This Day In Gay Utah History November 30th

November 30

Peter Damian

1057 Saint Peter Damian was consecrated Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, Italy. He was the Catholic theologian who wrote a series of opinions equating Biblical Sodomy with homosexuality. Among St. Peter Damian's most famous writings is his lengthy treatise, Letter 31, the Book of Gomorrah (Liber Gomorrhianus), containing the most extensive treatment and condemnation by any Church Father of clerical pederasty and homosexual practices.  Damian believed  that all homosexual acts are crimes against Nature and therefore crimes against God who is the author of Nature. About 1050, during the pontificate of Pope Leo IX, Peter wrote a scathing treatise on the vices of the clergy, including sexual abuse of minors and actions by church superiors to hide the crimes. Liber Gomorrhianus was openly addressed to the pope.  

Main Street 1887

1886 In Salt Lake City Police Court Report article dated November 30, 1886, titled “The Crowd of Bad Boys”, a gang of youthful hooligans had been charged with robbing Independence Hall, the Husband’s grocery store and assaulting striking a Chinese man by the name of Hong Hop by hitting him in the head with a  “Boot black’s outfit”.  The urchins were only referred to by their last names and were probably all between the ages of ten and fourteen. Two of the youths, Plant and Southam, were from families which could afford an attorney and they were acquitted. A William Davis was sentenced to eighty days in the city jail for burglary while another youth, Fred Solomon, was only given fifteen days. The other two of the youths mentioned were William Paddock and John Ledford both  would be charged the following year with Crimes Against Nature. Paddock was described in the account as “an old offender,” although he was barely 15 years old. He was given 65 days for throwing rocks at the Chinese man. Ledford, (Leadford) who was described as a youth, was sentenced for two cases of burglary to forty days in the city jail. The article concluded moralizing, “This sentencing will have its effect on the city’s wayward youth, of whom there are too many for the comfort of peaceable citizenry.” (30 Nov 1886 Salt Lake Tribune No 39 Vol. XXXII) 

• William Paddock was the teenage son of one of Utah’s most vocal critic of polygamy when arrested and he was two months later in January 1887 he would be charged with a ““Crime Against Nature”” [sodomy]. His mother, Cornelia Cole Paddock  was instrumental in the pressuring the State Legislature to establish a reform school for boys and girls under the age of 18 rather then throw them in jail with adults. She even agreed to have her son institutionalized in the State Mental Hospital rather than have him placed in jail where he would have been sexual assaulted. She was also president of Woman's Home Association for women leaving polygamy. She eventually had a Polygamy safe house named in her honor 
• Cordelia Cole was born in New York in 1840. At age twenty-eight she moved to
  
  Nebraska, where she married Alonzo G. Paddock, a mining man who had worked in Utah since 1858. They moved to Utah in 1870 and lived there until Cornelia's death in 1898. She and her miner husband Alonzo Paddock came to Utah shortly after the opening of the intercontinental railroad. They had several children including son William Paddock born in 1873 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Paddocks were gentiles who came to Utah to make a living in the mining industry which General Patrick O’Connell of Camp Douglas had fervently promoted. The Paddocks were also among the founding members of the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City. Cornelia Paddock after hearing accounts of polygamy's horrors from Mormon friends and acquaintances she became an active opponent of polygamy: "All these women pour into my ears the story of their sufferings and their wrongs, and continue asking, 'Is there any hope for us?'" Her Mormon informants included Sarah M. Pratt, first wife of Orson Pratt, who left

  

