This Day In Gay Utah History AUGUST 23rd

Earl of Buckingham

August 23rd

1628-George Villiers, lover of King James I of England and Earl of Buckingham, was assassinated by John Felton in Portsmouth. His grave is in Westminster Abbey, beside King James.

Valentino

1926-Lapsing into a coma, Rudolph Valentino, 1920’s Gay silent film star and former husband of bisexual and Utah native Natacha Rambova dies quietly at 12:10 p.m. Official cause of death is endocarditis and septicemia, although almost instantly rumors begin that Rudy was either poisoned or shot by a jealous lover as reported in the tabloids.  Valentino was a bisexual.

1985 The Restoration Church of Jesus Christ was founded on 23 August 1985  in Los Angeles CA by Antonio Feliz and LaMar Hamilton. Consisting of a Temporary Presidency consisting of President Antonio Feliz, First Counselor Lamar Hamilton (who was presiding Bishop) and Second Counselor John R. Crane (who was Presiding Patriarch/ Evangelist). Revelations were collected in sacred volume entitled Hidden Treasures and Promises. In California, Restoration Church was born under the name “The Church of Jesus Christ of ALL Latter Day Saints” which attorneys from the LDS Church contested. After being refused the title “The Church for Latter Day Saints”, they settled for the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ. Antonio A. Feliz, a former bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), who had been excommunicated for homosexual acts. Feliz had also served as the

Tony Feliz with sunglasses

Director of Church Welfare for what was then called the Andean Region (now called the South America West Area) of the LDS Church during the 1970s. The Restoration Church of Jesus Christ is sometimes called the Gay Mormon Church due to its overwhelmingly homosexual membership, although people of any sexual orientation are welcome to join. Feliz originally named the church the Church of Jesus Christ of All Latter Day Saints, but when the LDS Church informed him of their intent to sue, he changed the name to the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ. At a church conference in Sacramento, California, in May 1987, Feliz resigned as president. He was succeeded by Robert A. McIntier, an engineer, who is the current president of the church (as of 2007).  Scripture The scriptures of the church are the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants (both the LDS Church and Community of Christ versions), the Pearl of Great Price, and a book called The Hidden Treasures and Promises, which members say consists of revelations given through the

president of the church and other leaders. Beliefs and practices-In the RCJC, women may hold the priesthood. The Heavenly Mother is regarded as an equal member of the Godhead along with the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The "Heavenly Parents" (i.e., the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Mother) are worshiped in prayers

given in the name of Jesus Christ. The priesthood leaders of the church are called "general officers" as in the Community of Christ, not general authorities as in the LDS Church. The church practices endowments, the law of adoption, and celestial marriage. In addition to heterosexual marriage the church also practices same-sex marriage. All marriages are performed in members' homes, until such time as the church is able to construct a temple. Homosexual polygamy The founder of the church, Antonio A. Feliz, in an interview with Sunstone Magazine, stated he would be open to performing homosexual polygamous marriages if requested by any members. Pamela J. Calkins, of Sacramento, California, was the first woman to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood in the RCJC. Later, Calkins entered into a polygamous homosexual celestial marriage with three female partners, thus becoming the first woman in Mormondom to enter into a polygamous lesbian celestial marriage with three female partners, thus becoming the first women in Mormondom to do so. Calkins and Lynn R. LaMaster were the first lesbian couple to be sealed for time and eternity (celestial marriage). Later that same evening, Leanna R Anderson and Carole L. Dee were also sealed for time and eternity to each other and to Calkins. No other polygamous homosexual celestial marriages were performed for any other members of the church. She became for a time the President of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the church. Ms. Calkins passed away in 1994. No other polygamous homosexual celestial marriages have been requested by any other members of the church. All of the other marriages performed by the church so far have been monogamous homosexual celestial marriages. Theoretically, it would be possible for a bisexual member of the church to enter into a pansexual polygamous marriage with two or more other men and women, but no members of the church so far have requested such a union. Membership the total membership of the church is about 500 on the rolls (of which approximately 50 are active members). It has one "family" (congregation) in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are members on the rolls in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, but these areas in California have not yet been organized into "families". Full Text of Hidden Treasures and Promises

1986- A "women only dance" was sponsored by Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, and  was held at the church.

