This Day In Gay Utah History May 29th

29 May

1955 Francis Renault, one of vaudeville’s greatest female impersonators died in New York City age 72.  Last of the great female impersonators, Julian Eltinge, Bert Savoy and Karyl Norman, from the 1920’s.

1958- Salt Lake Tribune ran headline “Police Nab 23 in 27 Day Morals Drive”  (157) Salt Lake Police have arrested 23 persons because of homosexual activities during the last 27 days. Sgt. T.W. Southworth of the police department anti-vice bureau reported Tuesday there is a drive to expose and curtail homosexual and other sexually deviate activity in the city’s public places. “We have a detail of 3 men assigned to patrol and police the known

sexual deviate hang outs.” Sgt. Southworth said. “We’ve known for sometime of places where such persons make contacts. The places are public and other frequented by children.  But it wasn’t until recently that we had men to do the clean up job.”  The result of the campaign started May 1, can be seen from the comparison of statistics.  During the first 4 months of the year 25 persons were arrested on disorderly charges. Four in January, eleven in February, five in March, and five in April.  In May of 1957 no homosexual arrests were made.  Many of the persons arrested after their arrest admit carrying on homosexual activity while parked in their vehicles along public roads or in public restroom. Sgt. Southworth said. A hope was expressed by the sergeant that the city courts will hand down sentences which will slow activity.  He suggested a six month jail sentence with three months suspended upon good behavior and on condition they receive psychiatric treatment. Such a sentence would enable the police department to investigate the subject’s past activities and subsequently aid in the correction and treatment of the person. “the Sgt. said. “The jail sentence would serve to suppress other sexual deviate activity, thus protect the children and general public from coming into contact with this type of activity.”  So far the case of only one man of the 23 arrested this month has been disposed of by the court.  He received a $75 fine and 15 days in jail, with the jail term suspended if he paid the fine. (05/29/58  Page 10 Col. 5 SLTribune)

1965-The Gay rights demonstration  held in front of the White House took place, consisting of seven men and three women.Organized by Eastern Conference of Homophile Organizations, seven men and three women picketed the White House. The first of a series of pickets held throughout the summer, which also targeted the Civil Service Commission, the State Department and The Pentagon.

1965 Sunday- A riot of 100 persons in Liberty Park sparked

J Bracken Lee

by police brutality caused Mayor J. Bracken Lee to state “I don’t like brutality but if it takes brutality to stop these riots, that is the answer. Law and Order must be enforced or the city must give itself up to the hoodlums and this is not going to happen. Charges of inciting a riot were filed against 13 persons in the aftermath and the city cracked down on selling beer to minors and allowing beer in the parks. A week prior to the riot the police held a riot training session given by the FBI and Utah Peace Officers. (06/02/65 Page 21 Col.7)

1969- Salt Lake City contends that VD is increasing and that anyone arrested for soliciting in an area where VD rate is high should be suspect. Dr. Harold D. Harris, city physician, instrumental in drafting the heath hold law testified that 9 out of 47 persons tested following their arrests had gonorrhea and one case of syphilis (05/28/69 SLTribune A17)

1983 The 8th Coronation of the Royal Court of Golden Spike Empire was held with Michael Ball and Tina St. Clair stepping down. New elected officers were The Wizard Emperor, Emperor VIII Alan Anderson and the Moon Empress, Empress VIII Auntie De' [Dean Walton]. Prince Royale VIII was Rob Bullock and Princess Royale VIII was Mother Bob.  By proclamation, Alan created the board elections of the Prince and Princess Royale, which would take place prior to Victory Brunch, the morning after Coronation.  Empress XVI Stephanie Thomas's proclamation voided Alan's by creating a public election for the offices.  These elections only from reigns

20-22.  She rescinded her proclamation and Alan's was reinstated. Alan along with Sheneka, Empress 20, became the first monarchs to step into the Regent role as a result of there being no candidates for Emperor and Empress for the 32nd reign.  Auntie De left us in the Spring of 2009. Auntie De was active in the Utah Gay Rodeo association and served as Grand Marshall for their 1st rodeo in the summer of 2000.  An R.C.G.S.E tradition has been for Auntie De' to host the Empress Tea Party during the Coronation Festivities. This party goes hand in hand with Auntie De and her fun loving attitude. She along with Beau Chaine created the briefly existed Gay and Lesbian Center and Clinic.

