This Day In Gay Utah History SEPTEMBER 20

September 20th

J Golden Kimball

1896 - Seventy's president J. Golden Kimball preaches: "There are 500 girls who are public prostitutes in Salt Lake City. Some of these are daughters of Latter-Day Saints."

1900 Last evening Officer Sullivan arrested one Thomas Smith, one of the toughest looking characters which has ever been in the city jail, and put him under lock and key on the charge of attempting sodomy.  The man was endeavoring to entice young boys into an alley on Grant Avenue about 7:30 last night.Ogden Standard Examiner 1900-09-20 In the Police Court page 1

Barbara Gittings

1958-Barbara Gittings founded the East Coast chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis in New York City. Less than a dozen women attended the first meeting which was held at the offices of the local Mattachine Society. 

1973 - Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes", televised in prime time from the Astrodome.

1978-Ronald Reagan publicly stated his opposition to California's Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Amendment. It would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools, as well as anyone who openly supported civil rights for gays and lesbians.

John Griffin aka Nova Starr

1980 John Griffin aka Nova Starr was born. Miss Gay International Pluss 09' Award winner. Nova Starr began her career as a female impersonator in Denver CO, her creative talents lead her to NYC to study costume design at Manhattan’s Fashion Institute Of Technology. Relocating to Salt Lake City, after graduation, Nova began her work as show director at Salt Lake’s then largest club, AXIS. Nova has been a featured performer on the Ricki Lake Show, The Jenny Jones Show, HBO’s America Undercover and was honored as an Official Performer of the 2002 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City.  As John, he owns his own graphic design company: Griffin Design Studio. And co-owns StarrJewels,

the official Jeweler of Gay International Pageants. Nova can be seen performing in the Rocky Mountain region at many nightclubs and hot spots, and has traveled the country a great deal in the last few years, as a recognized name in the Art of Female Impersonation. Nova’s efforts in her area of the nation have helped expand pageantry and professionalism in the drag community. She has been in the top 12 at Miss Gay USofA at Large 3 times, and first alternate to La Femme Magnifique International Plus twice. She has also been honored with many awards and featured on the covers of local magazines in the gay community and straight communities.

•  In 2009 she was chosen to be part of the book ”100 of the Most Influential Gay Entertainers” By Jenettha J. Baines – in print 2010. Her show’s Nova Starr’s Platinum Pussy Review, and Nova Starr’s XRATED Cabaret can be seen at clubs in the Salt lake area including her “home bar” BABYLON, featuring local and national talent every week. Nova looks forward to meeting many new people at the plethora prelims for Miss International Pluss this year, entertaining them as a talented Emcee and well rounded drag performer.”  Nova Starr has since moved her performances to Club Pure.

Duane Dawson

1
984 Duane Dawson, Peggy Eklund, Roberta Anderson, and Ed Tierney  members of the Clinic end of the Utah Community Services Center and Clinic met with the  Sexually Transmitted Diseases unit of the Health Department. Gay Clinic formed to ease the efforts of the Health Department at the VD Clinic

1986 BEATING AT REST AREA LEAVES IDAHO MAN IN POOR CONDITION (SLTribune B4-4)

First Unitarian Church

1986 -A Women’s Dance sponsored by Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church in the 1st Unitarian Church's cultural hall. 

1986-Spudlunking expeditions to the Nutty Putty near Goshen, Utah sponsored by Wasatch Affirmation.

Donny Eastepp

1986-Donny Eastepp and the Royal Court held a fund raiser for Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church at his the Inbetween at 579 West 200 South. With that money RMCC was able to make their final payment on the equity buyout on the church building at 853 South 600 East for $9,262.12. The new chapel became home of spaghetti nights, dances, and other community meetings and gatherings

Sylvia Pennington

1987- Rev. Sylvia Pennington, a former Pentecostal anti-Gay activist presented a daylong workshop at Resurrection MCC on wholeness entitled Kiss Me Day. Pennington author of But Lord, They’re Gay, Good News for Modern Gays. The Rev. Sylvia Pennington was an early pioneer in the Christian GLBT community as an ordained heterosexual woman sharing God’s all-inclusive love with "whosoevers" all over the world. Sylvia began life in a Scottish Orthodox Jewish family with two older sisters who were very much a part of her life and ministry.The Rev. Sylvia Pennington became an ordained heterosexual minister in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. After her license was not renewed, the church she was pastoring withdrew from the

