1 June
1880-[CRIME] According
to the United States Census, 63 men in 22 states had been incarcerated for
crimes against nature.
1928 Winnie Kimball Hudnut and Teresa Kimball Werner,
two of Heber C.
Kimball’s granddaughters, accompanied by George Wehner, a Gay spiritualist
medium from New York held a séance in the Salt Lake Tabernacle wherein he said
he received messages from Joseph Smith, from Brigham Young, as well as from
many of the sister’s dead Mormon relatives.
Wehner claimed "I saw the whole interior of the Tabernacle
shimmering in a glorious blaze of golden light, in the midst of which appeared
in the air above the organ, the figure of a young man in blue robes holding a
long trumpet of gold. From my clairvoyant description of this radiant being my
friends recognized the spirit as that of the
Angel Moroni . .
. who led his people across the plains and
deserts to ultimate safety ... as a beacon light of faith and love."
Winnie Hudnut was mother of Natasha Rambova and Rudolph Valentino’s
mother-in-law.
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| Winnie Kimball Hudnut |
1968 Park
Theater in Los Angeles originally the
Alvarado became the first theater to commercially show films with
male nudity and gay themes. The first homosexual hard core film showing male
nudity were shown at the Park Theater in Los
Angeles . Renamed the Park Theatre on April 6, 1966, the theatre switched to porn,
and then gay porn. In the 1970’s, the Park Theatre returned to
mainstream films. The theatre closed in 1986 and was gutted. Today, the
building houses a swap meet
 |
| Park Theater |
1968 A man on "the list" named
Frank was expelled from BYU because of a
"security report indicating he was a homosexual". Five days after his
suspension, Frank was sent a letter from Security Chief Kenneth Lauritzen
detailing that he was restricted from "BYU campus at all times unless he
received permission from the Dean
of Students" or Lauritzen himself.
During the intervening year, Frank had been to see Spencer Kimball but had
"not received clearance from him to return to BYU" and had denied to
Kimball that he was "homosexually inclined". Frank had also informed
Kimball that "he could supply the names of a hundred students and faculty
at BYU who were involved in homosexual activities", however Kimball had
informed Laurtizen that ultimately Frank had provided no such list. On April
30, 1969, Frank "was observed on campus without permission" so a
complaint for trespassing had been filed against him by BYU, and he was to
appear in Provo City court on June
20, exactly one week before the infamous "Stonewall Riots" in New
York City would initiate the Gay Liberation movement nationally. Frank also had
called Lauritzen to tell him that he would be taking this matter to LDS
president David O. McKay, since Frank was a hair stylist and had cut the hair
of McKay's daughter-in-law many times. Frank had arranged through one of his
female clients to get an appointment with
McKay for June 18, 1969. (Connell
O’Donovan)
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| Spencer Kimball |
1968 E. Donald Attridge left Provo
Utah to return to New York state after having a harrowing
experience his 2nd semester at BYU. “I found a job working in the
Harris Fine Arts Center as a janitor. My cleaning area was near the costume
room. In the room the workers busily prepared costumes for the upcoming opera
production, The Masked Ball. There I
met
George a flamboyant costumier. It wasn't long before we were talking and I was
made aware of a group of homosexuals who spent time together on campus but were
very secretive. George asked me over to his apartment. We ended up being
affectionate to each other. He informed me that I had passed the
"test." I was introduced to the other members of the society. There
were rumors that one of President Wilkinson's relatives cruised the streets of Provo was one of the bits
of gossip I was told from the group. We would often meet in the stand down
lounge in the Wilkinson
Center Salt Lake City and attend a bar known as Radio City
looking for
love but I did not know how to do that and found further confusion. The group
at the Wilkinson step down lounge seemed to taunt me in whatever I was
experiencing. In their paranoid hysteria they seem to mock my problems. I
wanted friends. I wanted to find a companion. Many of them found life time
companions as I would learn later in life but I found less than my expectations
with them. Then in the early part of 1968 I met Brent. He was an anthropology
student. We were listening to music in the library at separate study booths
across from each other. One day our shoes touched and I smiled. He smiled. We
talked. I thought we were developing a friendship. I grew to like him. But I
just did not understand how to build a relationship. I didn't realize for a
long time I was trying to have dessert before dinner. I also forgot the
appetizers. Where were my role models? There were none. No one in the Church
could ever realize I just wanted to love and be loved. They kept making me
think that all I could attain in homosexuality was sex. So I acted according to
the prevalent knowledge of the times. One of the guys in the gay group was
going out of town and I asked him if I could stay at his little cottage. It was
closer to downtown Provo .
