January 26
1626-Sir Francis Bacon wrote to the Secretary of State of Great
Britain recommending his lover, Henry Percy, to His Majesty's service who
became a lover to King James I
1918-English Member of Parliament and magazine publisher Noel
Pemberton Billing wrote an article claiming the German Secret Service had a
list of 47,000 homosexual English citizens. Allegedly they planned to blackmail
English men and women in high places to advance the German war effort.
1942 - First Councilor J. Reuben Clark tells reporter for Look
Magazine: "Our divorces are piling up." Church Historian's Office in
1968 compiles divorce statistics since 1910 for temple marriages, "church
civil" marriages, and "other civil" marriages. Although temple
marriages have lowest divorce rate of the three categories, in 1910 there was
one "temple divorce" for every 66 temple marriages performed that
year., 1:41 in 1915, 1:34 in 1920, 1:27 in 1925, 1:30 in 1930, 1:23 in 1935,
1:27 in 1939, 1:17 in 1945, 1:31 in 1950, 1:30 in 1955, 1:19 in 1960 and 1965.
Last rate for temple divorce is almost ten times higher than Utah 's civil divorce rate century earlier.
1958-Ellen Degeneres, comedian was born. Ellen DeGeneres' claim to
fame is that she came out in 1997, the same time her sit-com character, Ellen
Morgan came out on the TV show Ellen.
1973-The Los Angeles Metropolitan Community Church was destroyed by
arson. The building had been the first property in America owned by an organization
whose primary outreach was to gays and lesbians.
1978-The Oklahoma Times reported that two teen chapters of the KKK
have been formed, their major activities being the assault of gay men outside
gay bars.
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| Kelly Atkinson |
1988 Tuesday-Unconditional Support topic “Are Gay Men Women Haters? A Response to the Lesbian Community” “I
received two phone calls from people concerning Unconditional Support but only
one showed up. A nice man named Alex
Gallegos. But we had four new people all together, Ed [Benson], Brent, Randy,
and Alex. We had about 35 people attending tonight. Randy Olsen led the meeting
on the topic of whether Gay men are women haters or not. A few had some strong
separatists views and we discussed the conscious raising point of stopping
demeaning women by telling fish jokes. We talked about how dedicated the
Lesbians are in supporting the community in their own ways. It was a good
meeting and Randy did a real good job. I knew he would and could. Curtis Jensen took a portion of the group to
the show to see Broadcast News while
the rest of us went out for coffee after the meeting to Denny’s. Richard Rodriguez passed out his sex survey
at the meeting for some class he is taking and Jim Hunsaker asked if he could
do a workshop for the group sometime and I said certainly. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]
1988-Tueday- Utah
Valley Men’s Group formed. Meetings held at Utah Valley
Community College Provo
called me tonight about the Utah Valley Men’s Group-A Social Support and
Discussion Group For non-Heterosexual. He said 20 people attended the 1st
meeting. Wonderful. The guy said that he
met me last November at an LGSU meeting and that my speech that night on
forming Gay groups influenced him to form this group. I know that Wasatch
Affirmation, Gay Fathers, Gay Youths, Becky Moss’ Women’s Group, US, The AIDS
Quilt, and now this Provo group have directly or indirectly been influenced by me. [1988 Journal of Ben Williams]
1992-UK gay activist group OutRage demonstrated at the Evening
Standard Awards Ceremony to protest homophobic reporting.
1993-Douglas Roy Ownbey from the AIDS virus. Doug Ownbey had
designed the first SLC Gay Pride Day T-shirt in 1983. Douglas Roy
Ownbey passed away January 26, 1993 after a long and courageous battle with the
AIDS virus. Born March 21, 1958. Doug was an artistic floral designer. A
previous owner of a Logan
floral shop, and an avid artist and lover of beautiful music. Survived by children, Danny and Christina;
mother,
 |
| Doug Ownbey 1988 |
1994 Dan Wilcox (1940 - 1994)
Daniel Milton Hughes Wilcox was born March 19, 1940 in Salt Lake City to Elmer
and Marice Hughes. He died in Studio City, California on January 26, 1994. From
the Los Angeles Chapter newsletter, February 1994, p.8: We are saddened to
announce the passing of our longtime Affirmation brother Dan Wilcox on January
28, 1994. Dan was one of the founding members of Affirmation and was one of the
most dedicated persons we knew to the goal of educating the church on
homosexuality. He donated many books and articles and wrote many letters to
church authorities on Affirmation's behalf. He will be greatly missed. Note:
The correct date of death is January 26--not 28 as stated in the newsletter.