  Sarah Pratt

  her husband and the LDS Church when he sought to take other wives. Paddock eventually used their stories in her fiction. Utah Gentile female activists like Cornelia Paddock promoted economic development as an indirect means of purifying Utah's moral climate and saving women from plural marriage. By encouraging miners and railroad workers to come to Utah, those activists however abetted a different violation of their vaunted moral code, since Mormon women were reluctant to marry Gentile men, those same men provided a customer base for the prostitutes that arrived with them. While Mormons and some gentiles, especially women, professed horror at the presence of prostitutes, some gentile and probably some Mormon men actually welcomed prostitution as a sign the city was becoming more modern and American. (DN  2 Nov 1898)  The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed an international campaign to eradicate prostitution, the "social evil" of its time. Locally, the Woman's Home Association began in Salt Lake City in 1894 as an interdenominational church program to rescue "fallen" women from a life of prostitution  and ploygamy. Lack of funding and support from the surrounding community prevented the association from achieving its original goal, but the organization did provide employment for poor women for a number of years. The association's president and chief spokesperson, Cornelia Paddock, was well known for her charitable work and her authorship of anti-Mormon novels. The wife of Alonzo G. Paddock, who was engaged in mining, Cornelia had a city directory listing under her own name in the 1890s as an "authoress." Two of her works, "The Fate of Madame La Tour" and "In the Toils", helped to fuel the national debate of the 1880s over Mormon polygamy and church political control of Utah Territory. According to Paddock, the Woman's Home Association spent months attempting to find a suitable location for a "home for erring girls" where they could be reformed. A committee reportedly investigated about thirty suitable homes but could not find an owner willing to rent a building for such purposes. While condemning Salt Lake City's lack of compassion for "women who are destitute and homeless," Paddock wryly noted that "there have always been some property owners willing to rent houses to those [women] who do not wish to reform." Blocked in its effort to change the lives of prostitutes, the association decided to concentrate instead on providing employment training for poor women. By January 19, 1895, the association had opened offices in the Alexander Block at 372 South Main Street. The WHA operated a free employment agency, receiving applications from women who desired work and from persons wishing to engage them. By the end of the month Paddock could report that between 30 and 40 women had applied for work and that the association had successfully placed many of them, mostly in domestic, laundry, and sewing work. Paddock continued to plead for donations of food, clothing, and equipment, especially for the WHA's immediate goal of establishing a sewing room on the premises so that the association could directly employ applicants. By late February the sewing room had been completed, and a number of women were engaged in "plain sewing" jobs for individual customers. The association continued to live a precarious financial existence, surviving on contributions ranging from fifty cents to twenty-five dollars. Paddock reported in March that while applications and walk-ins continued to pour in, the WHA did not have enough funds to continue beyond the end of the week and still lacked the facilities to provide overnight shelter for the homeless. The association was forced to give up its sewing room, but its first annual report indicated that 139 women and 167 girls had registered for employment. Paddock persisted in her efforts to aid "fallen women" and reported in 1896 that sixteen had been cared for, including eight who had been sent to the Home for the Friendless in Ogden. She became a familiar figure in Salt Lake City's Police Court, exhorting women arrested for prostitution to allow the association to help them reform and gain honest employment. After her death in January 1898 Paddock's associates tried to continue the work, but the association was apparently disbanded by 1901.Tribune, 27 Jan. 1898; Paddock, Fate of Madame La Tour, p. ix
•  Related concerns for children and juvenile offenders began in the late nineteenth century. Citizens and elected officials concurred that minors convicted of crimes should not be exposed to hardened adult criminals in jails and penitentiaries but rather rehabilitated through schooling, industrial training, and moral instruction. Cornelia Paddock had included the need for an "industrial school for young girls" in an 1886 article outlining the planned Industrial Christian Home for polygamous wives. The Utah legislature established a "Territorial Reform School" in Ogden in 1888. Any boy or girl under

  

  Reform School Ogden

  eighteen convicted in district court of a crime other than murder could be ordered to the reform school; a justice of the peace could hold a convict in his court to the district court for similar disposition. Students would be "instructed in correct principles of morality and in such branches of useful knowledge as are adapted to their age and capacity." Commitment could range from six months to the achievement of majority. One trustee explained that the school's atmosphere would be homelike, with "the boys comprising one family and the girls another." A "family father and mother" would have charge of each division.

1897 Isaac Olliver Jr is the defendant in a criminal proceeding charging him with committing a heinous “Crime Against Nature”. The hearing was partly had before Justice McMaster yesterday afternoon and continued until this morning. Salt Lake Herald Court Cullings  Isaac Oliver was born July 1876 in England and emigrated to Utah with his parents in 1885. He was 21 years old at the time of his trial. He must not have served prison time because he is listed in his parents household in Bluffdale in 1900.  He married and had three children and died at Lark Utah in 1910 age 34 years.

1900- Oscar Wilde died. "Oscar Wilde once famous in two continents as a poet, then infamous throughout the world, is dead. His was a strange and meteoric career  and at one time it looked as though that he might take a seat among the immortal singers. But he fell, fell to the lowest depths of infamy. He had a truly artistic and aesthetic nature but was utterly lacking in morals." Deseret News

1985 Detection of the AIDS virus in a Salt Lake City prostitute has prompted health officials to begin testing for AIDS anti-bodies in women arrested on charges of soliciting sexual acts. (Salt Lake Tribune B1 11/30/1985)

Dave Pallone

1988 -National League Baseball president Bart Giamatti fired umpire Dave Pallone for being Gay. Dave Pallone is the author of the 1990 New York Times best-selling autobiography, Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball, which offers a revealing look at baseball through the eyes of a gay man. Since the publication of his autobiography, Pallone has dedicated his life to educating and enlightening people about the reality of sexual orientation. His philosophy of respecting yourself and others, provides insight into the complex issues and challenges that come from understanding sexual orientation.

1991 A Day Without Art AIDS Performance was held  by Another Language, Theatre Works West and local poet/musician Harold Carr at Another Language Studio, 345 W. Pierpont Ave. The event was followed by a candlelight vigil in front of the Pierpont studio.

1991 Salt Lake’s Gay publication The Bridge’s office is now called the Rhino Nest.  Becky Moorman decided to call her bookstore/offices the Rhino Nest because the Rhino in the early 1970’s was once a contender for a Gay and Lesbian symbol.

