December 7
1975 The Gay
Community Service
Center presented "A
Night With Julie Mark and Joan Balter at Sun Tavern.
 |
| Freda Smith |
1975 Rev. Candy Naisbett and Rev. Alice Jones were installed as
Lesbian Co-Pastors of Salt Lake's Metropolitan
Community Church,
after a weekend of praise with the Rev. Elder Freda Smith and the Rev. Elder
Richard Vincent officiating.
1976 VIRAL
OUTBREAKS HEALTH ISSUES pg. 7 Utah
Daily Chronicle A free Swine Flu Immunization Clinic Will be held Wednesday.
1979 -Comments made regarding a television documentary being made about a Gay man who worked for the University of Utah Hospital. " Personnel offered many job leads but all of them were
either a cut in pay or the staff who interviewed me had been informed I was gay
which slowed the process drastically. The X-Ray Department questioned if I
could be considered a risk to be left alone with the patients. Were these people being rational. Personnel
said I could not work directly with the patients again. Helen Kee and Kerma
Jones told me they knew about gays in other areas of employment in the hospital
but they were not appearing in this kind of documentary. The Administration did
not want negative publicity. Nobody asked what I was going to say or how it was
going to be handled. It entailed nothing derrogatory toward the hospital,
unless they considered my hours of service to them as such. [Memoirs of Donald
Attridge ]
1987- Lesbian and Gay Student Union’s topic was on Bisexuality
“They mostly talked in clinical terms and did not discuss the political
ramifications of bisexuality nor the emotional impact of a sliding scale of
sexuality. My only contribution was
saying that if society didn’t have such a problem with sexuality no one would
have created all these categories but our society is sexist and racist. No one
categorizes Black people as mulatto, Octoroon, or high yeller anymore because
no one cares as much about racial purity as in the racist days of slavery.
Someday no one will care whether we are Gay, bisexual or heterosexual. (Memoirs
of Ben Williams)
1988 APPALLED BY GROUP'S ACTIONS to the editor: I am appalled at
the publicity-seeking
 |
| Ben Barr |
actions of Families Alert. This organization is riding
high on their success in obtaining the dismissal of Ben Barr, who had been
employed by the State Board of Education to train teachers in the
state-mandated AIDS prevention curriculum. Mr. Barr is a native Utahn and
father whose expertise and excellence in the field of AIDS education are well
established in the community. Families Alert has no expertise or credentials in
AIDS education, but somehow was taken seriously enough in their role as
self-appointed moral guardians to the entire state, that an unsubstantiated
charge from them led to Mr. Barr's dismissal by the State Board of Education,
without due process. Utah
has not funded local efforts to prevent AIDS, nor to provide care and support
of those who have AIDS. This effort is supported by a handful of "unsung
heroes," Mr. Barr among them, who see the danger and are willing to live
in poverty in order to deal with this menace to life. I suppose there is a war
hero sort of charisma that attaches to the people in this field, which makes
the individuals involved a threat to the Families Alert sort of person. Perhaps
teachers and children will take Mr. Barr as a role model of selfless service,
which is certainly more obvious than his sexual preference. Families Alert's
ludicrous message of AIDS prevention to Utah's
sexually active teenagers is "Stop. If you don't, I feel sorry for you,
because you are going to die." I am a psychologist with years of
experience, and a parent. I have never met the teenager who changed behavior on
the basis of such a message. The state AIDS curriculum presents information
which enables teens to make informed choices about behavior, as they will
continue to need to do as adults. It has been commended by Surgeon General Koop
as an appropriate means of dealing with the public health problem of AIDS. The
real concern is that Utahns must speak up against terminations on the basis of
unsubstantiated charges. It is the actions of the State Board of Education that
threaten all of us; that is, that a legally constituted body can bypass due
process on hearsay evidence. I hope that responsible members of the community
will let the state government know that bowing to the unsubstantiated charges
of an irresponsible group of undeveloped moralists threatens us all. Because of
the nature of the charge by which Families Alert secured the termination of Mr.
Barr's services with the State Board of Education, I doubt that many Utahns
will risk speaking out. Sigrid
Peterson Psychologist
Salt Lake
City
.jpg) |
| Robert Austin |
1989 Robert Austin of the Salt Lake AIDS Foundation was elected
Chair of Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah. Chuck Whyte of the Royal Court was elected Vice Chair. Robert Smith of Unconditional Support was elected
Secretary.
1989 ARCHULETA'S CLOTHES WERE BLOODSTAINED ON MORNING
 |
| Gordon Church |
AFTER
SLAYING, WITNESSES SAY By Michael Morris, Staff Writer Testimony was to
continue Thursday in the capital-homicide trial of Michael Anthony Archuleta,
who was wearing blood-splattered pants the morning after the late-night murder
of Gordon Ray Church, witnesses testified Wednesday. Christie Worsfold
testified that Archuleta and Lance Conway Wood, who will be tried Feb. 20,
smelled of sweat, alcohol and blood when they showed up at her West Valley
City apartment the
morning of Nov. 22, 1988. She said Archuleta's pants were blood-stained and
that as the men entered her apartment, her cat and dog "almost attacked
his (Archuleta's) legs. They (Archuleta's pants) were rolled up, and they had a
lot of blood on them." Archuleta, 26, and Wood, 20, are charged in the
torture slaying of Church, 28. A day after the murder, Wood led law officers to
the victim's badly beaten body, which was covered with dirt and tree boughs
near I-15 in an area south of Fillmore known as Dog Valley.
Worsfold and Winston Jones, who manages Mountain View Condominiums in Murray, testified that the defendants said they had been
rabbit hunting and hitchhiked to the Salt
Lake area after their car
broke down. Shortly after the men arrived, Worsfold said, she drove them to
Jones' condominium complex, where Archuleta's brother lived. "He
(Archuleta) kept saying he wanted to get out of his bloody clothing,"
Jones said. "It seemed urgent to him to get out of his clothes."
Debra Wilson, a cashier at Deseret Industries at 4490 S.
Main, testified that Archuleta bought a pair of pants around 9:30
that morning. She, Worsfold and Jones testified that the defendant carried a
portable radio-stereo that witnesses said earlier came from the trunk of
Church's 1978 white Ford Thunderbird. Amos Archuleta, the defendant's father,
testified that his son and Wood came to his Salem home about 1 p.m. Nov. 22. Amos
Archuleta said the defendant left a wristwatch at the home, which witnesses
identified on Monday as belonging to the victim. Witnesses said the defendants
hitchhiked back to Cedar
City, after which Tony
Siech, a neighbor to Archuleta and Wood, said he and Wood went to a convenience
store at 11:30 p.m., where Wood called his parole officer, John Graff.
Following a conversation with Wood, Graff said, he took Wood to the Iron County
Utah State Correctional facility, and he and other officers arrested Archuleta
about 3 a.m. Nov. 23. Millard
County deputy sheriffs
testified that later that morning Wood took investigators to Church's body.
Deputy Robert Dekker, who said he knew the victim, didn't recognize Church's
face because of injuries to the victim's head. He said Church was naked from
the waste down and had been gagged, and tire chains were wrapped around his
neck. Deputy James Masner testified that he found several bone fragments in a
bloodstained area near where the body had been concealed.
 |
| Micaela Nelligan |
1990- A benefit for The Utah Stonewall Center called `Just for
Laughs' was held at the Art Barn
featuring comic Micaela Nelligan who had appeared in numerous local productions
including "Saturday's Voyeur" and "Standing on My Knees,"
at the Salt Lake Acting Company and "A Couple of White Chicks Sitting
Around Talking" and "A . . . My Name Is Alice," for Theatre
Works West. The event also featured an auction.