Mark Lamar

1988 At Unconditional Support, Mark Lamarr discussed The North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and how pedophilia is not a homosexual issue. It was discussed how to combat the movement to link up NAMBLA with the Gay Civil Rights Movement.

1992--Ben Barr after resigning from the Utah AIDS Foundation lashed out at sister Roseanne Barr who was accusing her family of abusing her as a child.” Ben Barr says he is outraged that his sister, television star, Roseanne Arnold, exploits her Utah family in comedy routines. On national television and in magazine interviews, Roseanne has accused her father of sexually abusing her. Ben, being eight years her junior, says he was too young to know what happened.  But he is angry that Roseanne has not told the whole story -- that she repeatedly abused him as a child.  ``She told me that I was ugly and stupid,'' Ben related to The Salt Lake Tribune, breaking a year-long silence. ``She was very violent and out-of-control. When my mother would leave, she would beat me. She would chase me around the house, sit on me and beat me with metal parts of the vacuum. She would beat my legs, beat me on the genitals, beat my head.''  Roseanne, one of the hottest comedians in America, tells her audiences crass stories about growing up in Salt Lake City. The most recent references to Ben appeared in Roseanne's latest HBO

Ben Barr

special, in which she accuses him of dressing as a girl, not eating

Roseanne Barr

meat as a child and not being able to stand up for himself. ``I feel violated,'' says Ben, a 31- year-old gay father of a teenage daughter. ``I want it to stop.''   Ben Barr says he could have tolerated a couple of jokes at his expense. But in the past year, Ben adds, verbally beating up the Barrs has become a big part of Roseanne's routine. ``If there is a perpetrator in our family it's Rose,'' Ben says. ``In my opinion, a perpetrator is someone who continues to violate trust, breaks boundaries and hurts other people.''  Dubbed the most powerful woman in television by US magazine, Roseanne last September announced at a Denver conference on incest that her father had sexually abused her as a child. Her parents, Jerry and Helen Barr, who still live in Salt Lake City, steadfastly deny the accusations. They are represented by the San Francisco law firm headed by the celebrated Melvin Belli. Mr. Belli had them take a polygraph test last September, which they each passed.  Sometime next year, Roseanne and her husband and manager, Tom Arnold, will be part of an incest survivors' convention in Salt Lake City.  ``It's something Rosie wants to put back into her hometown,'' Mr. Arnold recently told The Tribune. Roseanne, he says, was not available for comment. ``But everything Roseanne said up until this point speaks for itself and she stands by it.''  Ben Barr has refrained from commenting to avoid hurting the Utah AIDS Foundation, which he directed until last month. He says he refused sizeable sums of money from tabloid magazines that offered to buy his story. He is talking now, Ben says, in an effort to stop his sister from heaping further pain on the family. ``If I had the ability to sit down with my sister and have a one-on-one conversation, I wouldn't be talking to the press. But there is no other way to reach her and say, `You are abusive, you used your family. You have hurt me, you have hurt all of us and you have done it for monetary gain.' I want to send a message to my sister to get on with her life and leave us alone.'' Mr. Arnold says Roseanne's ``act is about where she lived and her whole life was disrupted because of members of her family -- namely her mother and father. All performers perform what they know. The material comes from their heart and that's what she has lived through.'' In the Oct. 7, 1991 People magazine, Roseanne claims her mother abused her from the time she was an infant until she was 6 or 7 years old. Her father, she says, molested her until she left home at age 17.  She says she suppressed the memories ``until a triggering incident nearly two years ago caused