He agreed. So I took Brent there to share some intimacy with him. There was
some awkward moments but essentially we both shared affection and a form of
sexual intimacy. I thought Brent enjoyed our experience. We both went home. I
expected to see him in the library the next week but he was not there. My
studies continued. I sang in the Oratorio Chorus Concert in the Mozart Requiem.
I looked forward to growing closer to Brent but I could not find him anywhere
on campus. Toward the end of winter [March] I was called into the University
Security for an interview with Mr. [Kenneth] Lauritzen. I didn't have a clue
what security wanted with me. I was brought into an office where Mr. Lauritzen
informed me of a complaint lodged against me. There were no names mentioned. I
was accused of seducing some girl's boyfriend. It still didn't dawn on me. This
girl learned from her boyfriend that he had a homosexual experience. The girl
went to her Bishop. The Bishop notified B.Y.U. security. From the information
given to me that day I denied all the allegations and left the office. I really did not even think that this was
Brent or his girlfriend or his Bishop. I didn't even know he had a girlfriend.
He never mentioned anything about girls. After a while I came to realize I had
been caught. I had been trapped in a sad situation which put me in legal
jeopardy now according to Mr Lauritzen's second interrogation of me. It was an
implied threat of a prison sentence in the guise that Brent was under age. It
was impressed upon me by Mr.Lauritzen to reveal the names of other homosexuals
attending Brigham
Young University
since one of the people in our group was his nephew. [Brad committed suicide in 1971 after being committed to a psych ward by his family] I was suspended from the University and instructed to go to Salt Lake City for an interview with Apostle
Kimball. I don't remember the interview, but in a series of phone calls he
encouraged me to turn in other homosexuals at B.Y.U. I felt abandoned by
everyone. I received no comfort from my homosexual friends. I was broke
financially and emotionally. I was more than broke. I was angry. I could not face
this alone. I was in a panic. It seemed I started to believe all the things
straight people and the leaders in the Church were telling me over the years
about homosexuals. It made me feel that we were mentally ill. I decided to
reveal names to Elder Kimball, hoping I would understand more of what our place
was with the Lord and in His Church. How would I be dealt with? What were the
answers for being homosexual? If I were so repulsive to God maybe now the
leaders could show me how to change? Maybe there would arise a plan to help all
of us work out the situation of being homosexual and being members of the
Church. I imagined a discussion group with all of the gay group attending with
Apostle Kimball helping us all. I was to turn in a list of people to Elder
Kimball at my apartment. Then Elder Kimball called changing the place to meet
as the Ernest L. Wilkinson
Center Provo therapist I went to
see that one of the students in my apartment complex was homosexual and I
believe this might have stopped Elder Kimball from meeting me there. I went to
the Wilkinson Center Salt Lake City just sixty miles away to look
for a job. I had little money. I seemed to have no friends left, so I ran. I
can remember trudging through slush and snow in Salt Lake City interviewing for jobs. I
remember one job was working in a west-side warehouse. I wasn't hired. I felt
like I had been given a death sentence. I didn't know where I was going to
sleep. I decided to go to the house of someone I had met in the
Radio City
Lounge. He was a security guard for the Church and a reported relative of
Apostle Kimball. He took me into his apartment. He and his room mate let me
stay for a few nights until I felt I had to return to the Moon apartments to
get my belongings. When I did return to my college roommates I explained I had
some troubles and had left school. They seemed shocked but suggested I stay
with them and find a job in Provo .
