This Day In Gay Utah History January 3rd

January 3

1890 Harry Merrill of Logan [Utah] charged with a crime against nature was also in court yesterday. He had already pleaded guilty but sentence had been deferred until his father could be present. The boy is within two months of being 16 years of age but looks much younger. Judge Henderson sent him to the reform school until he attained his majority and addressed him in very kind language. Deseret News

Alfred Kinsey

1948- Sex Researcher Alfred Kinsey revealed a high incidence of same-sex acts among men. 1948 United States: Behavior in the Human Male, by Alfred Kinsey, is published, in which the researcher concludes that 37% of American males have had at least one gay sexual experience to the point of orgasm. Five years later Kinsey publishes his report on women, which puts the comparable figure at 13%. (Jay Bell Researcher)  

1962--Illinois decriminalized same sex act between consenting adults.

1965 Sunday- Two men were in custody Sunday night in connections with the death of a 33 year old Salt Lake man.  Weber County deputies questioned the two men about the death of George Roy Moriarty whose nude and battered body was found Saturday beside a road in North Ogden Canyon.  Sheriff Roy Hadley said one of the men was taken into custody Saturday evening and the other picked up Sunday afternoon.  He said neither offered any resistance. Darrell Renstrom, Asst. Weber Co. Attorney said evidence and statements from the two suspects formed the basis of the arrests. Meanwhile a preliminary report on an autopsy performed on Mr. Moriarty’s body Sunday, indicated he died of exposure, Mr. Renstrom said. He said the bruises and abrasions on the victim’s body were reported to be superficial.  The victim apparently had been savagely beaten, thrown off a steep cliff and then struck by a car, deputies said. Mr. Moriarty was last seen in Salt Lake outside Willie’s Café and Lounge 1716 South Main, Friday about 10 p.m., Lt. Allen R. Sexton, South Salt Lake police said. An acquaintance, Darrell Bishop, 150 East 8th South, Sunday told Lt. Sexton that Moriarty and another man told him they were driving to Ogden and invited him along. Mr. Bishop said he refused. Lt. Brick Wilson, Weber County Sheriff Office reconstructed events of the scene this way: Mr. Moriarty was attacked on a viewpoint parking area about two miles up the canyon near 3100 north and 1300 east. A bloody plastic seat cover and evidence of a struggle were found at this point.  The victim was then shoved over the edge of the parking area, down a 140 foot embankment. A trail of blood and marks apparently from a tumbling body led down the cliff.  After climbing back onto the road and staggering a ½ mile toward the mouth of the canyon, the man was probably struck by a car.  He was found nude beside the road at this point. A lone shoe lay by the path of bloody bare footprints down the snow covered roadside.  The victim’s clothes and personal papers were strewn along the road down the canyon into North Ogden. A man’s sock was found at 967 East 2600 North (01/04/65 page 19 col.6 SLTribune) 