Tom Arnold

them to come flooding back.'' Mr. Arnold explains further: ``Roseanne was in therapy for two years before she came forward. It's so painful to say this happened to you and to your family because it tears at the roots of who you are. It took everything she had to come forward and say it happened.''  Ben has a different opinion.  Roseanne knows that Americans identify with victims, he says. She went public with the abuse allegations when the public began turning against her for outrageous behaviour, Ben claims.One act Ben deems as outrageous occurred during a 1990 San Diego Padres baseball game. After singing the National Anthem, Roseanne grabbed her crotch and spit on the ground, setting off a firestorm of protests nationwide. Even President Bush criticized her. `When public sentiment is turning against you, there is nothing more effective than turning yourself into a victim to get sympathy,'' Ben says.  Ben's grandfather, Sam Barr, brought his family to Utah from Minnesota in 1944. He set up Barr Specialities, a company that sold blankets, diamonds and Christian artifacts door-to-door. Ben's father, Jerry, took over the business as a young man. When it went bankrupt, Ben says his mother, ``reared as a Jewish princess,'' went to work as a nanny. Jerry Barr went to work in a machine shop and attended the University of   Utah for a year. It was Roseanne's responsibility to look after her younger siblings. She took out her resentment against her father on him, Ben claims.  Mr. Arnold says Roseanne wrote letters to each member of her family before going public with the incest charges. She asked that they contact her. ``But there was no response from anyone.'' Counters Ben: ``I don't think most people would consider receiving copies of letters addressed to our parents with the words `You are dead to me, both of you. Forever.' Scrawled at the bottom as any effort at open dialogue.'' In their last conversation, a year ago, Ben claims, Roseanne told him her goal: ``To put Dad in jail. That is my mission and I will never stop. If [Ben] you get in my way, I will get you, too.''    Roseanne's ire against her father reached a crescendo in June 1990. According to Mr. Arnold, Roseanne alleges that Mr. Barr molested her teenage daughter at Roseanne's wedding in Los Angeles. Paul Richardson, a detective with the L.A. Police Department, says he investigated the complaint filed by the Arnolds. The case was presented to the city attorney's office, which rejected it for lack of evidence, Mr. Richardson adds. Ben, who attended the wedding, believes no abuse occurred. He says Roseanne will not talk about the days that she allegedly beat him. Mr. Arnold says he knows nothing of Ben's allegations. ``I am not saying it happened, and I am not saying it didn't happen. That is something they have to work out as children together. I am sure if she did it, she will take responsibility for it.'' According to Ben, the latest blow to the Barr family came in Roseanne's July HBO special in which she compares her ``dysfunctional'' family with the Brady Bunch. She said she hates her family, adding that they deserve the death penalty. Ben says he loves his parents, but acknowledges that Jerry Barr was not a perfect father. ``Other kids (in our neighborhood) got beaten with belts. Everyone was beaten. What made our house worse is that you never knew where you stood. You never knew if they were going to laugh or hit you.'' Ben believes his father emotionally abused Roseanne because she is a female. ``My father made lots of comments about women with big butts and big breasts,'' Ben says. ``He intimated that women aren't as valuable as men. There was a lot of confusion about sex in our house, a lot of anxiety about it. ``My father is sort of an old male jock type. If you can imagine a male version of Rosanne, that's my dad. He's crass and rude and says what he thinks.'' But, Ben adds, his father never put excrement on his childrens' heads as Roseanne alleged in People ``He did walk around and throw dirty underwear on our heads,'' Ben says. ``That was what he did in the locker room with his friends. To him that was being funny. I believe it was abusive, and he has had to take responsibility for that.''  Ben has two other sisters. Stephanie, 28, lives in Las Vegas. Geraldine, 35, is a former member of Roseanne's management team and lives in San Francisco. She is suing Roseanne for millions for allegedly breaching an agreement, which resulted in a partnership that lasted 10 years. According to Ben, family members -- with the exception of Roseanne -- are trying to rebuild relationships torn apart by a barrage of negative media coverage. ``Relationships based on who we are today, not what happened 20 years ago,'' Ben says.``At some point you have to take responsibility for your life -- looking forward, not backwards.'' 08/23/92  Category: Local Page: BEN BARR: MY SISTER ROSEANNE ISN'T TELLING THE WHOLE STORY Byline: By JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE  Copyright 1992, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

David Ferguson

1992- A Series of Soirees were held in private homes as fund raisers for the Utah   AIDS Foundation. A cocktail party was held at the home of Dave Jacob and Dave Ferguson, (08/20/92 Page: A8PARTY LINE: HABITAT HOMES ARE THE EPITOME OF LABORS OF LOVE Byline: By Pat Capson THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE)

1993-Fifteen protesters demonstrated when actor Mel Gibson set his handprints and footprints in cement at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. They wanted to draw attention to anti-gay remarks Gibson allegedly made the previous year. Gibson said he was misquoted.