1996-New York State attorney general Dennis Vacco, under threat of
a lawsuit, reinstated the policy he nullified the year before which prohibited
anti-gay discrimination in his agency.
1996-The US House of Representatives passed a law mandating the
expulsion of 1,049 service members who had tested HIV positive. The bill had
been opposed by the Department of Defense.
1998 Gay on the Job "Coming out" in the Utah Workplace.
By Carolyn Campbell SL City
Weekly JANUARY 26, 1998: One day, Kathy Worthington just stopped
talking at work. Other Murray City Post Office employees were surprised when
the formerly gregarious woman abruptly got quiet about her personal life. She'd
been part of hundreds of conversations about kids, home life and weekend
activities. What her co-workers couldn't guess was that beneath the unexpected
silence lay a sea of emotion: Worthington
was enacting a major life transition away from the office. She was about to
"come out" as a lesbian. "I'd pretty much given up on
relationships with men, was discovering that I was gay and getting to know gay
people." She says she wasn't aware how completely she had cut herself off
from office conversations until she came out months later. Worthington approached seven or eight people
she knew well and said, "Listen, there's something I need to tell you. I'm
gay. I thought you might hear it from someone else and feel that you need to
defend me. I want you to know that I'm perfectly OK with it and don't need to
be defended." She was surprised at one friend's response: "For two
years, I've wondered what I did to make you stop talking to me," the friend
said. Other gay workers throughout Utah say
they can relate easily to Worthington 's
experience. Many of them fear that they would lose their jobs or families if
they revealed their sexual orientation. "Coming out isn't something you do
easily," says a self-employed gay man who wished to remain anonymous.
"You worry that you will lose friends or customers. You wonder if your
being gay is all people will think of whenever they see you after that."
The fact that thousands of Utah gays are not
out of the closet makes it difficult, if not impossible, to determine the exact
size of Utah 's
gay community and gay work force. Utahn Cal Noyce, who is co-chair of Pride At
Work, a
national organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
labor, says that if 10 percent of Utahns are gay, that means that tens of
thousands of people in the state's work force are homosexual. Brook Heart-Song,
a gay community activist who is on the boards of both Utah 's
Stonewall Center
and the People With
Aids Coalition, says that it appears that more and more Utah gays are coming
out, as evidenced by the increasing number of participants in the annual gay
pride parade — now more than 10,000 each year. Heart-Song has personally seen Utah gays at work as
police officers, financial planners, nurses, construction workers, truck
drivers, firefighters, psychologists and lawyers, among other vocations.
"It's hard to think of a profession where we're not," she says. GAY
IDENTITY Brenda Voisard, Ph.D., a therapist who has counseled many gays and
lesbians, and is a lesbian
who is "out" at work herself, says that
"being lesbian or gay and one's career are so intertwined -- both are big
pieces of a person's identity. When I work with people in career counseling who
are lesbian or gay, I usually end up doing some work around their gay or
lesbian identity as well ... such as how they went into a certain career
considering their sexual preference." Voisard explains that some gay and
lesbians choose careers that fit the typical homosexual stereotype -- like male
hairdressers, interior designers or florists -- hoping to find other gays in
their career field. But, she notes, the opposite is also true: "A lesbian
woman who wants to keep her identity under wraps possibly doesn't go into
stereotypical fields such as biology or construction work. I've seen it keep
people from doing a career they would really love because you are putting
yourself out there if you pursue something that is geared to your heart." For gays, becoming "out" to
themselves and deciding whether or not they feel comfortable within themselves
about their sexual preference is a long process in itself. Coming out to others
is an additional courageous step, Voisard explains. "By doing that scary
process, they then are often braver in doing something that seems risky or
scary careerwise, too." Gay employees describe an office atmosphere where
straight employees display pictures of their spouses, children and
grandchildren and discuss their personal lives and activities freely. Closeted
gay employees, on the other hand, maintain a carefully-crafted facade to keep
their private lives secret. Tom Palmer (not his real name) is a white-collar
professional in Salt Lake City 's Research Park Salt Lake City 's Intermountain Health Care
(IHC), Kevin Hillman recalls that he didn't ever feel safe. "You never
tell people
where you're really going and always have a story made up before
you tell anyone what you did for the weekend. You try to tell it as truthfully
as possible -- maybe you tell exactly what went on, but never say who you were
with." In years past, Rich Cottino didn't want to come out where he
works,
at US West. It was "very easy for me to deny [my sexual orientation] and
pass for being heterosexual. I knew what pronouns to use and what not to talk
about." Cottino felt he was doing a great job of hiding his homosexuality
until he was 30. Then, he took the path of many other gays when coming out at
work -- he chose several trusted friends and told them individually. "My
funniest experience was when I took a very dear friend, a woman from the office,
to lunch at Astro Burger. Just as I was about to open my mouth, she said, 'Are
you going to tell me that you are gay or what?'" When Cottino stammered,
"I was going to tell you that," his friend's response was, "It's
about time." COMING OUT Many gay employees agree with Cottino's friend's
statement, and see the late 1990s as a time when they are receiving increasing
acceptance, and rights, after coming out as gay in the workplace. "It's
very empowering to work for a company that allows you to be who you are. You
feel valued for yourself as a whole, for all you bring to the company — your
ethics and internal beliefs," Cottino said. Hillman, who left IHC and is
now out in his job as a postal letter carrier, says being out is just easier.
