This Day In Gay Utah History November 18th

November 18

1948. The board denied termination to Joseph D. Hunter, 29, Village Sahara who has served one year of a sodomy sentence Salt Lake Telegram Salt Lake Telegram

• 8 Dec 1950 Pardon Board Sets 9 Free Joseph D Hunter’s application for parole denied. Joseph Davis Hunter, 31, Weber,  served effective March Salt Lake Telegram

George Clyde

1958 Tuesday- A Program to deal with the problems of defective delinquents and aggressive sex offenders was recommended to Gov. George D. Clyde in a report submitted Monday by a special study committee. “the best way to avoid problems of the delinquent and the sex offenders” the report written by a committee headed by Atty. D.A. Skeem, said “is to develop boys and girls with healthy and wholesome personalities, thus preventing the problem from arising.”  This goes back to homes, schools, churches and the communities themselves with a responsibility to recognize early signs of deviant behavior, followed by program treatment. (11/18/58 SLTribune Page 15 col.3)

1974-The New Yorker published "Minor Heroism" by Allan Gurganis, its first gay-themed short story.

1975 A Consciousness Raising Group for women was held by Babs De Lay at the Gay Community Service Center of Utah. The group discussed “Dealing With Straight People”

1987 Concerning Gays and Lesbians interviewed Graham Bell regarding his proposed Gay liaison committee to the Salt Lake City’s Mayor’s office

1987- I called John Reeves to meet at the Deerhunter and he did.   John and I discussed the possibility of having a weekend retreat and workshop for Unconditional Support next summer.  We also discussed topics for US such as promiscuity, Getting past the Friend Stage, etc.  [Journal of Ben Williams]

1988- AIDS Project Utah was on the verge of folding up under the directorship of Richard Starley. Ben Barr joined the Salt Lake AIDS Foundation

• Richard Starley-by Nick Rupp UAF April 2005 Issue As former director of AIDS Project

  

  Richard Starley

  Utah, Richard Starley was one of Utah's first leaders in the organized fight against HIV. A Salt Lake native who also lived in San Francisco, Starley is one of just a few local community members with personal knowledge of the epidemic's beginnings in Salt Lake City. "I was in San Francisco when AIDS became an issue," he says. "I was living in one of the epicenters of what was happening in the gay community and a couple of my friends died while I was still there."  Already fully aware of the devastation wreaked by AIDS, Starley came back to Utah in late 1984, surprised to find that Salt Lake already had an AIDS service organization - two, in fact: the Salt Lake AIDS Foundation (SLAF) and AIDS Project Utah (APU). "For some reason I didn't think there would be AIDS in Salt Lake," he says, "or at least that anybody would be doing anything about it." AIDS Project Utah was a client-service organization, modeled after San Francisco's Shanti Project, while the slightly older Salt

  

