This Day In Gay Utah History January 31st

January 31

1729-In Prussia a baker named Ephraim Ostermann was sentenced to death after confessing to fellating another man, Martin Kohler. Kohler died soon after, and his death was attributed to unnatural loss of semen.

Mae West's Drag cast being arrested

1927-The Drag, Mae West's play about gay men, opened in Bridgeport Connecticut. West said she wrote the play to call attention to the great problem of homosexuality ans called a "comedy-dramas of life".After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York. However, The Drag never opened on Broadway due to the Society for the Prevention of Vice vows to ban it if West attempted to stage it. West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, but stated she was not a feminist. She was also a supporter of gay rights. A gay cabaret at PAUL & JOE's inspired West to write "The Drag." She hired some of their drag queens to play themselves. Even though this was against EQUITY'S rules. During the 1920s, homosexuals were restricted to non-speaking roles in the chorus because they were banned from joining the union.

Derek Jarman

1942-Derek Jarman (1942-1994), Gay film director was born. During the 1980s Jarman was still one of the few openly gay public figures in Britain and so was a leading campaigner against "anti-gay" legislation and to raise awareness of AIDS.

1968 Six pornographic films, used to convict Larry Mitchell who was charged with showing obscene films in a Salt Lake Tavern, were stolen from the evidence room

1970 Salt Lake Police Chief Dewey J. Fillis resigns  (01/30/1970 SLTribune B-1)Dewey joined the Salt Lake Police Department in July of 1947 and served in nearly every division. The last 15 years of his career were spent in administration as Captain, Assistant Chief and Chief of Police

1975-A resolution was passed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science condemning discrimination against Gays, saying that discrimination robs society of their contributions and is unjust.

1977-Monday The Boise Seven:  Seven women were fired from the Boise, Idaho Police Department by Chief John Church for “activities relating to crimes against nature” The chief feared that the women might be Lesbians which department claimed was damaging to police morale. The seven female police officers were fired after the police department tapped a phone the officers were told was for personal calls. "The police department collected 3,000 feet of illegal wiretap tape. The firings engendered protests and petition drives from Idaho and Utah's gay communities, one of the first instances of open gay activism in Idaho.Bars in Utah helped raise money for much of their lawsuit. The women fought  back with suit in federal court and sued the police department for $16 million. The district judge called the police department's actions "an abysmal operation." He ordered the department to pay the seven women the full $16 million, saying "I cannot imagine a city of Boise's size lowering itself to such shenanigans in the 1970's. 

1977 Monday- Utah Daily Chronicle pg. 2 After 135 million dollars and 3 months of immunizing American citizens, health officials are saying there may not be an epidemic. “It looks like less and less likely that the swine flu will breakout this year.” After two soldiers at Fort Dix Army base contracted Guillian Barre Syndrome in October 1976 the United States Congress authorized a nationwide immunization program after health officials warned of a world wide Swine Flu Viral epidemic.  While no cases of swine flu were ever reported in Utah, there were 11 confirmed cases of Gullian Barre Syndrome in Utah.

1978- The U of U Chronicle printed as their front page a letter entitled “Mormon and Gay…One Man’s Tale of Bloody Knuckles” edited by Jeff Howrey. The Bloody Knuckles reference was to Spencer W. Kimball’s Miracle of Forgiveness. Mormon and Gay “...One man's tale of bloody knuckles' edited by Jeff Howrey, associate editor Utah Chronicle  The pseudonym LML stands for Let Me Live, but Donald Attridge was the real author. " To those who say that (homosexuality ) is incurable, I respond: How can you say the door cannot be opened until your knuckles are bloody, till your head is bruised, till your muscles are sore? It can be done. " Mormon Church President Spencer Kimball It has been a tough life of " bloody knuckles " for L.M.L. His years of agonized vigilance waiting for " the door " to open have been in vain. Instead, his lonely wait has resulted only in the realization that there will never be a place for him within the Church he loves. L.M.L.'s story is a personal one. So much so, in fact, that it would be unfair - perhaps even impossible - to try to tell it for him. Thus, in the following letter addressed to his " Brothers and Sisters, " L.M.L. relates his own tale in his own words. L.M.L.'s story is also a very emotional experience, passions undoubtedly color one's recollection and interpretations of events. In fairness to those who play a part in his story - particularly Mormon Church officials- it probably merits mentioning that their interpretations of the events L.M.L. relates would probably not completely correspond with his. But as far as the events themselves are concerned, the Chronicle has yet to be presented with any evidence that they did not occur as he relates them... Editor's note: The letter written by the young male homosexual " L.M.L." which is the focus of the story on this page was referred to The Chronicle Associate Editor Jeff Howrey by a friend who is an employee of a local radio station. That station refused to broadcast the letter because, according to the employee," Our owner is very L.D.S. and wouldn't let it on the air...for fear of the controversy sure to follow." We subsequently discovered that that radio station was not the only local media outlet which had shied away from using the letter. As it turned out, " L.M.L. " had approached almost every newspaper in the state, including the Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune, Provo Herald, Ogden Standard-Examiner and the Daily Universe, ( the Brigham Young University daily student newspaper.). But none would print it. And that, in light of the letter's undeniable relevance to the social and cultural climate of this state, perplexes us at the Chronicle.  While it is impossible, of course, to speculate confidently as to the reasons the papers cited above had for not printing the young man's story, we can only hope that the motive was not the same as that of the radio station's owner. Because “fear of controversy “by itself can never serve as an acceptable reason for restraining information or ideas from entering the free-flowing stream of news which the press supposedly provides for this country.

• Dear Brother and Sisters: I have been counseled to knock at the door leading out of homosexuality until my knuckles are bloody. I have had 10 years of intermittent psychotherapy, aversion shock therapy , fasting, praying, marriage, fatherhood, spiritual experiences, extreme activity in the Mormon Church and in its Temple. I now wash the blood from my hands, anoint them, wrap them, and wait for them to heal. As soon as the scars have receded, my hands will once again be whole from the palsied, masochistic beating I gave them at the Master's door. I retreat from my self-destruction. Knocking quietly now, I pray he who has ears, let him hear. This account centers on events which happened a decade ago while I was a student at Brigham Young University ( B.Y.U.) and the vicious act I committed against my fellow men. My soul begs forgiveness for that act... But first I should probably tell you a bit about my life before B.Y.U. ( the editor wrote this line only ) Conversion to the Church was like a ray of light to me. Fatherless as an infant and as a young man, burdened by my mother's intimacy, the abounding light of conversion soon dimmed as I came to understand that my homosexuality was diametrically opposed to The Plan. But somehow God tolerated my condition as He led me through a full time Mormon mission during which we converted several dozen souls to His Church.  I loved the feeling of being useful to the missionary effort of the Church--I thought of myself as a talented human being who, incidentally, had a sexual preference for men. While on my mission I confided to a few others that I was gay. Consequently, upon completion of my mission, I was instructed to meet with Church President Kimball. At our meeting, he let me tell my whole story and then told me that I was too good for that kind of behavior and added that I didn't look like a homosexual. He then gave me an intimate, beautiful, loving blessing and counseled me not to be taught by Satan and become in his power of force. I wept.  Not tears of joy but sorrow because no one understood my situation. And despite all of President Kimball's good intentions and help, I was attracted to men, not women, and I knew I would have to force myself to live a heterosexual life. I did not look forward to the life of hypocrisy which it seemed the role would demand of me. Shortly thereafter I entered B.Y.U. and made gay acquaintances who subsequently made me aware of the paranoia homosexuals at that institution were by necessity forced to live with. I desperately needed friends, but the gays there were so afraid and paranoid that establishing friendships proved to be virtually impossible.  As a result, I was more alone than ever... I felt as though I would be forced to remain alone for the rest of my earth life--unfeeling, unsharing, and with no one to share the intimacy of life. Shortly thereafter I had a sexual experience with a 19 year old student who was mutually attracted to me. But he subsequently felt compelled to speak to his Bishop about it and I was soon expelled from B.Y.U. and then I was asked to officially withdraw, but not before my Bishop examined me as some sort of curious specimen and President Kimball met with me and pleaded for the names of other homosexuals I knew of at B.Y.U. so he could help them. The kind of help I assumed he meant was some sort of apostolic counseling, perhaps therapy for the whole group of us so we could get to the truth of the matter and maybe I could even come to understand my burden in life. But when I supplied the list of names, no such help came. No counseling resulted. No Bishops' concern.  Nothing.  Nothing, that is, except the hell that broke loose in the lives of those I had revealed. Hell such as excommunications, degrees denied, careers interrupted or even ruined, and lives ended. Conspicuously, I was not excommunicated. Ironically, one other thing that happened after I gave President Kimball the list of names was that he loaned me $ 30.00 to help ease the financial burden of being out of school and out of work. Soon, thereafter, the most severe period of mental depression I've ever known engulfed me. As I walked the wet, slushy streets of Salt Lake City with no place to sleep or eat, I realized that the Church was giving me the decree of punishment Moses uttered: death.  I did not sleep. I still do not sleep because of my agony over the lives of those former B.Y.U. students I selfishly interrupted. I wonder if they have forgiven me. And I still live in the paranoia of their possible retaliation.... Years passed, I married, fathered children and as President Kimball had counseled me to, I became extremely active in the Church program of " too busy to sin. " During these years I have had many spiritual experiences in the Temple and in my private chambers yet I have never been convinced to not be who I am...  I love my wife but I am not her lover... I need my family, we depend on each other, and my children need me. I am a good father, but I need to love and be loved both biologically and emotionally in the way my heart and hormones lead me.  I have never felt conscious desire for women, yet out of love and respect I gave. I can force this no longer. I wish that I could sit down within the bounds of the Church and talk with other gay members of my ward without fearing excommunication... I wish the Brethren would call a solemn assembly for us, an assembly so intense and spiritual that we would come to know what the Lord meant to our lives... I believe such a solemn assembly could be kept within the bounds of propriety and perhaps because of it a few lives could be save. Who in the Church can I trust now? Who can I talk to without fear of spiritual annihilation? The punishment I would receive for being honest would undoubtedly be excommunication. If salvation and exaltation are so important to the Lord's Church, why doesn't the Church open a door to us...instead of slapping our bloody knuckles? I have no choice now.   am forced to live in hypocrisy.  I do not fit into the Plan-- I am lost for eternity to live with murderers in the telestial kingdom.  However, I am not prompted to self-destruction, but to build on my own from what is left in this world. I will raise my children with understanding and communication and treat my wife with honesty and care. I want to become all that I am capable of becoming despite the discomfort to Zion. This life is certainly no Shangri-La, but I do have certain peace now with the spirit inside this body of mine which I've never known before.  I want to walk with dignity, the kind of dignity I was born with...the right of any human being to live.   --L.M.L. ( Let Me Live )