I worked for some professors doing yard work. I had lost my student loans. I
was expelled from the University I had attended. I was lost. I got a lot of
comfort from my roommates and little judgment. They knew little about my being
gay and the experiences I had at the campus. I believe I told Lynn and his girl friend what had happened.
Somehow I made it through the trauma of that Spring of 1968. Other people on
the list started calling me. I was told that one of the persons on the list was
up for an ROTC officer promotion and lost that commission. Another's teaching
credentials were denied. Still another's file was permanently altered so that
his career choices had been seriously curtailed. Many were expelled from
school. I remember Jason a relative of a general authority was able to deny the
accusations enough as to have not been expelled. It was Jason who later in life
told me that Brad, a relative to Mr. Lauritzen, from campus security was
hospitalized in a mental institution. He was one of those on my list. Jason
told me that Brad was placed on the psych ward of the hospital but later
escaped. He ended up committing suicide. I shall forever be reminded. [We’ll
Find a Place by Donald Attridge chapter 9]
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| Harris Fine Arts |
 |
| Wilkinson Center |
 |
| Brad Lauritzen |
 |
| Dick Michaels |
1970- At the
Second Congress to
Unite Women in New York City, radical lesbians distribute an epoch-defining
manifesto entitled “Woman-Identified Woman." The manifesto, which is also
published in the June 1970 issue of Come Out!, is among the first to advocate
lesbianism as a (feminist) political choice and solidarity with separatism.
1970- Sexology magazine reported that a study shows that
Gay men have larger penises than heterosexual men.
 |
| Victor Brown |
 |
| Christopher George |
1975 – Gay Freedom Day was held at City Creek Canyon
Site Number 10 sponsored by the Gay Community Service Center with ”better
than 400 people in attendance”.
Festivities begin at noon with beer, food, and soft drinks provided.
Included in the day’s activities will be volleyball, an all day “do your own
thing” talent revue and sing a-long, games for prizes, and a white elephant
auction. Artists, craftsmen and anyone wishing to may set up areas to display
their wares for sale or show. A shuttle service will run to and from the site
at 12:00, 2:00, and 4:00 for those who don’t have transportation. Pickup points
will be Radio City Gay Community
Service Center
1975 The Gay Community Service Center opened its doors to
the public. Proposed services available will be a “Gay Line” 24 hour answering
service manned by trained volunteers to aid in crisis intervention, alcohol and
drug related problems, emergency food and housing, employment, medical
services, legal aid, and referrals. Other than providing human services a
purpose of this organization will be educating the Gay individual and the
general community. It is felt that educating the Gay person seeking to learn about
himself or herself is needed as much as educating the general community. The
Gay person will be aided in defining his /her sexual orientation toward a
positive self concept that will confront the negative ideas transferred by
society, family, and church. The general
public will be educated by publications, the electronic media and a proposed
Speakers Bureau that will be available to any interested groups. In this manner
it is hoped to dispel the myths associated with the Gay life style and promote
community relations unifying the Gay community by providing social alternatives
in addition to the Gay bars and churches will be a further purpose of the
center. Proposed activities will be canyon party dance marathon, art shows, and
other fund raising events. Anyone wishing to volunteer services particularly in
the area of counseling should phone the center after June 1. Also needed are
furnishings for the center.