Auction items were donated by the Utah Opera Company, the Sundance Film
Festival, the Saliva Sisters and others. A $5 donation was requested. The
evening was sponsored by 30 local organizations that belong to the Gay and
Lesbian Community Council of Utah, including Affirmation, a support group for
gay Mormons, the Metropolitan Community Church,
the Utah Gay and Lesbian Historical Society and the
Good Time Bowling League.
1997 The Salt Lake Tribune Colonel Taps Utahns In Her Bid for
Congress By Shawn Foster
 |
| Margarethe Cammermeyer |
Margarethe Cammermeyer, the U.S. Army colonel who was
discharged because of her sexual orientation, is running for a U.S.
Congressional seat in Washington state. But do not call her the lesbian
candidate. "It just pushes my buttons," Cammermeyer said. "It's
convenient to become preoccupied with my sexuality. When they start referring
to my opponent as the heterosexual male candidate, then maybe you are comparing
apples and apples.” But Cammermeyer, who was in Utah
on Saturday for a campaign fund-raiser, is best known for her successful
challenge of the U.S.
policy toward lesbians and gays in the military. The mother of four sons said
she did not realize she was a lesbian until she was 46 -- less than a year
before the security-clearance interview that changed her life. Her 15-year
marriage ended in divorce in 1990.She was fired in 1992, three years after telling
an investigator that she was a lesbian. A federal judge ordered her reinstated
in 1994. Decorated for service in Vietnam, Cammermeyer recently
retired as chief nurse of the Washington Army National Guard. The Utah event is Cammermeyer's first fund-raiser outside Washington. With a few
exceptions, the Beehive state is not a regular stop for the nation's
politicos.New York Gov. George Pataki picked up abut $10,000 at a Salt Lake City breakfast
in November -- one stop in a multistate fund-raising swing that looked like a
presidential primary warm-up. Cammermeyer's take was more modest. She collected
more than $1,000.The estimate is based on attendance of 50 people -- with a
minimum donation of $20 -- people paid $250 for a private gathering before the
reception. She was in Utah,
Cammermeyer said, because she has friends here. And she knows she has a long
way to go to match the war chest of her opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Jack
Metcalf. "I need to raise more than a million dollars," Cammermeyer
said. "And people here were willing to contribute." Cammermeyer has
other Utah
connections, too. Her brother, Tom Cammermeyer, lives in Park
City where he runs the Norwegian School of Nature Life. And her former
husband, a Mormon convert, raised their sons in The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Cammermeyer's oldest son also has lived in Utah. In Washington,
Cammermeyer campaigned for Initiative 677, the gay-rights measure that was
voted down in Washington
this month. But equal rights for gays is only one of Cammermeyer's many
 |
| David Nelson |
campaign issues. The list includes affordable health care, protection of the
environment and a redefined global role for the American military. "There
is no `gay vote' in my district," Cammermeyer said. "There are certainly
people who are supportive of equal rights, but the community is a broad
cross-section." Cammermeyer may not be the candidate for the gay and
lesbian community, but the organizer of the Saturday reception is longtime Utah gay activist David
Nelson, who proudly proclaimed in a press release the candidacy of an
"openly lesbian Democrat."
1998 Page: D3 .Without Its Clubs, East High Becoming A Social Wasteland
Ban doesn't slow evolution of gay support groupByline: BY KRISTEN MOULTON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nearly three years after the school board axed
extracurricular clubs to get rid of a gay student support group, the target of
the ban is thriving. And East
High School, where the
Gay-Straight Alliance unsettled state legislators and grabbed national
headlines, is hurting. ``It's been a disaster,'' said Scott Nelson, a social
studies and history teacher. ``There's more to education than just the
curriculum. . . .There's a certain
social element.'' The controversy began
in 1995 with a student's request to form a support group for gay teens, the
Gay-Straight Alliance. The deeply conservative state Legislature quickly lined
up against the idea. On the other side
were civil libertarians and hundreds of high school students --
only a few of them gay -- who rallied and marched on the statehouse to
save their extracurricular clubs. But their efforts proved fruitless. Federal law prohibits public schools from
discriminating against nonacademic clubs that are based on unpopular ideas,
like homosexuality. So rather than stomach the
Gay-Straight Alliance at East High, the Salt Lake School Board in
February 1996 banished all clubs not linked to the curriculum in this
conservative city's four high schools. Sacrificed were dozens of clubs, including
those focused on racial awareness, the Crazy E pep club, Young Republicans and
Democrats, Students Against Drunk Driving and even those for kids fascinated
with beef steak, Bart Simpson and UFOs.
Since then, school spirit has evaporated, students don't socialize as
much, and class and racial rifts are deeper than ever, say students and
teachers at East High. ``People don't care about school anymore,'' said
cheerleader Chris Trindel. The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) survived because it
had the help of the politically savvy Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network
(GLSN). Now, the alliance meets as a community group paying $6 an hour to rent
an East High classroom one afternoon a week. In an overture to mend fences, the
district even pays the group's insurance premium. The alliance can't use the
school's public address system or hand out fliers about meetings, but it can
meet under sponsorship of the GLSN. The Key Club, a civic-service group
sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, is the only other former extracurricular club
now renting space to meet at East High. Other banned clubs died for lack of
adult volunteers and the money to pay rent and insurance premiums. The allowed
groups-- science, math, language clubs, athletic, debate and drama teams --
attract mostly white, college-bound students. Others either don't share the
academic and athletic interests or feel unwelcome. And unfortunately, those
hurt the most are students whose after-school links to the
 |
| Camille Lee |
school are tenuous,
said science teacher Camille Lee. Clubs like Polynesian Pride and the Aztec Club
for Latinos used to be a big part of ethnic students' school lives. ``Now
they're part of nothing,'' Lee said. ``A
lot of the education in this school has been lost,'' she said. ``The kids get
the message that it's OK to discriminate.''
Ivy Fox, an alliance member and instigator of a petition campaign that
failed to persuade the school board to reconsider the ban this fall, said clubs
used to be a way for loners to make friends. ``You see a lot of students
roaming through the halls alone. They have nobody to sit with at lunch,'' said
Fox, one of three GSA members with a federal lawsuit pending against the
district. Senior Andrew Perkins said he's bitter over lost opportunities. He
had hoped to get clubs going for Democrats, environmentalists, even sword
fighters. ``It ruined a lot of things I wanted to do in high school,'' said
Perkins, who did get a Computer Club accepted this fall as a curricular club.
Many seniors worry that colleges will snub them in favor of more rounded
students from other high schools. ``The
books all say colleges look at your GPA, your SAT [score] and your
extracurricular activities,'' said senior Ann Lynch. ``It's hard to fill out
that last category on your own.'' The
president of the school board, Karen Derrick, said she would have liked to
reconsider the club ban, which was enacted before the State Board of Education
wrote a policy to guide school districts.