1980 Utah revised its psychopathic offender law, removing the possibility of consensual sodomy from being a triggering offense. Laws of Utah 1980, page 110, ch. 15, enacted Jan. 31, 1980, effective July 1, 1980

1988 Sunday Dr. John Reeves, Ph.D., Chris Brown President of LGSU, Dave Malmstrom Director of Wasatch Affirmation, and Ben Williams Director of Unconditional Support met with Garth Chamberlain, Tim Wansee, and Bryce the primary organizers of the new Youth Group. Concerns about certain legalities of forming such a group were expressed. It was felt by LGSU, Affirmation, and US that the Youth Group needed an adult advisor in the group from the non Gay community such as a parent, a pastor, or a psychologist.  John Reeves contacted Dr. Michael Elliott who agreed to be one of the sponsors.  It was felt the Youth Group needed a Statement of Purpose and a neutral meeting place other than someone’s home. The Youth Group representatives agreed to these suggestions and to the changing of the age limit down from 23 years to 21 years. The heads of Unconditional Support, Wasatch Affirmation, and LGSU then agreed to support the Youth Group and to send them referrals. “At 6 p.m. Dr. John Reeves, Ph.D., Chris Brown President of LGSU, Dave Malmstrom Director of Wasatch Affirmation, and myself Director of Unconditional Support met with Garth Chamberlain, Tim, and Bryce the primary organizers of the new Youth Group. We listed our concerns about certain legalities of forming such a group and expressed how we felt the need of an adult advisor in the group from the non Gay community such as a parent, a pastor, or a psychologist.  John Reeves said that he had called Dr. Michael Elliott and he would be happy to be one of the sponsors.  We also felt the need of a Statement of Purpose from the group and a neutral meeting place other than someone’s home. The Youth Group representatives agreed to these suggestions and to the changing of the age limit down from 23 years to 21 years. The heads of Unconditional Support, Wasatch Affirmation, and LGSU then agreed to support the Youth Group and to send them referrals. I said I would meet  with them again this Friday. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]

1988- Wasatch Affirmation held The Gong Show: A night of comedy entertainment. Sponsored by Neil Hoyt. “I went to Wasatch Affirmation tonight because I wanted to see Neil Hoyt, the cute kid who I heard was the new activity director. When I got there a talent show was going on with the Love Birds performing. They were a hoot. After the show, I visited with Dave Malmstrom who said he was glad I came. I said that he’s bringing a good feeling back to the group.  After the meeting at Affirmation I sat and talked with David Sharpton. He wanted me to meet with this Allan Gundry from the LDS Social Services who is suppose to be trying to open a dialogue between the LDS Church and Gay people. I said I would but only if Chris Brown, President of the Lesbian and Gay Student Union, and Dave Malmstrom, Director Affirmation, were invited too. David Sharpton is really jumping into things. He's not so bad once you get to know him. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]

1988-Rocky [Connell] O’Donovan said he approached his Relief Society people about making a quilt and they said they would and would teach Affirmation people to quilt! This AIDS Quilt is going to be big and perhaps a bridge between the Gay and non Gay world. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]

1989-AIDS activists blocked traffic for forty-six minutes on the Golden Gate Bridge to protest low federal funding for AIDS research. Twenty-six people were arrested.

1989 Tuesday At Unconditional Support there was a decent turn out. Darryl Webber led the meeting where the discussion developed around Gay dating. Brook Hallock and another woman were at the meeting tonight. I think I’m the only romantic at Unconditional Support sometimes. Everyone talks about taking relationships slow. I’m sorry I can’t. I think of Andrew Marvell’s “Coy Mistress” I said I felt like this is the time I am alive! Now is the time I want to hold someone and feel his body next to mine. I also continued to defend my position of metaphorically “knee dropping” guys who after three or four dates say lets just be friends.  I am amazed at what so many people consider a date.  They think anybody they go out with, whether just friends, or girls, is a date. I thought only someone to whom you have romantic feelings constitutes a date. The expectation of something wonderful happening.  You don’t have that when you ask a buddy out.

1992- The Utah AIDS Foundation moved from office space on 9th East to its first permanent home located at 1408 South 1100 East in Salt Lake City. The new offices were decorated with donations solicited by the American Society of Interior Designers, Utah Chapter, which made the foundation its 1992 project. The agency moved into its new home on Saturday.

1995 Tuesday, Defense says suspect in slaying may have an organic brain disorder. COMPETENCY TESTS ORDERED FOR TEEN INMURDER CASE A Salt Lake teenager charged with killing Chet O. Harris may have been suffering from "organic brain disorder" when he shot the man, according to a defense attorney. Accordingly, Tam T. Nguyen, 17, will undergo a psychological evaluation to determine whether he is competent to stand trial on the charge, which carries a possible death penalty. Nguyen's lawyer, Paul Gotay, says the teen ingested gasoline when he was a child. "That combined with his environment may have caused this disorder that impairs judgment," Gotay said. Nguyen was charged Sept. 29 with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery after police found Harris' body in an alley behind 320 S. Jeremy St. (840 West). Harris had been shot once in the head and once in the throat. The teenager told detectives he and a friend met Harris about 1 a.m. near a downtown area frequented by homosexual men looking for dates. The trio soon after left in Harris' car, parking behind a nearby apartment building. "He (Nguyen) said there was some touching and stuff and it's my impression that upset him," Salt Lake detective Chuck Oliver testified during a preliminary hearing. "He was somewhat embarrassed about getting into what happened." After a trip to Nguyen's home, he and his friend, Taun Ly, and Harris pulled into the alley, where they shot Harris once with a .22 caliber pistol. They drove a block before returning to the alley to shoot Harris again in the head, according to testimony. Prosecutors have no evidence to connect Ly to the shooting, though Nguyen has said he was the triggerman. Nguyen will be in court again Feb. 27 for a ruling on whether he is competent to stand trial.  © 1998 Deseret News Publishing Co.

1997-The US General Accounting Office presented a report requested by Rep. Henry Hyde identifying federal laws in which rights, benefits, and privileges depend on marital status.

1998 Page: B2 Neighborhood Watch Leads to Arrest Byline: BY GREG BURTON THE SALTLAKE TRIBUNE   It's not the first time Darlene Averett's eyes have zeroed in on a crook, but it may have been the sweetest for the 60-year-old Neighborhood Watch chairwoman.   Acting on a tip from Averett, West Valley City detectives arrested a 40-year-old convicted sodomizer on Thursday -- just as the man cruised through a Harvey Street neighborhood (3650 South) with two teen-age boys.   ``It was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen,'' Averett said. ``I was waiting for him because he had picked up a juvenile there before. I knew he would return.''   West Valley City police arrested Kenny F. Vieregge just one day earlier for allegedly buying cigarettes and beer for three other teen-age boys who were passengers in his car.  Vieregge was booked on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of minors and released from jail.   Early Thursday, detectives got word Vieregge was a suspect in a pair of sodomy cases and told Averett they were looking for him.   ``I waited for six hours,'' Averett said. ``And there he was.''   After West Valley City arrested him a second time, detectives said Vieregge confessed to sodomizing two boys and was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of two counts of forcible sodomy.   ``The frightening part is he had only been out a short time and was right back at it,'' said West Valley City Lt. Charles Illsley. ``Now we're looking at him on any unsolved cases involving a threat to a child. We are not eliminating him as a suspect in any unsolved cases.''   Police said Vieregge resembles two composite drawings of suspects in a pair of recent attempted abductions in Salt Lake County.  Vieregge has prior convictions for burglary and forcible sodomy. While serving sentences at the Utah State Prison, the Board of Pardons set and then revoked two early release dates. He eventually served his sentence, was released earlier this month and is on parole.   Illsley heaped most of the credit for Thursday's arrest on Neighborhood Watch volunteers and the Harvey Street Community Oriented Policing team.   ``These folks are like gold,'' Illsley said. [Kenny Vieregge  Birthday:  1958-12-02 5' 6" My weight:  140 lbs.My hair:  Bald My eyes:  Brown ]

1999-Gay author Robert Drake was attacked in Dublin. He would remain hospitalized in Ireland for two months before being stable enough to be moved to Philadelphia, where he would be hospitalized for an additional five months. Two men, Glen Mahon and Ian Monaghan, would be found guilty of recklessly causing serious harm. They claimed they punched him three times after he made a pass.