1977 Women Aware has
existed seven months. In that time we have had a dance, a couple of parties,
and a lot of meetings. We have accomplished nothing. Up until now, our
activities have been safe. They have kept the Lesbian community just where the
community wants it out of sight. We have been polite and legitimate and
powerless. Some of the establishment may be slightly uncomfortable with us, but
that is because they don’t know us as yet. We are at a crossroads. We can
continue as we are. The community will
get to know us, grow comfortable with us, throw us a crumb from time, and
relax. On the other hand, we can become vocal and active. The community will
get to know us, fear us, fight us like hell, and do everything it can to
destroy us. By choosing the first alternative, we could exist for eons. We
could live in harmony with all the powerless, pitiable, and pathetic token
organizations that the establishment allows to exits in the name of freedom and
equality. Or we could choose the second
alternatives. We may be destroyed, that is the risk. Or we may accomplish some
real goals and gains, some real power; that is the reward. Choosing our course
of action concerning the Boise
women may decide which direction Women Aware will flow. If we allow this
opportunity, this responsibility, to pass by, we have lost just that much
community respect. If we grasp the opportunity we are in for a fight. But win or lose, we have shown that we will
fight, we will be heard, we will push, we will not accept tokenism. I am asking
each of you to reach inside and grasp any shred of self respect or dignity or
anger and use these tools to fight the cancer in Boise . For just like cancer, it erupted in Idaho , but it is just a matter of time before it spreads
to Utah and
you and me.” A.A. [Andrea Ashcraft] (The Open Door June 1977 Volume 1 No. 5 [actually
No. 6] Editor Ray Hencke )
.jpg) |
| Cloy Jenkins |
 |
| Carla Gourdin |
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| David Monson |
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| Orrin Hatch |
1978 Rev. Ken Storer, former director of the Gay Community service
Center, and his spouse
Roger Hurd called to move to Boise ,
Idaho to assist in starting a Metropolitan Community Church Metropolitan Community
Church in Boise , Idaho Portland
and then on to Tacoma
where he continued to serve with the MCC church. In the 1980’s, after
relocating to Eugene ,
Reverend Ken found himself in the midst of the AIDs epidemic. Ken was called to
a new ministry. He helped found “Shanti in Oregon ”, a ministry/service organization
designed to offer services to rural gay men suffering from AIDs. In 1988, after
burying close to 100 men, Ken found himself at a Radical Faerie Gathering at
Breitenbush Hot Springs, broken and exhausted. Breitenbush Hot Springs healed
his heart and he found a new path there as a spiritual guide and teacher. We
now know him as Jamshed and for over 20 years he has extended gracious
hospitality for many groups and individuals including Women in the Woods and
the Radical Faeries. Jamshed has given to our Pacific Northwest Community for
over thirty years. We at SHARE would be honored to be of service to him.
Jamshed Storer has been instrumental in laying the foundation for our community
today. Now it is our responsibility as a community to build upon that
foundation. [13 June 2009 Just/Out]
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| Ken Storer |
1979 The Uptown
Club located at 15 South 400 West SLC was Utah's main women’s bar. Located just south of the old Sun Tavern. Now torn down and part of the Jazz Center complex.
1980- After a year of swollen lymph nodes and a
rash,
Gaeton Dugas was diagnosed with "gay cancer" in New York City. So
called "Patient Zero", a young Canadian airline steward named Gaeton
Dugas, is portrayed by Randy Shilts in the Band Played On as the promiscuous Gay
man "who brought the AIDS virus from Paris and ignited the epidemic in North America ." Shilts, who later died of AIDS him
self, never explained where or how Dugas got his infection. What Shilts
probably did not know is that when Dugas was diagnosed in 1980, over twenty
percent of the Manhattan Gay men involved in the Hepatitis-B experiment were
HIV-positive. This 20% infection rate was discovered after the HIV blood test
became available in 1985, and after Dr. Wolf Szmuness’ stored blood at the New York Blood Center
 |
| Gaeton Dugas |
 |
| Trevor Southey |
1984- Salt Lake City’s Women collective 20 Rue
Jacob closed due to low attendance and debt. Located at 232 East 800 South, Salt Lake City , Utah Paris . "Men have skins but women have
flesh—flesh that takes and gives light."-Natalie Barney.
Natalie Barney
was born in Dayton , Ohio
 |
 |
| Michael Aaron |
1985- Metropolitan
Community Church
of Salt Lake
board voted to
change name to Resurrection
Metropolitan Community
Church
 |
| Bruce Barton |
1985- Becky Moss and Mel Baker used pseudonyms Mickey
(Becky Moss) and Dean (Mel Baker) as co-hosts
of Concerning Gays on KRCL. Afraid of professional retaliation if used real
names.