She was voted down in October, though, in part because board members
wanted to wait until the lawsuit is resolved. ``That was the board decision for
now and the `for now' is an important part of that statement.'' By then, the only students who remember what
it was like to have extracurricular clubs at Salt Lake's
high schools -- the seniors
-- likely will have graduated.
Says Lee, the science teacher: ``The students in general don't know what
they're missing anymore.''
- Lessons
of Reason by Ben Fulton [undated] The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Teachers
Network sets out to end homophobia in Utah schools. A science teacher, Camille Lee first
started her career working for the Jordan School District. It was while
teaching junior high classes that she went through the pain and harassment
of being a teacher who is also a lesbian.
During those six years, students disappeared from her classes:
parents didn’t want their children around her. Huge reservoirs of
homophobic comments were yelled at her by students when she walked the
halls. They were difficult years. Then she had the opportunity to teach at
East High School. "When I got
the job, my number one goal was to stay isolated, to go to my room, to
leave, to not have anybody on the faculty know me. Really, just to be
completely invisible," she says. With her first year at East High
under her belt, Lee had accomplished just that. The issue of her identity
never surfaced. Then, during her
second year at the school she was approached by students from the now
(in)famous Gay-Straight Alliance who wanted her to be a faculty sponsor
for the group. "At that point I absolutely panicked because I had
tried so hard not to get involved in any gay-lesbian issues at all. Well,
that changed drastically last year."
Slowly, her life made a reversal of sorts. This time, Lee found
that the more "out" she became the safer she felt. "This is
the safest I’ve felt in my entire teaching career," she says with a
slight smile. During his first years at Skyline High School, debate
teacher Clayton Vetter took the same beginning approach Lee used at East
High. Avoid answering certain questions. Avoid even having a personal
life. What prompted him to come out
to his school was a recurring phrase he heard from students: "I don’t
know any gay people."
"Well, of course you do. You know me!" Vetter wanted to
respond. It seemed absurd that he,
an educator, felt compelled not to mention who he really was. Education
involves talking about certain issues. It’s by avoiding discussion that
you scare, he reasoned. And coming out was in keeping with another value
he held, one of honesty. "I felt that I had to step forward for the
public good and say, ‘I’ve got to be allowed to talk about these things.’
Come and listen if you’re worried about what we’re going to say, but you
don’t teach in a place where you can’t talk about things." It was in
late February that Vetter went public at a press conference held at the
state capitol. After a couple of crank calls to his house, he’s enjoyed a
life of honesty. "The fact that people don’t know who I am, and that
the story faded away, should tell you how uncontroversial it was," he
says. "If there had been a riot, I’d still be on the news." Not
all stories end calmly, that is, if they’ve begun at all. "I’m glad
an organization like this exists. Now, if something happens, they have
something to fall back on, just like myself," says a man in his
mid-40s who teaches in the Salt Lake City district. "Still, the
reason I’m doing this anonymously is that I have fear, great fear."
Despite the endless mantra from Utah Eagle Forum head Gayle Ruzicka and
others that young gays and lesbians were continually being
"recruited" by adult gays and lesbians, the new emergence of the
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Teachers Network (GLSTN) seems to prove just the
opposite. It is the younger, just out, gay or lesbian high school student
who has unknowingly passed the torch to gay and lesbian adults who work
and teach in schools. "When the gay club brouhaha started we knew our
path was forged for us," says
 |
| Doug Wortham |
Rowland-Hall St. Mark’s French teacher
and now GLSTN co-chair, Doug Wortham.
Credit too, says Wortham, the incendiary anti-gay rhetoric of
Utah’s legislators, particularly the words of Sen. Craig Taylor, who
grouped homosexuals en masse as child molesters. "Craig Taylor, I
would say, is kind of one of our authors," says Wortham. "When
you hear things that are blatantly untrue and inflammatory you have to
believe it’s calculated. It has to come from a calculated viewpoint, or
out of incredible stupidity. Those are the only two excuses for the kinds
of comments he made. And I’m hard-pressed to believe he is truly that
stupid, so I’m forced to believe that he is truly that mean." But the
formation of GLSTN coalesced out of more than just a knee-jerk response to
a handful of diatribes, its members say. The need for GLSTN, they say, is
as great as homophobia in Utah is widespread. Their mission is nothing
less than to try and end homophobia in the school system within one
generation. Their membership (the Utah chapter has a mailing list of 55)
extends beyond gays and lesbians, and even school teachers, reaching out
to anyone willing to dedicate time, talent and energy toward eradicating
one of the last bastion’s of societal prejudice. "Anything we can do
to help facilitate lives that are full of compassion, reason and
understanding; I’m firmly committed to bringing that about," says
Scott Richard Nelson, a special education instructor at East High School
and past faculty monitor for the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. He counts
himself among GLSTN’s sizable heterosexual membership. "For
heterosexuals to fear homosexuals and for homosexuals to fear
heterosexuals--it’s not right, it’s not good and it needs to stop."
But teachers’ issues, such as job security, are only half the challenge.
While it’s true that only nine states (California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii and New Jersey) protect gays
and lesbians from job discrimination, and that sexual orientation has yet
to be added into the lexicon of federal civil rights language (Congress,
in fact, only recently rejected a bill that would have done just that), it
is young gay and lesbian students who experience prejudice in more covert,
even violent ways. When the first GLSTN chapter formed in Boston six years
ago, then branched out into major cities like Los Angeles and Chicago,
calls came mostly from teachers. That’s a percentage that’s slowly
changing as more students in need of help phone the organization’s New
York City headquarters. "What we’re doing right now is barely keeping
up with all the calls we get from people in need of help and
support," says John Speer, GLSTN director of field services and
former high school English teacher in upstate New York. "It’s not as
if we swoop into states like Utah or Arizona and start a chapter. These
things happen because people call us. Just today we’ve gotten calls from
people in Alaska, Puerto Rico, Missouri and Arkansas." If gay and
lesbian teachers worry about finding a pink slip in their faculty mailbox,
gay and lesbian students worry about their safety. "Homophobia affects
teachers, but teachers have more protections," says David Buckel,
staff attorney for Lambda Legal in New York City. "Groups like GLSTN
mean that more young people might be able to get through their school
years without a lot of physical and verbal abuse." The right for gay
and lesbian students to be free from harassment and intimidation is an
issue courts are currently drawing parameters around. One of the most
well-known cases involves Ashland, Wis., high school student Jamie
Nabozny, who was taunted, beaten and treated to a mock rape by fellow
students. Nabozny went to his school principal to report the incident, but
was told that he could expect that kind of treatment if he was going to be
gay. Nabozny sued on the basis that he was denied equal protection because
of his sexual orientation. After losing his case in Madison’s federal
district court, he appealed and, with help from Lambda Legal, won a ruling
in his favor this July in the United States Court of Appeals, Seventh
Circuit. It was the first time a school had been held responsible for
failing to address the abuse of a gay student by classmates. The ruling
could affect courts nationwide. But if courts are a last resort, how can a
safe, unintimidating environment for gay and lesbian students and teachers
be brought about before someone calls an attorney? That’s a road for GLSTN
and its supporters to navigate. And if the Utah Legislature’s past
response to Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools is any indication, it
won’t be an easy one. "A goal of mine is that maybe five or six years
down the road an organization like this one would not need to exist,"
says Nelson of East High. "That’s pipe dreaming, I’m sure, but it
would be nice." At the very least there is stable ground upon which they
can build. Among educators and education administrators, attitudes toward
gay and lesbian teachers range from respectful to indifferent. "I’ve
never encountered any problems or issues concerning gay or lesbian
teachers," says Dale Manning, assistant superintendent of personnel