1991- Allen E. Ofeldt  age 27, died in Salt Lake City, Utah of AIDS.  A native of Oklahoma, member of Metropolitan Community Church, and a member Salt Lake Men's Choir.  He performed at community fund raisers for various benefits. Survived by a multitude of friends who were considered his family. A controversy occurred in the community when The Salt Lake Men’s Choir performed the following day and did not mention that Olfedt had died of AIDS . Find A Grave

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1994-Wednesday- - A free screening of Jonathan Demme's film ``Philadelphia,'' about a lawyer who contracts AIDS,  was shown in the Ballif West Residence Hall on the University of Utah  campus. A panel with individuals representing People Living With AIDS followed. (11-27-94  Page: F3 SLTribune )

1995-Thursday -Jeanette Smyth grows sad when she thinks about the AIDS patients she's counseled and helped bury over the past decade. She bristles when she talks about AIDS activist Sid Johns, a forger who looted the Northern Utah AIDS Society's treasury. Prison Sentence She also says it is time for the Utah AIDS  Foundation to set up shop in northern  Utah, an area she says the organization has neglected. ``Ogden and this area has always been considered a stepchild,'' Smyth said. ``Ogden  always gets second-best.'' Even so, the AIDS Foundation aims to establish a chapter in Ogden, to help AIDS patients from north Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties. A support group should be running by January, and a food bank eventually will be established for AIDS sufferers, who can't make the long trip to Salt Lake City, said director Barbara Shaw. She also plans to set up satellite chapters in Logan, St. George and Price. ``One of my first goals was to make this truly the Utah AIDS Foundation,'' Shaw said. However, Smyth may not be able to help with the AIDS group in Ogden, at least not yet. Her job as infection-control coordinator with Ogden Regional Hospital and her counseling work leaves her with little spare time. She already has put in 10 years as the volunteer leader of an AIDS support group that met every Thursday night until this past May. The sessions first were held at a city park and then at the hospital. Smyth only missed two sessions during her tenure. ``It's time someone else take the ball and run with it,'' Smyth said. While working for the group, she also met forger Johns, former director of the now-defunct Northern Utah AIDS Society. Smyth's support group gave food to the nonprofit group. But much of it disappeared, as did other contributions handed over to Johns. Johns is serving a 1-to-15-year prison sentence on eight felony counts of second-degree forgery. Police said Johns forged retirement-home residents' checks and laundered the money through the Northern Utah AIDS Society. After revelations about Johns became public last year, financial support to AIDS groups in Ogden dried up. Shaw said maybe the AIDS Foundation, which also lost money to Johns, can recoup people's faith in AIDS-related organizations in Ogden.``It makes people distrustful,'' Shaw said. Smyth disbanded the support group because people were losing interest. She hopes the federally funded AIDS Foundation can step in with better success. About 12% of Utah AIDS patients live in Weber, Morgan, and Davis counties, said George Usher of the Utah Department of Health. In all, there have been 1,157 reported cases of AIDS in Utah since 1983, and about 150 so far this year, Usher said. (11/30/95 Page: B1 SLTribune)

1996 Loni Behunin, Clifton Wright founded the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Club at SUU. The latest incarnation of the club, he says, will take a more serious approach toward civil rights issues than in the past. SUU Gay Club Vows to Fight For Education, Civil Rights Byline: BY STEVE LAW SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE CEDAR CITY -- For the third time in four years, a club for gay, lesbian and bisexuals has sprouted on the campus of Southern Utah University in Cedar City. Whether it takes root and grows or withers and dies, like its predecessors, depends on how successful Clifton Wright, the founder of the  Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Club, is in implementing his vision for justice and equality for gays, lesbians  and bisexuals.   One thing different about this club, which is open to any one regardless of sexual orientation,  is a more serious approach.   ``As a club, we want to stay away from the social thing completely and try to accomplish some of the civil-rights issues first,'' says Wright, a 22-year-old clinical psychology major from New York City. ``With a social club it's easy to go back underground when the pressure is on. This time around, if we face discrimination, we'll fight it.''  Wright says he decided to take a stand after reading a famous quote by a Protestant pastor named Martin Niemoeller who became a victim of Nazi fascism during World War II.  ``I have a poster on my wall that says, `They first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.' ''   Wright says the club will take an active rather than reactive stance to accomplish three goals:   -- Form a support network for gays, lesbians and bisexuals in southern Utah, where, Wright says, they suffer discrimination regularly.   -- Educate SUU students and the community about AIDS, breast cancer, the gay lifestyle and sexual harassment.   -- Speak out politically to secure the same quality of life and civil rights as heterosexuals.   ``Right now, we're listing everything we can think of that may be in violation of our rights,'' says Wright. ``Then we're going to vote on what issues we want to focus on the most. We're mainly going to concentrate on basic issues such as not getting kicked out of school, losing our jobs or being kicked out of the places we rent.''   So far, things have been going smoothly for the group, which has gained about 50 members since it was formed a month ago. ``I haven't felt direct discrimination,'' says Wright, ``but I have felt their uncomfortableness. Sometimes people wish we'd go away. We're not going away but we're not here to offend anyone, either.''   Part of the club's education campaign has already begun.   Members were part of a panel discussion in a sociology class earlier this month about the gay lifestyle. The class professor, Linda Silber, said, ``I was amazed that so many [students] said that this was the first they've been around homosexuals. By the end of the discussion, my students went away more understanding of the  gay lifestyle.''   A course on human sexuality at the school just touches on homosexuality. Class professor David Broger says three or four days are spent on the topic outlined in a chapter in the class textbook.   ``It discusses mainly the theories that cause homosexuality, such as genetics, social or environment [influences], says Broger. ``It's a tolerance type of approach that tries to teach the students what it is and let them make up their own minds about it.''   Wright would like to to bring the issue into discussion through the university's convocation series, which every year features speakers on a variety of topics.   Lana Johnson, SUU's assistant dean of special projects, says certain criteria have to be met before a lecturer is approved. Mainly, the speaker should talk about a topic that is of interest to a broad audience. A lecture about gay rights may be too narrow for a large audience, but a discussion of the subject as part of a lecture on civil rights would have a better chance of coming to SUU, says Johnson.   Wright says his group would eventually like to expand off the campus and into area high schools.   ``Most of the discrimination we face comes from normally nice people who just don't understand who we are,'' says Wright. ``If we can help them see that we're normal people, a lot of the discrimination would stop.''   Chris Hadlock, the club's secretary, says the discrimination stems mostly from ignorance. ``If people knew how many gay people are working around them, they'd be less likely to say the things they do about us,'' says Hadlock, a 21-year-old dance major from Vernal. ``The discrimination isn't so much to your face as it is in the form of a gay joke or lewd comment about gays.''   Hadlock says he had one professor who regularly told gay jokes in class that made him feel uncomfortable. He hopes the club will make the professor and others like him more aware that SUU does have gays, lesbians and bisexuals on campus and make them more sensitive.   Hadlock says high school was very hard for him as a gay man. ``It's very important to be accepted,'' he says. ``Before I came to college I didn't know what to do. When I came to college, I met a lot of people who were also gay and it was great. I hope we can educate people and help them see that we're just as normal as they are.''   One of the things the club has this time around is support from heterosexuals. Wright says at least a third of the club's members are heterosexual supporters. Jen Atkins, an 18-year-old psychology and sociology major from Salt Lake City, is a heterosexual club member.  ``I have numerous friends who are homosexual, and after seeing what's happened unfairly to them in the past,'' she says. ``I wanted to do my part to show my support for them.''Page: B6 Tribune Former SUU club president kills self

