create for the protest. Charles Milne Coordinator LGBT Resource Center University of Utah -
- Jere Keys Re: Larry Miller Speaks So I've been thinking a lot about the criticism the newspaper editorials and even some people within our own community have been making about the LHM protests and boycott. The ones which compare the protests of LHM at the U to the protests over Michael Moore in Utah County. Even when it makes me sick to my stomache to do so, I've always championed everybody's right to free speech. Censorship of ideas will always be a dangerous thing, even when that censorship favors a position we support. That said, comparing LHM to Michael Moore is liking comparing apples to oranges... to my knowledge, no teenage Republican has ever stuck gun in their mouth because of the social rejection they feel as a result of Moore's attacks on the conservative agenda. Oh, sure, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit to blame Miller for Utah's highest gay teen suicide rate in the country, but somehow, somewhere, we have to start holding people accountable for language that fosters shame, discrimination, and division. We do put limits on free speech, you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theatre. With a self-esteem crisis among gay youth, how long should we allow people to express their "personal beliefs" without protest? How long until we recognize that every time Gayle Ruzicka or Chris Buttars or LaVar Christensen or Paul Mero or Larry H. Miller sends a message that homosexuality is "unnatural," "immoral" or "dangerous," they're really yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre? I believe in the right to free speech. I believe that Larry H Miller has the right to his religious convictions. But I also believe that he must be held accountable for the results of his actions and words. So I will sign petitions asking the U to remove him as a speaker, I will boycott his businesses, and I will protest his public appearances, because silence in the face of such poison is like watching a crime take place and doing nothing to help the victims.
- David Nelson Subject: [gay_forum_utah] Re: Larry Miller Speaks “Attempting to find a moral superiority in the result of an activity shows neither a causal relationship between it and its effect nor a valid comparison of results. It's hyperbole. We can't logically compare Larry Miller to Michael Moore, one's speech to the other's, or their results. Both blamed others for what they perceived as social and national failings. Both disagreed apparently with themselves and others. Both were and remain wrong, but I doubt either was a reason for anyone to kill herself or himself. That's just hysteria. “
- Aisling Re: [Re: Larry Miller Speaks: As a teacher of nearly 30 years' experience, mostly teaching in "alternative" high schools, I take serious issue with this statement, David. In my 26 plus year tenure in Utah public schools, and private schools in Texas and Kansas, I was personally acquainted with 17 gay or lesbian children who killed themselves. Of these kids, thirteen left notes. Of those notes, no fewer than nine mentioned despair at the unfeeling, personally disparaging or bigoted comments of certain adults, people whom these kids saw as authority figures, as partial reasons for taking their own lives. To a teenager, the words coming out of the mouths of adults whom the child is supposed to follow or to respect in a familial, church or school venue, or some other position of authority, are the reality upon which they base their own feelings of self-worth or "rightness." Your comment has more to do with your own philosophical perceptions and personal, adult realities than it does with any knowledge of how kids think or what a hard time they have coming to terms with their sexuality in a climate of bigotry. I am absolutely sure I am not the only person on this board who knows personally of children and others who have taken their own lives over the societal rejection homophobes like Miller et. al. represent. Your comment does not accurately reflect facts to which many of us are privy. And your dismissal of this tragedy as "hysteria" demeans the lives of the children who have been so influenced to self-destruction. In your eagerness to dispute a point of logic, you have missed a salient point of empathy, one borne out by the experience of many of those of us in the GLBT community who work with kids. Personally, I don't believe the enjoyment of the logical argument is worth the gravity of the factual inaccuracy. Aisling
- David Nelson Re: Larry Miller "Aisling" wrote:” Your comment has more to do with your own philosophical perceptions and personal, adult realities than it does with any knowledge of how kids think or what a hard time they have coming to terms with their sexuality in a climate of bigotry. Your comment does not accurately reflect facts to which many of us are privy.” I came out in 1970 at age 8. My comments are always colored by that fact. Then where is the empathy for kids who do care what adults are saying about them? I didn't see it in your posting. My actions are colored more so by the knowledge that NO educator ever defended me as that 8-year-old gay student or since. I was shunned by the very gay and lesbian educators and students who now "tsk-tsk" the fate of others while quietly and closetedly protecting their retirement accounts. I wonder when you last defended a gay or lesbian student publicly BEFORE her or his suicide.” ---
- "Aisling" wrote:> [Y]our dismissal of this tragedy as "hysteria" demeans the lives of the children who have been so influenced to self-destruction. In your eagerness to dispute a point of logic, you have missed a salient point of empathy, one borne out by the experience of many of those of us in the GLBT community who work with kids. Personally, I don't believe the enjoyment of the logical argument is worth the gravity of the factual inaccuracy. Got news for you, David. That happened every single time I knew about it when a kid was getting harassed about hir sexuality. Got me fired from a job teaching in a Catholic school because I DID stand up. Got me fired from the Granite School district for the same reason. Your imputation of cowardice is false. And the insinuations you make in your statement about "protecting their retirement accounts" are not only not true of me, they are not true of all the teachers I know or knew. There are, and were, a lot of us who stand up. Some of them are on this board. You have a habit of acting truculent and tossing about comments and accusations based on what appears to be self-pity rather than observed fact. Shame on you. You are capable of better. But these are digressions to my original comments about Jere Keys' message.