"The most exciting thing about being out is that all of sudden you become
a person, instead of an 'it' or a 'that,' and you don't have to worry about
anyone overhearing your conversations." Co-workers get a better
understanding of who their gay counterparts really are, Hillman explains.
"They learn that we are individuals, that our interests are all different
and our sexuality is only part of our makeup." Increasingly, gay employees
are coming out at work and view their "outness" as an emerging
diversity rather than a moral issue relating to an immoral sexual choice. Too,
they feel that companies are echoing this sentiment with concrete changes in
official policies. Companies with familiar names in Utah , like KFC, Nordstrom and REI, now have
anti-discrimination clauses that relate to sexual orientation.
"Nationally, hundreds of major businesses and at least 100 municipalities
have anti-discrimination clauses that include sexual orientation in their
policies with no problems," Cottino notes. He has been involved in diversity
issues at US West since 1990 and considers being a gay man at work an
unofficial part of his job description. US West began offering domestic-partner
benefits this year. Domestic same-sex partners of US West employees are now
able to get health, dental and vision insurance. "It's a way of the
company realizing that gays and lesbians are worth the same as any other
employee, recognizing who we are and that our relationships are valid."
Cottino adds that "when you factor in your wages plus benefits, in the
past, heterosexuals received more than a gay couple." PENALTIES FOR
PARTNERS Many gays and lesbians feel penalized by employers who don't recognize
same-sex partners. "Without domestic partner benefits, being gay is being
single as far as your taxes and your auto insurance rates. You are not bringing
home as much money and are penalized right off the bat," says Palmer.
That's echoed by Worthington ,
who is frustrated that heterosexual employees are treated differently.
"They can marry someone with 11 kids and add them to their insurance in
five minutes." Worthington
has been with her partner for over five years and is unable to insure her. Worthington 's partner,
Sara
Hamblin, has metastic breast cancer. Worthington
explains that in order to finance the treatments that Hamblin requires for her
cancer, Hamblin has had to keep two jobs. In her first data-entry job, Hamblin
has "good" insurance that helps pay for her current cancer
treatments, but the work is sporadic. In her other job, the postal position where
she works with Worthington ,
she is a "transitional" employee whose insurance benefits are more
costly, with less coverage than traditional full-time postal employees. Worthington and Hamblin
together own two vehicles and a house. "We are each other's family. My daughters
both love her like a mother and give her Mother's Day cards," Worthington explains.
"They each want to name their first daughter Sara. Her parents are both
deceased and her two brothers are a lot older and live in other states. Without
me to take care of Sara, there is no one," Worthington says. Worthington 's longing for domesticpartner
benefits grew more critical when Hamblin's cancer was diagnosed. She wanted to
be able to take leave without pay to care for Hamblin, if necessary, following
chemotherapy treatments, and especially if her partner needed bone-marrow
treatment or surgery. Worthington
wanted her requests to be considered under the federal Family and Medical Leave
Act, which requires firms with more than 50 employees to grant up to 12 weeks
of unpaid leave per year for spouses, children, parents or themselves. But her
first two requests were denied. In an emotional, third appeal, she said,
"You guys are expecting me to choose between Sara, the person I love most,
and my job." After that appeal, the Post Office granted her request to
take as much leave as she needed, when she needed it, to look after Hamblin. Worthington and others
think the decision may have been precedent-setting, even though the Postal
Service emphasized that the leave was not granted under any workplace policy or
the Family Leave Act. ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICIES
Hillman and Worthington
are far from the only "out" gay postal employees in their office,
they say, largely because the U.S. Postal Service values diversity that
includes sexual orientation. In the "Postal Bulletin" dated Aug. 31,
1995, and also in notices posted on bulletin boards on all Post Offices, the
Postmaster General announced a policy statement on sexual orientation:
"The Postal Service is committed to ensuring a workplace that is free of
discrimination and to fostering a climate in which all employees may
participate, contribute, and grow to their fullest potential. We recognize and
value our diverse workforce and are committed to fair treatment of all employees.
