This Day in Gay Utah History May 3rd

3 May

Lord Cornwall Governor of
New  York and New Jersey

1702-Lord Cornbury arrived in Manhattan to be the governor-general of New York. He would create scandal by publicly cross-dressing. Cornbury is reported to have opened the 1702 New York Assembly clad in a hooped gown and an elaborate headdress and carrying a fan, imitative of the style of Queen Anne. When his choice of clothing was questioned, he replied, "You are all very stupid people not to see the propriety of it all. In this place and occasion, I represent a woman (the Queen), and in all respects I ought to represent her as faithfully as I can." It is also said that in August 1707, when his wife Lady Cornbury died, His High Mightiness (as he preferred to be called) attended the funeral again dressed as a woman. It was shortly after this that mounting complaints from colonists prompted the Queen to remove Cornbury from office

1933 Case Dropped After Boy’s Story Related- After testimony of the first witness for the state had been heard District Attorney Wade A Johnson’s motion for dismissal of the felony charge against Charlie Downing who was being tried before a jury was granted by Judge L A Wade today. Downing was charged with committing a detestable and abominable crime against nature in connection with an offense against a young boy on May last. The prosecutor after hearing the boy’s testimony moved the court for dismissal. Ogden Standard examiner

Jean Sinclair

3 May 1963 Deseret News All Male Jury Begins Deliberating in Murder Trial of Jean Sinclair by Don Beck “An all male jury Friday began deliberating the fate of Jean Sinclair accused shot gun slayer following a three week trial in Third District  “ambush”killing  of Donald LeRoy Foster age 31 over the affections of Mrs. LaRae Peterson age 33. The trial started April  13.  Kermit Dubois an employee of a downtown store said he sold 2 suits to the defendant and fitted her for them When asked if he knew whether his customer was a man or woman Dubois replied “I thought she was a man.”

1986-RESTORATION CHURCH Three members of the Salt

Lake Branch of the Restoration Church along with nine others had their initiatory temple work  done in the Restoration Church’s Tabernacle in Downey, Los Angeles County, California. People who had their work done were Bob McIntier, Mike Howard, Ben Williams. Ben Williams had his temple work done by Elder Pamela Calkins. Others in attendance were Mark Blutto, Lynn LeMasters, Eddie Muldong, Tony Feliz, John Crane, David Ewing, and two straight women Michelle and Janice. 

Christine Jorgenson

1989-Transsexual Christine Jorgensen died of cancer at age 62. 1970 Interview in Gay Magazine

1989- Cliff Arneson became the first out bisexual to testify before the US House Committee on Veterans Affairs, speaking on behalf of les/bi/Gay veterans to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

1990 Thursday Ben Barr came over this evening to talk about getting facilitators for Beyond Stonewall. We ended up visiting much of the time and catching up on our lives. Ben said that he was instrumental in getting the Board of Directors of the PWA Coalition to kick David Sharpton out as President of the People With AIDS Coalition of Utah. Ben said that while he admired a lot of the things which David accomplished, he was tired of David's "back stabbing" attitude. He in

Ben Barr

effect told the coalition that either David goes or they could find another location to house the coalition. I guess David's real down fall was when he threw Eugene Giditus up against a wall in a fit of temper. Well I never saw an organization yet that did not eat its creator. The president now is some woman who has a two year old son with AIDS. I guess that will play better in Utah- "an innocent victim". The more I talked with Ben the more evident it was that he's really tired and needs a vacation. Dealing with this AIDS crap has to eventually take its toll by making one immune to the suffering of others. [Journal of Ben Williams]

1990  GOING STRAIGHT? NEW THERAPY MAY HELP GAY MEN, WOMEN ALTER SEXUAL ORIENTATION -BUT IT FACES A WAVE OF OPPOSITION Deseret News In the 1970s, when gay men began coming out of their closets, Bill went deeper into his. It was one of those perfectly constructed closets, framed by marriage and children and a profession full of serious men in suits. Way in the back of the closet, though, where nobody could see, he was living another life, sometimes having sex with as many as three men a day.  But all that is over now, he says. Thanks to a new therapy, he says, he isn't gay anymore. He calls it "coming out of homosexuality." "It's like Martin Luther King said," Bill explains. "You know, "Free at last! Free at last!' Now I'm able to pass a man on the street and say, "Isn't he a nice-looking man. Good for him.' And keep on walking." You don't Have to Be Gay," says the brochure Bill holds in his hand