1999-European Parliament member Tom Spencer (from England) came out after customs officials at London's Heathrow Airport found marijuana and gay porn in his suitcase.

2004 Thank you for taking the time to write us concerning our recent decision not to screen the film "Latter Days.” The decision not to play "Latter Days" was based solely on the film’s cinematic merit and appeal. Prior to this decision, Madstone had not received any negative pressure or threats from patrons or local religious/interest groups regarding the film. Any reports that indicate otherwise are incorrect. Any reports that claim that this film is scheduled to play in any other Madstone theaters is also untrue. Madstone's programming strategy hinges on selecting the best films available, regardless of their perceived controversial nature. In fact, we have on many occasions shown films and hosted festivals that address a wide variety of topics -- ranging from religion to politics to

sexuality. We hope this has clarified our position on programming, and we thank

you for writing to us. Best, Madstone Theaters

2004-SATURDAY January 31, 2004Gay LDS find comfort in 'Latter Days' Aaron (Steve Sandvoss), left, and Ryder (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) explain the mission of the LDS church in C. Jay Cox's film, "Latter Days." By Jennifer Flowers Religion News Service Film director C. Jay Cox, a gay former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, usually shies away from his religious background. But he says he wanted to meet a long-gone version of himself while directing his first movie, Latter Days." "By making this movie, I hoped I would send a message back to that 19-year-old who was so uncertain about himself that everything was going to be OK," said Cox, who went to the Philippines as a teenager on his LDS mission. "But he ended up having just as much to say to me. I was able to reaffirm a lot of spiritual tenets that I've kind of rediscovered because of him, because of the movie." "Latter Days" tells the story of a young, sexually confused Mormon named Aaron who is seduced by a gay man while on his Mormon mission in Los Angeles. While the story is mostly comedic, one of its darker scenes depicts Aaron receiving shock therapy from church members intending to inhibit homosexual desire. The film made waves at several gay-themed film festivals before its official opening in New York and Los Angeles on Jan. 30. But Salt Lake City's Madstone Trolley Square Theater canned the film two weeks before it had planned to screen "Latter Days." Madstone co-CEO, Chip Seelig, said the theater dropped the film because "it lacked artistic merit." Film promoters charged that the theater bowed to Mormons who threatened to boycott and protest at the theater. Church officials declined to comment on the film. Members of Affirmation, an organization of gay and lesbian Mormons, believe "Latter Days" can show many homosexuals who grew up in the LDS Church that they are not alone.” That movie will shake gay Mormons," said Scott MacKay, Affirmation’s former executive director. Michael Lambert, MacKay's partner and an inactive LDS member, attended the Seattle premiere. He said the film would generate discussion within and outside the Mormon Church. "From the day you're born, you're taught that you want to find a mate of the opposite sex and procreate and have children, and it's a very important part of God's plan in the church," Lambert said. "Even to the point that in the Mormon Church the only way to get into heaven is to be married to someone of the opposite sex. So if you're gay, well, you're screwed." Tom Lefler, associate chair of the Department of Theater and Media Arts at Brigham Young University, said that while Mormon homosexuals might be "encouraged or delighted by the film," that wouldn't be enough to get the attention of his students. “If you said to most Mormons that this is a film about a missionary who gets seduced by a homosexual, who comes home and gets shock therapy, they'd probably think you're crazy," Lefler said. "It's so atypical. It sounds bizarre.” Affirmation members say gay Mormons' alienation from their cultural identity can be one of the most difficult parts of leaving the church. Ben Jarvis, an actively gay Affirmation outreach coordinator whose LDS lineage goes back seven generations to the beginning of the religion, said he understands why some inactive gay and lesbian members of the church would want their children to be raised in the denomination so they could learn about their heritage. "There's a place inside of me that is empty and hollow because the[LDS church] is no longer there, and there's nothing in my life that will ever replace that void," Jarvis said. "My experience in the Mormon community was extremely significant and meaningful in my life. It still is, but having said that, I can never go back to the church."

 2004-Hey folks,  Why all you people are worried about a movie, I wonder if you think about your future and think about our community and our Civil Rights?  I'm curious, when there's all this talk about a Movie we all want to do something about it.  Our Utah State Senators are calling us perverted alcoholic, pedophiles.  I don't know about anyone else.  But I'm pissed off about this.  If anyone of you want to go see the movie.  Jump on a bus, in a car or hop a plane and go see the movie in Los Angeles or New York.  Or better yet, wait until it comes out on DVD and buy it.  Read the latest Salt Lake Trib article.  I think I'll start a law suit for Defamation of Character and sue Mr. Butters until he doesn't have a pot to piss in! Salt Lake Tribune Article: A toughened gay-marriage ban gets quick 'I do' in the Senate

2006 Tuesday Will 'Brokeback' ban hurt Utah tourism? By Mike Gorrell The Salt Lake Tribune As tourism officials hustle to pick a different slogan for their new out-of-state marketing campaign, one that doesn't parallel a phrase already in use in Colorado, another disconcerting issue looms in the background. Will negative national publicity about businessman Larry H. Miller's decision last month to pull "Brokeback Mountain" from his Sandy movie theaters undo Utah's $18 million effort to project a revitalized image that will lure more visitors and their money to the state? Opinions differ. Utah Tourism Office Director Leigh von der Esch doesn't think so. She believes decisions about where to vacation are too complex for that. If the whole state banned the movie, maybe. Because only one theater owner pulled the story about a male romance between two ranch hands - nominated Tuesday for eight Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor – she doubts outsiders will let that fleeting news story determine whether they visit Utah's redrock desert or Wasatch Mountain ski slopes. Deer Valley Lodging executive Kim McClelland, chairman of the state Board of Tourism Development, agrees. In his view, Utahns have a bigger challenge just trying to get the outside world to recognize the state exists. But Ed Salvato, who rated Salt Lake City a surprisingly friendly place for gay and lesbian vacationers in a survey last fall for the San Francisco-based online media service PlanetOut Inc., said Miller's decision undermines every other effort in the state to portray Utah as diverse and open-minded. And to Mickey Gallivan, who spent decades trying to build the state's image when his firm - first known as Harris & Love, then Riester Robb - had the state contract to develop the out-of-state campaign, "it is 20 times harder to overcome a negative perception than it is to create a positive one." He knows all too well that stereotypes plague Utah. "Women in Utah dress in burqas. Utahns are intolerant. We know that it's not true," Gallivan says. "But every time we run into a situation like the banning of 'Brokeback Mountain,' we seem to be delivering on the stereotype that we are intolerant. You end up spending all of this money trying to create a believable stereotype and then something like this happens. It's the negative stereotypes that tend to be believed. "We keep shooting ourselves in the foot." PlanetOut's Salvato thinks that's the case, too. "Even we at [PlanetOut] said, 'Hey, look, Salt Lake City's not so bad.' It's got surprisingly great gay clubs. You have this cool gay and lesbian film festival, a fun gay pride day in June. Park City has a 'Gay Ski Week,' " says Salvato. "For a lot of reasons then, when someone hears about this, it sounds so petty and small-minded and strange," he says. "This sort of gesture, even though it's one person who decided this, it really just flies in the face of that major effort everyone is trying to make. " Or for someone such as businessman Michael Gonzales, a trade show coordinator for Wencor, a commercial aircraft parts distributor. In an e-mail to The Salt Lake Tribune, he says Miller's "stance is hurting the overall image of Mormons, like myself, that have spent a lifetime trying to overcome stereotypes and images of an intolerant society." Von der Esch is skeptical that many people will perceive Miller's decision to pull the movie about gay Wyoming cowboys as a reflection of a state bias against homosexuals. "Mr. Miller made the choice. He owns the theater and that's within his rights," said von der Esch, who knows the movie industry well from years of leading the Utah Film Commission. "You can still see the movie in Utah, even if one business owner decided not to show it." She said controversial movies are shown in Utah all the time, pointing to scores of films featured in the always-popular Sundance Film Festival. So she dismisses the notion that "Brokeback Mountain" fallout will undermine the brand campaign her staff and contractor W Communications have been working overtime to create. "I'm more optimistic about it than that," she says. "I don't think [the controversy] will carry much weight." Deer Valley's McClelland says the subject came up briefly last week at a meeting he attended with 18 tourism industry officials. "Their question to me was, 'Did they pull it from all the theaters in the state?' I said no, it was just one theater owner's decision. And they said, 'So what's the big deal?' " It is a big deal to Utahns, he thinks, because Larry Miller is one of the state's "significant business icons." But outside the state, "it doesn't register with people." In McClelland's mind, the trouble is that Utah generally doesn't register much with outsiders. "It's not that we have an identity problem. I don't think that we have an identity of any significance outside the state," he says. " 'Brokeback Mountain' and Larry Miller are a blip on the radar screen and, from a branding perspective, it's insignificant. We have bigger fish to fry." Over in Wyoming, Travel and Tourism Director Diane Shober says she could not be happier about the way her state is portrayed as the backdrop for "Brokeback Mountain." Although her agency has received several calls from prospective visitors wanting to know where in the state the fictitious mountain is, she shares von der Esch's perception that attractiveness as a tourist destination is determined by factors much bigger than a single film. "Movies are not the motivation for travel planning," she says. "They can inspire an interest. I think we are seeing that. But the scope of our business is much bigger than what one movie can do." mikeg@sltrib.com