1985- Salt Lake Chapter of Affirmation began
meeting at the Crossroads Urban Center on Wednesday nights. Began promoting
themselves as an organization for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Mormons. They met
at a building at 347 South 400 East near downtown in Salt
Lake City which officially became Crossroads Urban
Center
Deaconess Home. Named for Mrs. Eliza Given Davis, the second president of the
Society, the building served as a residence for women, serving local Methodist
parishes and their surrounding neighborhoods, until 1936. Davis Esther Hall was
established in the building in 1937 after the Deaconess Home was closed the
previous year. Esther Hall was a home for young women working or attending
school in Salt Lake City ,
and part of a network of boarding homes operated by the Methodist Women. Davis
Esther Hall closed in 1965. Crossroads
Urban Center United Methodist
Church United Methodist
Church Crossroads
Urban Center 's
Mission is to serve and empower the
disadvantaged in Utah .
Its work is supported both locally and nationally by individuals, businesses,
foundations, and numerous faith communities.
1988- Salt Lake City Vice Squad cited Hyatt Book Store with
distributing pornography for carrying Gay men magazines Jock and Black
Beauty. “Its not the first time Vice
has done this. They do it every year.
Its just a form of harassment.
They usually drop the charges,” said a magazine store employee. Other
stores cited were The Magazine Shop, Books Etc.
1988 While laying out at Memory Grove writing in my
journal, Curtis Jensen and Joe Dewey tracked me down and Curtis jumped my case
over my pulling my support from the Youth Group. I asked him did he want to
talk to me or yell at me. When he allowed me to tell him my reasons
surprisingly Joe Dewey said to Curtis, “You ought to stop jumping all over Ben
and get after Garth Chamberlain because what Ben says makes 100 per cent
sense.” Joe and I usually do not see eye to eye so he totally redeemed himself
in my estimations because what he said showed maturity and that he was trying
to be objective about the whole issue.
Anyway when we were through, Curtis and I resolved our differences but I
still said I could not support or refer people to The Youth Group as it is
presently constituted. I wrote my historical column for The Triangle today
on Aristogeton and Hermodius, ancient Greek men whose homosexual love founded
democracy in Athens. Why aren’t we taught this is school? Homophobia strikes
again. Who wants their children to know
that fags created the democracy from which sprang our own democratic
traditions?
 |
| Craig Miller |
 |
| Robert Smith |
 |
| Kathryn Warner |
 |
| Chastity Chaz Bono |
1996 Page: C5 Art Show,
festival and fund-raiser for Utah's
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities, Nunemaker Place,
Westminster College, 1840 S. 1300 East, Salt
Lake City ,5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission by $5 donation.
1996 Page: SL Tribune A12 Public Forum Letter Non-Mormons Are Active in
Community Affairs Connie Buie (Forum,
May 14) poses questions to us non-Mormons who appear to do nothing but complain
in Forum letters about our sorry state of affairs in this dominant LDS
culture(i.e., do we attend community meetings, do we vote, are we involved in
the political process?).Emphatically, yes!
The recent Salt Lake City
school board meeting at Hawthorne Elementary was packed with people who
overwhelmingly supported the
Gay/Straight Alliance, but all to no effect --the board voted 4-3 to ban
all clubs rather than allow the alliance to meet (a vote that strongly follows
LDS voices on the matter). Second, the
opposition was outnumbered 4-1on the issue of continuing Salt Lake County
1997 Journeyman 3 Academy During
the summer of 1997, several people who took the leather lifestyle seriously
decided they wanted to learn more about it. So they went to Michael A, who is a
highly regarded and respected member of the community, and they convinced him
to create a class for those founding members to be able to learn and improve
their knowledge of the leather lifestyle. They started holding classes in June
of 1997 and continued until they graduated in March of 1999. During this time
they had to read several books varying from self-improvement books to books
that dealt directly with the leather community and its history, and many other
varieties in between. The purpose of this was to help the students broaden
their knowledge of themselves, as well as learning about the leather community
as a whole. They had several national presenters who came and did presentations
for the class on various theories and techniques that were their specialties.