Fellowship and she continued pastoring for a time with Lambda Christian Fellowship in Hawthorne, California. She continued ministry under the name of Lambda Christian Fellowship until her untimely death in 1991. Sylvia’s first book, But Lord, They’re Gay is both her story and the story of five Christian Gay people telling their stories about growing up Christian and Gay. The second book was a response to the growing biblical attacks against gay people in 1985 and was one of the first books written about the scriptural passages used to condemn Gay peoples, Good News For Modern Gays: A Pro-Gay Biblical Approach. Then in 1989, she published her last book, Ex-Gays: There Are None!, from interviews she had done with more than a dozen people over the years, learning that many had tried not to be Gay by going through change ministries, marriage, careers, ministry and other ways only to find that they are still God’s daughters and sons.

1988 - Unconditional Support held a meeting  with the topic on Community, Family, and Gay Obligations.

1990 Thursday, MILLARD WILL PAY DEFENDER $17,000 IN MURDER APPEAL Millard County will pay a public defender $17,000 plus expenses to represent Lance Conway Wood in his appeal of a first-degree murder conviction. Salt Lake attorney Fred Metos will represent Wood. The selection was approved by the Millard County Commission through a bid process, according to Millard County Attorney Warren Petersen. Three qualified criminal appellate attorneys were asked to submit bids. Metos represented George Wesley Hamilton, who was convicted in October 1989 of second-degree murder in a grisly slaying. Some body parts of the female victim were severed from the torso. Wood, of Salem, Utah County, and a companion, Michael Anthony Archuleta, Bountiful, were convicted of first degree murder in the 1988 brutal slaying of Gordon

Gordon Church

Ray Church of Delta, a student at Southern Utah State College who was en route home. The mutilated body was found near Cove Fort. They were on parole from the Utah State Prison when the crime was committed. The men were convicted in separate trials in 4th District Court in Provo. Archuleta was sentenced to death and Wood was sentenced to life in prison. Peterson said Wood's appeal has been filed and the trial transcript is being prepared for attorneys to use in filing briefs before the Utah Supreme Court. A date for the hearing hasn't been set.

1996-President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Initially introduced in May 1996, DOMA passed both houses of Congress by large, veto-proof majorities and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. By defining "spouse" and its related terms to signify a heterosexual couple in a recognized marriage, Section 3 codified non-recognition of same-sex marriages for all federal purposes, including insurance benefits for government employees, social security survivors' benefits, immigration, bankruptcy, and the filing of joint tax returns, as well as excluding same-sex spouses from the scope of laws protecting families of federal officers , laws evaluating financial aid eligibility, and federal ethics laws applicable to opposite-sex spouses

1996-Twenty-four Filipinos in Saudi Arabia received the first fifty lashes of a 200-lash sentence for homosexual behavior. After the sentence was completed they were deported.