1988 The 13th Coronation of the Royal Court of Golden Spike Empire was held at the Salt

Palace with the late Donny Eastepp and the late Donnie Marie [Herman Moore] stepping down. The newly elected officers were The Mystic Guardian Emperor, Emperor XIII Larry White and The Dragon Empres,. Empress XIII Desiree'. Prince Royale XIII was Bruce Harmon and Princess Royale XIII was  Kasie Berringer. With the talents of the R.C.G.S.E members showing prominently in their performing and fundraising skills, the 13th reign found itself lucky to harvest such rewards greatly.  This reign probably had the most incredible sets for shows, events and pageants ever, as

Larry White was very talented in set design and his partner Bree Chardonnay helped their reign throughout the year.  The monarchs traveled well and took care of in town business accordingly.  Famous for her many varied and fabulous hats, the late Desiree was also known as one of the most exciting and energetic performing empresses on the circuit, and truly loved and enjoyed performing for her audience. Sunday Empress XII Donnie Marie and Emperor XII Donny Eastepp presented Gold Rush Coronation 1988 at the Salt Palace Assembly Hall (86) Larry Whyte  was elected Emperor XIII and Desiree’ Marciano was elected Empress

XIII. Prince Royale XIII was Bruce Harmon and Kashie Berringer (K.C. Culligan) became Princess Royale XIII  “I made an English Truffle, a huge bowl of party mix, a vegetable tray, a bag of popcorn for Coronation tonight.

About 4 O’clock Randy Olsen, John Reeves, and  James Connally  showed up so we could all go together.  We were all in a festive mood.  John Reeves brought Beyond Stonewall fliers to insert into The Triangles which were on all the tables.  We arrived about 4:30 and I set up our table while the rest stuffed The Triangles with fliers.  I think I enjoyed Coronation more tonight then last year.  We had entrances for The Community Council, for the AIDS Quilt Project, for Beyond Stonewall, and Unconditional Support. Beyond Stonewall gave Emperor Donny Eastepp and Herman Moore, Empress “Donie Marie” complementary tickets to the retreat. Unconditional Support gave boxes of chocolate.  We had about 20 people in all at our two tables. Mike Buck and John Reeves were slightly nervous making an entrance for Beyond Stonewall but it was a good experience for them and they were great. I brought a bottle of white zinfandel so I was feeling pretty loose all night, mostly kissing Joel Redmond from Idaho. Steve Jr. Leather man sure attached himself to me. Shawn Hughes was so cute tonight. Let me see if I can remember all who was with us, Ken Francis, John Reeves, Mike Buck, Erick Carlson, Eric Christensen, Shawn Hughes, James Connally, Colin Frank, Eddie Muldong. And his two friend, Joe Dewey and Curtis Jensen, Val Mansfield, Chris Brown, Tim and John from the Youth Group, Steve and probably more.  Coronation lasted a little after midnight and had started at 5:30.  This year’s Theme was Gold Rush and the set designs were wonderful.  Bree made her entrance riding in a Black Swan carriage drawn by scantily clad young men.  Bruce Barton did a wonderful Gospel hymn with The Love Birds as his back up singers. All in all everyone seemed to have had a wonderful time.  Larry White won as Emperor and Desiree won as the new Empress.  Bruce Harmon was elected to the new Board while Floyd Gambel was appointed to the Board.

1995-Monday Dale K. Poe, HM1, U.S. Navy Retired, died of AIDS complications at the age of 40. He is survived by his longtime companion, George Mullen. At the time of his death, Dale was a student at Grossmont College and also the Client Representative on the Board of Directors of  AIDS Foundation San Diego (AFSD), where he served two previous terms as secretary.