- > --- In gay_forum_utah@yahoogroups.com, "Jere Keys" <jerekeys@> wrote:> [T]o my knowledge, no teenage Republican has ever stuck gun in their mouth because of the social rejection they feel as a result of Moore's attacks on the conservative agenda. Oh, sure, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit to blame Miller for Utah's highest gay teen suicide rate in the country, but somehow, somewhere, we have to start holding people accountable for language that fosters shame, discrimination, and division [sic].”
- Jere's "salient point" appeared to be blaming Larry Miller for the suicides of teen-aged Democrats because of the social rejection they feel as a result of his attacks on the liberal agenda. Then again, Jere recognized how he was "exaggerating a bit to blame Miller." A bit. My concern is how some of our gay and lesbian leaders argue extremes to emphasize that which is already bad enough. There's no reason to exaggerate our opponents' actions. Those who do harm our credibility and shift our focus unnecessarily from the real to the imagined. And my concern is that trivializing the very real fact that in Utah last year there were more teen suicides than in any other state in the Nation, and that many of these kids are killing themselves because of the perceived disdain of the adults in their lives for the very real struggles they are having with their sexuality, and that we as gay and lesbian community leaders KNOW that, is a disgrace. There is nothing whatsoever extreme about drawing a direct parallel between what people like Larry Miller, Craig Buttars, the LDS Church leadership and other adults in positions of authority say, and the fact that our GLBT youth often hear them and give in to despair. The point of argument is not that certain things may seem to be exaggerated to our opponents. It is that the facts bear them out. I feel that telling the truth about the insidious and tragic consequences of the bigoted hate speech that is the norm in Utah is a far more important thing for us as GLBT leaders to be doing than is trying to moderate our words so they will not upset the very people we are talking about. Aisling
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| Paul Mero |
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| Kate Kendall |
2010 Man gets six months for assault /
Defense contends client not anti-gay Published on Standard-Examiner
(http://www.standard.net) Man gets six months for assault / Defense contends
client not anti-gay By admin Created Apr 5 2010 - 11:15pm Standard-Examiner
staff OGDEN -- The defense argued that the recommended sentence for his client
punished him for gaybashing when a jury thought otherwise. But the judge
disagreed Monday in ordering six months in the county jail for Christopher
Vonnegut Allen, the penalty recommended in a presentence investigation on an
assault charge for beating a lesbian, breaking her nose and leaving her briefly
unconscious. "The jury verdict speaks volumes to what the jury really
thought of the case," Allen's lawyer, Brian Duncan argued. "The verdict speaks volumes to what he's
not. And that's a gay-hater." The jury after a two-day trial deliberated
barely 90 minutes Feb. 25 to find Allen guilty of class A misdemeanor assault
on lesbian Whitney Goich, 20. But the same jury acquitted Allen of charges of
felony breaking and entering and a class B misdemeanor assault in an
altercation with Wil Phillips, 24, a gay man, minutes earlier the same evening.
Prosecutors had considered filing the assault charges under Utah's 2006 bias
crime statute, but it only allows for misdemeanors. The breaking and entering,
or burglary charge, was a second-degree felony. Both victims claimed Allen, 31,
yelled phobic gay slurs, which he denied. The felony could have brought a
prison term of up to 15 years. Phillips bit Allen on the arm and suffered
bruises to the head and torso in the June 2 incident at the Mirador apartment
complex at 3415 Harrison Blvd., including an imprint of Allen's shoe on his
right arm. Goich required surgery for her injuries and fainted at the scene
while talking to police, after losing a great deal of blood. Goich did not
attend the hearing to address the court at sentencing, as victims are allowed
to do. Phillips was on hand but could not speak because the jury decided he was
not a victim. Allen told 2nd District Judge Mark DeCaria he did not hate
homosexuals. "I do not hate gay people," he said. "I don't
consider people's color, sexuality or any of that. People are people. "But
if you Google me, it says forever that I'm a gay basher." He admitted to
having a drinking problem, having quit since June 2, and to overreacting in
punching and kneeing Goich.