announcing an upcoming conference at the University of Utah. The conference, "Developing a Healthy Male Identity," is sponsored by a Salt Lake group called the Evergreen Foundation. The theory that you can change your sexual orientation, and that homosexuality is unhealthy, is the cornerstone of Evergreen, whose membership is composed of men and women who classify themselves as "former" homosexuals and lesbians. Most have, within the past couple of years, undergone a controversial therapy based on the work of Elizabeth R. Moberly, a British research psychologist who published "Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic" in 1983. Her theory has also given birth to other Evergreen-type groups in California and several other states. It's a theory that touches deep nerves in Utah, where gays and their families struggle

Elizabeth Moberly

to understand sexual yearnings that run against the grain of conservative values. It also touches nerves in Salt Lake City's gay community, which classifies Evergreen and its upcoming conference as misleading, unethical and dangerous. At the heart of the controversy are unresolved questions about the causes _ and the meaning _ of sexual identity. Tom Pritt, a Kaysville psychologist, had been working with homosexuals for years when he came across Elizabeth Moberly's "Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic." In it he found confirmation of conclusions he had come to during hundreds of hours of therapy sessions. Homosexuality, says Pritt, is not really about sex but about love. It's not about a man's inability to find women appealing but about his inability to form a "normal" bond with other men. Most of the men he has treated, says Pritt, had similar backgrounds: fathers who were absent or distant; a feeling of inferiority to male peers; a feeling of being out of sync with typical male interests and abilities. On the one hand they felt a need for male love; on the other hand, afraid of rejection, they distanced themselves from traditional relationships with other men. All men and women, says Pritt, have a need to feel close to and to feel accepted by members of their same sex. When a boy who has not felt that kind of bonding reaches puberty, that same-sex love need can become confused and eroticized. What he really desires is male closeness; what he thinks he wants is sex with another man. Basically what this theory holds is that the whole thing is just a big mistake. A case of mistaken identity, or as Pritt puts it, "incomplete identity." Inside, the theory holds, gay men are really heterosexuals who would be attracted to women if they just finished their emotional development _by learning how to act in healthy ways around men. Gay men can change through therapy, says Pritt, but not the typical aversion therapy tried in the past. Gay men can change, he says, but not simply by being counseled to get married. Jim used to cruise Sugarhouse Park. Or he would hang around Liberty Park or walk through Crossroads Mall, hoping, with a lingering glance, to make a connection with another man. That was after 18 years of marriage and a divorce, after he had sat in a therapist's office and trembled inside when he was asked to face the fact that three decades of fantasizing about men meant that he was gay. "I didn't want to be gay," Jim remembers. "Because of society, more than anything. And because I had children and I didn't want to explain that to them. And I didn't know how to act in that (gay) world. I hated that swishy style." Asked to explore his feelings, Jim finally decided that "if I was gay, I'd be the best darn gay guy there ever was." He threw all his energies into finding the perfect man. "At first it's intoxicating. Then it's addicting. . . . But it never was fulfilling," he says. "You can't have fulfillment with another man. But the gay community doesn't want to hear that." And then, in 1988, someone gave him a copy of what at Evergreen they refer to