• Lambda Lore Q Salt Lake by Ben Williams The murder of George Roy Moriarty on Jan.1, 1965 is the first mentioned of a murder that was so callous, so horrific that even the Salt Lake Tribune had to catalog enough information that anyone could tell that this homicide was a sex crime.  George Moriarty was a 33 year old Korean War Veteran who lived at home with his mother at 164 West Burton Avenue where RC Wiley Furniture Store stands today.  His obituary stated Moriarty was a divorced man, a member of the Catholic Church and had worked as a welder for American Steel Company. What the obit did not mentioned was that Moriarty was also a homosexual and for that reason he was left to die in sub freezing weather. To start off the new year George Moriarty was taken by his brother to the Willie Café and Lounge on 1776 South Main in salt Lake City to meet up with his friend, Darrell Bishop. At the bar was also Gary Lynn Horning, an extremely handsome 25 years old. Horning lived at 226 Navajo Street in the Poplar Grove section of Salt Lake City and was at the bar playing pool. George Moriarty and Darrell Bishop joined Horning playing pool and the three began drinking for most of the day. Horning later told Moriarty and Bishop that he was leaving and  invited them to go bar hopping with him. Bishop refused but, even though the bar tender at the Tavern reported to police that Moriarty left alone, it is evident that Moriarty hooked up with Horning. Perhaps Horning did not want to be seen leaving with Moriarty  who was last seen in Salt Lake area about 8:30 p.m. After Moriarty and Horning left the Willie Café they visited several other taverns in Salt Lake City playing shuffleboard until when about 10 p.m. It was getting late and Horning told Moriarty that he had to be in Ogden the next morning for a drawing with the Utah Fish and Game Commission. However Moriarty according to Horning said he would like to go along to party with him. In Ogden near midnight, Moriarty and Horning met up with Leon Dyer in an Ogden Tavern.  Dyers was a rugged good looking 26 year old and sometime after midnight the threesome left the bar and drove to a secluded viewpoint parking area about two miles up north Ogden Canyon near 3100 north and 1300 east.  While parked at the overlook, Moriarty removed all his clothing.  While nothing in the newspaper accounts related what went on in the car it is pretty obvious the men were there to have sex.  Horning is later quoted as saying that they were in the bar, and then Moriarty said he didn’t feel good, and the next thing he knew Dyer started hitting Moriarty.   All the details of why the trio left the bar and parked on a deserted canyon road after midnight were left out by Horning but it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that they were there to have sex with Moriarty. What set off the events that led to Moriarty’s death only Dyer and Horning knows. Whether Dyer after having sex directed his intense feelings of guilt at Moriarty or whether he was trying to sexually assault Moriarty is unknown. According to Horning it started when Moriarty  said he “didn’t feel to good’.   At that point Dyer began to beat Moriarty so severely that blood was all over a plastic car seat. However Moriarty managed to free himself and  jumped out of the car where evidence showed that there was another struggle at this point.  Moriarty was then either tossed or shoved over the edge of the parking area, down a 140 foot embankment  leaving a trail of blood in the snow. Moriarty somehow managed to survive the fall and after climbing back onto the road, he staggering a half  mile toward the mouth of the canyon. Dyer and Horning surprised to see him,  ran into him with their car and fled back to the city, leaving a trail of personal paper and clothing apparently thrown from the moving car.  Moriarty’s clothes and personal papers were strewn along the road down the canyon into North Ogden. His sock was even found at 967 East 2600 North Ogden. On Saturday morning, Jan. 2,  a young farm boy, up early doing chores, found George Moriarty’s nude lacerated body lying curled beside the road. George Moriarty died sometime during the night from exposure. His head, chest, and legs were lacerated deeply.  The discovery was made about 8 a.m. near 3100 North 1300 West.  A lone shoe lay by the path of the bloody bare footprints that led down the snow covered roadside.  Later that day Police detectives found a bloody automobile seat cover and signs of a struggle about a half mile from the body.  An autopsy performed on Moriarty’s body indicated that the bruises and abrasions on his body were superficial. George Moriarty had died of exposure. The Weber County Sheriff Office apprehended the Dyer and Horning within 36 hours after the body of George Moriarty was found.  Leon Dyer had again went out drinking  on Jan. 2 where he implicated himself in the murder of Moriarty. The sheriff office received an anonymous telephone call at 7:30 p.m. and went to the tavern where they found Dyer and took him into custody.  At the sheriff office Dyer then implicated Horning in the death of Moriarty who was then picked up the next day. Neither men had offered any resistance. Statements from the two men formed the basis of the arrests and they  were charged with 1st degree murder even though the autopsy showed Moriarty died of exposure as his wounds were too superficial to have caused death.  Six months later on June 8, 1965 the jury trial of Leon Dyer and Gary Horning for the murder of George Moriarty began in Ogden. Incredibly on June 17, 1965 a voluntary manslaughter verdict was returned against Leon A. Dyer and Gary Lynn Horning.  The all male jury had deliberated for only four and half hours. As in many other Gay Murder cases the victim was somehow implicated as being to some degree responsible for his own death. On June 22, 1965 the two men were sentenced to simply 1 to 10 years in prison. Judge Parley E. Norseth of the 2nd District Court said to the pair at sentencing, “You have won a legal victory but not a moral one,” and vowed that they would never receive his recommendation for leniency.

1987 The Gay Help Line stated that since last September the Gay Help line received 423 calls asking where to go to meet people, 76 prank or suicide calls, 104 Jerk off requests, 36 pure crank calls, 327 hang ups 46 asking medical  information, 9 counseling calls, 28 married or bisexual calls, and 93  persons who just had no one else to talk to.”