2006 Please join us at the GLBT Community Center of Utah for a lively discussion on H.B. 90, Criminal Penalty Amendment – this is the modification of the Hate Crimes legislation that Utah has been trying to pass for several years.  Representative David Litvack is coming to discuss the proposed legislation with our community.  He will be able to explain why they backed away from calling it “Hate Crimes Legislation” and what the proposed bill will accomplish if passed.  How effective will this legislation be in prosecuting crimes motivated by hate?  He will also give an update at where the bill is at in the process and how likely it is to pass as written.  Come and get your questions answered!  Mike Thompson, Executive Director of Equality Utah will be there to explain Equality Utah’s support of HB90. Tuesday January 31st 6:30 pm GLBT Community Center 361 N. 300 W. SLC UT 84104

2006 Gay Handbook The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah (The GLBT Center of Utah) today unveiled the “Gay Handbook,” and it’s putting a new face on Marriage Week in Utah. “In Utah, Marriage Week is a slap in the face for those who can’t marry the one they love”, exclaims Valerie Larabee, Executive Director of The Center. “Today, we’re pulling out our ‘Gay Handbook’ to unveil Utah’s newest winter festival and our initiative to change the face of Marriage Week for members of the gay community and many others in this state.”  “The ‘Gay Handbook’ is a guide to the inaugural Salt Lake City Winterfest – a 10-day festival organized to celebrate community, love, and family” continued Larabee. Winterfest, a program of the GLBT Community Center of Utah, opens February 3 and runs through February 12. National Marriage Week is February 7-14.  Quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune, Senator Chris Buttars, a West Jordan Republican, has disparaged homosexuals, claiming they are “changing the meaning of everything” and that “if you read the homosexual rule book, you’ll find their greatest target is your kids!”  “Sure, our Gay Handbook pokes funs at the notion of a ‘homosexual rule book’, but we’ll happily give Senator Buttars a copy of our Gay Handbook hot off the press and challenge him to join us at the Winterfest Conference or any other Winterfest activity,” states Evelyn Garlington, Board President of the GLBT Community Center. “I think it would be difficult for people of Buttars’ ilk to attend a largely GLBT community event, but if they did, they might learn something in the process – that we are ethical, caring, healthy, tax-paying citizens just like the majority of the people of Utah.”  Salt Lake City Winterfest is a celebration with a broad range of activities designed for GLBT adults, their families, friends, and supporters. A complete listing of activities can be found at www.slcwinterfest.com! Entertainment includes nationally recognized comedians, singer-activist Holly Near, and a reading of Carolyn Pearson’s new play. The Winterfest Conference on Saturday, February 11 th is a day-long event featuring topics like Surviving In The Face of Anti-Gay Politics, Bias and Oppression: An Internal and Personal Examination, and Internalized Homophobia. The Conference also features Holly Near and Matt Foreman (Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) as plenary speakers. All proceeds raised by this festival will directly benefit programs and services of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Utah.

2009 Off the Agenda: Men driving as women posing 'a big problem' Rep. Carl Wimmer, a Herriman Republican, has dropped his plan -- at least for now -- to stop transgender Utahns from switching the sex designation on their driver licenses until they've absolutely and irreversibly completed a sex-change operation. The state's current policy allows an applicant to swap the "M" for "F," or vise versa, by submitting written verification from a physician, psychiatrist or therapist.  

2012 On Jan. 31, Utah Sen. Benjamin M. McAdams proposes and sponsors a bill to amend the state Code by prohibiting discrimination in business employment and housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Utah Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee members vote 4-2 to table the bill, and it isn't adopted.

2014 House GOP huddles with lawyers on same-sex marriage Options • Leaders seem to like the idea of sitting out same-sex debates for a year. BY LEE DAVIDSON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE House Republicans huddled Thursday behind closed doors with the lawyers defending the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, emerging without any firm decisions on whether to avoid debating bills this year that affect marriage and gay rights. But House Speaker Becky Lockhart said leaders are still strongly considering taking a time-out to wait for courts to rule on the issue, and leaders have said that may be the safest course to ensure any legislation doesn’t hurt the state’s position. “Maybe we should take a step back and see how things go in the court,” Lockhart said after the closed caucus. “What is the right thing to do in terms of where we are in this process? Where we are right now is the court has it, so let the court deal with it.”  But a variety of legislation has been introduced or discussed that deals at least in part with same-sex marriage or gay rights. That includes a constitutional amendment to ensure churches cannot be forced to participate in marriages that violate their religious views; a bill to prohibit housing and employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Utahns; and even a bill to allow an income tax form check-off to help fund the state’s legal battles through a “Marriage Defense Fund.” House Majority Leader Brad Dee, R-Ogden, said the caucus on Thursday did not discuss the content of such legislation, and took no formal votes on whether to pursue them. Lockhart said state lawyers simply “updated us on where the case is and the steps potentially where it could go,” including an expected eventual trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lockhart said, “It could be quick. It could be years.”  Attorney General Sean Reyes and Gene Schaerr, the attorney hired to lead the state’s case, met with the caucus.  “We weren’t advising them or mandating to them — just providing information,” Reyes said afterward.  The state has a Monday deadline to file its brief with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on its appeal of U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby’s Dec. 20 ruling that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional.  Utah’s oral argument is scheduled for April 10, and the same panel of that court will hear a separate, similar case from Oklahoma on April 17.  Reyes said both states plan to file reciprocal friend-of-the-court briefs in each other’s cases. He said the court “may decide them in a single decision, we don’t know that.”  Lockhart said she feels lawmakers were impressed with Schaerr. “He’s a very impressive person,” Lockhart said about Schaerr. “I think the attorney general has a very impressive team.”

This Day In Gay Utah History January 30th

January 30

Joseph Fielding Smith

1899 Joseph Fielding Smith (30 January 1899 – 29 August 1964) was presiding patriarch and a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1942 until 1946. Smith was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of LDS Church apostle Hyrum M. Smith and Ida Elizabeth Bowman. He went to school at the University of Utah, where he majored in Theater. In 1929, he married Ruth Pingree.  Together they had 7 children. At the age of 43, Smith was ordained a high priest and Patriarch to the Church on 8 October 1942 by Church President Heber J. Grant. He served but four years before it was reported by the church that he had requested to be released from his position. His request was granted by Church President George Albert Smith on 6 October 1946, with the church announcing that Smith was released for reasons of "ill health." After Smith's death it was discovered that the patriarch had been involved in a homosexual affair with a 21-year-old U.S. Navy sailor, who was also a Latter-day Saint. After being released, Smith took his family to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he continued to raise his family. For a time, Smith was not allowed to hold any position in the church, but reportedly was "treated with compassion." In 1957, Smith was again allowed to serve in the church after he had forsaken his homosexual behavior. Shortly thereafter, Smith's wife Ruth wrote a letter to Church President David O. McKay expressing her gratitude for the church's help, stating, "I know, better than anyone else, the trial our family has been to you and to the authorities." In 1957 and after, Smith served as a member of his stake's high council. Smith died and was buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.

• Chronology of Events on Patriarch Joseph Fielding Smith’s Homosexuality compiled by Connell O'Donovan, with the generous assistance of D. Michael Quinn. Posted with permission. © Connell O'Donovan.