as "the gray book" _ "You Don't Have to Be Gay," by J.A. Konrad, a California man who describes himself as "an EX-gay.""I read it in two afternoons," says Jim. "And I knew it was right. Finally someone was saying, "You wasn't easy. "It took me eight months before I could drive by Sugarhouse Park." He started making efforts to mingle with every straight man he could find, and he joined Tom Pritt's baseball and basketball program for men who were struggling to change.  "I stood on second base and cried," Jim remembers. "I could do it. And I was good, even though I was always told I couldn't be." Now, after 18 months of non-erotic relationships with other men, he says he notices a difference in himself.  "Every gay guy I knew longs for his International Male magazine," says Jim. "When it used to come, I'd be in the middle of business and I'd have to stop and look at it. But last week one came to my office and I didn't have to look at it right away. And when I did, I realized that I was actually looking at the clothes. It's like total liberation." He says he is starting to feel attracted to women, although there is a tentativeness to his voice when he talks about it. It's a slow process, he says. THOSE WHO FIND fault with the Evergreen approach are quick to point out that it ignores the latest research into the neurobiology of sexual orientation. "The ultimate cause of sexual orientation has never been fully determined," notes Salt Lake psychiatrist Jan Stout. "But most of the top investigators in the field believe that biological factors are extremely important." Stout, who in the early 1970s believed that homosexuality was a learned behavior that could be treated with therapy, had decided by the mid-1980s that that viewpoint was "wrong and simplistic." Homosexuality is a result of a complex combination of environmental and biological causes, says Stout.  It is in the uterus, he says, that the brain begins to differentiate between male and female. In the embryo we all start out as female, until the point, in about half of us, when a Y chromosome begins to create male organs. After that, in males, the hormone testosterone creates further changes that will later lead to masculine behavior and sexual feelings.  But in some male embryos, less testosterone is produced, possibly because of maternal stress or certain drugs. Although animal studies cannot always be generalized to humans, says Stout, they have confirmed "the crucial role" that prenatal hormones play in later sex-role behavior. "I've treated hundreds of homosexuals," notes Stout. "Some have the pattern of weakened father bonds, but not all by any means. . . . I think it's a don't have to be trapped in it.' " So Jim began the therapy. He avoided his former haunts, although that case of putting the cart before the horse," he says about the theories of male bonding and homosexuality. "They haven't been able to make good bonds with father because of the way they feel inside. It's the effect of the biology, not the other way around." A few people can maybe make changes that feel right to them, says Stout, but it's more a question of willpower and behavioral changes, rather than a real shift in sexual orientation. Because of this, he finds the theories potentially dangerous.  "You're going to have young people who read anecdotes about people who have changed, and they'll say, "What's wrong with me? I haven't been able to change.' You'll increase their sense of failure. And I think you'll see more suicides. That's my concern here. . . . We should accept people the way they are." That conflict between "validating the self-worth of the individual" vs. encouraging change, says Salt Lake clinical social worker LaDonna Moore, lies behind the decision of the Utah chapter of the National Association of Social Workers not to give continuing education credit for this weekend's conference.  Moore objects to the conference brochure's characterization of homosexuality as a sickness. "It's sad to see the complexity of human beings' emotional and sexual state reduced to "compulsive behavior.' " Because the mental-health profession as a whole no longer considers homosexuality a disorder, Moore feels that it is "unethical" for local therapists to participate in the Evergreen conference. Five Utah therapists _ four licensed clinical social workers, a psychiatrist and a psychologist _ are among the presenters at the Friday session, which is geared to health professionals. The Saturday session is open to the public. A group of "concerned citizens" _ including some mental-health workers and members of the Salt Lake gay community _ will counter the Evergreen claims at a press conference on Friday. Local gay activists find the conference, and the concepts behind it,

Connell "Rocky" O'Donovan

offensive, says Rocky O'Donovan, director of the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Utah.  Not all gays want to change, he says, although there was a time, during high school, when he fasted and prayed to do just that. But now he says, "If you put a pill, with no side effects, here on the table that would make me heterosexual, and next to it you put a $1,000 bill, I'd say, "Absolutely not.' " The real question, says O'Donovan, is not why some men are gay, or whether they should be, but how to best accept them if they are. HUMAN SEXUALITY has never been as simple as the birds and the bees, and homosexuality is no less perplexing or charged with emotion now, after all the studies and books and talk shows and theories that have tried to understand it. Is it possible to change a person's sexual orientation? The debate continues.  In the meantime Jim tells this story: He was jogging down the street not long ago when, all of a sudden, a feeling of "completeness" came over him. "I feel now," he explains with a look of relief, "that I have the same parts and the same capabilities that every man has." -For more information, call the Evergreen Foundation at 535-1658, or the Gay and Lesbian Community Council at 359-5555. The names of Evergreen members used in this article have been changed at their request. [Deseret News]

1992 "AN AMERICAN SPRING" is the theme the Salt Lake Men's Choir has adopted for a concert it will present at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus. Included will be music of Aaron Copland, Randall Thompson and Kirby Shaw, as well as a selection of spirituals, patriotic songs and show tunes. The group is directed by T. Brent Carter. 