2003-The Trapp 12th Year Anniversary Party was held with a free BBQ

Willy Marshall

2004  Big Water mixes gay mayor, polygamists Near Lake Powell: The libertarian town of 400 residents almost liberalized its marijuana laws a few years ago By Mark Havnes The Salt Lake Tribune- Big Water Mayor Willy Marshall standing on one of the streets he had paved since being elected mayor in 2002. The paving of the streets and reducing taxes are two accomplishments the openly gay mayor is most proud of. (Mark Havnes/The Salt Lake Tribune) BIG WATER - The tiny town of Big Water is not a typical Utah community. There is no church. At least 10 percent of its more than 400 residents are unaffiliated polygamists. It does not have a main street. The Town Council once tried to pass more-lenient marijuana laws. And Big Water has an openly gay mayor. Situated in a small oasis of greenery well off U.S. 89 in Kane County just 8 miles from Lake Powell, the south-central Utah town sprung up in the early 1960s as a watering hole for workers building the Glen Canyon Dam. Over the years, the town became a haven for retirees and political mavericks who were drawn to the area by its isolation, mild winters and some of the country's cleanest air. Mayor Willie Marshall faces problems that many mayors do – bad roads, the need for economic development. The fact he is gay has never been an issue. "If people disagree with me, it's politically - not because I'm gay," says Marshall, seated behind a desk in his window-encased office at the town's headquarters on Aaron Burr Boulevard. On the walls are a plethora of newspaper articles documenting events in the town's colorful history, including a cover story by a gay newspaper in Salt Lake City that features Marshall. "Whenever I go into a gay bar in Salt Lake City now, everybody goes, 'Hello, mayor,' " says Marshall, with a tinge of pride in his voice. Marshall said being gay was something he never tried to hide in his campaign, and the subject never became an issue. "It's easier for a gay person to get elected in a small town because people know you and their biases go away," says Marshall. "In a place like Salt Lake City, it would be a bigger issue because you can't meet everybody and they vote their biases." Marshall says he was drawn to the area by his friend, the late polygamist Alex Joseph, who led the town's incorporation efforts as mayor in 1983. "I always said I would move here someday, so I did in 2000," says Marshall, who in addition to mayor, works as a dispatcher for Classic Helicopter in nearby Page, Ariz. Shortly after moving to the community, Marshall was appointed to fill vacancies on the Planning and Zoning Commission and Town Council. As a councilman, he helped defeat a measure to disincorporate the town and began pushing for a tax cut. Then in May 2001, Mayor Tonya Roseberry proposed an annual salary of $3,000 for the mayor, which the council passed. Marshall voted against the measure. "I thought that was ridiculous, especially when she said we can't afford to cut taxes," says Marshall. "So in the fall, I ran against her for mayor, saying that if elected I'd repeal the salary for the mayor and cut taxes." Marshall won the 2002 election, receiving 90 of 157 votes. "It was a good win over an incumbent," said Marshall. "We cut taxes by 50 percent. The town treasurer predicted it would ruin us, but it didn't. And he works with no salary. Roseberry, the former mayor, has little to say about her successor. "I guess he's doing an OK job," she says. "But I don't care to comment." As soon as he became mayor, Marshall successfully took care of one problem plaguing the town. He paved the streets using state road funds, as well as with grants and loans from the state's Community Impact Board. "They were just washboards, and the dust was incredible," said Marshall. His current project is getting the town a main street along U.S. Highway 89. Marshall hopes to convince the Utah Department of Transportation to reduce - from 300 feet to 116 feet - its right of way on either side of the highway. "The right of way was established before the town even existed," says Marshall. "If UDOT traded the land with the [state's] school-

trust lands, it could then be sold in parcels." Marshall believes such a deal could bring $20 million into state education coffers and bring needed businesses to the town. "Look at Salt Lake City and Kanab." he says. "Both are what they are because they have a main street. As it is now, people fly by Big Water at 65 mph, not even knowing we're here." Boudicca Joseph, one of nine polygamous wives of Alex Joseph – he died two years ago - runs Palaquin Realty in offices converted from one of the town's former bars. She is a Town Council member, chairwoman of the Planning and Zoning Commission and a Marshall supporter. "He's done a great job," says Joseph. "Prior to his being mayor, there was a constant turnover [in town government], but he stabilized things with a spirit of compassion and vision. We don't have the bickering we used to." Joseph would like the state's help for promoting the community by taking advantage of Big Water's proximity to Lake Powell. This would give life to Marshall's main street vision, she said. And such a move would also bring more attention to what the area has to offer. "We have the lake surrounded by open spaces, pristine nature and some of the cleanest air in the country," says Joseph. "What we want is high-class development - not runaway growth." Marshall says he is just carrying on the tradition of freedom for the individual espoused by Alex Joseph. That tradition was exemplified in an effort in 2001 to lessen the penalty for possession of marijuana in town from a misdemeanor to a citation - even less than a parking ticket - and a 0 fine. The measure never went into effect, but Marshall says it sent a message about what the town stands for. "We appeal to the libertarian," he says. "In this town, freedom and individual responsibility [make up] the common attitude."

