This Day In Gay Utah History November 14th

November 14th

1725- In England, undercover police officer Samuel Stephens entered Mother Clapp's Molly House (a meeting place for gay men) to gather evidence for a raid. He observed men kissing, holding hands, hugging, sitting in each others laps, dancing, and that there were rooms where men could go to have sex. His report led to the arrest of Mother Clapp, she would be fined and sentenced to two years in prison.

Julian Eltinge

1910 Julian Eltinge, a  female impersonator, opened in Atlantic City in Otto Hauerbach's musical comedy THE FASCINATING WIDOW , produced by Al Woods, who produced all his musicals. The play featured Eltinge in a dual role as Hal Blake, a "naughty boy" at a coed college who disguises himself as a 'Mrs. Monte' to escape an irate detective. The show moved to the Liberty Theater in 1911 for it's New York premiere. Though it only ran for 56 performances in New York, it toured for several years, and became Eltinge's signature performance and the formula for most of his theatrical and film performances. The show was so popular that it was performed by two other female impersonators, Karyl Norman and Tom Martelle in subsequent years. Otto Harbach (Otto Hauerbach) - Died 1-24-1963 Born 8-18-1873 in Salt Lake City, UT, U.S. - Songwriter (He co-wrote,"Cuddle Up A Little Closer" and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" Worked with Karl Hoschna, Oscar Hammerstein II, George Gershwin and many others - Songwriter's Hall Of Fame Inductee Otto Abels Harbach (born Otto Abels Hauerbach) wrote lyrics and/or librettos for 50 musicals, with songs such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle Up a Little Closer.

1922: Quaker Jeb Alexander wrote in his journel, “With thoughts of Whitman and Nietsche I forced myself to seek a job at the bank. But it was no use..." "... What Leaves of Grass means as a testament of hope around this time to the common Gay male can be seen in the diaries of Jeb Alexander, a low-level clerk in Washington, DC. In 1965 Ina Russell inherited 50 volumes of diaries in a fireproof cabinet from her uncle Jeb Alexander (pseudonym). Unbeknownst to her was the treasure trove of American gay history they would yield. Upon reading the eloquently written memoirs, she discovered her uncle's tempestuous love affair with C.C. Dash Dasham (pseudonym) and life as a gay government employee in Washington. Jeb, was an editor in a government office in Washington, D.C. Russell winnowed the volumes into an engrossing narrative of gay life from 1918 to 1945. Reading Jeb's diaries is to walk beside him and relive the sights, sounds, and smells of the Roaring Twenties, Depression, and World War II. Extending from the WW I armistice to the stock market crash to the defeat of fascism, this gracefully written diary includes myriad impressions of topical events and people like Will Rogers, Pola Negri, Thornton Wilder, Charles Lindbergh and others. She wrote her uncle diary's as a book "Jeb and Dash: A Diary of Gay Life 1918-1945 A door has been opened here to view gay life firsthand in bygone eras. In 1923 Jeb wrote prophetically concerning his diary, "I do want it to be read--there is no use in concealing the fact--by somebody who is like me, who would understand." A superlative insight into early 20th-century gay history. The torment and loneliness of homosexuality in a more repressive era is palpably evoked in this intense diary of Jeb Alexander (1899-1965). But the unifying thread is Jeb's love affairs, including his long time relationship with C. C. Dasham, a state department employee. Readers are privy to Jeb's fears that he may be under police surveillance as a suspected "deviant" criminal, and to his distress over an unsympathetic society that allows him little happiness or peace of mind

 

1942 Germany: The SS (storm troops) informs concentration camp commandants that they are free to sterilize any of the prisoners under their control. The directive gives official approval to the practice, already instituted in some camps, of castrating males suspected of sexual attraction to other men

CHF Protestors

1969 The Los Angles Free Press reported that “the Committee for Homosexual Freedom voted at a recent meeting to request all publications to hereafter capitalize the word Gay. Proponents of the measure argued that Gay is a proper nounand adjective which describes a people.” Heterosexual writers and lexicographers were by lower casing the word blamed for psychological oppression of homosexuals.