1998- U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Jenkins sided with Gay-Rights Activists and refused

Laura Gray

the state's motion to remove two Salt Lake City School District officials from a lawsuit filed on behalf of the East High School Gay/Straight Alliance. ``The two people were carefully named in the lawsuit. We didn't just pull them out of the sky,'' said Laura Milliken Gray, cooperating attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.

Johann Jacobs

1998 Johann Jacobs, a founding member of Uath AIDS Project, the precursor to the Utah AIDS Foundation, was named the executive director of Ballet West.

1998 Larry Grant Best , age 61, born in Kamas Utah died in Salt Lake City.  Larry graduated Salutatorian from South Summit High School and received his B.S. and Masters Degree in English from BYU. Served in the Army National Guard. Obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. He taught English at BYU and later worked as a technical writing consultant at Shipley and Associates, and did marketing for SMI.  Survived by companion of 20 years Clifford Sunbear.In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Utah AID's Foundation in Larry's name

1999-Nevada became the 11th state to ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

2005 The 30th Coronation of the Royal Court was held with Mike Sperry and Syrene Vaughn stepping down. The new officers were The Triple-Threat Renaissance & Revolution Emperor, Emperor XXX Peter

"Jester" Savas and the  Radiant Ruby Hearted Latina Empress, Empress XXX Krystyna Shaylee. Prince Royale XXX was Alfredo DeBeers Cheesecake and Princess Royale XXX  Kennedy Cartier. Greetings One and ALL, Wynken, Blyken and Nod one night sailed off in a wooden shoe. Sailed on a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew. "Where are you going and what do you

wish?" The old moon asked the three. "We have come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea. Nets of silver and gold have we!" Said Wynken, Blyken and Nod.......... The Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire, invites you to Coronation 30 Bedtime Stories: A Night in the Imperial Nursery, Memorial Weekend May 26th through May 30th Please join Emperor 29 Michael Sperry and Empress 29 Syren Vaughn, as well as Prince and Princess 29 Michael Canham and Paris Brunner-Childers as they celebrate the culmination of their year. We are back at the Sheraton City Centre, so yes all of you that have asked, the pool is ready and open. Maybe we will be fortunate enough to have those baseball teams back at the pool again this year. Nothing like athletes in speedos mingling with the drag queens. And for those of you too shy to venture to the pool, once again all of our rooms will surround the courtyard and pool.  Coronation 30 Bedtime Stories: A Night in the Imperial Nursery is Memorial Weekend May 26th through may 3The Royal Court Coronation will be held on May 29th at the Downtown Sheraton Hotel. On behalf of Reign XXVIII, we would like to thank the following individuals  for their generosity and efforts to make this year’s Hospitality Suite at SLC Coronation XXX possible:Pepper Prespentt, Ray Duncan, Alan Stephensen, Michael Nabor, Tony Steele, Kennedy Cartier, Juan Carlos, Jester, Chris Trujillo, Mike Sperry, Al Boscan,Sheneka Christie,Vanessa Michaels,Franke Holt, Mame Cherie, Brad Earl, Earl Kane, David Sperry, Kacey Wilson, Alexis Makayla, Derek Beebe, Bobby Fairbanks, Kyra Faye Prespentt, Krystyna Shaylee, Paris Brunner-Childers, Bobby Childers, Tasha Montiel, We apologize if there are any individuals whose names we have omitted, but please do not feel that your efforts were not greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Mark & Heidi

2011 The Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire's Coronation was held at the Sheraton Hotel with Emperor XXV Earl Kane and Empress Korynne stepping down. Michael Bennion and Emily Rose were elected Emperor and Empress XXXVI. Johnny Disco Harris and Midori chosen Prince and Princess Royale.