Harassment and disparate treatment based on actual or perceived sexual
orientation or identity will not be permitted or condoned in the Postal Service
..." US West's policy echoes those statements: "Unlawful discrimination
against an individual based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion,
national origin, disability, 'covered veteran' status or any other form of
unlawful discrimination is contrary to US West policy and strictly
prohibited." According to Kim Mills, spokesperson for the national Human
Rights Campaign in Washington , D.C. ,
Utah is
following a national pattern of anti-discrimination against gays in the
workplace. From across the nation, Mills receives notice from at least one
company each week that is instituting domestic partner benefits. She also
frequently hears of new anti-discrimination policies that include sexual
orientation. "More and more people are coming out. We believe that because
of this, national polls show increasing numbers of people who say that they know
someone who is gay," Mills said. "A significant result of knowing
someone gay is that this knowledge leads people to feel that gay people should
be treated more fairly in society, and particularly at work. They feel that no
one should lose a job because they are gay." Such feelings are not
universal, however. After Cottino's "coming out" lunch at Astro
Burger, he was walking down a hall at work when a male employee walking in the
opposite direction moved as far to the other side of the hall as possible. In Utah and elsewhere,
there are people who feel that same-sex relationships are a moral issue — that
is, an immoral choice that has been made rather than an inherent characteristic
at which discrimination could be directed. BACKLASH "People need to be comfortable
where they work. I'm aware of many situations where gays will challenge people
who feel same-sex relationships are immoral
by yelling discrimination,"
says Gayle Ruzicka, president of the ultra-conservative Eagle Forum of Utah.
She says she's heard from more than one US West employee who feels that a
company's "diversity" policies are unfair. "In one case, a gay
male made an unwanted pass at another man who responded by slamming him into
the wall and uttering a homosexual slur. The one who spoke out was reprimanded
and required to take diversity training. The one who made the pass did not
receive corrective action," Ruzicka said. "We are all minorities in one place or
another," Ruzicka claims. "I agree with Colin Powell's comment that
he is absolutely insulted that anyone would compare somebody's sexual choice to
race, as in people's acceptance of homosexual relationships to the acceptance
of blacks in the military." But Cottino says that he's never heard of the
incident Ruzicka described during his six years of working with diversity
issues at US West and throughout his three years of teaching "the courses
that she alludes to." Neshia Allen (not her real name), a lesbian teacher
in Salt Lake City ,
knows the experience of feeling tension in the workplace. It's "a feeling
of paranoia every time I'm called down to the office. I ask myself, 'Have I
been discovered?' I worry about my credibility if I was to be outed. I worry
that I could no longer be effective." Being a closeted lesbian teacher is a
lonely state, she explains. "You don't want to get too close to people at
work for fear they would start asking personal questions and you'll be on the
spot." After witnessing the ongoing
plight of Spanish
Fork High
School Salt Lake City ,
if the students attacked me, personally, I couldn't defend myself or even talk
to my fellow teachers about it." She has determined that this will be her
last year teaching. Allen plans to seek another career where her sexual
orientation will feel less precarious. Is
there a difference between teachers coming out as gay versus employees in other
occupations revealing their sexual orientation? Gayle Ruzicka says yes.
"Public schools are compulsory. The children have to go there, so teachers
have to have high standards to be an example to the children. They are expected
not to live immoral lives. It's very difficult for children to sort out the
situation when they are taught in their homes that homosexuality is immoral,
yet at the same time parents teach them to respect their teachers." The
state of Utah
appears to be having a difficult time sorting out its feelings about this
issue, as well. Weaver's lawsuit against the Nebo School District Salt Lake City 's
newly-passed non-discrimination ordinance that included sexual orientation has
been repealed by the new Salt Lake City Council. While Utahns continue to
debate the issue, Worthington
and Hamblin persist in their personal determination to live out their lives
happily. Hamblin's cancer is in partial remission and her cancer has shrunk
considerably, although there is visible cancer still in X-rays and cat-scans. "Sara's hope is to live
until the year 2000, but there is no guarantee of that. We are still trying to
live each day to the fullest and we've stopped fearing that she is going to die
right away. We even bought a new house in Taylorsville and we're making
reservations for a cruise this November," Worthington says. Worthington feels grateful to be able to
carry on in her hopes for Hamblin's continuing health, along with affirming her
community role as an open and vocal gay activist. "This is an exciting
time to be gay and watch the changes that are happening. If I wasn't out now,
it would be like being black in the '60s and having nothing to do with civil
rights. I'd look back 10 to 20 years from now and wish I'd been a part of
it." Palmer's company began
offering insurance to domestic partners this month, and he imagines that will
"test the waters" of his decision to come out some time in the
future, possibly when he is involved in a serious relationship. Cal Noyce has
has been calmly out at work at US West for 20 years both in Utah
and California .