for the Salt Lake City School District. "We interview and hire people
based on their ability to teach." Ditto, says East High School
Principal Kay Petersen, who’s never dealt with one complaint concerning a
homosexual teacher after administrating at several schools. "I don’t
know of a school that doesn’t have a gay or lesbian teacher. But then, how
do I know? I don’t care. To me what matters is that they’re good at
teaching." Lest anyone forget, though, it is the Utah Legislature
that holds the purse strings to each and every school district. And school
districts are bound by laws hammered out on capitol hill. If your local
legislator isn’t ready to tackle the issue of ending homophobia in
schools, then neither is your school district. Ending homophobia, some
legislators would most certainly argue, is tantamount to endorsing
homosexuality. No wonder GLSTN members contacted attorneys almost the very
day they formed. "We are very aware of the attacks on teachers’ First
Amendment rights, so we weren’t surprised to hear from them [GLSTN],"
says ACLU staff attorney Jensie Anderson. "It’s a matter of waiting
and seeing. Certainly our hope would be that this group would act to end
the intolerance we’ve been seeing." And intolerance isn’t going to
move out of the way so easily. A force almost certain to clash with
GLSTN’s emergence is the revised version of Sen. Craig Taylor’s House Bill
246--Senate Bill 1003. It is this bill, passed during a special
legislative session this March, which banned student Gay-Straight
Alliances from meeting in public schools. It also prohibits teachers from
supporting or encouraging "criminal" conduct.In Utah, calling
yourself a homosexual is not illegal. Homosexual activity, however, most
certainly is: Arm Utah police with flashlights and private bedroom keys
and the state’s prison population would fill to overflowing. So while
teachers may admit they are gay or lesbian, they must never admit that
they practice the lifestyle. And they must never encourage homosexual
behavior, which is a crime under state law. "If any teacher admits to
homosexual behavior in a classroom environment then there’s nothing anyone
can do [to help them]," says Utah Education Association attorney
Michael McCoy. But, he points out, in one sense the same standard applies
to heterosexual teachers who commit crimes of a sexual nature.
Specifically, adultery. "I know of a straight teacher who was fired
after he let it be known that he was sexually active with a number of
women in the community," McCoy says. "And frankly, heterosexual
teachers ought not be encouraging sexual activity, either." Of
course, encouraging homosexual behavior in schools is nowhere to be found
on GLSTN’s agenda. Gay and lesbian teachers want to be judged by the same
criteria as other teachers, but with the same respect their heterosexual
colleagues are afforded. "The only thing that really matters is that
I’m a good teacher," says Lee of East High. But just as most
legislators viewed the East High Gay-Straight Alliance as a Trojan Horse for
homosexual activity (rather than a support group), they are likely to see
GLSTN in the same light. So how
will GLSTN work toward a safe environment in schools for gays and
lesbians, without stepping on legislators’ toes? In large part, by being
out and proud. "Once someone--even the conservatively, devoutly
religious--knows a gay or lesbian person or the parent of a gay or
lesbian, the prejudices start to break down," says Charlene Orchard
of the Utah Human Rights Coalition, a group that, along with GLSTN, is
hosting a screening of the documentary film, It’s Elementary: Talking
About Gay Issues in School. "It’s when people don’t think they even
know gay or lesbian people in their life that misconceptions arise."
And one link GLSTN considers extremely important is official ties with the
Utah Education Association, the most visible and powerful group of
educators in the state. Most immediately, GLSTN would like to see a UEA
resolution passed that would protect all Utah teachers and students from
discrimination based on sexual orientation. GLSTN co-chairs Camille Lee of
East High and Doug Wortham of Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s would also like to
be able to conduct workshops on ending homophobia in schools during annual
UEA conference weekends. These are wishes that will be filled over time
and with patience, however. Sensitive to moving too fast on these issues,
the UEA has expressed a certain amount of reservation, according to Lee.
But at least UEA is willing to open a dialogue, and GLSTN will have a
booth at this week’s UEA conference. "Even if it takes years for us
to line up with them [UEA] they’ll be our strongest ally," says
Wortham. There are other ways homophobia can be brought down in schools
beyond teachers coming out and UEA conferences, but they can be among the
most risky. This involves discussion of homosexual themes, if they
represent a legitimate part of the curriculum. A math, physics or
chemistry teacher has little or no opportunity for this. But when an
English or humanities teacher discusses Shakespeare’s sonnets, the
philosophy of Socrates or the art of Leonardo da Vinci, the subject could
arise as a pertinent part of class discussion. The same could happen in
other subjects. "Interesting questions will center around the
teaching of history, psychology and sociology," says UEA attorney
McCoy. "For example, what role did Alexander the Great’s bisexuality
play in his drive to conquer the world?" No one has a crystal ball.
But the earliest indicator shows that Utah’s lawmakers aren’t interested
in knowing, hearing or seeing anything about GLSTN’s aims. Not that it
comes as any surprise, of course. At a private screening of It’s
Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School for Utah legislators and
school board members last week, only a handful of people showed up. Among
them was Rep. Jordan Tanner of Provo, one of the few Republicans who voted
against the Senate Bill prohibiting Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in public
schools. It was a vote for which he took considerable heat, and he’s
already been mildly confronted by colleagues for attending the film.
"I don’t think this is the time at which school districts, nor
parents in Utah, are either interested or willing to have gay or lesbian
issues discussed in schools," he says. Then again, the unexpected can
happen. After all, who would have guessed that a Republican legislator
from Provo would have voted down a ban on Gay-Straight Alliances in public
schools? Salt Lake City School Board president Mary Jo Rasmussen, who
voted with the minority in favor of Gay-Straight Alliances, also knows
what it’s like to move in directions opposite of public opinion. Soon
after her vote early this year she received several phone calls maligning
her as a "faggot lover." "It sounds optimistic," she
says of GLSTN. "But it’s really hard to say how successful they’re
going to be." Hopeful yet
realistic, creative yet pragmatic, members of the Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Teachers Network seem to know this best of all. "We know
that this could easily turn out to be a 10- or 20-year plan," says
Wortham.
2003 Sex arrests still high profile
in Fresno Officers' approach is opposite of the method used
 |
| Ox Bow Park |
in S.L. By Derek
Jensen Deseret Morning News Published: Sunday, Dec. 7, 2003 Cruising arrests
may be low-profile in Salt Lake City, but they're major news in Fresno County,
Calif. The Fresno County Sheriff's Office likes it that way. "Then it just
doesn't become the dirty little secret and nobody knows what's going on,"
Fresno County Sheriff's Sgt. Rick Ko said. The idea in both Fresno and Salt
Lake City is to stop the problem. The approaches are near opposites. Salt Lake
police and prosecutors offer therapy and anonymity for men arrested for
cruising. Authorities in Fresno County arrest offenders at their homes or
businesses and often share the information with local news media. The
involvement of the media puts the problem out in the open and makes everyone
aware that men who engage in lewd behavior in public restrooms will be arrested
and prosecuted. "I hate for it to get confused with social issues because
we're just investigating crimes," Ko said. "I think that Salt Lake
City's counseling program is great, but for our team I'm not going to hide
these arrests and try to minimize the exposure for these people. That's not my
job. My job is to stop the activity, and the court decides on what the
punishment is." Here's how Fresno authorities handle the problem. When
undercover officers observe lewd behavior in a public restroom, they don't
immediately arrest the individual but instead watch to see which car the person
leaves in. They then run the car's license plate number to pull up the
vehicle's registered owner. If the person's photo in the vehicle database
matches, police submit a warrant with the courts for an arrest. If the photo
does not match the offender, police perform a minor traffic stop on the car to
obtain the necessary information to find the person at a later date and arrest
him. Police then write a warrant that provides for a judicial review before
police can make an arrest. "A judge is reviewing the case and saying,
'Yes, there is probable cause.' That's a lot higher standard," Ko said.