2010 The real English Patient hero was not
womaniser... he was GAY, letters show By Allan Hall Last updated at 1:31 PM on
5th April 2010 Count Laszlo de Almasy, the inspiration for the character played
by Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient, was gay and in love with a Nazi.
Letters have surfaced in Germany proving that the World War Two spy who
inspired the hero the the Oscar-winning film The English Patient was no
womaniser but a gay man in love with a young soldier called Hans Entholt. The
corresopondence also indicate the Hungarian-born adventurer Count Laszlo de
Almásy did not die of a morphine overdose after suffering terrible burns and
dreaming of the woman he loved, the fate the befell the fictional hero played
by Ralph Fiennes in the film. Instead Almásy succumbed to amoebic dysentry in
1951 never having once slept with a woman. While the Imperial War Museum in
London holds reports he wrote for German intelligence in WW2 under lock and
key, letters written by Almásy, who worked for Rommel's Afrika Corps, have been
found in Germany, confirming the long-time rumours about his sexuality. The
Heinrich Barth Institute for African Studies in Cologne has discovered the
intimate correspondence penned by him. It refuses to publish the letters but a
member of the institute's staff told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine: 'Egyptian
princes were among Almasy's lovers.' Also discovered recently in Egypt was his
supply base for a daring behind-the-lines mission against the British. Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas in The
English Patient. Letters newly unearthed reveal that the real-life inspiration for
Fiennes' character was gay. Austrian explorers report they have found old car
batteries and inner tubes in a cave as well as Wehrmacht jerrycans, bottles of
German schnapps and 'two cans of corned beef from Brazil and one can of
condensed milk', said archaeologist Kathrin Kleibl. 'As mundane as the material
is, it represents one of the most daring military operations behind British
lines. Almasy was brilliant as a desert trapper, even though he was on the
wrong side during the war,' reported Spiegel. Born the son of a Hungarian
nobleman, he is portrayed in the film by Fiennes, as the handsome young lover
of an Englishwoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) in pre-war Cairo. During the war he smuggled Nazi agents
through the Sahara desert as part of his missions for the Brandenburg Division,
a unit of German foreign military intelligence that carried out acts of
sabotage behind enemy lines. A scene from the film The English Patient with
Ralph Fiennes. The 1996 film won nine Oscars. His base-camp for the mission to
infiltrate the spies Hans Eppler and Peter Stanstede into Egypt was established
in 1942. Hundreds of attempts to find it in the past have failed but the
Austrians discovered it last month in a cave in the south of Egypt. Almasy was
one of a number of minor pre-war explorers recruited by German intelligence in
a bid to diminish British influence across Africa. His homosexual lover Hans,
an officer in the Wehrmacht, died during Rommel's retreat from Africa after
stepping on one of his own side's landmines, disembowelling him.
2018 Utah Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Salt Lake City ranks in the Top Ten Gay-Friendly Cities in the country. It has a vibrant and powerful gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. This chamber strives to showcase and expand the community by allowing consumers to know which businesses support them, as well as give business owners a chance to help build and support the community. We are committed to bringing people together in social, as well as business-directed environments, so that we develop new understandings of each others’ needs and are supportive of them. The Chamber welcomes everyone, regardless of sexual preference, gender identity, or gender expression. Please join us for our 2nd annual Gay-la Event! Thursday, April 5, 2018 6:00-9:00pm Cottonwood Country Club Holladay, UT 84117 Tickets $15 Prepaid / $25 after 03/29/18 The evening included music featuring the Tribeca Ensemble, hosted hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and incentivized membership opportunities for those interested in joining the chamber. Dress is "Party." Come and enjoy the elegant party atmosphere with special guest speakers: - Mayor Ben McAdams, Salt Lake County - Dr. Kristen Ries & Maggie Snyder, Recently featured in the Sundance Film, "Quiet Heroes" - Chad Anderson, LGBT therapist and author who will speak to the evolution of hate crimes surrounding our local community.
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