  Patty Reagan

  Lake AIDS Foundation was created for community education.  "[The Salt Lake AIDS Foundation] had actually been set up by [University of Utah health professor] Patty Reagan," Starley says. Raising awareness about HIV that early in the epidemic was exceptionally difficult because of the relative rarity of a positive diagnosis and the shame associated with one. "When I got involved there had been 32 cases diagnosed in Utah, and some of the folks who had been diagnosed early were people from blood transfusions and hemophiliacs, so some of them were very quiet back when it was called GRID [gay-related immune deficiency]." Because most people died within 12 -18 months of diagnosis, Starley estimates that about 25 of those 32 diagnosed had already died when he became active in the movement. "Most people found out they were HIV positive when they became symptomatic, so you got the diagnosis that not only are you HIV positive, but you also have AIDS. And then, people would die within a few months." The Shanti model used by APU centered on a theme of emotional support, sometimes now called the "buddy system," where every APU client received personal, one-on-one assistance. "That was a big, important piece of providing direct support, volunteer-to-client," Starley says. "[Volunteers] had to go through a pretty intensive, full-weekend training - about 40 hours - to become a buddy." In addition to one-on-one support, APU offered support groups, an education hotline, and a speakers program for community groups. In the mid-80s, there was a huge stigma attached to AIDS and HIV. "I remember a lot of speaking engagements we would go on where the audiences were very hostile and didn't want to hear from us, didn't want to know anything," he says. "Tom and I - my friend Tom was diagnosed at the time - we did some speaking engagements out in Tooele, of all places, and in Wendover and Dugway and Grantsville, and people in the audience would actually say to him 'You should be quarantined. You should be put on Antelope Island and no one should come near you and there should be no services.' They had never seen or met someone with HIV and that's what we were talking about, reducing the fear, reducing the prejudice. That was, for a lot of people, their first face of AIDS." Community education was a major focus of APU's speaking engagements. Part of the HIV stigma came from ignorance about transmission; people were afraid of becoming HIV-positive from social contact. "The fear was rampant at the time that you could get it from a drinking fountain, from a cup . . . stupid," he says. "I would take this dog-and-pony show across the state and talk to welfare workers because people who were coming in and identifying themselves as having AIDS were being very mistreated. [Workers] would say, 'Here's a pen, sign the document,' and then they wouldn't touch the pen again or they'd say, 'Oh, you can keep the pen.'" While the population at-large was skittish when it came to AIDS, the gay community was supportive from the very beginning. "People understood what was going on, and they were fearful of it," Starley says. "This was the time of sort of a clone look, so you knew if somebody became sick because they started to look sick. There weren't a lot of treatments out there - AZT was about it." Starley also fought for support from an unlikely source: the Catholic Church. "Nobody knew because it was such a closeted issue, but one of the very first people to die of AIDS in Utah was a Catholic priest. I was really appalled that the Catholic Church wasn't really doing anything, [but] there were some very good nuns and priests helping with chaplaincy, and Holy Cross had really stepped up and was the only hospital where people with AIDS were welcome." But according to Starley, who was born Catholic, the leader of the Salt Lake Diocese, Bishop Weigand, wasn't doing anything, so Starley wrote the Bishop a letter. To Starley's surprise, Weigand wrote back. "He sort of said 'Put your money where your mouth is; come talk with us and tell us what we should be doing.'" Weigand ended up asking Starley to chair the first AIDS task force for the Roman Catholic Church in Utah. "I really appreciated his willingness to at least start a dialogue and to allow me, as an openly gay person, to challenge him on some issues," Starley says. "He was stuck in his own stuff in terms of being a Bishop and having to be Catholic. He couldn't talk about condoms and all that, but I have to credit him: I think he did a lot of good to open the doors for Catholics to understand what was going on with AIDS." Like most people working in the AIDS movement in the mid-80s, Starley's reasons for getting involved were personal: "We were in it without any choice because it just hit us. It was all about our friends dying and there was such an emotional involvement to the work; all of a sudden, I found several of my close friends diagnosed with AIDS. I felt like I really needed to do this." One of the first friends to become a casualty was Paul, another Salt Lake native still living in San Francisco after Starley had come home. "Paul, I guess, didn't know he was sick. One day he just disappeared and nobody knew where he was. Turns out he had gotten on a plane in San Francisco and flew to Salt Lake and ended up here at the airport totally incoherent, no idea who he was, where he was, why he was here. Something in him, I guess, was trying to take him home. They finally identified him, but he had a form of meningitis that immediately put him in the hospital. He died two days later. It was really difficult to just be told your friend is dead. I didn't even know he was sick; there was no time to even visit him. And so I still visit his grave. He's buried up in Eden, Utah, of all places. After living in San Francisco for the last 10 or 15 years of his life, to be buried up in that little cemetery is really kind of weird, but . . . that's where the rest of him is." Throughout high school, Starley had a group of friends who ended up coming out to each other when they were all 21. "We were late bloomers," Starley laughs. "We didn't even know there was such a thing as gay people, but we all sort of gravitated toward each other in school and then as we realized we were gay, we started going into Liberty Park, which was a big meeting place at the time, and to the bars, and found other folks." By the time AIDS arrived, there was "a good group of 8 or 10 really close friends that had been friends already for 10 or 15 years." Of that group, only one person besides Starley is still alive. Everybody else has died from AIDS. "We always used to joke that we were all going to grow older together," he says. "Well, we didn't. I'm growing old and they all died before they were 40." In a ten-year period from 1984-94, Starley not only lost many of his longtime friends, but also friends he made through his work at APU. "There were probably another 15 or 20 people who died that I used to go visit in the nursing homes and the hospitals. It was a very intense period for me because in retrospect, 20 years later, it seems like I thought if I could work harder, and if I did more, then my friends wouldn't die. This was my response to people literally dropping dead around me. There was a huge survivor's syndrome that I had for a long time. Maybe I still have it." With his twenty years experience fighting HIV and AIDS, Starley isn't surprised at the recent increase in HIV infection. "I think people get tired of precautions; it's the same old thing," he says. "And it's amazing to me that most people don't know anybody who's died from AIDS. I mean it just blows me away. There are a lot of young kids that are coming out who don't have any of this knowledge. They don't know, they've never experienced anybody dying from AIDS. And people who die from AIDS today don't really die in the same way. The end result is the same, but it's not here-one-day, gone-the-next, or a very rapid 30 or 60 day decline that's very visible and painful." "There's a part of me that still mourns the loss of all my friends, and there's a part of me that feels like this is still a crisis for the gay community. I'm surprised how much it is not seen that way anymore; so much of the news is not about AIDS, as if it's just a given now - we have to live with AIDS, it's just part of our community, but we don't really have to talk about it." Even though it can be difficult, Starley says it's nice to see people remembered. "There are not a lot of gay men my age left in the community and I really feel very alone a lot of times when I go out, if I venture into a meeting or a community gathering. There are lots of young people and some older guys in their 60s and 70s, but this whole 40-55 age group, a good chunk of us died." Starley also says that everybody - particularly every gay man - should know somebody who has AIDS. "It's really an identity issue; people lose connection to their history and all the suffering that went on.  AIDS was a big issue that sort of died away, but it was growing in other places when it didn't have all that media attention. It's going to come back, another wave that's going to hit us. It's not over."