2014 Utah Pride Festival director and coordinator resign May 29, 2014 Q Salt Lake Utah

Megan Risborn

Pride Festival director and coordinator resign With less than three weeks remaining until the annual Utah Pride Festival, two key event staff members have left the Utah Pride Center.  Megan Risbon, under contract as Festival Director since January 2014, terminated her contract effective Tuesday, May 20, and Events Coordinator

Shannon Hagan

Shannon Hagen left that same week. Issues apparently came to a head during the Board of

John Netto 

Directors meeting of May 19, when board chair John Netto and ex-officio board member Nikki Boyer repeatedly interrupted Hagen during her presentation of a festival status report. Hagen was shadowing Risbon in order to learn and lead next year’s Festival and this was her first presentation to the Board. Controversy arose when she announced that ticket prices would be $8 for pre-sales and $10 at the gate. Boyer and Netto were under the impression tickets would be $15 and were also concerned that the entertainment budget was surpassed. Tickets, however, had gone on sale April 15. Long-time community activist Dominique Storni was present at the meeting and said that Netto and Boyer were, “Too harsh. Too much micro-managing. Too much control.” Hagen told QSaltLake that she informed three staff members that evening that she was leaving her position, citing the public humiliation she endured during the meeting. She also posted a Facebook status, but took it down shortly after. Risbon, who left her full-time position at the Utah Pride Center in

Steven Ha

January, but stayed on under contract to direct the Pride Festival, terminated her contract the next day. She cited Netto’s lack of oversight and her belief that she would end up being the scapegoat for any problems that may arise with the festival. Hagen said she met with UPC Executive Director Steven Ha on Tuesday, prior to learning of Risbon’s departure, and asked for 48 hours to consider her decision. Upon learning of Risbon’s resignation she decided to return, notified Ha, and resumed work on Wednesday morning from home. She reported to the office in the early afternoon and worked there for approximately three hours before being called into Ha’s office to be informed that her position had been eliminated. Ha said that he polled members of the Festival steering committee and it was determined that the event was far enough along and that the Festival could be easily be handled by the committee, with members over separate parts of the festival. Many of those people have been in their positions for several years. Netto and Ha both stressed that the Pride Festival is moving forward and believe it will be larger than ever.  Netto touted the current outlook of the festival, noting a significant increase in both sponsors and vendors, beating the numbers for last year despite a decrease in pre-event ticket sales to date. Risbon echoed their sentiment, “I still have no doubt that 2014 will be the biggest and the best to date because of the talents and dedication of the Festival Steering Committee, who have been planning it since September 2013.”