His job title is network technician — "a fancy name for telephone
installation and repair," he says, "For me, being out at work doesn't
mean wearing a tag that says you are gay or lesbian and going out of your way
to make sure everyone knows. It's an acceptance thing — meaning that it's no
different for me at work than it is for a non-gay person. It's no different
from other 'known facts' about an employee: That you're straight or Mormon or that
you like red cars. It's being a human being."
 |
| Kathy Worthington |
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| Cal Noyce |
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| Brooke Heartsong |
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| Brenda Voisard |
.jpg) |
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| Richard Cottino |
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| Sara Hamblin |
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| Gayle Ruzicka |
1998-Monday Media reports (Tribune, Jan. 11) of the defeat of
candidates for political office who supported the gay and lesbian agenda (Rich
McKeown) or were living the homosexual lifestyle (Jackie Biskupski) failed to
mention the telephone calls made just before the election informing their
constituents of these facts. Neighbor-to-neighbor telephone calls are the most
effective way to spread the truth. Salt
Lake City passed an ordinance last month adding ``sexual
orientation'' to its anti-discrimination ordinance. They failed to define
orientation. According to Webster's Dictionary, orientation is defined as
``adaptation to a situation or environment.'' What does it mean not to
discriminate against a ``sexual situation'' or a ``sexual environment''? Would that include same-sex situations, sex
with children, married men having sex with other women, bisexual relationships,
rape, prostitution or any other sexual choices? If this ordinance had been
passed to give special protection to just one group of people in their sexual
choices, the city council should have been honest and specified who they
intended to cover. No where in the ordinance did it mention ``those who have
chosen to live a homosexual lifestyle.''
Deeda Seed has compared members of a racial minority to sexual choices.
This is an insult to all people of all cultures, wherever we may live. Gen.
Colin Powell, in a letter to Rep. Patricia Schroeder, stated, ``Skin color is a
benign non-behavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most
profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a
convenient but invalid argument.'' Celeste King stated, ``To equate
homosexuality with race is to give a death sentence to civil rights.'' Ms. Seed stated, ``Attempts to repeal the
city's amended anti-discrimination ordinance are driven by a sense of morality,
not politics.'' I certainly hope so. Hooray for city councilmen who listen to
their constituents and stand up for moral values and community standards. Their
example will serve as a standard for all Utah
cities. GAYLE RUZICKA Highland
2003 From the EditorUtah
2003 From the Editor
2003 Page: C2 Salt Lake
Tribune No-Show Ends Club Blue Saga The saga of Club Blue came to an end at
Friday's Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Commission meeting. The Salt Lake City gay private
club had its liquor license stripped in December after what regulators called
the most blatant violations they had seen, including allowing a bartender to
serve alcohol while naked and patrons to perform simulated oral sex and sodomy.
Fines totaled $13,000. The owner, Mike Webb, who failed to appear Friday,
maintained the revocation was ordered by officials opposed to his patrons'
"lifestyle." But Webb lost a 3rd District Court bid to stay the
revocation until he could appeal the ruling. Club Blue
2003 Note: Not only was she
robbed of her childhood, but of her history and cultural identity.- Ben
Williams The Closet You hid my childhood. You did not allow me to run and play
and do the things that were in my heart. I was always picked among the first
for teams at sports. You took that from me. You did not allow me to play with
the toys I wanted. You gave me dolls and make-up kits instead of giving me
trucks and tools. I did what I could to hold on to the things that made me, but
you won in the end. And I did what I was supposed to do. You stole my youth. I
never had a high school sweetheart. I did not go to the prom with the person I
dreamed about going with. There were no love notes tucked in my locker. Or were
there? I kept my crushes. I had my hopes, but I knew that unless I kept them
secret from you, I would not be able to keep them. Instead of a world ahead of
me filled with endless opportunities, I saw a cold, unforgiving, ignorant world
where I would never fit. You taught me fear. You showed me bias and prejudice.