They also had to learn the art of boot polishing, which was no easy task: in
order to graduate, a student would have to get his or her boots polished so
that it would pass inspection. This inspection consisted of holding a quarter
to the boot with a flashlight and the date had to be readable in the
reflection. This may seem simple at first glance, but many students learned
about patience through this process. This part of the class later became a form
of recognition: when people from different areas would go to events together,
people would see their boots and ask if they were from Salt Lake. Not only did
they have book reports and presentations to give, they would also cover things
such as spirituality and energy and how it plays an important part in the community.
There were eight students who graduated from the first class two and a half
years later. The idea was for them to pass on what they had learned to others
and improve the community. There have been several classes since then and
Michael A has taught each one. The majority of the curriculum has remained the
same. However, the length of the time it takes to graduate and the order of
things that were done in each class has varied due to the dynamics of how each
group bonded and their willingness to learn. Also taken into consideration was
the fact that these classes would have guest presenters from out of town who
would teach on various topics as well. Not everyone who has started taking the
classes has graduated. Several find that they don't like the idea of learning
about themselves. Others simply decide that it is not for them. Most of those
who have completed the class have come to have a greater understanding of and
respect for the community.
2001 The 2nd Utah Gay Rodeo Association held at the Utah State Fair Park.
2001 The 2nd Utah Gay Rodeo Association held at the Utah State Fair Park.
2002 The 3rd Utah Gay Rodeo Association held at the Utah State Fairpark
2004 Tuesday Subject: History of
Kristen Ries Community Service Awards
THE KRISTEN RIES COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD The first Pride Day community
service award was created by Donny Eastepp, Emperor XII of the Royal Court of
the Golden Spike Empire while serving as Gay Pride Day Chair in 1987. The award
was established to recognized outstanding service to the Lambda Community. It
was presented to Dr. Kristen Ries for her humanitarian efforts in dealing with
the AIDS crisis and being the first Utah physician to serve the AIDS community.
The award was afterwards named in her honor. The 2nd recipient of the Kristen
Ries Award was Rev. Bruce Barton former pastor of the Resurrection Metropolitan
Community Church of Salt Lake City. Rev. Barton was recognized for his ministry
to the entire Lambda Community of Utah, not just his church. In 1989 the 3rd
honor was given to KUTV Channel 2. The choice was controversial since many felt
the award should be given only to members of the Lambda Community. However the
Pride Day Committee felt that KUTV's contributions in bringing the AIDS Quilt
to the Salt Palace merited recognition. Afterwards however, the Gay and Lesbian
Community Council of Utah voted to have the award given only to individuals or
organizations from the Lambda community. The first award of the 1990's was
given to community activist Chuck Whyte. He received the 4th award for his
annual Unity Show fundraiser and for helping to establish a food bank for the
Salt Lake AIDS Foundation. In 1991, the Kristen Ries Award was offered to three
individuals, Nikki Boyer, Becky Moss, and Ben Williams. Boyer was honored for
her 20 years of Community Service. Moss was recognized for hosting Concerning
Gays and Lesbians" on KRCL FM91 since 1983. Williams was acknowledged for
creating a summer retreat, Beyond Stonewall and for building community
organizations. The 6th Kristen Ries Award was presented to the College of Monarchs
of the Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire and to Craig Miller. Miller was
recognized in 1992 for serving as first director of the Utah Stonewall Center
and the Royal Court's Monarchs for their charitable contributions to the Gay
and straight communities since 1975. After some concerns over the selection
process of recipients for the award, in 1993, Pride Day Co-Chair, Kevin Hillman
established the procedure for choosing recipients, which is still followed
today. Hillman established an award committee made up of past recipients. This
committee chose the recipients rather than Gay Pride Day committee members
doing the selecting. Nominations of candidates for the award however was and
still is open to anyone from the Lambda community. Ben Barr, Val Mansfield, and
Kathy Worthington were all honored in 1993 under this new procedure. Barr was
honored as an AIDS educator and executor director of the Utah AIDS Foundation.