Jeff Smith

1990-Sunday- Officers for the Salt Lake Gay Bowling League were elected. They were Jeff Friedman President, Jeff Smith, Vice-president, Secretaries (Vanity) David Nance and  (Bianca) Alex Cuevas, Treasurer Barry Prindiville. Teams- Regal Pigs, Team #2, Butchies, Strike It Bitch, Four Balls and Two Splits, The Bridge, UGRA, Just Missed It

1996-Psychologist Dr. Evelyn Hooker died. Her research provided some of the earliest evidence that homosexuality is not a psychological disease.

1998 Salt Lake City was featured in a national TV series on the Arts & Entertainment cable network. Salt Lake City's theme on the program will be the Mark Hofmann bombing murders and the killer's business relationship with the LDS Church. But investigators for the program interviewed members of the gay community, and others, to show a part of the city's subculture beneath its high-profile moral conservatism.

Jeff Freedman

2000 In 1992 by proclamation of Emperor XVII, Jeff Freedman, of The Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire, The Barony of Northern Utah was established. During the first year the Barony had approximately 20 members. Since then membership has grown to over 70. In the year 2000, The International Court Council gave approval to the Barony of Northern Utah to change to a Court. On November 18, 2000 at Barony Ball 8 / Coronation 1, The First Emperor and Empress was crowned and The Barony of Northern Utah changed its name to The Imperial Rainbow Court of Northern Utah. The Court System has spread far and wide. Emperors and Empresses can be found from San Diego to Anchorage, Honolulu to New York. The Court system remains an informal organization, so no exact membership can be tallied. However, over 65 cities have Emperors and Empresses elected yearly. In the same spirit and practice, the courts operate much like other organizations, such as the Masons and Elks. It is also similar to a theater group, providing a creative outlet to it's members. Talented individuals have the opportunity to design elaborate costumes, sets and musical numbers and then have a place to present them. A lot of networking and traveling takes place throughout the system, not only locally but from one city to another. The primary goals of the elected officials are to further relationships with organizations and businesses within our community, to hold functions and fundraisers for the enjoyment of the community, to raise money for charitable organizations, and to help those in the community who are in need of assistance. Each different elected Monarch sets his/her own standard and selects causes that he/she feels are important. The Courts are an effective fundraiser in the community at large. No one associated with the Courts personally receives monetary gain from the money raised at court functions. The money goes Directly back into the community.