Dan White

1969 The first issue of The Gay Liberation Front’s Come Out was published  in New York City with its slogan “a Newspaper by and for the Gay Community”

1978-Dan White requested to be re-appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Victor L . Brown

1978- BYU’s Victor L. Brown Jr. outlined the goals of The Values Institute to Dean of Students Robert K. Thomas stating that the Value Institute goals included: 1) reviewing “the means by which the [homosexual] opposition attempts to indoctrinate our people” 2) explaining “the developmental pattern of an LDS book on human behavior after the manner of the Articles of Faith” 3) creating a political action kit for use of church members in local legislative efforts 4)  preparing other kinds of anti-Gay papers and rebuttals, 5) supporting academic and scientific research that would vindicate the church’s anti-homosexual position and 6) recommending to the First Presidency “specific steps the Church might take in combating homosexuality and other sexual misconduct. “

Ezra Benson

1991-Thurday- LDS First Presidency under leadership of Ezra Taft Benson sent a letter addressed to All Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints entitled Standards of Morality and Fidelity.” A correct understanding of the divinely appointed roles of men and women will fortify all against sinful practices such as “homosexual and Lesbian behavior”

Luci Malin

1996  SL Tribune Page: B2 NOW to Honor East High  Gay/Straight Alliance   The East High School students who fought to establish a support group for gay and  lesbian teenagers may not have had conventional National Organization for Women issues at heart, but NOW knows standing up to harsh public criticism and the scorn of their peers is courageous. That's why the East High Gay/Straight Alliance and a high school teacher who publicly revealed that she is a lesbian have been chosen to receive the Utah NOW 1996 Women of Courageous Action Awards, said  Utah NOW chapter president Luci Malin.   NOW member Camille Lee

Camille Lee

revealed her sexual orientation after the East High students asked her to be their faculty adviser. ``If those kids were willing to take the risk, then I certainly needed to help them,'' said Lee, a high school science teacher.   Lee and the East High alliance will be honored by the Utah NOW chapter at its awards banquet Friday evening at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City.   Mary Coehlo, who has campaigned for greater accountability on the part of judges, and Sherianne Cotterell, who designed and implemented an afterschool arts program at Lincoln Elementary, also will receive the Women of Courageous Action awards. Coelho spearheaded the ``No on Young'' effort that fell just short of unseating 3rd District Judge David S. Young in last week's retention election.   Cotterell, who recently became Salt Lake City's new Director of Recreation, instituted the arts program to help children from troubled backgrounds feel safe and express themselves creatively.