1993 Identification: The Summit County Sheriff's Office has identified a man found dead

Doug Koehler

Saturday in a Park West condominium parking lot as   Douglas Koehler, 30, Salt Lake City. Sheriff's detective Joe Offret is investigating the death as a homicide. A newspaper carrier found the man's body about 6 a.m. in the parking lot of the Cedar Lane condominiums near the ski resort. - (08/23/93  Page: B2 SLTribune) 

1993-Two suspects were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Chet O. Harris, 30, whose body was found in an alley behind 320 S. Jeremy St. (840 West). He had been shot multiple times, including shots to his head and neck. Salt Lake police had barely identified the man when officers in Ogden called to give them the names of two suspects, said Lt. Marty Vuyk. Police in LaGrande, Ore., investigated a traffic accident involving a car belonging to Harris called the Ogden police.

Ed Mayne

1996 Friday  Deseret News Labor makes big showing in delegation AFL-CIO president is most visible union member in Utah's group. By Bob Bernick Jr., Political Editor Like Democratic delegations from other states, labor union leaders and members make up a healthy share of Utah's 35-member delegation to the National Democratic Convention. According to state Democratic Party leaders, about a third of Utah's delegation either work for unions or employee associations - like the Utah Education Association - or work in jobs where they are likely union members. The most visible union member on the delegation is Ed Mayne, president of the Utah AFL-CIO and a state senator representing West Valley City. This will be Mayne's fifth national Democratic convention as a delegate or alternate. Mayne's wife, Karen, and his AFL-CIO executive assistant, Karen Nielsen, are also delegates to the National Democratic Convention, which opens Monday in Chicago. Other union or employee association leaders in the delegation include: Mark Mickelsen, Utah Education Association director of communications; Susan Trautmann, a leader in the teacher association that represents teachers in Washington and Garfield counties; and Susan Kuziak, UEA lobbyist and director of Advocacy Programs. The UEA and its district sub-associations represent more than 16,000 teachers in the state. Finally, there are a number of Utah delegates who likely belong to unions or are retired from jobs where they belonged to unions. (Utah is a right-to-work state, so employees aren't forced to join or pay union dues even if their workplace is represented by a union). Those delegates include several public education teachers (who do belong to the UEA, says Kuziak), a number of state and county employees and retired civilian workers at federal military bases. Kuziak said just because a delegate works for a union or association or belongs to one, don't assume union control. "We (union delegates) have many individual political interests and issues" that caused them to run for delegate slots. "But it is natural for union or association (members) to be interested in political issues, because so many of the issues have a direct affect on our members," said Kuziak. However, she said union members in the delegation won't have any more impact as a group than they will have individually as just regular members of the delegation. To encourage teachers to become national delegates and attend the party conventions, the National Education Association (the national teacher union) is giving UEA delegates $304 each to offset their airfare costs, said Kuziak. Whether delegates to the Utah State Democratic Convention, where the national delegates are picked, choose pro-labor union national delegates or not is up to them. However, historically a number of union members/leaders attend their  democratic Party mass meetings in the spring and seek to be elected delegates to their party's county and state conventions. In turn, at those state conventions the union delegates vote for union people running for national delegate. That's one reason Mayne and his wife, Karen, have been elected national delegates to the last five Democratic National Conventions. There are other areas where the state party doesn't have much flexibility in picking national delegates, however. The national party changed its rules years ago to require that women and racial minorities be placed on the state delegations - as best as possible - in percentages found in the state as a whole. Thus, 18 of the 35-member Utah delegation are women. They include Norma Matheson, widow of the late-Democratic Gov. Scott M. Matheson; state Rep. Loretta Baca, D-Salt Lake; and former state Rep. Beverly White. Republicans have no such requirements. Thus, when TV cameras panned the San Diego hall, viewers saw crowds that were mainly white and mostly men. When cameras pan in Chicago, say Democratic leaders, half the audience will be women, with a large number of racial minorities in the crowd. Another kind of minority will be well-represented at the