• When most people think of the Imperial Rainbow Court of Northern Utah (IRCONU),

  

  Barony Ribbon

  the first thought that comes to mind are drag queens. And although most of the members who perform for fundraisers are drag queens… the organization is much more than a bunch of drag queens or a constant drag show. The tradition of the Court Systems in the gay communities of America started in 1965 in San Francisco when Jose Sarria began the International Imperial Court System. All courts receive

  

  IRCNC Crest

  their charters from the International Court, and there are many chapters in cities across the United States and Canada. In 1993 by proclamation of Emperor XVII, Jeff Freedman, of The Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire, The Barony of Northern Utah was established. During the first year, the Barony had approximately 20 members. Since then, membership has grown to over 70. In the year 2000, The International Court Council gave approval to the Barony of Northern Utah to change to a Court. On November 18, 2000, at Barony Ball 8 / Coronation 1, The First Emperor and Empress was crowned and The Barony of Northern Utah changed its name to The Imperial Rainbow Court of Northern Utah. The Court System has spread far and wide. Emperors and Empresses can be found from San Diego to Anchorage, Honolulu to New York. The Court system remains an informal organization, so no exact membership can be tallied. However, over 65 cities have Emperors and Empresses elected yearly. In the same spirit and practice, the courts operate much like other organizations, such as the Masons and Elks. It is also similar to a theater group, providing a creative outlet to its members. Talented individuals have the opportunity to design elaborate costumes, sets, and musical numbers and then have a place to present them. A lot of networking and traveling takes place throughout the system, not only locally but from one city to another. The primary goals of the elected officials are to further relationships with organizations and businesses within our community, to hold functions and fundraisers for the enjoyment of the community, to raise money for charitable organizations, and to help those in the community who are in need of assistance. Each different elected Monarch sets his/her own standard and selects causes that he/she feels are important. The Courts are an effective fundraiser in the community at large. No one associated with the Courts personally receives monetary gain from the money raised at court functions. The money goes directly back into the community.

Aaron Swenson

2005 Hedwig succeeds on local, transformative talent Review By Ellen Fagg The Salt Lake Tribune Long story short: Hedwig, that vainglorious East German transsexual rocker, has  tottered back into town on her 7-inch heels, and she's mesmerizing to watch. The character of Hedwig, as fully inhabited by the big pipes and transformative talent of local actor Aaron Swenson, is a force of entertainment who wills you to not look away as she strips herself before your eyes. Swenson is well matched by the gritty, loud energy of the Angry Inch band as well as Jeanette Puhich as Hedwig's surly partner, Yitzak, who pulls off his own transformation story as a born-again drag queen. But the story and the spotlight belongs to Hedwig, a pouty, raunchy, mincing drama queen. It's her over-the-top vanity that makes the particularity of her story - boy becomes scarred girl after a botched sex-change operation who is then betrayed by her born-again rock star boyfriend - seem universal. By now, the musical of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" has launched a mini-industry for regional actors whose voices can handle the rock score of songs like "Angry Inch" and "Wicked Little Town," and who have the oversized talent to make themselves over into queens of ambigious sexuality. John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was born in 1998 as a buzz-worthy, New York art-house musical, and then the 2002 hit movie. Swenson won critical acclaim when he created the character for Salt Lake audiences in Plan-B Theatre Company's smash-hit 2003 production. The plot's basically a monologue, told by Hedwig through stories and songs, about herself. She's a repulsively attractive narcissistic rock singer who, while on a tour stopover at the Rose Wagner Theater in Salt Lake City, recounts the complicated story of her transformation from an East German boy to a transgendered divorcee stuck in a Midwestern trailer park. Along the way, she has fallen in love with another changeling, Tommy Gnosis, who steals Hedwig's songs on his way to becoming a Delta Center-sized rock star. On opening night, more than a handful of audience members seemed pleased with their own punked-out attire, while everyone appeared well-primed for a raucous party, helped by the company's temporary license to serve beer. Yet too many audience members were prompted to take bathroom breaks during the performance, which proved distracting. There also were a few technical glitches to be worked out: hissing feedback of the sound system, as well as Swenson's lyrics and lines occasionally being swallowed by the band's loud accompaniment. But those are small distractions, in this spectacle of a play whose performers successfully - even subversively - use the energy of a rock score to expose the human drive to find one's other half. "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" WHERE: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. WHEN: Nov. 17; continues Thursdays through Sundays through Nov. 27. Curtain is 8 p.m. on weekdays; 3 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays; and 3 and 7 p.m. on Sundays. No performance on Thanksgiving. RUNNING TIME: 90-plus minutes, no intermission. TICKETS: $25, $20 for matinees, with discounts for students; 801- 355-ARTS BOTTOM LINE: Drag queen energy employs raunch to sell a universal story.