You would not hire me if I was . . . . You wanted me to believe that I could
not make a life in this way. You wanted to trick me into seeing only one way as
being right. I believed you. You robbed my 20s. I was never able to tell anyone
about my first real kiss. I would have been scolded and told to never see her
again. But you found out, and you told
me those things anyway. Somehow, through my 20s I was able to hold tight to
some of what was me. But it meant letting go of so much that I thought already
defined me. You robbed me of first love, of celebration, of sharing those
things with the people I loved most. You robbed me of commitment, saying it
isn't possible, that it is deviant and wrong. You robbed me of honesty, of
openness and the joy of being in love. You told me people don't believe in that
kind of love. You robbed me of being able to hold the hand of the person I
loved. I was robbed of the support and understanding of a loving relationship.
Does it matter to you what her name was? It matters to me. I am 30 now. I want
it all back. I will not stand for anything being taken from me anymore. My
rights are the same as yours. I have a right to love whom I do. I have a right
to make a life with them. I have a right to be supported the way you are
supported. I have a right to celebrate my life markers: my anniversaries, my
children's report cards, my new swimming pool. You and I are the same. And I
will not hear the lies you have been telling me because you are afraid of
yourself, not of me. The only thing that goes in my closet now is what I wear.
Never again will who I am, or whom I love, go in a closet. Hateful legislation
will not go unnoticed in this state. JILL HENDERSON Logan
2004 The Supreme Court chamber at the
Capitol was packed to overflowing with media, elected officials, clergy,
prosecutors, people with disabilities, minority reps, police chiefs, and LGBT
advocates, speaking on behalf of an enforceable Hate Crimes law in Utah that
included sexual orientation
2004 TWO MEETINGS AT THE CAPITOL, SLC We have confirmed this coming
Monday, January 26th from 6:00 to 7:00 PM for a program to let our voices be
heard about how the legislature is trying to legislate our families out of existence. It will be a similar format as last year in
that there will be speakers and opportunities for people to take action like
fill post cards to their elected officials and find out information from the
other Equal Families Coalition members (tables have been reserved like last
year... and we can hang banners on the balustrades like we did last year as
well). ALSO: the Senate Judiciary is meeting at 8:00 tomorrow morning in room
414 to discuss S.B. 24, Marriage Defined.
It's the only thing on the agenda.
If you can come be there and perhaps speak tomorrow, that would be great
(PFLAG moms and dads encouraged to apply).
Michael Mitchell Equality Utah/Equal Families Coalition
2009 Legislature to Hear Common Ground Bill Tomorrow Written
by JoSelle Vanderhooft Monday, 26
January 2009 14:15 Tomorrow, the Utah
legislature is scheduled to hear a bill that would allow Utahns to name
same-sex partners as designees in the case of death by negligence or medical
malpractice. Sponsored by openly gay Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt
Lake City ,
SB 32 or Wrongful Death Amendments, seeks to change Utah law to allow individuals to designate a
person with whom they are in “a mutually supportive and dependent
relationship”—that is, someone who shares their assets, residence, health
insurance plan or will. Utah
law currently allows only permits a deceased person’s spouse and children
(biological or adopted) to sue in the case of wrongful death. SB 32 is one of
five bills in local gay rights group Equality Utah’s Common Ground Initiative,
which seeks to find agreement between gay rights activists and the LDS Church
on securing legal protections for gay and transgender Utahns. The other four
bills, include one by Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, to secure
workplace and housing protections for gay and transgender people; a bill that
would create a statewide domestic partnership registry; legislation mandating
that employee insurance plans cover unmarried partners and spouses equally; and
a bill that would repeal part of Utah’s constitutional gay marriage ban that
prohibits the legal recognition of relationships other than marriage. SB 32 is
scheduled to be heard tomorrow, Jan. 27 at 2:00 p.m. in Room C 250 at the State
Capitol building. Gay rights activist Jacob Whipple is urging gay and
transgender people and their straight allies to attend the public hearing.
“Anti-LGBT activists will be in attendance, so it’s critical that our numbers
are shown as well,” Whipple, who organized a march on the capitol in support of
this bill last weekend, wrote in a Facebook message. Additionally, Equality
Utah is urging gay, transgender and allied Utahns to email members of the
Senate Judiciary Committee (the committee responsible for approving bills for
debate on the Senate or House floor) urging them to support SB 32. Email
addresses and a sample email can be found at Equality Utah’s Web site. At press
time, no other Common Ground Initiative Bills have appeared on the
legislature’s calendar.