1996 Sunday afternoon at 2, bells in several dozen churches along the Wasatch Front will ring 16 times.  Their resonant tones aren't calls to worship --or linked to the holiday season.   To some people, the pealing may be meaningless. To others, the sound will be heart-wrenching.   Sixteen knells . . . one for each year that the AIDS epidemic has ravaged populations worldwide, with more than 560,000 deaths in the United States alone. The bell-ringing is part of Utah's observance of World AIDS Day, which also includes interfaith services, candlelight vigils and other events. On Friday, more than 30 Utah galleries and museums observe the eighth annual Day Without Art. In Utah, 2,121 people have been infected by the AIDS-causing HIV virus. In the past dozen years, the AIDS death toll is 792, according to the Utah Department of Health. Experts believe unreported cases of HIV infections would drive the figures much higher. Cori Sutherland of the People of AIDS coalition of Utah fears that news accounts of ``magic bullets'' -- new drug combinations and anti-viral protease inhibitors -- may lull people into a sense of false complacency.  ``Even if the new treatments prove to work in the long term, there's a real concern about their cost -- between $15,000 and $25,000 a year,'' she said. ``AIDS still is with us . . . a fact we must face realistically,'' Sutherland declared. Don R. Austin, a licensed clinical social worker, calls vigils and prayer services ``safe places where people can come together in a nonjudgmental setting'' to reflect on the life of a person who has died of AIDS.   For some, the ceremonies ``can be a time to mourn . . . but also to rejoice in our strengths'' in battling the disease, he added. Among Sunday's events: -- A nondenominational service, titled ``Hope, Healing and Remembrance,'' at Congregation Kol Ami, 2425 E. Heritage Way (2760 South),Salt Lake County, at 3:30 p.m. Clergy from several faiths will participate, and a display from the AIDS Quilt will hang in the sanctuary.   -- An hour long candlelight vigil on the south steps of the State Capitol from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30p.m. Candles will be provided. Speaker is Patti Reagan, Utah AIDS Foundation founder. An open microphone will be available for  people to share their experiences with  AIDS.   -- In Logan, an interfaith candlelight ``Service of Remembrance'' at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 12 S. 200 West.   -- A broadcast of ``Positive Voices'' at 5:30p.m. on KUED Channel 7. The half-hour documentary profiles young men and women who acquired HIV through risky behavior while in their teens.   On Monday, confidential, free HIV testing will be offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Salt Lake City-County Health Department, 610 E.200 South. No appointment is necessary.  On Friday, 30 art galleries in the Salt Lake City area each will drape at least one sculpture or remove a painting from the wall to acknowledge the achievements of artists in all disciplines whose irreplaceable talents have been lost to the epidemic. SL TribuneB3 

1997-Kimon G. Georgeson age 53 died of complications from Marfan Syndrome.   He was born in Salt Lake City.  Kimon attended Reed College and graduated from the University of Utah, Magna Cum Laude. He did his post-graduate work at The New School of Social Research in New York City. Kimon pursued his life long work as an artist in New York City, recently returning to Salt Lake City. Those wishing to, may make donations to the Humane Society of Utah or the Utah  Aids Foundation