2005 HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH– Special performances recognizing Transgender Awareness Month! Special two for one tickets available for Transgender Awareness Month for the following performances: Friday Nov 18th 8pm, Saturday Nov 19th 3pm & 8pm, Sunday Nov 20th 3pm. Present a copy of this email/flyer at the Rose Wagner box office to get the two-for-one discount. This is a $25 savings! Must be redeemed in person—not valid online or over the phone.

2005 Fri & Saturday, GSA Summit – Youth Activities Center Two day Summit Come together with students from all over Utah to have fun, eat food, and discuss how to make your GSA the most excellent club at your high school. Community + Information = Fun and Empowerment!

2006 Saturday, November 18th Guest Speaker, Jamison Green Please join internationally

Jamison Green

respected transgender activist Jamison Green as he leads several sessions on empowering transgender communities. Building Trans Communities: A day with Jamison Green 10:00am to 1:00pm -- "Connecting across Divides." Learn about essential communication and networking tools for partnering with diverse groups within the transgender umbrella. Light refreshments will be provided. Location: Room 315, Council Chambers, City & County Building, 451 S. State Street *Please RSVP to teaofutahevents@... 2:30pm to 4:30pm -- "Effective Leadership." Discuss strategies for effective leadership on transgender issues within your local community. Light refreshments will be provided. Location: Room 315, Council Chambers, City & County Building, 451 S. State Street *Please RSVP to teaofutahevents@... 7:00pm to 9:00pm -- "Becoming Visible!" Join Jamison for a reading and Q&A of his book, "Becoming a Visible Man," followed by a reception with food, music, and meet-and-greet with the author. Sam Weller's Bookstore will be on hand with copies of the book for sale (get yours autographed!), and Seattle's "Coyote Grace" will provide entertainment. Open to everyone. Light refreshments will be provided. Location: Room 315, Council Chambers, City & County Building, 451 S. State Street *Please RSVP to teaofutahevents@...

2006 Hatred and bigotry are immoral, homosexuality is not Deen Chatterjee Salt Lake Tribune

Deen Chatterjee

Article Homosexuality has been used as a moral wedge to polarize the country for political gain. But is homosexuality really immoral? How does one decide on this issue? In condemning homosexuality as immoral on the basis of the Bible, the two categories of sin and morality get mixed up. This is problematic. To consider anything as sinful is a dogma. The concept of sin makes sense only in the context of a religious belief that others need not share. But to claim something as moral or immoral, one needs to give reasons that are not subjective or faith-based. So, one should leave scripture aside and see if one can independently make a case that homosexuality is immoral. Let us look at the arguments. People often claim that homosexuality is a high-risk lifestyle, which makes it morally unacceptable. But responsible homosexuality is as safe as responsible heterosexuality. In fact, the lesbian lifestyle is the safest of all sexual lifestyles. Another argument we hear is that if everybody were to practice homosexuality, then the human race would eventually die out. But the same argument would count against any practice or profession. For instance, if everybody were to practice medicine, the human race would eventually die out as there would be no farmers or home builders, among others. Perhaps the most common objection we hear against homosexuality is that it is unnatural, hence immoral. But it is hard to figure out what that statement really means. Surely it cannot mean that homosexuality is not to be found in nature, because it is obviously there, both among humans and animals. St. Augustine and later theologians, relying heavily on Aristotelian methodology in their pursuit of natural theology, have tried hard to make sense of the word "unnatural." They point out that hands are not meant for walking, so if one uses one's hands to walk when one has healthy, functioning legs, then that would be unnatural, hence a sort of perversion. Likewise, they claim that human sex organs are meant for the opposite sex so that procreation may be possible. If they are used amongst members of the same sex, then that is a moral perversion. But, following their own logic, why can't we say that sex organs are meant for pleasure as well, so there's nothing wrong or perverse in using them in any way for sexual and emotional gratification, provided it is done in a responsible and reciprocal manner? This brings us to the real substance of morality. Morality is about autonomy, responsibility and reciprocity. The religious gurus, with their morbid fear of sexuality and a pathological unease toward the body, have given us a misguided morality by putting undue emphasis on regulating sexuality. In the process, they have robbed morality of its substance by denying autonomy to women, homosexuals and any others who evoke fear in them. This is real perversion of morality. Whenever sin and morality get mixed up, as is obvious when theologians equivocate between natural law and God's law, there's this danger. Celebration of sexuality in a responsible manner, regardless of sexual orientation, is not perversion. But our culture of fear that denigrates anything that it considers different is a major roadblock to this celebration. Political manipulation of this fear is a major roadblock to our democracy. It is our moral duty to pass public judgments on immoral things like hatred, bigotry and discrimination. But what is morally neutral, such as sexuality, is nobody else's business. Cynical exploitation of dogma for political expediency has no place in public life. --- DEEN CHATTERJEE teaches philosophy at the University of Utah and is the editor-in-chief of the forthcoming, multi-volume "Encyclopedia of Global Justice." His publications include, most recently, "Democracy in a Global World: Human Rights and Political Participation in the 21st Century."