1987- Community activist Beau Chaine was in the hospital with a blood clot on his brain from falling at a work project for Metropolitan Community Church. “Evidently he was helping tear down the garage when he stepped through some plywood and fell landing on his head and shoulder. He was taken to the LDS hospital where he had surgery done.”

1988 Sunday- This guy Randy [Olson}]called me in the afternoon asking about Unconditional Support and the Gay community. He’s someone that Beau Chaine referred to me on the Gay Help Line about a month ago. Steve Breckenbury and I visited for most of the afternoon. He finally accepted my encouragement to form a support group for Gay Fathers. I told him that I would help him out in every way I could. Later I went to Restoration Metropolitan Community Church. I announced the formation of Gay Fathers and asked the church to remember my grandmother in their prayers.  I said, My Grandma had suffered a stroke and she’d suffer another one if she knew that I asked a Gay Church to pray for her!  It’s true. I had to leave church early to be at KRCL by 7 p.m. to do a radio program with Becky Moss and Dan Fahndrich.  We did a show on The Year In Review. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]

1988 Wasatch Affirmation held Pot Luck Dinner at the Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City

1988- Desert and Mountain States held an organization meeting for 1988 Conference to be held in SLC.

1989-Tuesday Elections were held for Unconditional Support with Alan Peterson chosen as the new director, Ray Von Nielson as Asst. Director and Darryl Webber as Secretary/Treasurer. “I was down at the Crossroads Urban Center to get Unconditional Support ready as my last official responsibility as director of Unconditional Support. We had a turn out of about 20 people for our business meeting and we elected Alan Peterson as the new director, Ray Von Nielson as Asst. Director and Darryl Webber as Secretary/Treasurer. I was asked to stay involved as activities coordinator and Randy Olsen was kept on as our representative to The Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah. Next Sunday the new officers will be coming over to my place for dinner and to discuss the transition of responsibilities. I gave Ray Neilson the key to open up the Crossroads Urban Center and all the Unconditional Support funds to Darryl Webber. [1989 Journal of Ben Williams]

1990-United State Secretary of Health & Human Services Louis Sullivan wrote a letter to Representative William Dannemeyer (R-CA) to assure him that the Department would not reprint a government report which showed that already high suicide rates among GLBT youth were skyrocketing. The report infuriated Dannemeyer, who claimed that recommendations of tolerance and anti-discrimination programs in schools would undermine family values. Attempts to bury the report failed.

Brenda Voisard

1991-Brenda Voisard served as Chair of GLCCU, Robert Austin as Vice-Chair, and Robert J. Smith as Secretary.

1992- In the evening Jeff Workman and I went to the Stonewall Center for Community Council. I paid $50.00 for Unconditional Support and Sacred Faeries while Debbie Rosenberg paid $25 for the Delta Institute. That gave us 9 votes when ever we need them. The Sacred Faeries are represented by Jeff Workman, Todd Bennett, and Jimmy Hamamoto. Unconditional Support is represented by Frank Lomeyer, Ray Neilsen, and David Ball. The Delta Institute is represented by Debbie Rosenberg, Gail Scott, and me.  The meeting tonight was fairly subdued.  The Utah AIDS Foundation is moving into their own building at the end of this month. Another reason to find another location for the Utah Stonewall Center. Melissa Sillatoe, Alice Hart, and David Ball did a good job running the meeting. David Nelson and Michael Aaron were on the outside looking in. After council many of us went to the Rhino Nest for Coffee.

Melissa Sillitoe

1992- Melissa Sillitoe served as Chair, Alice Hart as Vice Chair, and David Ball as Secretary of Gay and Lesbian Community Council.

1995 Barbara Shaw a native of Texas  was hired as the first non Gay person to be the executive director of the Utah AIDS Foundation. Replaced interim director Rick Pace. She was hired by board of director’ Chair Jane Edwards.

2000 The Salt Lake Tribune Page: B1 Leavitt Says Qualification, Not Race or Gender, Is His Top Priority for High Court Appointments Though federal law prohibits Leavitt from considering religious preference, at least 10 of the 13 candidates are active or inactive LDS Church members, boosting the odds for an all-Mormon bench. That predominance could be significant if cases reach the court involving issues such as same-sex marriage, which the church strongly opposes. A lawsuit currently in 3rd District Court that likely will find its way to the high court challenges the state's prohibition of gay couples from adopting foster children.  .