1. ca. 1926 to ca. 1929 Joseph Fielding Smith was in a sexual relationship with Norval Service, a student at the University of Utah. (See Quinn, p. 369)
2. 1927-1933 According to Cynthia Blood's University of Utah transcripts, she took Speech and Drama classes from Joseph F. Smith. In an August 19, 1989 interview I held with her, Cynthia claimed that "everybody on campus knew" that Maud May Babcock and Joseph F. Smith, both from the university's Drama Department, "were queer", but it was pretty much "unspoken". Blood reported that "Professor Smith flitted amongst the boys and Maud flitted amongst us girls. We adored it! I guess we were all a little queer back then." When I asked her what she meant by that, she replied, "Oh, we all had crushes on each other at one time or another." I asked if the boys did too. "I suppose, in their own way - but they didn't call them crushes. I do remember two young men who mooned over each other for several months - I don't remember their names. But they were real handsome boys. Very intelligent, very proper all the time." Drama students? I asked. "Oh yes. Yes they were."
3. 1929 Joseph F. Smith became a member of the general board of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA). This may have prompted the termination of his sexual relationship with Norval Murray Service born 8 Jan 1905 son of William Service a native of Scotland. He died 8 Oct 1971 in Salt Lake City.
4. 1932 Eldred Gee Smith should have become Patriarch in 1932, at the death of his father. However, Pres. Heber J. Grant was "evidently reticent" to have him be the new Patriarch, so the important ecclesiastical office was left vacant for a decade.  
5. 1942 - October 8 Joseph Fielding Smith was ordained "Patriarch to the Church" by LDS President Heber J. Grant. When Eldred's distant cousin, Joseph F. Smith, became the Patriarch, Eldred Gee Smith reportedly "lamented that he had lost the most priceless thing he had hoped for", becoming the next Patriarch. Joseph's ordination also dismayed several Mormons who knew that Smith was having sexual relations with other men. Ralph G. Smith reported that Joseph F. Smith "was known to be a homosexual. My brother, John [Gibbs Smith], was very, very upset because he was Captain of the anti-vice squad at the Salt Lake City Police Department. Why, he says, the man's got a record. He says, we've had many women call in and complain about him molesting their little boys [all over 18] at the school at the University of Utah". (Ralph G. Smith interview, as reported in Quinn, p. 387 n. 23) Winifred Haymond (or "Freda Hammond", 1907-1983, never married), a friend of Norval Service, reported that she was "stunned" at Smith's appointment as Patriarch.
6. 1942 – November In a biography of the new Patriarch, the Improvement Era concluded with the statement that, "We all feel sure that the new Patriarch will uphold the traditions of the Church, be a credit to his family, and magnify his calling in the spirit of humility, prayer and faith".
7. 1943 — March 11 Some time prior to this date, Byram Dow Browning had an intimate relationship with Patriarch Smith, whether overtly sexual or not is unknown. On this date, Browning entered into military service in the Navy. Byrom Dow Browning was the son of Lorenzo Dow Browning and Ida May Chandler of Ogden Utah. His parents were married 28 October 1920 in the Salt Lake Temple by Elder David O Mckay.  Byrom Dow Browning was the grandson of Thomas E Browning who had been Chief of Police in Ogden.
8. 1946 — February 26 "Bro Browning called to report visit with Jos F. S." (George Albert Smith diary, "GASD")
9. 1946 — April 10 "Excused myself to Joseph F Smith. regreting [sic] that I am too weary to Dine at his home [--] Bro + Sister Aki were his guests." (GASD)
10. 1946 - April 15 "LeGrand Chandler of St George came [--] called to see me about Joseph F. Patriarch." (GASD) Franklin LeGrand Chandler [born 1898 died 1971] LeGrand Chandler was the uncle of Byram Dow Browning. Since Browning was still in Shelton, Virginia in the Navy at this time, presumably he had contacted his family by letter or other means and confessed his relationship with the Patriarch, which led to this meeting between his uncle and the LDS church president.]
11. 1946 - May 1 "Jos Patriarch met Presidency & left for home." (GASD)
12. 1946 — May 3 "Ruth Smith called. Jos ill." (GASD)
13. 1946 - May 4 Seaman First Class Byram Dow Browning was honorably discharged from the Navy in Shelton, Virginia. He had served aboard the USS Bennington and received four medals, including one for good conduct.
14. 1946 - May 27 Diary of Frank Evans, financial secretary to the First Presidency, referred to talking with Ruth Pingree Smith "regarding Joseph's illness", and insisting that she call on Evans (a friend since childhood) if there was anything he could do to assist her.
15. 1946 - May 29 Due to Patriarch Smith's inability to come to his office in Salt Lake City, the First Presidency asked three stake patriarchs to give blessings to people requesting them through the church patriarch's office. (J. Reuben Clark office diary, "COD")
16. 1946 - June 16 "Spoke at Orchard Ward Davis Co[unty] Visited with Jos F. He is not very well". (GASD)
17. 1946 - June 29 Joseph Fielding Smith diary referred to the problems he was having of late as "a recurrence of his old trouble in his back." Smith's back problems were likely psychosomatically related to the stress surrounding his sexuality.
18. 1946 - July 10 "Met in office with Council of Presidency & Twelve [--] Jos Patriarch case considered. bad situation. Am heartsick." (GASD) JFS's diary entry for this date did not mention what the Presidency decided, except that it was a profound "shock" to him.
19. 1946 - July 11 "Met in Church Council room with Presidency and Twelve...Discussed condition of Patriarch Jos F." (GASD)
20. 1946 - July 12 "First Presidency met with Patriarch Smith at 3:00 pm." (COD)
21. 1946 - July 30 COD says Clark met with Patriarch Joseph F. Smith's brother-in-law, Harold Bennett, and "gave him facts" about the Patriarch's case.
22. 1946 - September 6 "Harrold (sic) Bennett drove me to see Patriarch Jos F. Smith. a pitiable case." (GASD)
23. 1946 - September 16  "At office 815. Met with Presidency & Jos F. Patriarch & Ruth[,] Browning & son present. AE Bowen also listened in. Regret that the evidence is not satisfactory." (GASD) "Jos. Patriarch[,] First Presidency[,] Mr. Browning & a boy." (COD) Ruth refers to Ruth Pingree Smith, Mr. Browning is Lorenzo Dow Browning, and the "boy" is his 21 year old son Byram, recently returned from WWII naval service.
24. 1946 - September 18 "Hyrum Smith and Harold Beecher came to consider Joseph Patriarch's position." (GASD)
25. 1946 - October 3 As reported in both the Improvement Era and the front page of the Deseret News , Patriarch Joseph F. Smith wrote a letter to Pres. George Albert Smith, officially requesting to be released from his position: Centerville, Utah, 3rd of October, 1946. President George Albert Smith 47 East South Temple Street Salt Lake City, Utah Dear President Smith: As you know I have been very ill for many months. While I am slowly gaining strength and hope soon again to be able to do some work, I do not know when, if at all, I shall be able to stand the full drain upon my energy incident to the office of Patriarch to the Church. As you know the duties of the Patriarch entail heavy exhaustion. Since but one man holds that office, if he is measurable incapacitated, its work must in that degree suffer. I know, of course, that one neither resigns nor asks to be released from such a calling out of personal considerations, any more than one requests appointment or asks for office. My chief desire is that the work of the Lord shall prosper. Bearing these things in mind, I am writing to say that if you desire me to carry on I shall do my best. If, however, in the circumstances, you should feel that the interests of the Church would be best served by releasing me at this time, I want you to feel at liberty to do that. I am therefore writing this letter to let you know you have my full support for whatever you decide. I am grateful for the Lord's goodness to me and mine. Ever praying the Lord's choicest blessings upon you, I am sincerely your brother, Joseph F. Smith After quoting this letter in The Improvement Era, The First Presidency made the following formal response: "After careful and prayerful consideration, and with deep regret and sympathy for his condition, the First Presidency with the expressed assent and approval of the Council of the Twelve, have decided, under all the circumstances, that Brother Joseph F. Smith shall be released from his duties as Patriarch to the Church."
26. 1946 - October 6 "Tabernacle & Assembly hall filled [--] Jos F. Smith released. A sad happening." (GASD)
27. 1946 - October 25 "Orval Adams called to say that Wallace and George Spencer wanted him to speak to the father of 'this boy' and if the father said no, the boy would not need to be spoken to. Pres. Clark agreed with Mr. Adams that he should not do this but that Pres. Smith was the one. Bro. Adams said he would tell Geo. that Bro. Smith would do that." (COD) "Phoned Joseph Patriarch [--] he feels better." (GASD)
28. 1946 - November 29 "Took Jos F Smith to Am Fork to funeral of Irving Llewelyn Pratt [--] Levi C. Snow drove us." (GASD) [Quinn believes this refers to Apostle Joseph F. Smith, as do I]
29. 1947 - January 25 "Talked on Phone to Ruth Smith". (GASD)
30. 1947 - January 31"Ruth P Smith came in to talk about Joseph." (GASD)
31. 1947 - March 19 George Albert Smith instructed that the ex-patriarch's salary continue to be sent to him monthly until the end of December, when it should stop. (Frank Evans diary)
32. 1947 - April 3 "Voted to sustain…Eldred Smith" as the new Patriarch to the Church. (GASD)
33. 1947 - April 6 "(sustained) Eldred Smith as Patriarch to the Church." (GASD)
34. 1947 - April 10 "(set apart)...Eldred G. Smith Patriarch to the Church." (GASD)
35. 1947 - August 6 "After supper walked and called to see Jos. Fielding." (GASD)
36. 1947 - August 20 "Talked to Ruth Smith on phone". (GASD)
37. 1947 — December 6 While at Honolulu, Apostle George F. Richards noted in his diary that "Pres. Woolley" (Ralph Woolley, the mission president) showed him a First Presidency letter instructing that ex-Patriarch Joseph F. Smith not function in any church capacity. (George F. Richards diary)
38. 1947 — December 31 "Had long interview at 11:00 am with Jos. F. Smith, who flew here from Hawaii to attend the Nat'l Speech Ass'n Convention". (GASD)
39. 1948 - January 7 "Interview with...Jos. Fielding Smith at 10:30 am". (GASD) [Quinn believes this refers to Apostle Joseph F. Smith, however I do believe it refers to the former Patriarch]
40. 1948 - March 15 George Albert Smith authorized retroactive payment of ex-Patriarch Smith's monthly allowance up to March 1. This was in response to Joseph's request for this financial assistance. (FED)
41. 1950 - August 16 At Honolulu, "In the afternoon, by prearrangement, Joseph F. Smith, former patriarch of the Church, came to the Woolley home, and he and I stayed up in my room and had a long talk together concerning many things, particularly with reference to his problems." (GASD)
42. 1952 – 1954 John Reeves, a then-closeted Gay Mormon from Utah, lived in the Honolulu Stake with Joseph F. and Ruth Smith and befriended them (especially Ruth). Ruth eventually revealed to John that her husband had been having homosexual affairs and that is why he had been released. John understood that they had been "exiled to Hawaii" by church leaders, to keep Joseph out of the spotlight of scandal. He was told that one of Joseph's sexual partners was a man named Wallace. (A man named Wallace A. G-------, born in 1907 and married in 1931, was a close colleague of Smith's in the Drama Department at the University of Utah for several years. Wallace was the manager of the Drama Club while Joseph was the president.)
43. 1957 - April 10 Jay A. Quealy Jr., president of the Honolulu Stake, asked to restore ex-patriarch Joseph F. Smith to church activity. President David O. McKay answered that his decision "will have to await the outcome of my talking with other people involved in this case." (David O. McKay office diary, "MOD")
44. [1957? - April] Typed, undated document, with no explanation except that it's heading is "Joseph F. Smith of Honolulu", found in the 1959 First Presidency files, although it's from 1957:  "The parents L. Dow Browning - 13185 W******** Place, Garden Grove, Calif. "The boy — Byram Browning - 1102 East N****** - Fullerton, California. married and two children."
45. 1957 - May 9 In a telephone conversation, Pres. McKay gave permission to Pres. Quealy of the Honolulu Stake for Joseph F. Smith to speak at his son's missionary farewell. (MOD)
46. 1957 - July 10 The First Presidency instructed Bishop Lowell Christensen of the Waikiki Ward that Joseph F. Smith may have ward responsibilities because Joseph had already confessed "and has forsaken his sins." Pres. McKay stated that Joseph F. Smith had never been formally disfellowshipped or excommunicated. (MOD)
47. 1957 — December 9 Pres. McKay authorized Pres. Quealy to use his own judgment in allowing Smith to serve in the church, inasmuch as "Joseph F. Smith has recently confessed to his wife and wrote a full confession to the First Presidency." President McKay said that there need not be any formal announcement or action for this reinstatement, since no formal action had ever been taken against him. (MOD) According to Quinn's correspondence with me, Smith soon became a member of the Stake High Council.
48. 1958 - April 13 Ruth Pingree Smith wrote Pres. McKay, expressing appreciation that her husband could now serve actively in the Church. She added, "I know, better than anyone else, the trial our family has been to you and to the authorities." [Ruth P. Smith to McKay letter, also misfiled under 1959]
49. Joseph Field Smith died 20 Aug 1964 Salt Lake City, Utah
50. 1979 - October 4 Eldred Gee Smith was placed on emeritus status by the First Presidency and no new Patriarch was called to replace him. At his death, the office of Patriarch to the Church, which once rivaled that of the President of the Church, will cease to exist.