2009 Secret Gay/LDS Meetings Temple Tiptoe: Gay rights activists cautiously engage LDS

James Dabakis

Church officials. By Jesse Fruhwirth Salt Lake City Weekly Mormons and non-Mormons alike were taken by surprise when on Nov. 10, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially pledged support for two Salt Lake City nondiscrimination ordinances. This was after a year (post- California Proposition 8) in which gay-rights activists amplified their criticisms of the church’s stance on homosexuality. While

Brandi Balken

the City Council might have passed the ordinances absent the church’s support, some contend a series of secret meetings between the church and gay-rights advocates may have helped garner the church’s support of the new city regs. Until recently, no one in the gay community had been willing to discuss the meetings for fear of offending the church and ending the dialogue. Those fears linger, but details have trickled out. City Weekly has confirmed from multiple sources that in one set of meetings, businessman Jim Dabakis led the gay rights contingent made up of Equality Utah executive director

Stephanie Pappas

Brandie Balken, Equality Utah board chairwoman Stephanie Pappas, Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission member Jon Jepsen and Utah Pride Center executive director Valerie Larabee. That “Gang of Five,” as some members refer to themselves, met multiple times with representatives of the LDS

Jon Jepsen

Church public affairs department including Bill Evans and Michael Purdy, but no high officials. Former Salt Lake City Councilwoman Deeda Seed attended because she organized a kiss-in demonstration on Temple Square. She reached out to current Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton Christensen, who also attended and acted as an emissary to the church. When asked about the meetings after the Nov. 10 Salt Lake City Council decision, Dabakis admitted the secrecy of the meetings is important because he fears too much disclosure could end the “fragile

Valerie Larabee

friendship” between the Gang of Five and the church. He said it felt “horrendous” keeping the secrets but was doing it out of respect for the church. “It wasn’t really secret ... well, it kind of was,” Dabakis said. “I think when you are starting a friendship or starting a relationship ... you don’t go out and start blabbing about it.” Seed said the topics of discussion were delicate: The gay individuals discussed stories of discrimination while church representatives discussed how hurtful Temple Square protests are. Those types of emotional talks, Seed said, were shielded from the media, which could have misconstrued them. “Just think about it: Here they [LDS officials] are sitting down and talking with me and other folks, and I’m a person who organized a protest event in front of their church.” Multiple calls to the LDS Church seeking comment were not returned. Other gay-rights activists said protests against the church may resume. KRCL radio producer and activist Troy Williams, a gay former Mormon, said legendary gay-rights activist Cleve Jones called him to say, “Be gracious about this one moment.” While Williams expresses gratitude for the church’s support of the ordinances, he’s got his bullhorn ready if the church again runs afoul of the gay-rights movement. He believes the backlash the church has

Troy Williams

experienced since Prop. 8 prompted its support of the ordinances. That negative attention has included multiple protests, satirical plays like the The Passions of Sister Dottie S. Dixon, which Williams co-wrote, and even a segment on The Colbert Report that focused on City Weekly account manager Derek Jones and his partner, Matthew Aune, who were detained by church security for kissing on the Main Street Plaza. The forthcoming documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition will keep the negative pressure on by featuring sources that argue many anti-gay marriage groups are mere fronts for the LDS Church. Its debut is not scheduled. “[Salt Lake City councilman] J.T. Martin said, ‘The church didn’t blink,’ but they most definitely blinked,” Williams says. “Their endorsement was a direct response to the onslaught of negative press they’ve received over the last year.” Jacob Whipple, also a gay former Mormon, organized the state’s