2009 On Jan. 26, Utah Rep. Christine A. Johnson 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 House of Representatives Business and Labor Committee members vote 8-5 against the bill, and it isn't adopted.
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| Spencer Stout & Dustin Reeser |
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| Taylor Knuth & Sean Bishop |
2014 Two Utah same-sex couples get married on the Grammys BY ERIN ALBERTY THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Two same-sex couples from Utah were married in a group
wedding on the stage of Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, to a star-studded
serenade and in front of a TV audience of millions. “It was incredible,” said Taylor Knuth, of Ogden, who
walked down the aisle at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with his now-husband
Sean Bishop, while a crowd of their role models stood up in their honor. “It is magical to have Sir Paul McCartney look at you and
touch his heart and say, ‘Thank you,’ ” said Knuth, who alongside Bishop is
pursuing a career in musical theater. “These are people we looked up to our
whole life.” Near Knuth and Bishop, Spencer Stout and Dustin Reeser
— who now have the last name of Reeser-Stout — of Salt Lake City also
exchanged vows. When Stout proposed to Reeser in September with a flash
mob in the lumber aisle of Salt Lake City’s Home Depot, he did not know the
proposal video would go viral — or that Madonna, Queen Latifah, Mary Lambert
and Grammy-winning new artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis would be in their
wedding. The four Utahns were joined by more than 30 other
couples, some gay and some straight, in a group wedding accompanied by
Macklemore and Lewis’ “Same Love,” a song written in support of marriage
equality. The Reeser-Stouts were called by a casting agent while
they were in California a few months ago scouting out venues for a small civil
wedding. The agent asked if they wanted to get married on live TV. When they found out the wedding would be on the Grammys,
they said, “Well, that sounds a lot more fun than getting married in front of a
judge,” Spencer Reeser-Stout recalled. As the day neared, they braced themselves for a highly
visible, public wedding. “We promised each other we would make sure we focused on
us, just making it about us,” Spencer Reeser-Stout said. “I was looking at
Dustin the entire [wedding]. Even though it was public, it was still very
special and intimate.” Bishop said he filled with emotion as he and Knuth walked
into the Staples Center. “It was bigger than I could ever imagine and so
overwhelming. When we got out there and there were all those people, Taylor
starting crying,” Bishop said. “Then I started crying.” Of course, the couples couldn’t help but notice when
Beyonce looked Spencer Reeser-Stout in the eye and said congratulations. Or
when Katy Perry hugged Bishop and wished the couples well. The Reeser-Stouts are planning a ceremony and reception
later this week in Salt Lake City to celebrate with family and friends. Betty
Who — the recording artist whose song “Somebody Loves You” provided the
soundtrack to the couple’s proposal video and whose rising fame was buttressed
by the video’s popularity — is planning to sing an acoustic rendition of the
song at Saturday’s ceremony, Spencer Reeser-Stout has said. The proposal video in Home Depot has racked up 11.3
million views since it was posted in September. Bishop and Knuth were engaged a year ago; a video on
Knuth’s YouTube page shows Bishop singing an original song to propose, while
friends and family hold up signs with letters that spell, “Will you marry me?” A better quality sound recording with photos of the
engagement is available on a separate video. Bishop and Knuth are planning a ceremony and reception
this summer or fall.