Sources: Bergera, Gary J., "Grey Matters", 7th East Press, November 27, 1982, p. 15 Blood, Cynthia, University of Utah transcripts, copy in my possession Blood, Cynthia, interview with Connell O'Donovan, August 19, 1989, notes in possession Browning, Byram Dow, Naval records and University of Utah transcripts, copies in my possession Clark, J. Reuben, Office Diary (COD), transcript from D. Michael Quinn, copy in my possession Conference Reports, October 3, 1942, p. 17 (quoted in Bergera, "Grey Matters") Deseret News, October 7, 1946, p. 1 Evans, Frank, Diary, transcript from D. Michael Quinn, copy in my possession First Presidency papers, transcript from D. Michael Quinn, copy in my possession Improvement Era, November 1942, p. 738 and November 1946, pp. 685 and 708 McKay, David O., Office Diary (MOD), transcript from D. Michael Quinn, copy in my possession Richards, George F., Diary, transcript from D. Michael Quinn, copy in my possession Smith, George Albert Smith, Diary (GASD), Special Collections, Marriott Library; complete xerox copy in my possession Smith, Joseph Fielding, Diary, transcript from D. Michael Quinn, copy in my possession Quinn, D. Michael to "Rocky" (Connell) O'Donovan, July 19, 1991 Quinn, D. Michael, Same Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth Century Americans: A Mormon Example (Univ.

1965 Saturday- Four more witnessed testified at the preliminary hearing of Gary Horning and Leon Dyer before Judge Charles H. Sneddon who after the hearing bound the pair over for trial in the 2^nd District Court Ogden. (01/31/65 page C6 col. 4 SLTribune)

Trevor Southey

1981 Friday Artist Trevor Southey was commissioned to do a painting for the Salt Lake International Airport and the picture depicting flying nude figures has become the center of controversy. Born in Africa schooled in England some 15 years ago came to Utah because of Mormon Church and taught at BYU (01/20/1981 SLTribune B2)

1988 Saturday- In the afternoon about 1 p.m. I met with David Malmstrom of Affirmation and Chris Brown of LGSU to discuss issues concerning our 3 groups.  We decided to hold a group dance on Saturday the 29th as a fund raiser charging $3.00 and splitting the cost among the three of us.  We are checking out Bryant Intermediate, the Unitarian Church, Salt Lake Acting Company, The YWCA, and the Central City Community Center for a permanent location for the dances.  We discussed the Fairy Gathering this summer and both Affirmation and LGSU seemed supportive. Chris Brown voiced concerns about the Youth Group and we all decided to support it as long as we have some input. We want to make sure it’s a support group and not a youth cruising ground. We have some problems with the legality of including minors in such a group. We are getting together with Garth Chamberlain and the rest tomorrow to express these concerns. We feel that if this youth group is not handled right, it could blow up in our faces and perhaps damage the Gay Community’s image. We are already stereotyped as child molesters and youth recruiters. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]

1991 Wednesday After going to bed, I got a call from David Sharpton who called just to visit. He sounded really in poor health but he said actually he was feeling better. He's going on DDC soon and will be the first person with AIDS in Utah to try the experimental drug as soon as the bureaucracy releases it. He said that he heard from his contacts in Denver that Greg Stanger died there of AIDS. I didn't even know that he had it. [Journal of Ben Williams]

1993-A march was held in New York to protest the ban on gays and lesbians in the US military.

1996-In a secret, illegal meeting on Capitol Hill, Mormon members of the Utah Senate confronted the state's top public- and higher-education officials with accusations that Utah schools are undermining family values and promoting homosexual acts.

1998- -Friday. Charles B. Baxter, 25, was pronounced dead at LDS Hospital at 1:22 a.m. from the gunshot wound, according to a hospital spokesman. He was shot in the neck over an argument about another man's sexual preference, becoming the state's first criminal homicide victim this year. ( SLTribune B2 0/1/31/98) Stuart McDonald wrote “What we had here was a gay man who felt it necessary to carry a gun to protect him self from gay-bashers being harassed by a potential gay-basher outside a gay dance club. Yet the Deseret News manages to exclude all this information in order to blame it on high crime rates resulting from the presence of a gay dance club in the area. If Salt Lake City police took the protection of gay people from violence seriously, this area known to be frequented by gay people would have regular patrols to protect the Club's patrons --and none of this would have ever happened. Instead, the Deseret News blames the gay victims for their victimization by anti-gay bigots, a bigotry actively promoted by the Deseret News.” According to police officers and individuals who frequent the area, Exchange Place is well known as a gathering place for various types of illicit activity, including prostitution and drug dealing. Police are often called to the block, which houses Bob's Magazine Corner, 360 S. State, at one end and The Vortex dance club, 32 E. Exchange Place, on the other...(Deseret News 30 JAN 1998)