David Young

• David S. Young Judge David S. Young was appointed to the Third District Court in February 1987 by Gov. Norman H. Bangerter. He serves Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele Counties. He received his law degree from the University of Utah College of Law in 1969. He worked in the Utah Attorney General's Office and was Chief Assistant Attorney General heading the Criminal Division prior to 1973. He organized and was the original director of the Statewide Association of Prosecutors. He was an attorney with the law firms of Stewart, Young, Paxton & Russell; Marsden, Orton & Liljenquist; and Backman, Marsh & Clark in Salt Lake City. Judge Young is a member of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules of Criminal Procedure. He is a former member of the Utah Board of Pardons and Board of Corrections. He is currently [1996] serving as a member of the Utah Judicial Council
• Editorial: If You Love Justice, Vote Against David Young By Shannon Harper Published: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 For 15 years, Judge David S. Young of the 3rd District Court of Utah has sidestepped justice. He is duplicitous in the courtroom, demonstrating a hostile disregard for women and people who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Named one of the nation's "most sexist judges," by Redbook magazine, Young consistently displays bias that mocks the Constitution. On Nov. 5, Utah voters must accept the profound responsibility of ousting Young from the judiciary. Young claims he has been "picked on" by the press recently because he is a member of the LDS Church and professes that "women are superior to men." However, it's not just the press that doesn't like Young. Attorneys, both male and female, consistently criticize him. According to the Utah Judicial Council, the policy-making body that evaluates state judges by surveying attorneys, Young is one of the state's most widely disliked judges. Fortunately, constant criticism this year from the National Organization for Women, the ACLU, attorneys and activists may finally result in Young being thrown out. Since his appointment in 1987, Young has been a statewide embarrassment, handing down rulings that would make any reasonable person cringe. The problem cases run the gamut: property disputes, alimony, custody, domestic violence and sex abuse. Last month, Young refused to jail two drunken men who engaged in oral sex, sodomy and intercourse with a 12-year-old girl at a Tooele party. Young rejected a request from prosecutors and Department of Corrections evaluators to incarcerate the men, he reduced their second-degree felony convictions to third-degree felonies and imposed community service. How could Young punish such an awful crime by assigning garbage collection along Interstate 15? In six other sex crime cases this year, Young declined to impose prison time. Young has a record of poor decisions. In 1994, he heard the case of Louise Strollo, who had suffered eight and a half years of battering, death threats and torture by her husband, David Strollo. She had been bloodied and bruised, hospitalized for knife wounds and suffered a broken nose. Her husband threatened her with death if she served him with divorce papers. After she attempted suicide by swallowing half a bottle of rubbing alcohol and survived, she took her two sons, 7 and 8, to a safe house, filed for divorce and begged for the protection of the court. Twice she asked Judge Young to grant a protective order, and twice he denied it, refusing to hear any testimony about the abuse she had endured. Young spoke to Strollo as if she were a child. He said, "You understand that he is the parent of those children. You give him the phone number and you let him know where those children are, and you let him visit with those children." Despite Young's attitude, the Utah Court of Appeals overturned his ruling later that year, saying the law "clearly protects those who are reasonably in fear of physical harm resulting from past conduct coupled with the present threat of future harm." Consider the vast differences between how Young talks to men and women within his courtroom. Dozens of witnesses claim he makes sympathetic small talk with men, but his approach to women is described as condescending, chilly and demeaning. A woman in an alimony dispute told Redbook that Judge Young "virtually lunged across the bench" at her, lecturing her with statements such as, "it shouldn't take more than a one-watt mind" to conclude her husband deserved visitation rights. In an effort to maintain a redneck, misogynist authority over the women in his courtroom, Young relies on demeaning language and demeanor. "He scolds and tongue-lashes women for behaviors that have nothing to do with the legal issues in their cases. He imposes his own code of behavior on women litigants, which he does not do with men," said Kathryn Kendell, a lawyer with the ACLU, to Redbook. Young also frequently shows bias in favor of members of the LDS Church. Young is a descendant of former church president Brigham Young and inappropriately boasts about his religious beliefs in the courtroom. "He wears his religion on his sleeve," a prosecutor told the Salt Lake Tribune. "If I were a defense attorney, I'd be sure and let Young know my client was Mormon." In 1994, Young heard the case of Alicia Larson, a young woman who had planned to take her children and start a new life in Oregon after her divorce. But Judge Young feared that Larson would not rear her family in a proper LDS environment. "The move to Corvallis is not compatible with the religious training that has been provided to the children," Young wrote. "The mother does not intend to attend religious services.'' Young signed an order in April 1993 that prevented Larson from taking her children out of the state—or even out of Summit County. How is it possible that Utah residents have allowed this man to remain on the bench? For 15 years, Young has stomped on justice. He makes no effort to hide his loathing for women and people who aren't members of the LDS Church. Utah residents deserve a judge who will serve them with the most possible equality, fairness and justice. The challenge at hand is clear. Remove Judge Young from the bench. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The daily Utah chronicle