David Nelson on right

convention, says David Nelson, founder of Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats. Nelson says he is the only openly gay member of the Utah delegation and will be supporting gay and lesbian issues at the convention. Nelson says he's been told by national party leaders that there will be more gay and lesbian delegates - at least 145 - to this convention than any previous convention. Said Nelson: "This is the first time that DNC leaders have specifically recruited openly bisexual, gay and lesbian Americans to serve as convention attendees. We plan to use our convention clout for stronger support of our issues and victory in November." While 145 gay activists may be the largest delegate group ever, it's still less than 3 percent of the 4,900 delegates at the convention.

•  David Nelson, founder of Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats, said he was the only openly gay member of the Utah delegation and will be supporting gay and lesbian issues at the Chicago convention. Nelson says national party leaders have told him that there will be more gay and lesbian delegates - at least 145 - to this convention than any previous convention. Nelson said : "This is the first time that DNC leaders have specifically recruited openly bisexual, gay and lesbian Americans to serve as convention attendees. We plan to use our convention clout for stronger support of our issues and victory in November." While 145 gay activists may be the largest delegate group ever, it's still less than 3 percent of the 4,900 delegates at the convention. 

1997-  22nd Reign of Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire held Summerfest ’97 ending the outdated Carnival. $623 raised for the People With AIDS Christmas Fund.

1997  Utah AIDS Foundation, dinner at home of Joe Parkinson, Heber Valley, dinner,piano music; $5;

1998 A local Prime Time group, an organization for mature men, was started in Utah. “Prime Time members are men perhaps like yourself, who are older Gay or Bisexual men and younger men who admire mature men.” An organizational meeting and social event held for Prime Timers. Prime Timers Worldwide  was founded in 1987 by retired professor Woody Baldwin

1998- Wilma and Vera presented It’s Not Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Falls Again” at the Sun as a benefit for the RCGSE People’s Concern Fund.

1999 The Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Utah announced the formation of a Coming Out Support Group to meet the 4th Monday each month.

Ashlee Vaughn

2003 Syren Vaughn and Ashlee Vaughn presents Hot Summer Nights at The Trapp Door proceeds to sponsor Ashlee Vaughn in the Le Femme Magnafique Pageant in Portland Oregon Come and show your support as we help send off on of Salt Lake's court members to this national competition.

2003    Section: Utah    Page: D5 'A Peculiar People' packs powerful punch By Claudia W. Harris    Special to The Tribune

Jerry Rapier

Jerry Rapier has found the perfect style for "A Peculiar People," playing at the Rose Wagner Studio Theatre. This exploration of Utah attitudes toward individuals with HIV and AIDS is never strident or maudlin. The docu-drama style allows Rapier to blend newspaper and historical accounts with real stories that tell of lives being lived with joy, in part, because of the life-and-death struggle. Four actors perform all the roles: Kirt Bateman, Anita Booher, Jedadiah Schultz and Betsy West. The play begins with a recitation of outrageous stereotypical statements heard throughout the world; statements about races and culture and gender and finally about sexual preference. The cast then sits at stands and reads newspaper articles, editorials, letters to the editor, studies and history. Nothing is left out, from the Boy Scout controversy about gay Scoutmasters to gay and lesbian clubs in Salt Lake City high schools, to gay Brigham Young University students being expelled for Honor Code violations.  Although this may sound dry it isn't; Rapier manages to create a moving but disturbing account of Utah attitudes, both past and present.    But when the stands are pushed aside and the actors interact directly, telling

individual stories of prejudice as well as of openness and love, the play has its strongest effect. Here is a woman whose HIV husband is ostracized, a triathlete who realizes he has been waiting for the HIV diagnosis because "that's what happens to gay men," a mother whose 18-year-old son gives her the "wonderful" news that he's gay. She mourns but says, "I was proud of myself for having been observed I was tolerant, but being tolerant of your own child is a different story." "A Peculiar People" is not downbeat regardless of the subject; nor is Rapier expressing a negative attitude about Mormonism or Utah. The play does highlight, however, a group of individuals at odds with its surrounding culture. And that clash creates opportunities for greater understanding. An expanded version of this short play would no doubt have a long life and a large audience.  The play continues today  at 8 p.m. and Sunday, 2 p.m. at the Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. Broadway. Tickets are $10. Call 801-355-ARTS.