Police later designate an arrest day in which three detectives show up at the
offenders' homes or offices. "They do not kick in a door, throw the person
on the ground and handcuff them, it's not one of those spectacles you
see," Ko said. The men are then sent through the court system — just like
any other person charged with a crime. "When a gang member shoots somebody
in Salt Lake City, do they shield someone that same way, even if he had a
messed-up life?" Ko said. "I just think it's an equality issue. If
you're going to do it for one, do it for all of them." Part of the reason
for Fresno's approach may lie in the fact that local attorneys often sling allegations
that police are targeting gay men. "We bend over backwards not to target a
class of people, but by providing special treatment you're acknowledging that
you're doing this against a certain group of people," Ko said. "One
guy is carving out a living. What he's trying to show is that we target gay
males. That's not correct. We are looking for lewd acts in public that violate
the law." In contrast, a recent arrest of a man for exposing himself in a
park bathroom to an undercover Salt Lake officer went like this. After leading
the pudgy, middle-age man from the bathroom without handcuffs, they took him to
a nearby unmarked vehicle where he was issued a citation. The officers checked
for any outstanding warrants. During the process, the West Valley City man sat
in the front seat biting his nails. After asking for the man's home and office
telephone numbers, the officer told him, "We do not call your employer, we
do not call your home." "OK, I appreciate that," the man
replied. After confirming the man did not have any outstanding warrants,
officers explained that there was a program he could enroll in with the
prosecutor's permission. "I'm going home," the man told the officers.
"I wished I'd have done that and not stopped here tonight." As he was
exiting the vehicle, the man told the officers, "Thank you, gentlemen,
you've all been very courteous tonight."
- 2003 Kindness is curbing gay
cruising S.L. police report progress with a therapeutic approach By Derek
Jensen Deseret Morning News They're not so hard to find if you know what you're
looking for. Go to any number of parks or public restrooms, and you'll find a
subculture of men who aren't always what they seem. Many are married with
children, some are leaders within their churches and some, like former state
Rep. Brent Parker, are leaders in the community. Behind their clean-cut,
family-man facades, however, lies a complex inner conflict that pushes these
men to seek out anonymous sexual encounters with other men in public
places."It's a problem that cuts right through the middle of
 |
| Kyle Jones |
society," said Salt Lake Police Lt. Kyle Jones, who oversees the city vice
squad that is responsible for arresting these men when they have sex in public.
Such encounters, which are typically referred to as cruising, are not a new
social phenomenon even in relatively conservative Salt Lake City. "Park
cruising is as old as time itself," said Don Steward, co-chairman of Salt Lake City's
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) Liaison Committee. "It's
not something that's happened overnight." Historically, the practice has
also pitted a largely homophobic police force against the gay community. This
chasm led to misconceptions on both sides law-enforcement agencies were too
often lumping such
 |
Donald steward, Mike Picardi &
Stewart Williams |
men into categories with some of society's worst sexual
predators, and the cruisers believed police unleashed a sweeping dragnet into
one of the few places many felt comfortable expressing their attractions to
men. And despite constant arrests, the long-held stereotypes on both sides did
little to solve the problem. "We've been writing citations and citing
these people for years and had no impact," Jones said. A new approach That
started to change about three years ago. Frustrated by the number of men
engaging in sex at Oxbow Park, a coalition of police, prosecutors, gay
community leaders, government officials, therapists and public health officials
met to discuss the problem. "It became clear that we had been shooting
 |
| David Ferguson |
ourselves in the foot," said David Ferguson, program director for the Utah
AIDS Foundation.Out of that initial groundbreaking discussion was born the GLBT
Liaison Committee. The committee eventually developed a kinder, gentler
approach to dealing with the problem. Instead of throwing men into jail for
having sex in public places, offenders were allowed to participate in a therapy
program called Healthy Self Expressions. The therapy is designed to help the
men deal with their conflicting self-image in a healthier and legal way. "You absolutely have to deal with it
in a humanistic way to address the real problem," Salt Lake City
prosecutor Sim Gill said. "Look, people hook up. It's not against the law
to meet somebody that's
 |
| Sim Gill |
a human need. It crosses the line when there is a
public behavior in a public place." To enter the program, cruisers must
first take responsibility for their crime by pleading guilty to the charge
against them, typically a class B misdemeanor. The plea is then held in
abeyance until the participant finishes the program and successfully completes
his probation without further violations. During the program's two-year
existence, 144 men have completed the program. Only four have reoffended.
Currently, 48 men are enrolled. “You respect somebody, you get these kind of
results," Gill said. "You humiliate someone, you end up getting the
kind of results you did under the old model." The new approach, however,
hasn't been without opposition. "I got a lot of nasty phone calls from
people saying, 'You're going after your own,' said Paula Wolfe, director of
Salt Lake City's Gay and Lesbian Community Center. "There was a lot of
mistrust about what this whole program was really about," agreed Ferguson.
"We really had to do a lot of sensitivity training on all sides. It took a
long time, and we're still not there
yet." A life-shattering arrest Therapist Jerry Buie, who is openly gay,
counsels men arrested by Salt Lake police and referred to the Healthy Self
Expressions program. His patient breakdown represents a cross-section of Utah
men. About 40 percent are married, he estimated. The average length of those
marriages is 23 to 24 years. More than 75 percent identify themselves as
members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His oldest client
was 89 years old, his youngest was 20. Less than 1 percent of the men Buie
treats have had substance-abuse problems. "Most of these guys have
absolutely nothing on their record," he said. For many men, their arrests break open a
secret compartment of their lives they have worked to keep hidden from wives,
children and the community. "We're talking about a class B misdemeanor
being a life-altering crime," Jones said. Parker declined to be
interviewed for this story, but his experience highlights the drastic impact
such an arrest can have. After learning the Deseret Morning News was printing a
story about his arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover male police
officer, Parker abruptly walked off the House of Representatives floor in the
middle of the 2003 legislative session and submitted his
handwritten resignation to House Speaker Marty Stephens. "(Cruisers)
 |
| Michael Mitchell |
don't identify as gay,"
said Michael Mitchell, who is executive director of the state's gay/lesbian
political action committee Unity Utah. "It's a part of their lives they
cut completely off, and just to throw them in jail does a great disservice to
not only them but their families." Living a lie -John, who asked that his
last name not be printed, led a double life before separating from his wife in
1988 and living openly as a gay man. Before coming out of the closet, John
appeared to be a typical Utah man. He was born a sixth-generation member of the
LDS Church, served a proselyting mission and was married with four children.