1999 GAY FAMILY ADOPTION SLTribune editorial A Child's Lost Chance The Division of Child and Family Services, arguably Utah's most distressed agency of the '90s, prospected for more trouble last week when its board of trustees voted to ban adoptions of children in state care by homosexual couples or unmarried heterosexual couples. The new policy is unnecessary unwise. The board's vote, taken under the watchful eye of right-wing scold Gayle Ruzicka, amounts to another anti-gay public policy statement made simply for effect in the absence of any pressing need. Last year, 93 percent of the DCFS's 328 adoptions were to married couples, while the rest were to single parents. By those numbers, there is no evidence of a problem in this regard.  But Scott Clark, the chairman of the DCFS board, created the problem, contending that gay parents expose their children to "gender confusion" and that unmarried straight couples have a statistically higher incidence of spousal abuse than do married couples. He believes that children in the state's care should be placed in "the very best of homes" -- and he obviously knows who doesn't belong in that category.  Look, there is little argument that a household with a mother and a father is the ideal home for a child. But the very existence of state child-welfare agencies testifies that all such households are not "the very best of homes," or else there would be no need for DCFS.   More to the point, if there were a glut of these homes, where the parents were willing to step up and help the state's abused children, then presumably Gov. Mike Leavitt would not have had to appeal for a tripling in the number of foster homes at his volunteer summit 15 months ago. The reality is, there is no surfeit of such homes.   All Clark has done with his new policy is limit the pool of them. It is absurd on its face to suppose, as Clark apparently does, that even the most dysfunctional home with married parents, the kind of home that pushes children into the DCFS system in the first place, is a more ideal setting for an abused child than any home headed by homosexuals or unmarried heterosexuals.  More ominously, though, it seems equally absurd to suppose that any home headed by gays or unmarried straights is a worse setting for an abused child than continued state custody. And that's where the damage of this new policy lies: Some desperate child will be denied a better chance at life because there aren't enough of "the very best of homes" available.  The generality that the best homes for children are those headed by married couples is sound. But the problem is that child-welfare agencies don't deal in generalities but in individual cases, each one a tragedy. The DCFS's obligation is to find the best solution for each case, one by one; it has just inhibited its ability to meet that obligation by passing its new adoption policy. 

30 January 2000 Page: B6 Panel Raises Funds to Create Matthew Shepard Scholarship THE ASSOCIATED PRESS GDEN -- An independent committee including students and faculty at Weber State University have raised more than $50,000 to create the Matthew Shepard Scholarship fund. The endowment will provide $2,000 a year to a homosexual, bisexual or transgender student with a minimum 3.25 grade point average. It was organized in reaction to the 1998 Laramie, Wyo., murder of Shepard, a Gay college student who was severely pistol whipped and left to die. Scholarship applicants must be at sophomore level or higher, taking 12 credit hours per semester. A 500- to 750-word essay, describing the applicant's needs, academic performance, goals and involvement with or service to the Gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender community is required. Organizers are working to finalize details of the scholarship endowment with the university.  "There are sexual minorities. And this is just saying, 'There's a scholarship here,' " said Weber State President Paul Thompson. "We support this." But some students disagree. "I don't see how that really qualifies as a minority," said Weber State student Niki Holbrook, 24. "Minorities are more like something you're born into with culture and race, stuff like that."

2003 Dear Ben: This is Hugo Salinas, we met about two years ago as I was getting ready to research the issue of suicide among gay Mormons. As a result of that research, I produced a Memorial for gay Mormon suicides and I also wrote a paper that was awarded at the National Affirmation Conference last year. Thank you again for all your help in researching this very important issue! Ben, I recently started a project of taping interviews and donating them to the Special Collections at the Marriot Library. Would it be possible to meet with you sometime and tape an interview? I would like your reflections and impressions not only on the gay suicide epidemics, but if possible also on other issues you have witnessed as a gay Mormon man, including your recollections of the first AIDS victims, the history of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons, and the history of the Restoration Church. Could you please call me at your convenience to further discuss the possibility of an interview? Thank you again for your tremendous help, Hugo. 

• Dear Hugo, Yes I remember you. Hope you are doing well. I would be happy to help with your project. Have you interviewed Russ Lane founder of Wasatch Affirmation, John Cooper who is back in town, director of the old Salt Lake Affirmation from 1982-1987, or Bob McIntier the first Branch President of RCJC and later President of the entire church? Are you aware of our Utah Stonewall Historical Society meetings and our Yahoo Group Site? Membership is free and you can get to the History Site by typing in Utah Stonewall History on a search engine. Ben

2004 SLC Premier of “Latter Days" was canceled at SLC Madstone Theaters the film because "it lacked artistic merit."

2004 Author: Dan Harrie The Salt Lake Tribune  Page: A10A toughened gay-marriage ban gets quick 'I do' in the Senate The Capitol Hill debate over a controversial plan to toughen Utah's ban on gay marriage turned out to be no debate at all Thursday in the Senate. Floor consideration of the measure lasted less than five minutes, no one spoke against it and the bill advanced on a 27-1 vote. Sen. Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake City, cast the lone dissenting vote. Senators will vote a final time before the measure is sent to the House. 

2005  FOR THE STRENGTH OF GAY YOUTH 30 January 2005 @ 5:00pm Social Work Auditorium 395 S 1500 EAST (1500 E.) University of Utah, Salt Lake City Aaron Cloward, the founder of Gay LDS Young Adults (or GLYA) will be giving a presentation and moderating a panel discussion for this quarterly Family Fellowship Forum. The presentation will include a brief history and explanation of the organization of Gay LDS Young Adults. After which there will be a panel discussion which will include other young gay and lesbian Mormons or former Mormons who will provide their perspectives about being gay in our Mormon culture and how they are and have been coping. Those of all ages are welcome, including parents, family, friends and church leaders, and especially gay and lesbian youth and young adults. It will be a very interesting panel discussion not to be missed! As is the custom at Family Fellowship meetings, a light buffet will be served at the conclusion of the program. DIRECTIONS The Social Work Auditorium is just northeast of Rice-Eccles Stadium and is best accessed by turning north at 5th South and Guardsman Way with parking in the lot immediately south of the auditorium. ABOUT THE HOST FOR THIS EVENT Family Fellowship is a volunteer service organization, a diverse collection of Mormon families engaged in the cause of strengthening families with homosexual members. We share our witness that gay and lesbian Mormons can be great blessings in the lives of their families, and that families can be great blessings in the lives of their gay and lesbian members. We strive to become more understanding and appreciative of each other while staying out of society's debate over homosexuality. We seek to put behind us all attitudes which are anti-family, which threaten loving relationships, and which drive family members apart.

2005 Family Fellowship Forum University of Utah Social Work Auditorium 5:00 p.m. Free of charge Building Bridges - Healing Relationships - Loving and Serving All Dear Friend of Family Fellowship,     The quarterly Family Fellowship Forum will be held on Sunday, January 30th in the Graduate School of Social Work Auditorium on the University Of Utah campus at 5:00 p.m. The Social Work Auditorium is just northeast of Rice-Eccles Stadium and is best accessed by turning north at 5th South and Guardsman Way with parking in the lot immediately south of the auditorium.  (see map on other side- building is labeled SW)    We have invited Aaron Cloward to speak and moderate a panel entitled "For The Strength of Our Gay Youth."  The panel will include other young gay and lesbian Mormons or former Mormons who will provide their perspectives about being gay in our Mormon culture and how they are and have been coping.  It will be a very interesting panel discussion not to be missed! As is our custom, a light buffet will be served at the conclusion of the program. Family Fellowship is a volunteer service organization, a diverse collection of primarily Mormon families engaged in the cause of strengthening families with homosexual members.  We share our witness that gay and lesbian Mormons can be great blessings in the lives of their families, and that families can be great blessings in the lives of the gay and lesbian members.  We strive to become more understanding and appreciative of each other.  We seek to put behind us all attitudes which are anti-family or which threaten loving relationships.  All who can support these goals are welcome to contribute.  Sincerely, Family Fellowship

2005 Family Fellowship Forum University of Utah Social Work Auditorium 5:00 p.m. Free of charge Building Bridges - Healing Relationships - Loving and Serving All Dear Friend of Family Fellowship, The quarterly Family Fellowship Forum will be held on Sunday, January 30th in the Graduate School of Social Work Auditorium on the University Of Utah campus at 5:00 p.m. The Social Work Auditorium is just northeast of Rice-Eccles Stadium and is best accessed by turning north at 5th South and Guardsman Way with parking in the lot immediately south of the auditorium.  (see map on other side- building is labeled SW) We have invited Aaron Cloward to speak and moderate a panel entitled "For The Strength of Our Gay Youth."  The panel will include other young gay and lesbian Mormons or former Mormons who will provide their perspectives about being gay in our Mormon culture and how they are and have been coping.  It will be a very interesting panel discussion not to be missed! As is our custom, a light buffet will be served at the conclusion of the program. Family Fellowship is a volunteer service organization, a diverse collection of primarily Mormon families engaged in the cause of strengthening families with homosexual members.  We share our witness that gay and lesbian Mormons can be great blessings in the lives of their families, and that families can be great blessings in the lives of the gay and lesbian members.  We strive to become more understanding and appreciative of each other.  We seek to put behind us all attitudes which are anti-family or which threaten loving relationships.  All who can support these goals are welcome to contribute.  Sincerely, Family Fellowship

2006 Monday Salt Lake Metro presents the first annual Salt Lake City Gay and Lesbian Film Festival January 30-February 5 Snuggled in between Sundance and the new Winterfest, the Salt Lake City Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will feature over 20 films over seven days. Almost all of these films have never been shown in Salt Lake City, and many would never make it here without this festival. Most screenings take place at Brewvies Cinema and Pub - enjoy a beer and pizza while watching the films! You must be 21 to enter Brewvies. The final weekend also features Sundance FIlm Festival favorite "Loggerheads" at teh Regency Theatres Trolley Square. For more information, go to http://saltfest.org

2006 PWACU is Moving Beginning January 30, 2006 we will be at 175 W. 200 S., Suite 2010 SLC, UT 84101 Special thanks to Firestone Building Partners Ltd, for giving us the opportunity to be in a great new location downtown.