- 2014 Dear Editor: It's a bit late, but I just found and read your newspaper's Sept. 2, 2010 article called "AIDS, Activism and Angst" and the part about me requires a response. I posted these comments under that apparently official "history" of the Utah AIDS Foundation and am including them here so you can see them now: "From the article: 'Bad feelings were rife between the two AIDS service providers from the start, but they boiled over that year, when after a disparaging letter written by Stuart McDonald, a supporter of UAF but who didn’t have any authorization, was sent to the National People With AIDS Coalition. McDonald attacked the Horizon House and the integrity of Dick Dotson, causing the national AIDS conference that was scheduled to be held in Salt Lake City to be pulled.' "Let me correct this. I started as a volunteer at the Utah AIDS Foundation in 1990 shortly after moving back here from San Francisco. Before I started as a volunteer, Dick Dotson (a former employee of the Utah AIDS Foundation who had left on bad terms with Ben Barr) and his gay lover (who I believe had been a volunteer there) started another AIDS organization called Horizon House. Dick Dotson had tried to move/steal the Food Bank from UAF to Horizon House. He failed. After I had been a volunteer at UAF for some time, both did an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune about Horizon House and it's services, but they launched into full-blown attack on UAF for being an organization run only by male homosexuals and only for male homosexuals. I didn't know about the article until I went in to do my volunteer work at the UAF that night and heard some of the UAF staff and volunteers very upset and fuming about this article. They had a copy with them and I read it there. Dick Dotson and his lover were publicly using anti-gay bigotry to gin up support for themselves and their new HIV/AIDS organization in a then pervasively anti-gay Utah public by dishonestly attacking the UAF as a secretly homosexual organization. I'm not exaggerating in saying that the UAF was portrayed by them as a fake cover for a secret and nefarious male homosexual cabal. Quite an ironic attack coming from them. I wrote a letter to the Salt Lake Tribune attacking their falsehoods and hypocrisy in that article. It was published and a reporter interviewed me for an article. I made it clear to her that I was not speaking for the UAF, but that I was only a volunteer there and speaking for myself only as a concerned citizen. It is absolutely false that I was speaking on behalf of the UAF and needed anyone's permission to exercise my free speech rights in a public forum. And I also wrote a letter to the national AIDS Coalition office requesting them to change their location from Horizon House for their coming convention because of how Dick Dotson and his lover were outrageously attacking the UAF in order to destroy the UAF. [A US AIDS Coalition Convention is not a US AIDS Conference. And I never did find out if my request to them was successful in getting them to chance the venue. This article says it was, but that's probably as factually accurate as the rest of the article.] Once again, I never pretended to speak for the Utah AIDS Foundation but only for myself. I did not need anyone's permission at UAF to do either of these things. And Ben Barr, who refused to do anything to counter these very publicly harmful lies from Dick Dotson and his lover had no authority to put me on probation as a volunteer and demand that I stop making any further comments on the situation. When he tried to do so, I quit. As a quite well-informed gay man, I was not going to watch silently -- or be told to sit by and watch silently -- as Dick Dotson and his lover tried to publicly destroy the UAF by stirring up anti-gay hatred against it. My last act as a UAF volunteer was to finish inputting into a computer file all the hand-written names and info on many sheets of paper for the donors and walkers in the 1990 AIDS Walk so that the new, incoming organizer of the 1991 AIDS walk would have access to that list and help her in organizing that upcoming walk. I had a copy of that file on the computer in the computer room and put a copy on a disc and put it with my resignation note in Ben Barr's mail slot in the front office. He never gave that list in any form to the new 1991 AIDS Walk organizer and she never was told about it. He also was telling people that he had no idea why I was at the UAF so much, even though he knew it me took countless hours to create this computer file database he had asked me to do -- like I was somehow an interloper doing unauthorized things there. Oh yeah, when I was at a showing of the AIDS Quilt in SLC a while later, Dick Dotson and his lover were there. While my back was turned to them, Dick Dotson walked over and rammed his shoulder into mine and then walked away pretending that nothing had happened. "When you write histories of the UAF, you really ought to tell a factual history. "I'll also add that shortly after all this, a small group of former employees and volunteers at the Utah AIDS Foundation -- including me -- wrote letters to the UAF Board of Directors critical of Ben Barr's administration of UAF. Then we all had a meeting with the then Chair of the UAF Bd. of Directors and aired these concerns to him directly and in person. The first persons to speak at the meeting were Dick Dotson and his lover, and then they left. Then the rest of us all voiced our concerns. We all had our own concerns and criticisms. Ben Barr left shortly after that. So your implication that I was the sole instigator and agitator in forcing Ben out is absurd. That's the kind of "history" you get when you rely solely on the self-serving "history" provided by those major players trying to remake themselves in a false official "history" to fit a narrative where they were the good guys and victims and I, among others, were just unjust agitators. The fact is that they, and therefore you, threw me and other more bit players under the bus to make them look good and far better than they really were -- and are today. One has to wonder how much more of your "history" of the UAF is just as much self-serving bullshit as this part. Thank god I'm still around after being HIV+ for nearly 32 years, only very recently diagnosed with full-blown AIDS after developing an extremely aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphoma, to defend myself against this crap." Sincerely, Stuart McDonald
- Ben Williams to Michael Aaron He read a lot into one paragraph out of that entire article ... Never did I say that McDonald was the sole cause of Ben Barrs resignation... In fact doubtful he had anything to do with it... Strange rant
- Michael Aaron to Ben Williams Of course I won't be printing this, but thought I'd pass it along. Really? A 3.5 year old article? And well over our limit for a letter, not to mention libelous
- Ben Williams Stuart McDonald has been writing letters to the editor for 30 years... I know of him ... Never met him... Surprised he kept referring to Donald Stewart only as Dick Dotsons boyfriend... Interesting I need to re.-Read the article that he is referring too.
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