David Nelson

1997  Public Forum letter Godfrey's Contradiction   Salt Lake City Council member Tom Godfrey abstained from voting to refer a proposed nondiscrimination ordinance to a final council vote on Dec. 9 (Tribune, Nov. 19). The ordinance would protect gay and lesbian city-government workers, among others.   Godfrey's vote is a contradiction to his public career. He sought and earned an endorsement and contribution for his successful re-election campaign in 1993 from Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats, the then-active political action committee, in part for his written support of an ordinance such as the one that is now proposed.   He enjoyed the work of a gay campaign manager and gay and lesbian contributors and volunteers, including myself. He also enjoyed the work of gay and lesbian council staffers during his tenure. He benefited from the work of gay and lesbian people in his political life and particularly from those who were city-government workers. Gay and lesbian people supported Council member Godfrey during his last re-election bid and hope that he'll vote conscientiously and deliberately during his remaining time in public office, not abdicatively by supporting the hypothetical wishes of his successor.   DAVID NELSON   Salt Lake City SL Tribune Page: AA2 

1999 Tuesday, Gay-issues booklet likely won't go far Utah schools can't teach such alternatives By Jennifer Toomer-Cook Deseret News staff writer A booklet aimed at helping the nation's superintendents deal with issues involving gay students probably won't make much of a mark on Utah schools.  That's because schools here are prohibited from teaching homosexuality or sexual relations outside marriage as acceptable or healthy lifestyles, Doug Bates, director of school law and legislation for the State Office of Education, said Monday. "Whether homosexuality is a choice or inborn is not the schools' issue and schools should stay out of that," Bates said. "So far as respect for people in regards to sexual orientation, that's something I hope we teach." But the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network hopes the booklet will begin a dialogue within legal boundaries, local co-chairman Robert Austin said.     "I

Robert Austin

don't think people understand you don't necessarily have to be an advocate for gay and lesbian rights to be an advocate for safe schools. I think there's a place for some common ground," Austin said. The Just The Facts Coalition, 10 national groups including teachers unions, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of School Administrators and the Interfaith Alliance Foundation last week mailed about 15,000 booklets to superintendents nationwide. The 12-page "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators & School Personnel" provides information on federal laws and development of sexual orientation to help educators respond to controversies about homosexuality as they arise. It takes a hard line against using psychotherapy and repentance to "cure" people of homosexuality, saying those methods are rejected by the medical and mental health professions and some faiths. While some people swear by the tactics, the coalition worries they may harm already isolated and fearful gay teens. That's why it decided to distribute the information, the booklet states. The booklet cautions such tactics, if promoted in school, may infringe on constitutional barriers between church and state. And districts could face lawsuits if they don't protect gay students from harassment in the same way other students are protected, or allow gay-straight alliances equal footing with other student groups. Gay-straight alliance issues have waxed and waned in the Salt Lake City School District since 1995, when students sought to form such a group. Following a firestorm of support and criticism reaching even the Legislature, the Salt Lake Board of Education banned clubs not related to the curriculum. A federal judge has upheld the clubs policy and dismissed a lawsuit alleging the ban discriminated against free speech rights of gays. A California judge will rule on a similar lawsuit filed last week. The pamphlet also includes a list of additional resources on homosexuality issues for school leaders seeking more information. "My feeling is that we have a legal and moral responsibility to provide a safe environment for kids, no matter if they are disabled, ethnically diverse, of different religions, or gay. That's not a judgment call I think we need to make. It's just safe schools," said Phyllis Sorensen, Utah Education Association president. The coalition includes the National Education Association.     "I think what it will do is

Gayle Ruzicka

raise awareness of the legal and safety issues of these students and serve as a reminder as to what needs to be going on," she said. But Gayle Ruzicka of the ultra-conservative Utah Eagle Forum says the book has no place in Utah schools. She plans to "follow through to make sure no one forgets" school laws about homosexuality. "There's no doubt if there are students in the school who claim to be homosexual, (the  school) shouldn't discriminate against them," Ruzicka said. "But the bottom line is any kind of  premarital sex is illegal . . . (and) we should encourage our young people to lead morally  clean and pure lives."

Matt Kailey

2005 Wednesday,– The Queer Reader - Center Space (7pm) GLBTCCU Matt Kailey lived as a straight woman for the first forty-two years of his life, and then he changed. With the help of a good therapist, chest surgery, and some strong doses of testosterone, Kailey began living life as the man he’d always wanted to be. Now, in "Just Add Hormones", Kailey uses humor and humility to explain his journey toward accepting himself as neither a woman nor someone born male. Kailey answers all the questions you’ve ever had about what it’s like to live as a transsexual. From the fear of public restrooms to deciding whether to “pack” his pants, he explains what the world looks like from his new male vantage point. More than a memoir, "Just Add Hormones" is full of advice for those who may be questioning their gender while also offering valuable insights to the family and friends of those who have started a transition. Purchase Just Add Hormones at Sam Weller and receive a 20% discount!

2007 The Utah Cyber Sluts will be performing our annual holiday show, (Cyber Night - Slutty Night, "What's in Your Stocking)"  Friday, 11/30, 8:00 PM, the *PaperMoon (3737 S. State Street), $5.00 donation.  We have been rehearsing for over two months for the event and promise lots of fun campy, witty, sinful and traditional entertainment for everyone.  There will be some raffle items, surprises and original Cyber Sluts returning for the event.  Please join us in making this a holiday tradition.