Jacob Whipple

largest gay-rights march in history— around LDS Temple Square, no less— in November 2008. That protest was intended to shame the church for its support of the anti-gay-marriage amendment Proposition 8, which was approved by California voters. “There’re a lot of worries that this is a one-time deal with the LDS Church, [inspired by] social pressures and negative media impacts. The church is trying to get some good press and this is one way to do it,” Whipple said. Whether the church supports other measures—like state- and nationwide employment nondiscrimination laws— will show whether its support was a public relations stunt or a true change of heart, he said. Dabakis emphasized that the meetings with the Gang of Five in Salt Lake City were just one of “multiple meetings in multiple places.” Duane Jennings, a member of Utah’s chapter of Affirmation, a gay Mormon support group, confirms that other groups are in talks with the church. Affirmation was snubbed in August 2008 when the church canceled its meeting with them and did not reschedule immediately. However, Jennings says, Affirmation’s national leadership is now meeting with LDS Family 

Duane Jennings

Services. “During our national conference that was [in Salt Lake City] in September, the [Affirmation] leadership was here. In discussions, they mentioned they had had some dialogue happening with [LDS] Family Services. So, that has been taking place,” he said. Those meetings are also being held quietly, to please the church. “They will continue to be discreetly done as long as some kind of progress is made,” Jennings said. “[The LDS Church] has never been a big one to let other people know who they’re speaking with and on what subject, unless it becomes politically useful. They want to look like they’re defending their theology. One interpretation would be that there has been continual negotiation on theology.” Others believe private conversations in Mormon households have had more efficacy than public demonstrations. Equality Utah executive director Brandie Balken, who declined to speak about her involvement with the Gang of Five, said many Mormon families have LGBT members, and that prompts disparate, but important dialogue across the global Mormon realm. “It’s important to acknowledge that far beyond protests that occurred, beyond any press, I know there were private, earnest conversations that occurred in many, many homes,” she said. “You could frame that as pressure, but in some ways, there’s a much greater piece that is understanding.” Jennings agrees that individual church members have had a huge impact. He claims to have first-hand knowledge of hundreds of LDS members who have written the church or become inactive because of the church’s stance and actions on gay rights. Jennings said the LDS Church should come out of the closet in regard to talking with gay-rights activists because there’s nothing shameful about merely discussing social progress and reforms. “They [church leaders] want to pretend things are the same as ‘yesterday and today and forever,’” he said “[But] they forget God is the same ‘yesterday and today and forever,’ but the people on earth are continually progressing and improving.”

2009 The Mormon Kama Sutra Holiday Party Friday, Nov. 20 By Rob Tennant Salt Lake City Weekly Local thorns-in-the side Pat Bagley and Sister Dottie S. Dixon have teamed up for the recently updated The Mormon Kama Sutra. You can pick up a copy and have it signed tonight at Ken Sanders Rare Books. As the story goes, The Mormon Kama Sutra was first published in 1970 to aid newlyweds in the proper practice of calling spirit children from wherever it is spirit children come from. It worked for Sister Dottie, proud Mormon mother of a dear gay son and star of Salt Lake City stage (The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon) and KRCL community radio. She and her collaborator are merely earthly vessels bringing this heavenly knowledge to a new generation in the updated and illustrated 40th anniversary edition. Yes, illustrated. Bagley—nationally syndicated and award-winning editorial cartoonist for The Salt Lake Tribune—has lent his talents to depicting within-

Dottie S Dixon
aka Charles Frost

the-sanctity-of-one-man-and-one-woman marriage activities such as “The Laying On of Hands,” “Fast Sunday,” “Pulling the Handcart,” and even “LDS&M.” Don’t worry, your bishop is totally cool with all of this. Also included is a useful glossary of no-no words you don’t want your kids to find in your Google search history. It defines “Dry Hump” as “Arid Provo Hillock on which BYU singles housing is built”.  To give away any more would be a disservice. Head down to the signing, catch the slideshow, enter the raffle and buy a copy for yourself.  The Mormon Kama Sutra Holiday Party and Signing @ Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East, Friday, Nov. 20, 6–9 p.m.