2000 Page: A1 Sam Francis works on his magazine, "Hero," at his office in West Hollywood, Calif. One-Time Utah Whiz Kid Makes Waves With a Unique Magazine   Gay Publisher Struggled With His Sexuality, Francis, Utah's former junior entrepreneur of the year, who was nominated by Sen. Orrin Hatch to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, wants to redefine what it means to be gay in America.   "When I was growing up in Utah, my perception of gay life was that gay men were promiscuous, anti-family and that it was all about gay bars and cruising," says the 25-year-old graduate of Judge Memorial High School. "When I finally 'came out' to myself, I realized there was a whole lot more to being gay than the stereotypes. I realized I didn't have to change any of the values or beliefs that I held about families, relationships and commitments just because I was   gay."

3 January 2000 The Salt Lake Tribune Page: A1 One-Time Utah Whiz Kid Makes Waves With a Unique Magazine Gay Publisher Struggled With His Sexuality BY DAN EGAN WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. --    In a freshly painted office that used to be a pornography studio, just down the street from a pastry shop with a Ferris wheel-size fiberglass donut on the roof, former Utahn Sam Francis has an ambitious plan for his 15-month-old magazine called Hero.     Francis, Utah's former junior entrepreneur of the year, who was nominated by Sen. Orrin Hatch to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, wants to redefine what it means to be Gay in America.  "When I was growing up in Utah, my perception of Gay life was that Gay men were promiscuous, anti-family and that it was all about Gay bars and cruising," says the 25-year-old graduate of Judge Memorial High School. "When I finally 'came out' to myself, I realized there was a whole lot more to being Gay than the stereotypes. I realized I didn't have to change any of the values or beliefs that I held about families, relationships and commitments just because I was   Gay." Francis, who is in a monogamous relationship, contends there are more homosexuals who hold his traditional values than people realize, and says the success of his latest business enterprise will prove it. Hero, he says, targets a demographic -- well-educated Gay men in committed relationships -- instead of an urge. Inside its slick pages, readers won't see pinups of beefcakes wrapped in little more than dental floss, or explicit stories about sex.  Recent features include the Gay-marriage battles in California and Hawaii and a story about a young man who turned to his college fraternity brothers when he "came out" to his family. There is a monthly column called " Hot Monogamy," which gives tips on how to keep relationships steamy. The column " Boy Toys" updates readers on the latest high-tech gadgetry, such as radar detectors and watches that double as pagers.  At its raciest, Hero's content would barely earn a PG rating. And, largely because of that, it is making a splash

nationally.  "Hero burst onto the scene this year with a fresh idea: a magazine for Gay men more interested in healthy relationships than sex and partying," says magazine industry analyst Samir A. Husni, who lauded Hero as one of the top 30 magazine launches of 1998. "[The magazine] distinguishes itself from the competition by addressing popular culture from a Gay perspective rather than focusing exclusively on Gay culture." Good PR: The magazine's mainstream focus has caught the attention of The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times

and Chicago Tribune, which noted that "[Hero] is an example of the profound changes reshaping the magazine world." Circulation for the bimonthly publication has quickly doubled to 35,000, and Francis says the operation already turns a profit. He predicts circulation will double again by the end of 2000. More importantly, the magazine is gaining popularity at a time when vicious fights are under way across the country over homosexuals' rights to legal benefits that come with marriage. Read Hero, The San Francisco Chronicle told its readers in