2006 Heads Up Reopens: Come check out the new venue located at 1330 South State, The space is the same size at out old location on Pierpont, However we will be doing a lot of renovations on the back portion of the space for show  and fund raiser, David is open to suggestions on the renovation from  the court and would love to get your input. Monday Karaoke Tuesday fifty cent draft night Wed night ABFAB Night (Feb. only) Thursday Karaoke (Crazy) Friday 80's night Saturday Night Suicide karaoke Sunday Fuck off night ( any thing goes Sunday Superbowl Night: Choose your screen. More TV's than any other club in Salt Lake.... Sounds Better Than ever, Open Daily at 4pm and Sunday at 6pm Come check the space (IT'S HOTTER THAN EVER) FROM DAVID

2007 Dear Community Member: Tomorrow Equality Utah will be hosting our first Lobby Day of the 2007 Legislative session from 9:30am-Noon and 2:00pm–4:00pm. Our focus tomorrow morning will be lobbying members of the House in support of HB168 School Safety Amendments which deals with school bullying.  We’ll also be expressing our opposition to HB236, Rep. Tilton’s School Clubs bill.  On the Senate side, we’ll be speaking with Senators to express our support of SB75 Advanced Healthcare Directives Act which allows persons to designate a surrogate healthcare decision maker.  We’re also supporting HB205 Public Demonstrations at Funerals which is now before the Senate Government Operations & Political Subdivisions Committee. Legislators will be in committee hearings tomorrow afternoon which limits our ability to speak with them.  Therefore, we’ll be sitting in on these hearings.  This is a great opportunity to see how things work on The Hill. Whether you’re an experienced veteran or a Capitol Hill first-timer, join us tomorrow.  We’ll be hosting a table in the cafeteria, which is on the first floor of the East building.  Stop by, pickup a copy of our Talking Points, put on an “Equality” pin and head over to the West building to lobby.  Don’t be intimidated if you are coming up alone, we’ll have people there who can lobby with you.  Thank you for your support during the legislative session. Working for a fair & just Utah, Mike Thompson Executive Director Have you joined Equality Utah or renewed your 2007 membership?  You can do so today at www.equalityutah.org 

2010 'Dramatic jump' with Utahns for gay rights More want SLC's rules to go statewide; marriage, adoption don't gain traction. By Rosemary Winters The Salt Lake Tribune 01/30/2010 When Salt Lake City embraced anti-discrimination ordinances for gay and transgender residents last fall -- snagging a landmark endorsement by the LDS Church and widespread support from city officials -- more shifted than public policy. Public opinion -- throughout Utah -- jumped, too. Support for some gay rights, short of marriage, climbed 11 percentage points across the state from a year ago, according to a new Salt Lake Tribune poll, and shot up by 10 percent among Mormons. Two-thirds of Utahns (67 percent) favor employment protections and safeguards for same-sex couples such as hospital visitation and inheritance rights, up from 56 percent in January 2009, when pollsters asked the same question. (This year's survey of 625 frequent Utah voters has an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points; last year's was 4.5 percent.) Opposition dropped, overall, from 40 percent to 23 percent. Among LDS respondents, it plummeted from 48 percent to 28 percent. "This isn't a gradual change of attitudes. This is a fairly dramatic jump," says Matthew Burbank, chairman of the University of Utah's political science department. "Clearly, the fact that the LDS Church was officially endorsing this position had an impact on people." A similar number of respondents, 66 percent, also say they support expanding Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination policy -- the first of its kind in Utah and already mimicked in Salt Lake County -- throughout the state. In November, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, making good on a campaign promise, and the City Council approved two ordinances that ban housing and employment discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity (with exemptions for religious organizations, small businesses and landlords). Becker, too, deserves credit for swaying public opinion, says Quin Monson, associate director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. It's likely, Monson says, that the LDS Church's endorsement influenced many members of the faith, but opinions among non-Mormons changed, too. "Perhaps the whole discussion around what happened in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County did as much to change minds among voters" as the endorsement, Monson says. "You can think of our political leaders leading out, taking some leadership and taking public opinion along with them." In the 2009 poll, Mormon opinion of protections for same-sex couples, short of marriage, was in a dead heat: 49 percent of LDS respondents were in favor and 48 percent against. A year later, when asked the same question, 59 percent voiced support and 28 percent declared opposition, with 13 percent unsure. Support among non-LDS respondents spurted from 68 percent to 84 percent. "This shift," Monson says, "certainly ought to get the attention of the state Legislature and the governor." But despite that widespread public support, state lawmakers won't to be passing an anti-discrimination law this year. On Friday, Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, announced a "compromise" in which she is shelving, until 2011, her bill to ban housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. "There's more educating and more work to be done," Johnson says, "to get to the point where we can run a bill confidently, assured that the Legislature will support it." In the latest poll, Utahns do not show more openness toward two other gay-rights questions: civil unions and adoption. Former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., a popular Republican who declared his support for civil unions in February 2009, appears not to have budged opinion on the issue. This year, 28 percent of Utahns polled say they support amending the Utah Constitution to permit civil unions for same-sex couples. (In 2009, 25 percent backed such a move, but the change falls within the poll's error margin.) Similarly, 33 percent say they favor changing state law to allow unmarried, cohabiting couples -- including same-sex partners -- to adopt and foster children. (In 2009, the number was 35 percent.) "That's an area where we need to continue to do work," says Equality Utah Executive Director Brandie Balken, "to educate people about how happy and healthy our families are and how happy and healthy our kids are." But Balken was pleased by the widespread support for more basic protections. One factor prodding the change in attitudes, she says, is the increasing openness of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. "Once you know someone who is gay or transgender, you're much less likely to have a negative opinion of them," she says. "People have started to recognize that this really is a basic issue of fairness."  Poll respondent Jania Evans, a 69-year-old Mormon who lives in Draper, says knowing people who are gay has changed her opinions over time. She supports basic protections for same-sex couples, anti-discrimination measures and -- having worked with a gay man parenting two children with his partner -- adoption rights for unmarried couples. Because of her religious beliefs, she says, she does not support civil unions or gay marriage. "They have as much love and affection for their soul mates as heterosexuals who are married," Evans says. "I see no reason why they should be denied [basic rights]."  rwinters@sltrib.com

2010 Utah Dems shelve gay-rights bills for a year Compromise » Leaders agree to hold off on meddling with SLC's anti-discrimination measures. By Rosemary Winters The Salt Lake Tribune 01/30/2010 It's going to be a much quieter legislative session for gay rights. On Friday, three Democratic lawmakers announced they are dropping bills -- until 2011 -- that would provide anti-discrimination protections, probate rights and adoption rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Utahns. The move is a "compromise," sanctioned by leaders in the House and Senate, intended to halt efforts to overturn or weaken the newly minted anti-discrimination ordinances in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County. Instead of her anti-discrimination bill, Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, is running one that would assign a legislative committee to study measures -- both in Utah and other states -- that bar housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The legislators, working with the Utah Labor Commission, would collect information on instances of bias against sexual- and gender-based minorities. The committee would be required to issue a report no later than Nov. 30 and determine whether to recommend and draft legislation. As part of the compromise, Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, has dropped plans for a 2010 bill that would enable same-sex partners to sue when a breadwinner suffers a wrongful death. And Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, has put aside her third-year effort to allow cohabiting, unmarried couples -- including gay and lesbian partners -- to adopt and foster children. "That is not an easy pill for us," McAdams said. "It's my hope that we will shift from a discussion of things we disagree about to a discussion of things that we agree on." One sign that Republicans also are on board with the Democrats' compromise: Johnson has a Republican co-sponsor for her study bill, Sen. Howard Stephenson, of Draper. "It's important now that we let [Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination policy] work and see how it works," Stephenson said. "Then we can return next year with data and science and, hopefully, with greater civility than we've ever experienced between our communities." Stephenson and Johnson both said they want to build on the collaborative spirit that produced Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination ordinances (endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), which bridged divides between Democrats and Republicans, Mormons and non-Mormons and the LGBT and straight communities. Clearing a "stressful," budget-crunching session of gay-rights measures, Johnson said, will open a "window for pressure-free conversations" on the topic. Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, said her group supports the deal. "We'll have good data and a much better chance of passing meaningful legislation [in 2011]," she said. "While I personally would very much wish for things to move more quickly, I respect this process."