This Day In Gay Utah History November 29th

November 29

1916 Birth of artist Neel Bate, as "Blade" one of the pioneers of gay erotica. His most famous work, an underground classic in pre-Stonewall days is The Barn, which he wrote and illustrated. He was a precursor to Tom of Finland and a favorite among closeted Gay men of the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. His series "The Barn" (1947/48) was spread through the country and beyond when the only photocopies of it were confiscated by the New York City Police Department in the arrest of a man during a raid on his apartment who had hoped to sell them. Such raids on the homes of gay men were a commonplace of the period. New York City's "Finest" apparently knew a good thing when they saw it - because soon after the pictures had been carted off to the police depository, photo-sets of the twelve images started doing a brisk, underground business on the streets of New York..

1926 Salt Lake Telegraph, Utah 

Adolph Brand 

1933- Adolf Brand, who began publishing one of the earliest gay publications in Berlin, wrote a letter to his supporters saying he was unable to continue. Nazi raids and seizures had left him close to bankruptcy. On 29 November 1933 he wrote an extensive seven-page letter to F.F. Bennett, Secretary of the British Sexological Society in London. He began: "As an honorary member of your company, I feel obliged to give you about the utter hopelessness of a continuation of my life working in the new Nazi Germany a detailed report. [...] I was completely plundered by these 5 confiscations (and) have nothing left to sell and am now (a) ruined business. [...] My whole

life's work is now ruined. [...] From this position, the very simple fact that a continuation of my work [...] on German soil is no longer possible and results that the continued publication of my magazine Der Eigene only can be done abroad, where it is the necessary freedom of the press and legal certainty. " Der Eigene was the first gay journal in the world, published from 1896 to 1932 by Adolf Brand in Berlin. Brand contributed many poems and articles himself. Other contributors included Benedict Friedlaender, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Erich Mühsam, Kurt Hiller, Ernst Burchard, John Henry Mackay, Theodor Lessing, Klaus Mann, and Thomas Mann, as well as artists Wilhelm von Gloeden, Fidus, and Sascha Schneider. The journal may have had an average of around 1500 subscribers per issue during its run, but the exact numbers are uncertain.

1984-Less than a month after being established as a city, West Hollywood approved a gay rights ordinance.

Natacha Rambova

1989 Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Utah met. Connell Rocky O’Donovan presented a talk on Natacha Rambova, Rudolph Valentino 1st wife, and great granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball.  She was a bi-sexual and born Winifred Kimball O'Shaunessey.

1989-A Boston couple, Martha Alsup and Susan Galbin, was found stabbed to death in Anguilla. Seventeen year-old Andy Otto was arrested, police said he killed them after attempting to rape them. A vigil was organized by friends of the couple to mourn the loss of the women, both psychologists, who had been very active in the Boston gay and lesbian community. Los Angeles Times Article

1990 President George H W Bush lifted the ban against Gay immigrants. When Congress overhauled the nation’s immigration laws in 1950, it was still in the grip of the McCarthy Red and Lavender Scares. Consequently, Congress banned Communists and “persons afflicted with psychopathic personality” from entering the U.S. That latter clause was added by a Senate Judiciary subcommittee with the express purpose of excluding “homosexuals and other sex perverts.” The legislation that was ultimately signed into law didn’t mention homosexuals, but the U.S. Public Health Service consistently interpreted the language to be “sufficiently broad to provide for the exclusion of homosexuals and sex perverts.” When Congress addressed immigration reform again in 1965, it added “sexual deviation” to the list of characteristics that would preclude immigration. But even then, the law didn’t single out homosexuality for exclusion, but it nevertheless remained official immigration policy even after homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental disorders in 1973. 

1990  Manuel Lamar Benson died of a ligering illness. [AIDS] Born 21 June 1955. Graduated from Ricks College and attended Carrol College in Montana. He worked for 1^st Security in SLC. Loved antiques and old homes. He loved restoring them. Obituary

1991-Salt Lake Tribune featured an article on The Salt Lake Men's Choir.``We've gone from hoping St. Ann's would keep us to becoming regulars at Kingsbury Hall and drawing overflow crowds,'' said the choir's president, Jim Alexander. When the president of the Salt Lake Men's Choir was asked whether the ensemble would ever align itself with the gay-rights movement, Alexander replied we make music, not a political statement. It's not about the black community or the white community or the Hispanic community or the gay community. It's about music. ``Our politics are unity -- not just the gay community vs. the straight community, but rather the camaraderie amongst diverse peoples.''