a front-page story, "if you want to know where the Gay and lesbian civil rights movement is headed." But the magazine also has a lot to do with where Francis has come from. 'Golden Boy': A self-described "golden boy," he opened a Davis County candy store when he was 13.  Year after year, Utah reporters told how the "teen tycoon" earnestly exploited our collective sweet tooth to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually; they told us how Francis hired adults to staff his shop during school hours so he could shine in his "first career" -- bringing home A's; they noted how he had enough Beehive buzz to join the Bountiful Chamber of Commerce before he could drive. Gov. Norm Bangerter got a chance to bask in the boy's glow when he proclaimed Francis Utah's 1991 Junior Entrepreneur of the Year, for which the youth received a $10,000 award.    "The candy store image was such an easy story [for the media], almost too easy," says Francis. "But what would the story have been if I told them I was Gay?" He kept his sexuality a secret as he graduated with honors from high school in 1992 and headed to Spokane, Wash., to attend Gonzaga University, a private Catholic college. He majored in journalism, served as editor of the student newspaper, joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and worked as a security guard. All the while, he waged an inner war. He did not want to be Gay.  "I was so overcompensating [for my homosexuality]. I had to be this macho guy, lifting weights, working out." But pumping iron couldn't flush the feelings he felt for other men. Francis figured the only way to deal with his affinity for the same sex was to bury it. "But the end of my senior year I decided, 'OK, I'm Gay. But I can't be Gay, so I'm going to be a priest.' “He was accepted to the University of Notre Dame, where he intended to spend five years in seminary studies before joining the priesthood. He backed out after a priest -- the first person he told of his homosexuality -- counseled him to come to terms with his sexuality before taking a vow of celibacy and devoting his life to God. Francis, who says he remains intensely spiritual but not too Catholic, took a job as a reporter at the Spokane Spokesman Review in fall 1996. He moved to Los Angeles less than a year later after meeting his partner, Paul Horne, via the Internet. Horne, Hero's editor, says the two enjoy a strictly monogamous relationship. They have given each other rings and hope to be married someday.    Francis now wants to spread his story as eagerly as he shared all that taffy a decade ago.  "We want to be the largest magazine for Gay men in the world," Francis says.  But he and Horne, 35, also are not far from criticism from fellow Gays. "There is some hostility in the Gay community about what we're trying to do, because Gay people have always been pictured, or have positioned themselves, on the edge or the fringe," says Francis. "And what we're trying to do is bring them into mainstream America. I hate to use the word 'mainstream,' but it's true." The resentment is centered on fears that people such as Francis and Horne are trying to gain mainstream acceptance for homosexuals at the expense of those who choose not to subscribe to the traditional values espoused in Hero's columns and stories. "I'm glad monogamous men are organizing their own subcultures and own magazines, and they should," says Eric Rofes, a Gay author and professor of education at California's Humboldt State University. "At the same time, they should not be putting down other people who choose otherwise." Rofes said his initial concern was that Hero would come across as "puritanical or judgmental." That hasn't been the case, says Rofes. "It feels to me like a Gay version of a women's magazine, like Cosmopolitan. Without the sex."    Even though Hero bills itself with the trademarked phrase "the magazine for the rest of us,"  make no mistake – this publication isn't for everybody. Francis, sporting army fatigue pants, Adidas running shoes and pile pullover, holds up Volume 1, Issue 5 of Hero. On the cover are two comely, conservatively dressed young men -- GQ types, were they not posed snuggling on a couch.    "This is almost more threatening to people than drag queens," says Francis. Straight culture, Francis argues, prefers to keep homosexuals out of the mainstream because that makes demonization easier. "It [Gay monogamy] is more threatening than a Gay pride parade with drag queens because straight people can laugh at that and say: 'See, those queers, they're all like that.' But when they see these guys [portrayed] as best friends, athletes, jocks -- just regular guys, it's just very confronting." It also is why he named the magazine Hero. "A hero doesn't beg or plead for rights," he says. "A hero says we are equal to everyone else."

2003    BY GLEN WARCHOL  THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Page: C1 Club Wins a Delay in License Case Gay bar appeals revocation, argues alleged lewd acts were at a private party A Salt Lake City gay bar has won a temporary reprieve in the revocation of its liquor license for permitting lewd behavior, pending an appeal next week before a 3rd District judge. The state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control last week revoked Club Blue's license and fined its owner $9,000 for a closed party held on the premises in October. Two DABC officials complained the violations at the club were the most flagrant they had seen. According to the DABC order, the violations included a bartender working naked and patrons performing simulated or actual sexual acts. Club Blue's attorney, Marlin