• 2004 The Forgotten Race 3rd Judicial District Judge David Young deserves no support  from gay and lesbian Utahns  By David Thometz You might not know it, but a little bit of history has happened to gay and lesbian Utahns. For the first time, four gay and lesbian political groups have offered endorsements of candidates and ballot issues for this year's general election Only one of these four groups' endorsement considers what will likely be the most relevant race this year for gay and lesbian people. For the second time in six years, state 3^rd Judicial District Judge David S. Young faces an uphill battle for retention  -- and his job. Of the four political groups, only one, GayVoteUtah.com, published a recommendation against Judge Young’s retention. While another group, Human Rights Campaign Inc., is national and generally ignores local races and issues, and understandably didn't offer a recommendation about Young, our other two groups were surprisingly missing in action on this issue. Neither Unity Utah Inc. nor the Utah Democratic Gay and Lesbian Caucus included their opinions on the Young campaign. You remember Judge Young. In 1996, leaders of Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats along with the state gay and lesbian Anti-Violence Project and the state chapter of the National Organization for Women spearheaded a campaign against Young. Despite many examples of questionable conduct, he eked out a bare majority in his retention election. Women, gays and lesbians aren't the only people angry with  Judge Young's performance. Recently, he refused to jail two men who had sex with a 12-year-old girl at a Tooele party, reduced their second-degree felony convictions to third-degree felonies and imposed only community service. Years earlier, Judge Young prevented a Park City mother of three from moving to Oregon with her children, ruling that children must stay in Utah so they can be reared in a proper Mormon environment. In 1988, Judge Young granted a temporary restraining order against a Salt Lake County woman, insisting that she not have an abortion. Her estranged husband was seeking custody of the unborn child. Despite these and many other examples, perhaps the most infamous of Judge Young's decisions came in 1994, when he reduced the sentence of David Thacker who pleaded guilty to the  1993 shooting death in Park City, Utah of Douglas Koehler, a 31-year-old Salt Lake City gay businessman. Thacker was charged with shooting and killing Koehler after a night of drinking, drugs and a homosexual encounter in Park City. Thacker later tracked Koehler and shot him in the head. Faced with a possible first-degree felony murder conviction and sentencing to life imprisonment for the killing, Thacker offered a plea-bargain of second-degree felony manslaughter with a potential one to 15 years for the killing and an additional one to five years for the use of a gun in the commission of a crime. Judge Young agreed to a motion by defense attorney Ron Yengich to reduce the sentence to a total of just zero to five years, with a one-year penalty enhancement because a gun was used. Summit County attorneys and state prison officials recommended unsuccessfully against the reduction. Thacker was released in 2000. The ultimate sentence of one-to-six years is not much longer than the one-to-five penalty enhancement alone, and essentially negates any sentence at all for the actual murder. Thacker originally faced a sentence of 15 years-to-life, but Judge Young reduced the sentence to zero-to-six years, and there was the possibility that Thacker would be a free man immediately after the trial based on his time served. It was only due to the stated anger of the parole board that Thacker served the maximum six-year sentence. During this process, prosecuting attorneys consulted GLUD and  AVP leaders Michael Aaron, Carrie Gaylor, David Nelson and Howard Johnson, who also served as business and estate attorney for Koehler. The group argued unsuccessfully for at least the one-to-15-year manslaughter penalty. GLUD leaders also filed complaints against Judge Young with the American Bar Association, the Utah Administrative Office of the Courts, the Utah Bar Association, the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission and the Utah Judicial Council. The public outcry provided backdrop for Utahns' anger against a judge who seemed out of touch with community morals. AVP, GLUD and NOW leaders launched a "No On Young" campaign, and argued for his immediate removal. These gay and lesbian efforts are believed to have colored Judge Young's 1996 and  2002 performance evaluations. While falling short of our goal to remove Judge Young, the foundation was built upon which every bad decision he makes results in a renewed call for his ouster.  Arguably the most important ballot issue affecting gay and  lesbian Utahns this year, Judge Young's retention received the least attention from our groups and leaders. Young deserves no  support from gay and lesbian people. [David Thometz is a Democratic leader and election strategist, and has worked for more than 15 years as a gay leader in Utah. He is the owner of UtahDemocrat.com, and serves as an adviser  to GayVoteUtah.com.