3 May 2000 Page: B1Conference Uninvites Gay Group Teacher meeting to focus on equity in the classroom; Equity Meeting Uninvites Gay Advocates BY KATHERINE KAPOS  THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE  The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of Utah says it was invited in March to give a workshop at a two-day Equity in Opportunity conference. A few weeks later, the group was politely uninvited. "It's bizarre," said Network member Linda Chamberlain. "It's like having a multicultural conference and only inviting white people." Two hundred Utah teachers will attend the conference today and Thursday at Salt Lake Community College to learn how to create equity in their classrooms. But they will have to listen closely to get information that will help their Gay students. Advocates wondered if it was the workshop's title that caused organizers anxiety:  "Homophobia 101: Teaching Respect for All."  An offer to change the name was rejected. Robert Brems, associate superintendent of the state's Applied Technology Education division, said he was not worried about the name, but felt the workshop was unnecessary.  The division co-sponsors the conference with Equity in Opportunity centers at Salt Lake Community College, Utah Valley State College, Weber State University and Dixie College. The keynote speaker and two other workshops will deal with sexual harassment and gender behaviors, he said. "I know GLSEN would like to see the issue addressed in a different way, but we feel like we have given it time, thought and consideration," Brems said Tuesday. This is the fourth year the division and equity centers have sponsored the conference, which teaches educators and students how to promote tolerance and respect in their classrooms. A federal grant helps fund the four equity centers and is covering a portion of the conference cost.  Not everyone in charge of the conference agrees with the decision to drop the network from the program. Christina Kemeny, coordinator of the Equity in Opportunity Center at SLCC, said she invited the group because she believes homosexuality is an issue that warrants a separate conference presentation. "It's a huge part of equity in schools and we should be able to address it," she said. "Homophobia 101" is modeled after the national organization's faculty-training program, said Camille Lee, a group member who planned to make the presentation. Lee said the session briefly covers homosexual slurs used by students and the differences between sexual orientation, identity and behavior. But most of the 90-minute presentation is focused on the day-to-day life of Gay and lesbian students and what teachers can do to support them. The information has been presented numerous times to Utah teachers in a variety of settings, from the Utah Education Association's annual convention to education classes at the University of Utah and Weber State University. The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network also has conducted a four-part education series this year throughout the state. Teachers who attended the series are eligible through the State Office of Education for credits that help them move up the pay scale.  Lee said that regardless of their political or personal beliefs, Utah teachers have Gay and lesbian students in their classrooms and students' parents who are homosexuals. "Teachers are having to deal with this," said Lee.  "And they are really seeking information so they can be supportive of all their students." While they won't get that message to teachers this week, the story does have a silver lining.  Brems has invited the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network of Utah to conduct a workshop for employees at State Office of Education sometime in the future.

Mark Shurtleff

2003 Shurtleff Stands Behind His Support of Anti-sodomy Law By Rebecca Walsh The Salt Lake Tribune B 4 : A controversial friend of the court brief that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff signed has jeopardized its author's federal court nomination. Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor wrote the brief in support of a Texas antisodomy law the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing. His words have drawn fire from gay rights groups and threaten his nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. But Shurtleff stands behind the brief, filed Feb. 18. He says the 28-page argument was painstakingly written and primarily quotes previous Supreme Court rulings.  "We're just using the court's words," Shurtleff said. "Some people could try to say this is expressing the personal attitudes of the attorney general. We were just trying to express what we believe Utah law says." Although 13 states have sodomy bans similar to the Texas law, just Pryor, Shurtleff and one other state's attorney general signed the document. Utah's decades-old sodomy law is at stake in the case. If the court decides it is unconstitutional to punish gay couples for what happens in their bedrooms, the sodomy bans could be overturned.  Justices heard arguments in the Texas case in March. A ruling is expected by July. Meantime, Pryor's confirmation hearings have not been scheduled. Pryor argues individual state legislatures with their unique sensibilities -- not the U.S. Supreme Court -- should establish laws dealing with homosexuality. Unless rights are specifically outlined in the U.S. Constitution, he says the court has to consider history, legal traditions and practices -- not political correctness and changing social mores. By extension, Pryor wrote, "because homosexual sodomy has not historically been recognized in this country as a right -- to the contrary, it has historically been recognized as a wrong -- it is not a fundamental right."  Later, Pryor continues, "A constitutional right that protects 'the choice of one's partner' and 'whether and how to connect sexually' must logically extend to activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia."     Gay rights groups have protested Pryor's nomination. And some have likened Pryor's language to Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's comments comparing homosexuality to incest, bigamy and polygamy. "It's the slippery slope argument," said Kevin Cromer, president of the Utah Log Cabin Republicans. "It does not follow that decriminalizing homosexuality will lead to adultery subsequently being declared legal. Adultery is a breach of a contract between two people. It does not follow that incest will be decriminalized. Polygamists who are prosecuted are usually the ones who lure female children into sexual relations. That will always be a crime." But Shurtleff says comparing the legal arguments in the brief to Santorum's comments is unfair: "That's certainly not what I was saying by signing on."  Then, said Cromer, "he shouldn't have signed it if he didn't mean to endorse what it says."