Marlin Criddle

Criddle, appealed the revocation, arguing DABC restrictions on a private club should only apply when the club is open for business. The October party, he said, was a private affair, closed to the general public. The club's alcohol supplies were not used for the party and servers were not acting as employees of the club.   "I don't have any problem with them [DABC] regulating public decency at a private club during normal business hours," Criddle said. "I have a problem with them trying to extend that to when the club is being used privately." The club's owner, Mike Webb, complained the gay private club had been targeted by police and state officials who are offended by its patrons' "life-style" and used the closed party as an excuse to put him out of business. "I can understand Mike's point, but that's not an easy allegation to prove," Criddle said.    DABC officials did, however, make it clear they were incensed by the sexual nature of the violations, he said. The officials "were so consumed with the allegations of sexual misconduct that they rushed this case through, issued their decision revoking the club's license and refused to stay their decision in order to allow the club time to file an appeal with the district court."    An anonymous letter tipped off the Salt Lake City Police Department to the party, Criddle said.    "Two vice officers were admitted to the private event because they presented a copy of the e-mail invitation," he said.    "It is regrettable that the police department and the DABC allow themselves to be used as tools of anyone who harbors a grudge against a particular club." 

2007 Hello, For any of you who are interested, HIV-AIDS testing will be done at the Northern Utah Coalition, Wednesday night, starting at 5:30, until all present have been tested. The test does NOT require a blood draw and results are available generally the same evening. Testing can be done with anyone 17 (with parental permission) or over.  Going eastbound on 24th street from Adams, turn left at Porter. Continue down the driveway. Look for the testing banner in front of the building. For more information, call (801) 393-4153. Thanks, Gary

2014 State drops focus on procreation in stay arguments BY BROOKE ADAMS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Utah made a subtle shift in its arguments in defense of opposite-sex marriage in a stay application to the U.S. Supreme Court filed Tuesday: it dropped any mention of procreation. Instead, the state talks solely about child-rearing and argues it is likely to ultimately prevail in barring same-sex marriage because social science research supports its “rational” interest in opposite-sex marriage. That research, it argues, backs “the importance of providing unique encouragement and protection for man-woman unions” because it shows children do best when raised by their father and mother (whether biological or adoptive) and limiting access to marriage to such unions increases that likelihood. These are the core “legislative facts” that lawmakers and voters have relied on in limiting marriage to man-woman unions, it says. “And even when contravened by other evidence, they are not subject to second-guessing by the judiciary without a showing that no rational person could believe them,” the state said. The plaintiffs’ attorneys shot down Utah’s procreation argument, made primarily at the district court level, and also contend its assertion that same-sex parents are inferior parents is false. In a footnote, the state said based on other Supreme Court decisions it has no burden to prove that “its views on marriage are correct or sound.” Rather, “the research discussed here briefly sketches what Utah and its citizens could rationally believe about the benefits of limiting marriage to man-woman unions,” it said. A state that allows same-sex marriage “necessarily loses much of its ability to encourage gender complementarity as the preferred parenting arrangement,” the application states. “And it thereby substantially increases the likelihood that any given child will be raised without the everyday influence of his or her biological mother and father — indeed, without the everyday influence of a father or mother at all.” The state said the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor holds that states are “constitutionally permitted to decide that this risk is offset, for example, by the risk that children being raised in families headed by same-sex couples will feel demeaned by their families’ inability to use the term ‘marriage.’” “We think the court unlikely to hold after carefully considering the manifest benefits of gender complementarity that a sovereign state is constitutionally compelled to make that choice,” Utah said. In his decision, Judge Robert Shelby said both sides provided numerous studies about child-rearing in opposite-sex and same-sex households, creating a “factual dispute about the optimal environment for children” but that the state failed “to demonstrate any rational link between its prohibition of same-sex marriage and its goal of having more children raised in the family structure the state wishes to promote.”