Phillip O Austin

1994 PRISON TIME FOR WSU ADMINISTRATOR IS POSTPONED UNTIL APPEALS HEARD Byline: By Tom Quinn SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE  (Page: C2)   OGDEN -- A Weber State University administrator Monday was sentenced to 1 to 15 years in prison for kidnapping, but the judge postponed any  prison time until appeals in the case are heard.   Phillip O. Austin, 43, director of student advisement at WSU, was found guilty in September of the second-degree kidnapping of 20-year-old Colby Clifford on March 12. Clifford testified he bailed out of Austin's car after being solicited for sex at gun point. But the jury found Austin guilty of the lesser charge and specifically found that no weapon was used in the  kidnapping. Austin's lawyer, John Caine, said the appeal would be based on a contention that two other young men approached by Austin should not have been allowed to testify, and that if no gun was used, there was no kidnapping.  Caine also is representing Austin in his attempts to avoid dismissal from WSU. He has been on paid leave since April, but the university began firing proceedings upon his conviction. Outside Judge Stanton Taylor's 2nd District courtroom Monday, Austin blamed his troubles on homophobia and said a similar situation involving a woman would not have gone to trial. ``Because I'm gay, the jury found me guilty of kidnapping,'' he said. Austin said he did not believe he would serve any time behind bars.   ``I'm gay, not a criminal,'' he said.  ``I'm not here to advance gay rights, I'm seeking justice.'' [Austin would serve two years in prison before an appellate court said Judge Taylor was in error to instruct the jury they could find him guilty on a lesser charge]

1996 `Well, thank God, I finished a head of Michael Jackson,'' Melissa Etheridge, said, heaving

Melissa Etheridge

a mock sigh of relief in a recent telephone interview.   Since announcing that her partner, Julie Cypher, is expecting a baby on Jan. 25, the outspoken singer has found herself the subject of everything from a recent Newsweek cover story to a poll on ``Dateline NBC.'' The TV newsmagazine asked viewers to decide which celebrity -- Etheridge, Jackson or Madonna --had the best chance of rearing a normal child. The winner: Madonna. Etheridge, who performs tonight at the Salt Palace, is neither discouraged nor put off by her second-place finish in ``Dateline's'' viewer call-in survey.   ``I know that all three of us are unconventional parents,'' she said. ``I suppose Madonna is the most conventional because she's straight and has a male figure in her life. That's what people go to. That's the way we were raised and what we've always known. I suppose it will be like that for years until generations have grown and we realize that homosexuals have the same percentages of good children and bad children and gay children as anybody else.'' Parenthood puts another twist on Etheridge's rise to fame. Her career took off four years ago when she announced she was a lesbian at the Triangle Ball in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of Bill Clinton. Her next album, ``Yes I Am,'' sold 6 million copies. It is still keeping pace on the charts with her latest album, ``Your Little Secret.'' Etheridge is comfortable being a role model for lesbians and gays, ``if that is how people view me.''   Utah is a frequent recreation spot for Etheridge, and national headlines regarding the resistance to gay-straight alliances in Utah high schools have caught her attention. Etheridge understands about growing up homosexual in a conservative community. As a teen-ager she could not wait to get out of Leavenworth, Kan., home to a Hallmark card factory and the federal prison where Al Capone did time.   She is concerned about young gay and  lesbian people who have no support system.   ``I was a teen-ager when I started realizing I was different, but I had no idea what it was,'' she recalled. ``My saving grace and the reason I got through it was that I knew I was going to leave, so I could bear through the isolation and loneliness of it. There are thousands of millions of teen-agers who don't think they can get out, and that is sad.''   Utah gay and lesbian advocates say it is important that celebrities such as Etheridge come here in spite of what some perceive as a homophobic atmosphere.   ``Melissa Etheridge is respected by gay and straight audiences alike, and that sends a message, and not just to gays and lesbians --that it is possible to be whole, healthy and accepted,'' said Charlene Orchard, co-chairwoman of the Utah Human Rights Coalition, which brought Chastity Bono to Utah for Gay Pride Day last summer. In her experience, Etheridge said she has seen ``a lot of shedding of fears.''  ``It is relatively new to be so upfront about it, but homosexuality is as old as man itself,'' she said. ``Having been on the outside, at times, I don't ever want to approach anyone who is homophobic and say, `Oh, you're wrong, period, that's it.' There's a lot of understanding to go with that. A lot of talk. A lot of tolerance on both sides that needs to be done.''   No longer on the outside, Etheridge often finds herself the center of attention.   ``When I first came out, all the talk was all about the lifestyle. Then about a year ago, it really settled into my music. People realized thatI make enjoyable music and good music and people like to listen to it and I'm succeeding within and that's a story within itself. Then, of course, my partner is pregnant, so it's back to the lifestyle thing.   ``It's OK because I don't have a problem where I'm at or with my lifestyle. The more I talk about it, the better it is for me, and I don't mind,’ she said.   Etheridge and Cypher, a video director who was married to actor Lou Diamond Phillips, have been together for nearly eight years. Having children was something they had been ``thinking of three or four years.'' But with both their careers in full swing, there never seemed a convenient time.   ``We'd say `OK, after this project or that project,' and years went by,'' Etheridge said. ``Last year we came to the conclusion that there wasn’t going to be a time when we are both not working and when we can both just carve out a time to do it. We just needed to evolve and become parents. So Julie decided to go and do it.''   Because the couple want to raise the child in as much privacy as possible, Etheridge does not discuss how the baby was conceived. After the end of the tour, Etheridge will batten down the hatches and prepare for parenthood.   At Salt Palace   Melissa Etheridge will play tonight at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Tickets are $39 at Smith's Tix. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.Page: E1`