2003 Theater 138 Synopsized from articles by Jerry Johnston and Ivan M. Lincoln for Deseret News and Nancy Melich for The Salt Lake Tribune The original Theater 138 was housed in an historical old church house at 138 S. 200 East for nearly 20 years, but it was closed down in1986 when the building was purchased by Mountain Fuel Supply – and was subsequently turned into a parking lot. Ariel Ballif, Tom Carlin and Stu Falconer were the founders of, and inspiration for, Theatre 138, from the day it opened in 1966 until the doors closed. They presented nearly 300 productions including 60 premieres of new plays. The small theater downtown became an institution. Ballif, Falconer, and Carlin met in Richmond, VA, in the early `50s and opened a small theater there called The Renaissance. They stayed several years until the owners "started telling us what to do and that never went over well," Ballif says. In 1962, Ballet West founder William Christensen contacted Ballif about returning home and taking a teaching position at the Universityof Utah. Falconer and Carlin accepted jobs at Pioneer MemorialTheatre and the three partners moved to Salt Lake. The company's more popular shows included their Christmas season offering in the mid-eighties which was Walton Jones' comedy THE 1940'S RADIO HOUR -- a theatrical version of a one-hour radio program broadcast on Dec. 21, 1942, from a two-bit station in New York City, filled with skits, songs, sound- effects, promos, bromos, bromides and one-liners. The cast was rotated each year to keep the show fresh. Like Woody Allen's movie RADIO DAYS, this show is a good chance for people over 50 to bask in some nostalgia and memories and is a chance for people under 30 to catch a glimpse of the innocence and authenticity of the war years. Tom Carlin of Theater 138 says he liked the show because it has a Christmas spirit about it without trading on all the tried and true themes of Christmas. After the closing of the downtown theater, Theatre 138 moved south to Center Stage Theatre on Highland Drive. Theater 138, which opened as Salt Lake City's first full-time, year-round "alternative" theater company, joined Walk-Ons Inc., a nomadic troupe that had bounced all over the place since the early '70s. They shared the Center Stage for the next year and a half in a unique arrangement that called for the two independent companies to produce their own shows (in alternating time slots), and share in the expenses of buying the building, formerly the site of Andy's Smorgasbord. Sadly, on August 1, 1989, there was no more Theater 138 or Center Stage Theater. The building was sold, cutting short a three-week run of ROMEO AND JULIET down to only four days. Tom Carlin, Stu Falconer and Ariel Ballif offered the facility to a young- performing troupe as a good-will gesture before moving out. However, the closing date was moved up on them at the last minute, cutting even that last show short. So Theater 138 left the Salt Lake Theater scene as it entered many years ago -- showing good will toward young performers and patrons. Commenting on the closure of the Center Stage facility, Ballif said, "There were a lot of things involved. The biggest was the financial problem. It didn't make much sense to keep going into the hole every month. There were not enough seats, unless it was full every night, to meet expenses. We kept pushing it for the time we were there and kept trying, but it finally became a reality that we just couldn't handle it any more. There was also the problem in two groups trying to operate in the same space. Those things just didn't work out." Spencer (Walk-Ons producer) concurred that it was "difficult sharing the space with another company" when both groups have their individual artistic temperaments. "In the end," said Spencer, "I guess the venture, the whole project, just didn't really take off as we had hoped." As for the godfathers of these kids -- the people at Theater 138 -- Stu Falconer says the three of them would not make another run at finding a location. The plan was to move on and find work within existing companies. Ariel Ballif said the company still exists as a corporation but that the three are going "to let the dust settle for a time, then start considering some other possibilities and solutions.""We're past the age of the full-time, 12-shows-a-year routine. But, we're certainly not going to retire from the business because it's too much a part of our lives," he said. Stu Falconer, who performed in many of the company's productions, went on to perform in the new Broadway Stage's premiere production of THE BOYS NEXT DOOR and PROFESSOR BERHARDI. Stewart Falconer, the tall, gracious Southern gentleman, moved to Utah in 1962 from Richmond, VA. Falconer was technical and production manager at 138, the master carpenter of the trio, the one who could fix anything, be it the barber chair for SWEENEY TODD or the neon lights in CHICAGO. He was also an actor, appearing in numerous dramatic roles at 138, including EQUUS, 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD, and MRS. WARREN'S ROFESSION and the musicals THE FANTASTICKS and THE NEW MOON, to mention only a few. The standard joke around the theater was that someday Falconer would be able to be in a play and not have to run between acts to check the wiring. Actor Margaret Crowell, who appeared in numerous plays with Falconer, said what she remembers most vividly about her friend was "his complete grace. No matter who or what you were, Stu made you comfortable. Stu would tell wonderful stories, putting everyone at ease. Onstage, he was the same way. He took small roles, but time and time again, he stole the show." Sadly, he died of cancer Oct. 1st 1993 at the age of 69. The illness had only been diagnosed a few days earlier. Following Falconer's wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered by Carlin and Ballif in the nearby mountains. After Theatre 138, Ariel Ballif went on to design productions for Pioneer Theatre Company, Ballet West, Utah Opera and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Ballif was raised in Utah and is a graduate of Brigham Young University, with a master's of fine arts degree from Yale University. From 1955 to 1962 he was designer, co-producer and director of little theaters in Richmond, VA. He taught design in 1967-72 at the Yale School of Drama and worked in the Yale Resident Theater. He designed for stock companies nationally and for Broadway shows and early color television productions. In 1994, Ballif was named the recipient of the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities, presented each year in connection with the Madeleine Festival. Ballif, then on the theater faculty at the University of Utah, was to be presented with the award April 24 at a special dinner at the New Yorker Club. Sadly, he died 4 days earlier in his home of a heart attack. The award ceremony went on as scheduled and the award was given posthumously. He was 68. For two decades, the three men -- Ariel Ballif, Stu Falconer and Tom Carlin -- teamed up to produce such shows as LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, SWEENEY TODD and one of the first regional productions of ON GOLDEN POND. The theater brought several firsts to Salt Lake audiences. It produced new plays by Utah authors. It offered works by

Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee that the universities would not touch. It ventured into such daring territory as Peter Shaffer's EQUUS, a play with nudity, STICKS AND BONES, a play with profanity, BOYS IN THE BAND, a play about homosexuality (which played to sellout crowds) and CHICAGO, a bawdy musical. The intimate theater also staged CARNIVAL with an interracial cast. No one complained. The three thespians, whose paths first crossed in Tampa, Florida, in the mid-1940s, became known as the three musketeers of local theater because of Theater 138. 

• Ben Williams wrote: NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY as Paul Harvey would say. Here is another reason why the Utah Stonewall Historical Society exists. Nowhere in this article does it mention that Stu Falconer and Ariel Baliff were lovers and companions for over forty years! Nor does the article mentioned that they left Virginia not for being bossed around but because of their great distaste for segregation. The lovers, with Gay friend Tom Carlin produced the first openly Gay play in Utah, "Boys In The Band" in May 1971, produced in November 1977 EQUUS, the first Utah play to have male nudity on stage, and produced in February 1987 "As Is", the acclaimed Broadway drama about AIDS which was the first play in Salt Lake to deal with the disease.- The 1971 review of Marc Crowley's "Boys In the Band" stated that it opened to a "full house." Baliff stated that as a director, he considered Theatre 138's staging of ``Equus'' one of his finest achievements. The Salt Lake Tribune in a eulogy for Ariel Baliff wrote:``Ariel walked away from a national career to establish a theater in Utah. By creating Theatre 138 in Salt Lake, he paved the way for every theater in this city to grow. Without him, there would be no Salt Lake Acting Company, and all of us in theater out here would be 20 years behind here we are today.''  It would have been nice to have acknowledge that Baliff was also a homosexual. Not the sum of his whole being true, but still a rather an important factor in his sensibility as an artist as to how he perceived the world and his working for social justice through the medium of theater. Falconer, Baliff, and Tom Carlin enriched Salt Lake City throughtheir art and we should acknowledge their lives as part of our Gay heritage. Ben Williams

May Swenson and R R Knutson

2008 R. R. [Rozanne Ruth] Knudson, the renowned lesbian author whose stories about girls and women in sports, died on May 3 at her home in St. Petersburg, Fla. She was 75 and died of cancer. She graduated from Brigham Young University in 1954 and was lover of May Swenson Obituary