2014 Taxes to cakes: Same-sex marriage resources offered in Ogden Expo • Legal advising, counseling and more available at Ogden library Tuesday. BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Marriage is just the beginning. After the license, there are benefits to enroll in, taxes to file and family law to sort out — responsibilities often more complex for same-sex couples than heterosexual newlyweds. Following a federal judge’s Dec. 20 decision to strike down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, Ogden’s OUTreach Resource Centers will host a public expo Tuesday to give lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people guidance as they sort through such issues. Couples might even find a reception hall for a marriage celebration. “If you want to get married or you have gotten married, where can you go to get a cake or a DJ?” said OUTreach executive director Marian Edmonds. “It’s going to be a feel-good time too.” The event will be held at the Pleasant Valley Library at 5568 S. Adams Ave. in Ogden from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. About 24 groups will be on hand, including tax professionals, clergy, wedding resources, marriage and family counselors, health care enrollment helpers and representatives from Equality Utah for updates on anti-discrimination legislation. The Rainbow Clinic of Northern Utah will also be there, and will return to the library on the first Tuesday of each month for free legal advice sessions from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. After U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby’s Dec. 20 ruling, the first major hurdle was finding enough officiants to marry all the couples who wanted to wed legally, Edmonds said. “We want to highlight all the clergy that are available so people know they’re out there,” she said. The ruling also inspired others to come out to their friends and family, so OUTreach is also providing therapists and counselors, “so people don’t feel like, ‘Wow, I’m really alone out here.’”

2014 Longtime support group for gay Mormons shuts down LGBT • Evergreen International, which used to push reparative therapy, is now part of North Star. BY PEGGY FLETCHER STACK THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Days after hundreds of gay and lesbian couples swarmed county offices to get Utah marriage licenses, a group originally founded to help Mormons eliminate same-sex attraction closed its doors. Before doing so, Evergreen International turned over some of its resources and mailing lists — said to number up to 30,000 participants, including many from Spanish-speaking countries — to a newer LDS-based gay support group, North Star. Combining the two groups, organizers say, will create “the largest single faith-based ministry organization for Latter-day Saints who experience same-sex attraction or gender-identity incongruence and will also provide increased access to resources for church leaders, parents, family and friends.” The scale and scope of the challenges facing this community “can sometimes be overwhelming,” North Star board chairman Jeff Bennion writes in a news release, “which is why I am thrilled that so many of the strong and experienced associates of Evergreen will be standing even more unitedly with us.” Evergreen President David Pruden, who could not

David Pruden

be reached Thursday for comment, will not be joining North Star’s leadership but will continue as executive director of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality. Preston Dahlgren, Evergreen’s chairman, will become a member of North Star’s board. As to the question of changing or diminishing sexual

Preston Dahlgren

orientation, North Star takes no position, says the group’s newly named president, Ty Mansfield. “If someone had a positive experience with reparative therapy or change, we are OK with them sharing that,” says Mansfield, a marriage and family therapist in Provo. “If they had a negative experience, they can share that, too.” Neither Evergreen nor North Star has any official connection with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but both groups cater to Mormons and follow LDS doctrines. “North Star affirms the right of individuals to self-determination,” Bennion says in the release, “and supports all efforts consistent with the [LDS] gospel that help individuals live in harmony with their covenants and attain greater peace, fulfillment, and sense of individual worth,

Ty Mansfield

while affirming that the most essential and eternal growth and progress come through the power of the Savior and adherence to the teachings of his prophets.” The group tries to “stay away from ideologies,” Mansfield says, “and focus on the narrative experience.” To that end, North Star has produced a series of online video testimonials from gay Mormons called “Voices of Hope” and found at ldsvoicesofhope.org. Right now, the series has 40 testimonials, with 20 more ready to go, Mansfield says. “We are hoping eventually to include a thousand.” This approach “is more consistent with national positions by the American Psychological Association that change is not possible and reparative therapy is not effective,” says Richard Ferre, an adjunct psychiatry professor at the University of Utah. “The group is still trying to provide a support for Mormon gays to maintain their connections with their religion.” It’s time, says Ferre, who has had many gay patients, to recognize that “diverse experiences and different voices require different responses. We need to respect individuals and their personal discovery of the response that would most benefit them.” Evergreen’s end has been obvious for a while, says Kendall Wilcox, a Mormon filmmaker working on a documentary about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Latter-day Saints. For years, a Mormon general authority typically spoke at the group’s annual conference, but that practice eventually stopped. In May 2012, the author of a controversial 2001 study — which claimed that gays can change — disavowed his conclusions. But Pruden told The Salt Lake Tribune he saw no reason to discontinue using so-called reparative therapy. In June, Exodus International, a group similar to Evergreen but for a larger Christian audience, shut its doors. At about the same time, Pruden approached North Star with the idea of merging the two groups. “There was some unnecessary competition between us,” Bennion told The Tribune. “We were starting to step on each other’s toes.” Evergreen began in 1989 as a therapeutic solution for Mormons with unwanted same-sex attraction, while North Star took a more person-to-person tack. The newly constituted North Star will now provide its own annual conferences — the first one is scheduled for May in Provo — but its focus will be on wide participation. Wilcox — who is on the board of Mormons Building Bridges, a grass-roots group seeking to enhance good will between the LGBT and LDS communities — fears a subtle evolution in North Star’s perspective as well. Mansfield co-wrote a 2004 book, “In Quiet Desperation: Understanding the Challenge of Same-Gender Attraction.” He described himself as permanently, inescapably gay and accepted the requirement of celibacy to remain a faithful Mormon. He has subsequently married a woman and had two children. With Mansfield at the helm — and Bennion, who is also married to a woman — there seems to be subtle pressure, Wilcox says, to follow their lead. Both North Star leaders hope that isn’t the case. They believe that marriage to someone of the opposite sex should not be seen as a way to “cure” gayness, Manfield says, “but it should be considered as an option.” Whether gay Mormons stay single or marry, he says, “we want to help them to be as healthy as possible.”