2005 Tuesday– Film & Discussion – Center Space (6:30pm) For most, Alfred Kinsey is one

of those nudge-nudge, wink-wink historical figures -- a scientist who dedicated his career to the investigation of sex. How unacademic!   In fact, Kinsey was more than some randy researcher. In Kinsey, the sexologist is portrayed as a true civil rights hero, the man who undermined the suffocating rules that governed American sexuality. Smart, entertaining and provocative, Kinsey argues that Kinsey's work helped liberate gays and lesbians as well as bisexuals by formulating the Kinsey Scale, which hypothesizes that sexuality can fall anywhere in the continuum between heterosexual and homosexual. Come view the film and discuss the implications of the Kinsey scale for present day understanding GLB individuals.

2009 Written by Michael Aaron Tuesday, 25 August 2009 Radio City Lounge Closes  Thought to be “the oldest gay bar west of the Mississippi,” Radio City Lounge closed its doors for the final time Sunday night, Aug. 23. The bar opened in the 1940s and is thought to have been mob-owned. It was turned to a gay bar in 1957, according to Trapp owner Joe Redburn. Then, it was illegal to dance with someone of the same sex, so people would dance in groups that included mixed genders. Lights under the bar ensured that no hand-holding was going on. It was also illegal to impersonate a female. The bar fell into disrepair and it was given a minor facelift in the 1990s, but the maintenance was short-lived. Today the bar is frequented less and less by gay and lesbian patrons. In the past two years, Salt Lake City police officers have responded to calls of stabbings and cocaine use, giving the bar the reputation as a hangout for drug users and the homeless. QSaltLake has been unable to substantiate rumors that the building was sold to Questar Corp. and is scheduled to be razed, but much of the surrounding property is held by the company. The company demolished the neighboring Utah-Idaho Supply building in 1990 to make room for a parking lot. Long-time bartender, Rose, [Carrier] who once worked at Radio City as well as the Sun Tavern and The Trapp, will return to the bar to serve up some of its last drinks, beginning at 3 p.m. Aug. 23. It is hard to prove that Radio City is the oldest gay bar west of the Mississippi River, but we cannot find another bar trying to claim that title. Cafe Lafitte in New Orleans (on the east side of the river) claims to be the oldest gay bar in the country. Radio City Lounge was located at 147 S. State Street.

Dave Robinson

2018  Fate of official rests in Salt Lake County GOP’s hands after LGBTQ suicide remark By Taylor Stevens Sandy • The chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party will leave up to members of the Central Committee the decision of whether to fire its communications director, who has come under fire from members of his own party after telling The Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial board that suicide rates in the LGBTQ community may be associated with having many sex partners. “We have a decision to make here tonight,” Scott Miller told the body at the meeting in Sandy on Thursday evening, after reading a statement about Dave Robinson’s comments. “I have been told by elected officials that if I don’t have his head, they’re going to take mine. I don’t report to them, so I’m going to leave it to you.” Members of the party voted to take a day to read the articles and then consider the issue in