Neil Giuliano

2006 Activist says gays need to be heard By Deborah Bulkeley Deseret Morning News Getting the word out on issues gays and lesbians face every day is essential if progress is to be made, said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Giuliano, who served as mayor of Tempe, Ariz., for 10 years, was to speak to an expected crowd of about 1,000 people Tuesday at a fund-raising dinner for the Equality Utah Political Action Committee. He said he would encourage those present to tell their stories to everyone from elected officials to neighbors to co-workers. "What we know is this: When people know someone who is openly gay or lesbian and are able to understand a person's concerns they become very real for everyone," Giuliano told the

Deseret Morning News in an interview before the event in the Salt Palace. "That's really how we're going to build a strong alliance and stop defamation." Jane Marquardt, board chair of Equality Utah, said the $100-per-plate event would be an opportunity for the Equality Utah PAC to raise funds and awareness. Marquardt said 56 candidates sought the PAC's endorsement. Equality Utah is aware of four gay and lesbian candidates, who are among the 37 endorsed by the PAC for offices from school boards to the state Legislature. Most of those attended Tuesday's dinner, she said. "It was by far the most people we've ever had interested in our endorsement," Marquardt said. "The fact that 56 candidates wanted to meet with us says a lot of people are interested in conversations with us." Giuliano offered his congratulations to Equality Utah for its work in raising awareness, building alliances and acknowledging its straight allies. "The more we can have fair, accurate and inclusive coverage of our lives ... the more opportunities people will have to understand our issues," he told the Deseret Morning News. "More and more our issues are being discussed. We have to have those conversations. We won't make progress if we don't have those conversations." E-mail: dbulkeley@...: 

2011 - After 18 years the U.S. military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy is no longer in effect. "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on Gays serving in the military as of the December 21, 1993 Department of Defense Directive 1304.26, which went into effect February 28, 1994, to September 20, 2011. The policy (not law) prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. The legal restrictions on homosexuality in the armed forces were mandated by United States federal law Pub.L. 103–160 (10 U.S.C. § 654) which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability". The act prohibited any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces. The act specified that service members who disclose that they are homosexual or engage in homosexual conduct should be separated (discharged) except when a service member's conduct was "for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service" or when it "would not be in the best interest of the armed forces". Since DADT ended in 2011, openly Gay people have been able to serve.

Tosh Metzger

2014 PROVO Daily Herald Happy Valley may be the last place one would suspect to find a gay pride festival, but sure enough the second one in two years was held Saturday. The Provo Pride Festival was filled with families of all sorts listening to live music, dining from food trucks and visiting various festival booths. That was the goal, according to Tosh Metzger, Provo Pride Festival president. He said the slogan “It gets happier” was designed to show how family-friendly the festival really was. “That’s what’s unique about us, it’s our flair,” Metzger said. Metzger knew family appeal was the driving factor for success for the festival. With Utah Valley being predominantly conservative with a family-oriented culture, the family-friendly theme was the way to get people out and into the festival. “It’s good. It helps because it gives people more info,” Metzger said of the festival’s welcoming atmosphere. Michael Bronson, a member of the Provo Pride council, said the festival was also an outreach for the “underground” gay community of Utah Valley. “It was meant to happen,” he said. “You have such a diverse culture, even though it’s so conservative here. There are so many gays who need to show their colors.” Ultimately, there were very few things that set the festival apart from any other festival. There were many booths geared toward advocacy for gay rights and, yes, there was a drag queen show, but there was little that otherwise distinguished it as a gay pride festival. There weren’t even protesters like there were last year. “We’re always going to have that [threat],” Bronson said, “but we don’t have any protesters.” The festival received one threat that someone was going to arrive with protesters in tow, but it never happened. “People [in Provo] are more upset about the parking than the gays,” Metzger said with a chuckle. Kyle Davis with the Human Rights Campaign said there have been hecklers, but overall not much opposition. He said the Provo Pride Festival is geared to help educate the public about the LGBTQ community. “The best way for people to understand gay people is to meet them,” he said. “Provo Pride is a lot more important than some of the other festivals.” In total there were 61 booths at the festival, more than double that of last year. “It’s showing that maybe people are getting more open-minded,” Davis said. Metzger said more open-mindedness can yield to more assistance in same-sex legislation for Utah County. “Provo has a pride,” he said. “Now we can help participate.”