2014 The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting this morning that Evergreen International, the predominant Mormon ex-gay group founded in 1989, has merged with North Star International, a newer LDS-affiliated group: Combining the two groups, organizers say, will create “the largest single faith-based ministry organization for Latter-day Saints who experience same-sex attraction or gender-identity incongruence and will also provide increased access to resources for church leaders, parents, family and friends.” The scale and scope of the challenges facing this community “can sometimes be overwhelming,” North Star board chairman Jeff Bennion writes in a news release, “which is why I am thrilled that so many of the strong and experienced associates of Evergreen will be standing even more unitedly with us.” Part of the “overwhelming” scale and scope of the challenges is undoubtedly the growing acceptance of LGBT people in society overall, including within the LDS church’s membership. Church officials have acknowledged that many congregations have experienced deep divisions in the wake of the church’s heavy involvement in California’s Prop 8 campaign. The church has taken several steps to try to soften its public image since the divisive 2008 campaign. In recent weeks, Utah has become the seventeenth state to offer marriage equality for same sex couples following a ruling by a federal district judge striking down the state’s ban on same sex marriage as unconstitutional. The Tribune reports that Evergreen President David Pruden will not be joining North Star, but will remain in his role as Executive Director of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which is ostensibly the “secular” arm of the ex-gay movement. Evergreen board chair Preston Dahlgren will become a member of North Star’s board.  This move is the latest in a larger re-alignment within the ex-gay movement. Nearly two years ago, Exodus International president Alan Chambers after Chambers acknowledged that “99.9%” of ex-gay ministry members “have not experienced a change in their orientation,” disavowed the particular form of sexual orientation change therapy known as Reparative Therapy, and acknowledged that gay Christians can enter heaven. Exodus, a predominantly Evangelical-based organization, was the largest ex-gay organization in the U.S. at the time of Chambers’s statements. Over the next year and a half, Exodus struggled to find a new direction within the ex-gay movement before finally announcing its closure at its final conference last June. A newer organization, Restored Hope Network, comprised of more hard core elements of the former Exodus network, has formed in an attempt to claim Exodus’ role in the ex-gay movement. In contrast to Restored Hope Network, North Star International appears to be taking a softer approach to the question of whether change in sexual orientation is possible: As to the question of changing or diminishing sexual orientation, North Star takes no position, says the group’s newly named president, Ty Mansfield. “If someone had a positive experience with reparative therapy or change, we are OK with them sharing that,” says Mansfield, a marriage and family therapist in Provo. “If they had a negative experience, they can share that, too.” …This approach “is more consistent with national positions by the American Psychological Association that change is not possible and reparative therapy is not effective,” says Richard Ferre, an adjunct psychiatry professor at the University of Utah. “The group is still trying to provide a support for Mormon gays to maintain their connections with their religion.”

The Evergreen International web site is “being rebuilt” and provides visitors with a link to SameSexAttraction.org. North Star International, which was founded in 2006, has a lengthy announcement on its web site.