Torie Osborn

1996 Torie Osborn will sign Coming Home to America: A Roadmap to Gay & Lesbian Empowerment, Sam Weller Books, 250 S. Main, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Osborn will also speak at a dinner at the YWCA, 322 E. Broadway, Sunday at 7 p.m. Admission is $7.Page: E9 

2003 From Donald Steward to Ben Williams -Sat Nov 29,

Donald Steward

2003  4:32 pm Ben, Thanks for the piece on David Sharpton it brought back a lot of memories. As a volunteer and employee of the Coalition I worked with David for several years through his lucid periods and also his angry and frustrated bouts. As you know, being in such close proximity to David was exhausting, and for much of our working relationship and friendship I wanted to alternately strangle him and protect him at the same time. In this age of drug cocktails and viral suppression it seems difficult to remember how compressed and urgent the AIDS arena was back then. The idea of a chronic manageable illness was years away and the whole illness just seemed so fast and so inevitably terminal. It was that sense of finite urgency that drove David and God help the person that stood in his way

David Shaprton

and wasted his time. David broadcast the AIDS message when no one else would, but he was also capable of incredible destruction, and an explosive lack of tact that usually made everyone around him bristle. In hindsight, David was the right tool for the right job early in Utah's epidemic. His brashness and ability to kick in doors was just what was needed to wake up Utah's public health officials and policy makers, and to mobilize the gay community. With that said, his gradual decline both mentally and eventually physically, coincided with the slow mainstreaming of the public health response, and what I would describe as the commercialization of the AIDS arena. The pioneers that created community based AIDS programs like the Salt Lake AIDS Foundation, and the People With AIDS Coalition, etc. were charismatic and passionate grass roots organizers, but eventually their agencies aged and matured to the point that they needed managers and bureaucrats who were better suited to the mundane long haul, rather than flashes of fire and vision. The type of angry energy and drive that David had simply did not fit into the mainstream. I often wonder what he would think of the current cohort of people with AIDS and the bureaucracy's that cater to them. Some personal thoughts: I was really lucky to go to the AIDS conference you mentioned in San Francisco with David (we went for four days and of course David being David he took four suit cases!) I still remember David’s rage when the National Minority AIDS Coalition sent out invitations to their hospitality suite on hand pressed Japanese rice paper. David was livid at their extravagance and waste when people with AIDS were going hungry in San Francisco. The other standout memory is my favorite. David and I totally blew out one afternoon of the conference to play tourist and I dragged him onto the ferry to Sausalito. It was sunny and clear and the view of the city was amazing. I had never really spent any one on one time with him and it was such a revelation to see him away from an audience. On the water and in the sun he was calm and dare I say it...happy! After he died that memory gave me a lot of comfort. David was very proud that the PWA Coalition helped bring the NAMES Project Quilt to SLC. But what most people don't know was David's biggest thrill came when when Channel Two interrupted its regularly scheduled prime time programming to cover the Opening Ceremony live. After that he never let us forget that HE upstaged Miami Vice! Don Steward.

2006   Wednesday, November 29th Time: 6:30 PM Location: SLC

Downtown Library Auditorium The Gender Advocacy Board (Utah Gab) is proud to present its first film "Home Is Where The Heart Is" sponsored in part by The Human Rights Education Center of Utah (HREC). It is a film discussion about the transgender community and the courage and joy they feel by being their true authentic selves. Asecond film will then be shown "Transamerica", starring Felicity Huffman who portrays a transsexual named Bree who gets the shock of her life when a week before her final sex reassignment surgery discovers a son she didn't know she had. It is filled with deep emotions of laughter and heartache and well worth seeing. Huffman won several awards (and an Oscar nomination) for her role. This event is free and open to the public.

2007 On Nov. 29, Utah Rep. Christine A. Johnson proposes and sponsors a bill to amend the state Code by prohibiting discrimination in business employment and housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. State legislators don't vote on the bill, and it isn't adopted.

2008 Gay marriage Herald Poll responses .A recent Herald Poll (Utah County) queried our readers about gay marriage. Some of the responses included:

•  Why all the commotion? Some of your comments are misleading. In California eight years ago legislation was passed to protect the rights of gay and lesbian couples. They can resister as domestic partners. They are (right now) already receiving the benefits of this law and issues such as inheritance, hospital visitation, and taxes have already been addressed. In the eyes of the law, a domestic partner is the same as a spouse. Why then all the commotion about Proposition 8?  I think it is about (and I quote from your article) "society's official approval." • Lisa Greenhalgh, Santaquin- 
• Gay rights Homosexuality is a normal biological variation in virtually all mammalian species. It is experienced honestly and involuntarily. People who think otherwise are simply uninformed. Gay people deserve and will ultimately be granted full civil rights including marriage. It is just a matter of time. The time is now. Church leadership should be leading this movement as so many wish they had done in the black civil rights movement. • Gary Watts, Provo- 
• Gay marriage is illogical Allowing gays to marry flies in the face of logic. It is only now, when we are worn down by twisted arguments coming from gay advocates, that we are even considering such an option. For eons, society has forbidden it, and for good reason. • Vernon Moulton, Pleasant Grove