Debra Dean
founder of
Engendered  Species

1999 5:00pm - Transgender Panel Discussion presented by members of the Engendered Species support group. Held at the Viking Villa Club House at 433 East 980 North in Ogden

2007 Pride in Pink: After Hours  On November 14, 2007 The Utah Pride Center and Gastronomy co-hosted the first of a series of fabulous ‘Pride In Pink’after hours parties, held at downtown Salt Lake’s Market Street Oyster Bar.  Over 100 gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people and their allies (clad in pink) met after a long day’s work to relax with a cocktail or two, nosh from a divine spread of hors d’oeurves provided by the Oyster Bar, and network with other working professionals.  Ounmany Milavong of Mountainside Mortgage donated an enticing gift basket that was given away in a business card raffle drawing, and a wonderful time was had by all!  Pride In Pink parties will be held quarterly throughout 2008. 

Jeff Reynolds

2009 Off the Agenda: Gay-rights bombshell blew up in Sutherland's face The Salt Lake Tribune 11/14/2009 Minutes before the LDS Church's startling announcement of support for Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination laws, one of Utah's conservative mouthpieces insisted it would not happen. Standing in the City Council Chamber, the Sutherland Institute's Jeff Reynolds told reporters rumors of the church's support were both ridiculous and a glaring case of "journalistic fraud." The church, Reynolds said, simply would proclaim nonopposition to the ordinances. Then church spokesman Michael Otterson strode to the lectern to deliver the bombshell. Soon after,

Michael Otterson

Reynolds skedaddled to write a response that showed up two hours later. Blindsided by the news, Sutherland nonetheless reiterated its call for the Legislature to kill the ordinances, which outlaw firing or eviction in Utah's capital based on a person being gay or transgender. Sutherland's argument: Such measures mean "marriage will die by a thousand cuts." "As a public-relations opportunity, the LDS Church's statement before the Salt Lake City Council may assuage the minds and soften the hearts of advocates of "gay rights" in Utah, the think tank argued. As a policy statement, it is problematic. "The approved ordinances," Sutherland continued, "are vague, dangerously broad and unjust to the parties they seek to regulate."  But in light of the church's position, it remains to be seen whether this conservative stalwart or another -- the Eagle Forum -- influences any lawmakers. Bias knows no bounds » According to participants of the secret meetings between gay leaders and church officials, personal anecdotes describing discrimination proved a powerful tonic in the negotiations. And at least one former state employee says such bias is not uncommon in the ranks of state workers. On Tuesday, John Bennett, grandson of former U.S.

John Bennett

Sen. Wallace Bennett and nephew of current Sen. Bob Bennett, told the City Council he was fired in 1986 from the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development because he is gay. "Coming from a very politically powerful family does not protect you," he said as he urged the council to pass the anti-discrimination measures. Now an employee of Salt Lake County, which has nondiscrimination protections in place for its work force, Bennett laments that many employees across Utah still are not so fortunate. How will the church communique play on Capitol Hill? » Sen. Scott

Scott McCoy

McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, said he is thrilled with the church's declaration of support. And he predicts the rare public stance will have an impact when state lawmakers convene early next year. "It makes a huge difference," McCoy said moments before Tuesday's announcement at City Hall. "The church does not run what happens on Capitol Hill. But it would be ridiculous to suggest that the leaders on the Hill would not sit up and take notice of what's happening here tonight." Salt Lake County Council Chairman Joe Hatch says he is not convinced the church endorsement will sway conservatives at the Legislature. "It might actually hurt," Hatch said, explaining that the long-held perception is that when the LDS Church says jump, legislators ask how high. "Here's a way for the Republican Mormon leadership to say, 'We don't do what the church says.' "  Reynolds charged with assault in 2010