Robert Moolman

2018  Utah Pride Executive Director is feeling concerned. Dear friends of the Utah LGBTQIA community, as many of you know, we have received a letter of demand from a group calling themselves Queers Divest. I have felt the need to issue a formal response to inform you and the broader community about our actions and way forward. I would prefer no responses online (positive or negative), but would ask that anyone who feels the need to respond do so with kindness and fairness to all concerned. These are important issues and they are ones that we are taking very seriously.  Please find my response to the letter below: Dear Members of the Utah LGBTQIA Community Re: Letter of Demand from Queers Divest I want to acknowledge the receipt of a letter of demand for action from a group calling themselves Queers Divest. On behalf of the Pride Center, I want to state that we sent a response to the letter thanking them for taking the time to put it together and preparing this document. The complex issues of corporate participation, intersectionality of identities and representation at our Center are ones that we have spent a long time grappling with.  I was disappointed to hear that they felt that any conversations that have taken place between the Pride Center and individuals in this group have been ignored and not responded to. It is my belief that rather than ignoring the interactions, these discussions and exchanges of ideas have actually lead the Pride Center to made some exciting changes, for example; we hired a Inclusion and Outreach Director for the Festival, we have an open call for Board Members on our website, we have increased and emphasised Spanish in our signage and website, we have funded a scholarship for an immigrant food vendor cart at the Festival, we have actively promoted the opportunities to protest and march at our Festival, our entire organisation has undergone intersectionality training and there has been a huge focus on making our Center and the Festival as accessible to as many people as possible. On top of these issues, we want to restate our commitment to the most marginalised in our community by highlighting the low sliding fee services that we provide to those with no economic means to pay. We provide lifesaving services to those who have nowhere else to go including due to economic disparity within our Utah LGBTQ+ community. There are many more steps to go, and we are committed to doing a little better every day. It was with great sadness and dismay that I received this letter five days before the Parade and 8 weeks into my tenure as the new Executive Director of the Utah Pride Center. I am concerned that I have failed in being able to convince and satisfy our LGBTQ Community of my intention for change, my own strategic vision and my ideas on how to work together to bring new voices into the Center. In these first few weeks I have tried to meet with as many people, programs and groups as possible to learn more about their needs and ideas for their participation in our Center. There are many, many more meetings to be held, but in every discussion I have had or in every media opportunity that has arisen, I have invited individuals to come to participate in meetings and workshops to consider changes and to help drive the Center forward. I relish open, kind and vigorous discussion and apologise to the members of our Community who have been put in this difficult position of signing a petition for change instead of having a proper dialogue.  One key project that is planned and will be implemented in July 2018, is discussing and preparing the next iteration of the Pride Parade and I look forward to engaging in this debate and its complexities. The focus of this project will most certainly be to understand who participates in the Parade and how. The evolution of this Parade continues, for example, this year we have taken the step to put LGBTQ Community groups up front in the Parade, allied groups next and then corporates. We are trying to take careful and considered steps toward change and I had asked that we keep our corporate sponsors intact for this year due to my care for the families and participants in the corporate entries, my acknowledgement of the work that has been done by the Festival committee in planning the Parade and my concern for the unintended and unforeseen pitfalls that could damage the Center if we move into a complete ban on corporate participation in a hasty and un-planned manner. In no way did I intend to minimize the impact that having these corporations in the Parade has on some marginalised Communities, but I recognise how this could be perceived. This was my decision and I stand by the need for consideration of the LGBTQ company employees and the need for a full discussion on this issue rather than a piecemeal approach. I take full responsibility for this. The context above lead to my suggestion for a way forward. I invited the group that sent the letter to the Pride Center to take them up on the opportunity to meet and discuss the issue of corporations in the Pride Parade. I am also going to try to set up a meeting with the representatives of the two corporations that have been targeted and will seek to find a way forward that acknowledges the years of support they have had for our Pride Center and for their LGBTQIA employees. My focus is to make sure these companies are treated with fairness and kindness in this discussion, and to establish how they may want to move forward. The third action I have commited to, is that we will set up, as planned, a working group to consider what participation in the 2019 Parade would look like and how we will change our inclusion processes. The second component of the letter addresses the Board of Directors. I do not seek to speak for the Board and its members, but I have urged the group to come in and meet with members of our Board, many of whom would love to support ideas and ways in which we could make this Board more diverse. From my perspective, I would however urge this group to take care in making claims that distract from the broader point of diverse voices on the Board. I say this due to the many factual errors on the document that relate to Board hiring processes and dissemination of information, for example; we have open access and a link on our website inviting anyone to apply for a position on the Board; we have all financial information about the Center on our website, we have an open session at every Board meeting for members of the Community to come and listen to our discussions, and the policy of ‘give and get’ (that I think they may be referring to regarding financial donations for Board positions) was abandoned two years ago. I acknowledge that we do not have some Board documents online and I will discuss this with the Executive Committee to gather their perspective. I have spoken to our Board Chairperson and know that we are certainly open to a robust discussion about expanding our diversity and look forward to participating in that discussion. I once again want to thank this group for their letter. I believe that social movements march forward thanks to those who are passionate and engaged in making them better. I certainly second the point that ‘liberation can only be achieved when we stand in solidarity with all oppressed communities’ and have seen and experienced this in my own life. We need to move forward deliberately, purposefully and with kindness. As an organisation that strives for inclusion and compassion for all, I hope that we can kindly and sensitively work together to achieve great things for the Utah Pride Center. Sincerely, Rob Moolman  Executive Director: Utah Pride Center

2019 The May Public Oratory of the Utah Queer Historical Society featured Peter Christie of Ballet West  who joined us to talk about his life in Utah as a dancer, community activist, and his involvement with the Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire (first as Prince Royale XVIII and then reigning as Emperor XX in 1995-96).