But under that shell, John, now 57, said he'd struggled with an attraction to
men since age 3 or 4. "I was just fascinated by the male body," he
recalled. He married his wife in September 1968 but struggled in private for
two more decades with his ongoing attraction to men. "I only knew two
people who were gay, and I was not like them, so I figured, 'I'm not gay,'
" he said. John's struggle to identify with openly gay men is typical of
many males his age, experts say. Most of
Buie's clients are middle-age men. Cruising among men in their 20s and younger
is much less common now, he said. Buie and others in the gay community say that
may be indicative of society's increased acceptance of homosexuality. John and
other males his age grew up in an era when being openly gay
 |
| Jerry Buie |
wasn't widely
accepted. "Many of these older men
didn't have permission to deal with sexuality as juveniles," Buie said.
John's first sexual encounter with another man came in April 1971. He was fresh
out of the military and had a job reading gas meters in Salt Lake City. After
finishing his job early one day, John strolled into a magazine shop. "You could tell there was a group of
guys there looking at the magazines and getting excited, and I found that quite
exciting myself," he said. After
John left the shop about 20 minutes later, one of the men in the group followed
him up the block. "We ended up having an experience," John said,
recalling the ensuing guilt. "I didn't want to do it, yet the attraction was still there," he said.
"It helped to perpetuate the secrecy and the isolation of that part of my
life." Before ending his marriage and active participation in the LDS
Church, John had served as ward executive secretary for three different
bishops, Elder's Quorum president and counselor in an Elder's Quorum
presidency. Despite his sexual forays, he continued attending the temple, a
place that allows only upstanding members who are following all of the church's
standards and commandments including shunning any homosexual relationships.
"You're waiting for that tap on the shoulder to invite you out," John
said. John's double life continued until 1988. His son had just left on an LDS
mission. John went to a Salt Lake gym, met another man and went to a park with
him. His wife was suspicious when he got home 1 1/2 hours after the gym had
closed. She eventually confronted him, and the two separated in October of that
year. Their divorce was final by the following April. Breaking the law- A few
years later in 1993, John was arrested for cruising in Sugarhouse Park. He has
been arrested twice since then, most recently in March, when he engaged in a
sex act in front of an undercover Salt Lake City vice officer in the steam room
of a local gym. In the 10 years spanning his three arrests, John has noticed a
subtle change in the way the justice system treats park cruisers. "Back
then, you were basically a child molester and more into pedophilia than just
someone who enjoyed sex with the same gender," he said.' During his court
appearance following his 1993 arrest, John recalled the judge taking particular
delight in demeaning and humiliating him. The judge read the charges out loud
in front of a crowded courtroom filled mostly with people who were appearing on
traffic violations, John said. After the verbal berating, the judge fined John
$500, placed him on six months probation and ordered him to be tested for
sexually transmitted diseases. "It was very embarrassing extremely
embarrassing," John said. "It seemed like the whole focus of it all
was to embarrass you and make a spectacle." The public flogging, however,
did little to keep John from cruising. He was arrested on the same charge three
years ago in Alexandria, Va. Following the arrest, John says he was treated
much the same way by Virginia law enforcement. After moving back to Utah more
than a year ago, John continued cruising at local gyms until his arrest in
March. John said he did notice a
definite difference when he appeared in court on the charges. The judge allowed
John to waive a formal reading of the charges, sparing him the repeated
humiliation of being labeled in front of a courtroom full of people. John said
the court's treatment of him after his latest arrest was "one of the
better experiences for me." "There was a more civil way of treating
me," John said. "It's a more human way of dealing with this. I think
they're learning that cruising is not just about the sex." So what is it
about? Why some men, many of whom don't openly identify themselves as gay, cruise
is complex. To say that cruising is only about sex would a be gross
generalization, say those familiar with the practice. There are varied levels
of cruising some of which are more about meeting other men who can relate to
the inner turmoil over one's sexuality. Sex isn't always the inevitable
conclusion. In fact, some men who go to well-known cruising spots simply sit in
their cars without speaking or engaging in sex with other men. The need for an
emotional bond drives many of them. "Really, what cruising is all about,
yeah, the sex is there, but it's more to make a connection," John said.
"Especially here in Utah. You can't go to priesthood meeting and talk
about your personal problems, where you can meet somebody at the park and just
talk about the frustration you're feeling. It's not necessarily the sex, it's
being able to talk to someone else who knows where you're at." Perhaps to
a certain degree, men cruise public bathrooms for the same reasons teenagers
used to spend their summer nights driving up and down State Street. "I
think what starts out with a social aspect of 'how do I get connected' becomes
sexualized very quickly," Buie said. Police and public health officials
worry about cruising's effect on health and public safety. Police and prosecutors
express concern over the possibility that a child playing at a park could walk
into a public restroom and witness a sexual encounter between two men. During a
recent operation at a Salt Lake park, vice officers arrested eight men in the
space of three hours for engaging in lewd acts in a public restroom. Less than
100 yards from one of the restrooms, two groups of children were playing
football and soccer. Besides being illegal, having unprotected sex leaves
cruisers susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases, a cause of great concern
for Ferguson's Utah AIDS Foundation. The new focus on addressing the reasons
for cruising has helped address that health concern, Ferguson said. "We
were going and saying you need to wear a condom," Ferguson said. "They
didn't care about that. . . . Until we had conversations with guys that were
cruising, we didn't understand that." Sexually transmitted diseases aside,
cruising can be risky in other ways. "You play a cat-and-mouse game, and
it's a dangerous game," John said, recalling the time he met a man who
appeared to be making sexual advances toward him at a local gym. John
approached the man and was assaulted. "He put a half or full nelson on me.
I passed out," John recalled. "He was standing over by the door ranting
and raving homophobic rants and saying, 'If you ever do anything like that
again, I'll break your (expletive) neck.' " Desexualizing conduct Buie's
counseling sessions aim to desexualize the desired connections of men like
John. Buie avoids dictating what kind of lifestyle his clients should lead.
Whatever their choice, the point is to teach men that sexual rendezvous in
public restrooms are physically and mentally unhealthy ways of dealing with
their same-sex attractions. "I try to put in perspective that, for
whatever reason, homosexuality gets defined as purely a sexual thing,"
Buie said. "Socially, that's where the emphasis is. What I try to do is,
if you will, desexualize what it means to be gay. What I ask people . . . is
'What are your values? What is your sense of who you are?' " For John,
that has meant becoming an openly gay man. He hasn't cruised since his arrest
in March and now fills his days with work and numerous outside activities. When
he does face the urge to cruise again, John goes through a mental checklist
using the acronym HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired). "All of those
things were things that I'd misinterpret as I needed a fix," John said.
"I learned to do more introspective thinking. If I satisfied all those
needs, then generally that drive to go to the park would subside. However, if
the feeling for the need was still there, then the theory was it's still OK to
go to the park to cruise, but take it somewhere else, take it home."