Scott Miller

an online poll limited to Central Committee members on Friday — a move Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley, criticized as a way for Miller to avoid responsibility. “If the chair does not have the fortitude to do the right thing and instead wants to pretend that his unilateral appointment requires a vote of the body, then I would say he lacks the fortitude to make that decision,” Thatcher told The Tribune after the vote. “Until tonight, I had no issue with the chair — my issue was entirely with Mr. Robinson,” he said. “But the fact that the chair refused to allow any comment or any conversation or any discussion shows utter lack of leadership from Mr. Miller.” Robinson had joined Miller for a wide-ranging hour long meeting with the paper’s editorial board Monday to discuss where they see the party headed on a number of issues. During that meeting, Robinson said that while many people attribute the high suicide rates in Utah to the culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or to the state’s high altitude, that may not capture the full story. “I actually think it has more to do with the lifestyle that the gays are leading that they refuse to have any scrutiny with,” said Robinson, who is gay, stating that he knows people in the community who have had “over 2,000 sex partners.” That, he said, could be at the root of “some of the self-loathing to the point of suicide.” His comments, published in a Tribune news article Tuesday, sparked backlash from leaders in his party, including Salt Lake County Council Chairwoman Aimee Winder Newton, who quickly denounced his comments on Twitter. “I am angry that someone who purports to speak for Republicans has made such inappropriate, inaccurate and hurtful comments,” she told The Tribune on Thursday. “This has caused our LGBTQ friends heartache and has been counterproductive in our fight against suicide.” Thatcher also weighed in on the issue online, tweeting from a family dinner where he was celebrating President Donald Trump’s signing into law last week an order to work toward creating a national three-digit number for a suicide hotline, similar to 911. Thatcher and Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, had pushed unsuccessfully to create such a three-digit line in Utah for years before two of the state’s congressmen picked up and passed the idea on a nationwide scale. “Mr. Robinson, you do NOT speak for me,” Thatcher wrote. “Bigotry in any form is unacceptable. Disappointing is not a strong enough word.” The Utah Log Cabin Republican caucus, which acts as the voice of the LGBTQ community within the party, also released a statement on Robinson’s comments about suicide and STD rates. Both of these issues deserve to be discussed by as many people as possible, especially policymakers, in order to find real solutions and combat these challenges,” the email reads. “This becomes extremely difficult when comments like these are made on these subjects and reported in a way that suggests any of us believe that underage young men are out at group sex parties, contracting diseases and then committing suicide over that situation.” In the meeting with The Tribune, Robinson also made statements about the PrEP pill — a daily preventive strategy for those at risk of contracting HIV — that the Salt Lake County Health Department called “wildly inaccurate.” He implied that the county was giving out the pill for free and was treating members of the LGBTQ community for free after they had unprotected sex like “bunny rabbits” at monthly “sex parties” and contracted STDs because they were unaware that the pill did not prevent them. Later, Robinson said he had relayed the information from the Health Department as he understood it and that there may have been some mischaracterization in his conversation with the county. Robinson told The Tribune on Thursday that the response after his comments were published, “both pro and con, show that there is a tremendous need [for dialogue] on these issues within not only the gay community but the straight community and the county as a whole.” He said he will continue to engage with the party and hopes in the future for a more thoughtful conversation about this issue, which he feels The Tribune’s article did not provide. Miller, the party chairman, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. But in an email statement obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, he said Robinson’s comments were based on the communication director’s conversations with members of the LGBTQ community “and were not necessarily his own views and were not presented as the position of the Salt Lake County Republican Party.” But in an email Robinson sent to The Tribune on Tuesday morning, after he was notified the paper would be running a story based on his comments, he reaffirmed his stance and included links to studies and facts on STDs, mental health and suicide in support of it. “I stand by my position that multiple sexual partners leads to increased risk of STD and HIV, which affects one’s mental, physical and financial health, which leads to a higher risk of depression which leads to a higher risk of thoughts of suicide which leads to higher suicide rates,” he said in the email. Miller said in his statement that members of the party don’t agree that there is “only one cause or solution” to the issue of suicide. “I apologize on behalf of the Salt Lake County Republican Party for any hurt or discomfort that this mischaracterization has caused,” he said. “The tremendous outcry of both anger and support shows that these conversations are sorely needed.” 

2018 Mark your calendar and join us for the Small Business Summer Mixer on August 23rd from 5:30 to 8:00pm at Fairmont Park. Come mix and mingle with business professionals from 4 major organizations including The Holladay Chamber of Commerce, The Sugar House Chamber of Commerce, Vest Pocket Business Coalition, and The Utah Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Join us for a great evening of conversation, outdoor games, and camaraderie with other local business owners. Admission is free – and dinner is available for purchase from food trucks that will be stationed at the park for the event. Registration is now required for all Chamber Events. This event is FREE but registration helps us prepare for how many to expect. Register on the Ticket link below.