2004 Permission to date Salt Lake Tribune The gay and
lesbian students of Copper Hills High School are justifiably upset about being
required to have a signed parental permission slip before being allowed to
attend a dance with their same-sex partners. The school says it is because they
cannot guarantee the students' safety. Does the school require
interracial-dating students to get permission slips? Do they require blue-eyed
Aryans who date brown-eyed Hispanics to obtain permission slips? Seems to me
the ones who need parental permission slips should be the thugs who would
harass these young men and women. Darrell Johnson Salt Lake City
2005 This Wednesday, Dec 7, we have our Gay-Straight Alliance meeting at UVSC. We will be tying quilts,
while watching movies. If you have any particular movies in mind please request
them. We will meet in the Student
Center at 5pm at UVSC
where the love sacks and wide screen tv are located. All quilts will be donated
to the Sub-for-Santa program. Bring snacks! Hope to see you all there!
Kent
2005 Posted by Ben Williams on
Gay Community Forum Subject: Adoption-Heard on NPR that the LDS Church had been
honored in the Adoption Hall of Fame for its work as a private institution in
the arena of adoption. It went on to say that Utah
because of the LDS church was the most adoption friendly state in America. What a
bunch of bull shit. Tell that to Gay couples who want to adopt the countless
foster children in state custody who are basically unadoptable because they
aren't young and cuddly. What are our Gay lawmakers doing to rectify this? I am
not naive to believe democrats can get anything done in Utah but we should at least be the moral
compass for Social Justice! Ben Williams -
- Posted by James Hicks Re:
[gay_forum_utah] Adoption Ben, It's
interesting that you bring up this subject.
Three years ago I called the LDS Adoption Agency and was told that I
must be a member of the LDS church and have a valid Temple Recommend
before I could adopt a child through their agency. Being the inquisitive person I am, I asked
them if the President of the United
States wanted to adopt a child from the LDS
Adoption Agency would he be able to do so?
I was told that if he had a valid Temple
Recommend and was a member of the LDS Church
then yes, he could otherwise no. I can't
believe that the LDS
Church is able to
restrict and enforce their own adoption laws based on someones religious
affiliation. How is this possible, is anyone else aware of this situation?
James Hicks
 |
| Scott McCoy |
2005 Killed by courts, some laws live on in the Utah code By Rebecca Walsh The Salt Lake Tribune For three years, state legislators just didn't get around to repealing it. Salt Lake City Democratic Sen. Scott McCoy plans to draft a bill to remedy that during the 2006 Legislature. The libel law isn't the only unconstitutional or unenforceable statute in the state code book. Five laws restricting abortion, the state's sodomy and fornication statutes, a law prohibiting "abuse" of the American flag and a statute declaring Internet religious ordinations invalid also languish untouched. Similar laws in other states, or the Utah statutes themselves, all have been declared unconstitutional by a state or federal court. Most of the time, it doesn't matter. County prosecutors usually know better than to file a charge of fornication. But deputy sheriffs and police officers rely on the state code to determine whether to write a ticket. And the code doesn't note which parts are unconstitutional and which aren't. So charges of sodomy and flag desecration and criminal libel periodically re-emerge. Most have to be dropped. "Every time that happens, it grinds on me," said Salt Lake District Attorney David Yocom, who eventually dropped a flag desecration charge against a Salt Lake County man who burned a smiley face into the Stars and Stripes to protest the judicial system. "They ought to have a special day at the Legislature where they repeal unconstitutional and unenforced laws. It would be a very busy day," said Yocom. McCoy is chipping off just one arcane law. Utah's criminal libel statute dates back to statehood and is based on someone defaming another in writing "maliciously or with ill will or spite." But it lacks the standards set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964 that require prosecutors to prove "actual malice" and provide that the truth is an "absolute defense." McCoy plans to repeal the libel statute entirely and add the court's defamation standards to Utah's 30-year-old criminal defamation statute. "I want to take the deadwood out," McCoy said. "And at the least, I want to make sure that our criminal defamation statute has the standard that complies with the U.S. Supreme Court decision." David Lake, Ian's father, is glad McCoy is cleaning house. But his feelings about his son's landmark case are mixed. "We spent a lot of money fighting that. I wish we hadn't had to," Lake said. "Ian's case should never have gone to a criminal court." South Salt Lake Democratic Sen. Gene Davis also has requested a bill to repeal the state's ban on Internet ordinations. Ordinations by fax, telephone or in person are allowed. Few other lawmakers are rushing to clear out the tangle of meaningless laws. Legislators are well aware of the problem. But many are reluctant to act. Some of the laws, like the libel statute, are not particularly sensitive. Others, like the abortion statutes, sodomy law and ban on fornication are sacrosanct: codified statements of collective morality. They will never be enforced. At the same time, their chances of repeal are virtually non-existent. In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff filed a friend of the court brief supporting the Texas sodomy law. Such laws have "significant pedagogical value," Shurtleff said in the brief. "Laws teach people what they should and should not do, based upon the experience of their elders." Shurtleff acknowledged Utah prosecutors were unlikely to charge anyone with sodomy. Still, a few errant charges manage to slip through. And last year, an 18-year-old Tooele High School baseball player was charged with sodomy in a sex-abuse case involving girls and five other team members. Washington County prosecutors charged six players with sexual exploitation of a minor. American Civil Liberties Union of Utah Director Dani Eyer said Utahns - including law enforcement officers - are at a disadvantage with unenforceable statutes still on the books. "It just doesn't give adequate notice to the public," Eyer said. Utah Senate President John Valentine backs McCoy's effort to streamline the state code. In previous years, Valentine has sponsored "revisors statutes" to clean out technical errors. In some cases, lawmakers want the lawsuits to wind their way to the nation's top court for a "final determination." Some legislators believe Utah's statutes are just different enough to withstand legal challenge. But Valentine acknowledges some of the unenforced laws are simply untouchable. He personally is squeamish about anyone making a political statement using the flag. "Even if it's allowed under the Constitution, I have a hard time being objective on that one," Valentine said. Civil rights attorney Brian Barnard, who represents two men charged with flag desecration and another challenging Utah's sodomy statute, believes lawmakers want to keep the unenforceable laws on the books to label and shame those who step out of line. Prosecutors, police officers and sheriff's deputies are left to distinguish between which parts of Utah's code can be enforced and which are a waste of their time. "It would be very helpful if they took those that are not being enforced off the books," Yocom said. "But there are some that, obviously, they won't touch with a 20-foot pole."
2005 Posted by Ben Williams on
Utah Gay Forum subject Sodomy and Friends- Utah Lawmakers keep Sodomy laws on
the books just to show homosexuals have repugnant they are to them. It’s like
keeping Jim Crow Laws and McCoy and Bikupski should be in the fore front of
repeal them. It will bring out the venom in the snakes that run this state for
sure.
- Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:06 pm posted by Mike
Picardi Re: Sodomy Friends I am amazed by this site...Now we have a
place where we can tear each other apart and do it where we can all have a
piece of the carcass. Has anyone asked Jackie or Scott if they have any plans
for this year?? Is it necessary???? Maybe Scott is waiting until he has a
little more time and experience under his belt. Maybe we should leave a
sleeping dog lie...Lets pick a fight we can win..... Mike Picardi
- Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:33 pm posted by Ben
Williams Re: Sodomy Friends Anyone can express an opinion on this
site. No one has to agree with it. However let's get back to the rules
that state postings should be "I feel" instead of "you
are" messages. However there
will be no censorship of anyone on this site. If you are not interested in
a person's perspective because they are bellicose then simply delete that
person’s email. What's the old adage "principles over
personalities"? No one is going to listen to any one if they feel
they are being attacked- I feel however that strongly held views are not
"tearing apart" anything. The exchanging of views is healthy
especially to those who feel they have "ownership" of any
organization just because they happen to be in any given position at any
given time. Board members today are ex board members tomorrow. Ask an 18
year who was Paula Wolfe? The GLCCU was a knock down ruckus at times but
it was democracy at its finest. I remember once when Greg Garcia Master of
the Wasatch Leathermen Club, looked at me once, appalled, and said
"My Gawd we have become the establishment!" I laughed my butt
off. Only that status quo abhors criticism. Maybe we all should lighten
up. After all we are GAY! That's my opinion and I value each and every one
of yours. Ben Williams
- Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:00 pm Mike Picardi
Re: [gay_forum_utah] Re: Sodomy Friends Your posts were not approved because our
Executive Committee voted to ban any of your posts from our sites due to
their inflammatory nature. I am wondering why there are certain individuals
who criticize our community, yet are never published in any of the dailies
confronting the majority leadership in this state. Many of us who are in
the positions we are (some even being elected) continue to work with the
opposition to try and improve the life of the GLBT Communities, while
others only see the need to complain about our community's leadership.
And, yes, I do speak with the Trib and Deseret News reporters and ask them
many questions about the far right and the information they are receiving.
We have a meeting every year with the editorial boards of both dailies to
discuss and explain our legislative intent. I believe that resurrecting
this sodomy bill would do nothing other than give the right wing ie.
Rusicka and Buttars another avenue by which they could attack our
community. (they are flying high on the Amendment 3 victory) Anyone among
us who would try and force a repeal of this bill is out of the political
loop and out of touch with the reality of the make-up of the State legislature.
If the Supreme Court ruling is not good enough for our community, it will
certainly not be good enough for the right. And it is strange that when
new leadership does try and work for progress, passed leaders give no
support what so ever. Ask an 18 year old who Ben Barr, David Tometz, or
Kathy Worthington are. Just because the younger generation is not familiar
with past GLBT leaders, does not mean these people were ineffective. And
to continue to go off on our only two elected out officials smacks of
jealously and envy. Have they been contacted by anyone directly other than
me? Do any other of the people who have started this stream contact any
elected officials? Is there any dialog between them and our
representatives? To sit on the sidelines and then claim what the
"voters" of Utah want without contacting or trying to
communicate with the people in question, looks like sour grapes to me. Our
continued equal rights are no laughing matter, and should not be dismissed
with รค chuckle". To those of us who are on the front lines every day
working to better all of our lives, this is serious business and we see
who the real enemy is, and it not each other. Mike Picardi
- Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:21 am Posted by Mike
Picardi Re: [gay_forum_utah] Re: Sodomy Friends I will choose not to reply..for the
simple reason that I will "probably wind up bashing someone". I
see from your response that any and all responses to your posts will be
spun by you as "bashing". I have learned long ago that you will
not be silenced. It takes two to have an argument. So I'm done, I've heard
this music before.... Mike Picardi
2007 1982–2007 - OUR 25TH SEASON! Join us at our 25th Holiday
Concert — Christmas
 |
| Marlin Criddle |
Soup in both Salt lake City
and Park City. This event is free to the public
with a food donation. Performances at a glance Holiday
Concert Christmas Soup Friday, Dec. 7, 7:30pm Saturday, Dec. 8, 7:30pm First
Baptist Church 777 S 1300 East SLC Holiday Concert Christmas Soup Sunday, Dec.
9, 5pm St Luke's Episcopal Church 4595 N Silver Springs Dr Park City. “As you
may or may not know, I sing in the Salt Lake Men's Choir. We are giving our
annual holiday concert on three nights and at two locations this coming
weekend. Please check out the attachment for times and places, Our program will
be a mixture of traditional and popular music of the season. There is no
charge. All we ask is that you bring food for the Utah AIDS Foundation Food
Bank and the Utah Food Bank. You will have a good time”-. Marlin Criddle
2007 Queer Spirit and The Center are proudly co sponsoring Fellow
Travelers: Liberation Portraits by Queer Author Mark Thompson, Author of Gay
Soul, Gay Spirit, Gay Body as well as other groundbreaking queer works will be
at Cup of Joe's Coffee located at 353 West 200 South, Salt Lake City. The
exhibit will be displayed December 1-31, 2007. Mark Thompson will be present
for an Opening Gala on December 7, 2007 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. to comment on his
collection as well as sign books and meet the public. You and friends are
invited to come and view this amazing collection of gay pioneer portraits as
well as attend the Opening Gala on December 7, 2007 from 7 to 9 p.m. Additional
information on this exhibit and the relevance to Queer life can be located at
www.queerspirit. org Click on the poster for Fellow Travelers at the website
and you will find interviews and a short video clip regarding this show and
Mark Thompson.
2012 Utah
Pride Responds to Today's Unveiling of New LDS Microsite Dedicated to “Mormons
and Gays” Salt Lake City, UT: Today, the LDS Church launched a new website
dedicated to providing myriad resources for LDS individuals and families as a
vehicle to help enhance understanding and support for the LGBTQ people in their
lives in the context of their religious and cultural values. In a statement
Valerie Larabee, Executive Director of the Utah Pride Center, said "In
light of the tragic suicide of yet another young person in our very own city
late last week, I applaud any institution, religious or otherwise, for
increasing the availability of potentially lifesaving resources to bridge the
gap in human understanding, respect and acceptance of differences. She further
explained, "Having a resource whose purpose is to help Mormon families and
leadership recognize the ways they can reduce the isolation and rejection often
felt by LGBTQ or questioning Mormons is a huge step in the right direction.
" "It is my hope that our Utah LGBTQ community will embrace the fact
that saving lives may be the greatest gift of this new resource for LDS members.
Giving LGBTQ and questioning Mormons hope through knowing that their families
and church leaders are committed to reducing judgment, rejection and isolation.
It's clear from this website that LDS doctrine will not change, however, those
Mormons who are LGBTQ or questioning may enjoy a higher quality of life and
more loving relationship with their friends, families and faith." This new
and official LDS Church website is yet another resource Utah Pride can provide
for Mormons who reach out for support. Until now, Utah Pride has depended
largely on the resources of Dr. Caitlin Ryan, Director of the Family Acceptance
Project at San Francisco State University, as a way to help religious families
navigate these often uncharted and difficult conversations. Central to Dr.
Ryan's research is the premise that families can negotiate these difficult
conversations and stay together. Dr. Ryan's research has shown that family
rejecting and family accepting behaviors are linked with both serious health
and mental health problems and the well being of youth as they transition
toward adulthood. Utah Pride is very interested in taking thoughtful and
constructive commentary on the new LDS Microsite. Please take a moment and
email us. We will not share your email or any other identifying information.
Your thoughts are very important to us, please share.
2018 Prince
and Princess Royale 43 of the Royal Court, Job Nubbs and Aria Star of the Golden Spike Empire raised $11,900 to give away checks to People With AIDS as Christmas Gifts
2018 We are excited to announce the
first formal meeting for what will become a coalition of all of the state of
Utah’s pride organizations took place this past month. All six pride organizations
across the state were represented: Ogden Pride, Utah Pride, Logan Pride, Provo
Pride, Pride of Southern Utah, and Moab Pride. We look forward to working with
all of them to build a more unified, supportive, and active community.
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