Mansfield a long time Gay Activist and artist was acknowledged for his Outreach
Program and political activism. Worthington was honored as founder of the
Women's Community News and for her service to the Utah Stonewall Center. The
8th Dr. Kristen Ries Award was presented to Kim Russo for her AIDS education
outreach and service to the Lambda Community. The following year, 1995, Bruce
Harmon, Emperor XV of RCGSE, was bestowed the Dr. Kristen Ries Award for his
long term charitable service and for his efforts with establishing the annual
Gay Pride Day Parade. Harmon joined his partner Rev. Bruce Barton as an
honoree. In 1996 the 10th Kristen Ries Award was shared by Clariss Cartier
Empress XI of the RCGSE aka Doug Tollstrup and Charlene Orchard. Orchard was
honored as co-chairwoman of the Utah Human Rights Coalition and promoter of the
Utah Stonewall Center. Tollstrup was honored for his raising money for charity
under the stage name Clariss Cartier. In the 11th year of the award, it was
presented to four individuals, Barb Barnhart, Rev. Kelly Byrnes, Jeff Freedman,
and Maggie Snyder PA-C. Barnhart was acknowledged as a tireless AIDS Activist.
Rev. Byrnes was recognized as pastor of Bridgerland Metropolitan Community
Church and Cache Valley activist. Freeman, Emperor XVII of the RCGSE, was
complimented for his charity work, founding the Goodtime Bowling League, and
being chair of Pride Day committee. Snyder was praised for her devotion to the
care of People With AIDS. Barnhart, a partner of past recipient, Kim Russo,
later passed away that year. In 1998 the Kristen Ries Award was presented to
LaDonna Moore, former executive director of the Utah AIDS Foundation. Dr. Patty
Reagan was awarded the 1999 honor for her pioneering AIDS education and
founding the Salt Lake AIDS Foundation. The new Millenium saw Marlin Criddle,
Laura Millikin Gray and Brenda Voisard received the 2000
for their activism and service to the Lambda community. Criddle was honored for
his service as Chair of the Board of the Utah Stonewall Center, his creation of
a Lambda Film Festival, and his devotion of countless hours of pro bonum legal
service to the Lambda Community. Voisard was valued as chair of the Lambda
Community Council of Utah and a heavy involvement in womyn issues. Millikin
Gray was credited also as an attorney using her considerable talent to
strengthen our Lambda Community. In 2001 Brook Heartsong was honored with a
Kristen Ries Award for being a past chair of the board of directors of the Utah
Stonewall Center and for over seeing the transition of the Utah Stonewall
Center to the GLBT Community Center and Stonewall Coffee Shop. Kevin Hillman,
long time activist and member of Utah Gay Rodeo Association, GLCCU, and past co
chair of two Pride Days was honored in 2002 on the 15th anniversary of the
award. Finally in 2003 Doug Wortham, a co founder of GLISTN, interim director of
GLBTCCU, and political activist was given the award. The Kristen Ries Community
Service Award Recipients while seemingly diverse have the commonality of having
given time, service, and commitment to the Lambda Community. They are positive
role models and like Dr. Kristen Ries "exemplified everything that the
award has stood for: compassion, leadership, and courage."
2005 Kristen Award Nominees Dear Friends, Well, it's that
time of year again to select this year's Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service
Award Recipient. Below are five
nominations for the Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award: Melissa Larson,
Capt. James Tingey, Jane and Tami Marquardt (one vote for a joint nomination),
Scott McCoy, Michael Picardi The nominations
that I received are included in the text below. (For ease of reading, I've
attached the same information as a Word document.) Please read through these and respond to me
by 2:00 PM Wednesday, June 1, 2005, with the name of your preferred recipient.
At that time I will tally the votes from all the responses I’ve received. If you cannot email me, you may call my home
number 801 355-5239 and leave a message if I’m not there. Also, if you can contact other past
recipients of the Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award whom I have not been
able to reach, please encourage them to contact me. I've also attached the
whole list of past recipients. I'll
contact some of you by phone if I don't have your emails. Thank you, and I hope to see you at the
Grand Marshall reception Friday, June 10, at the Salt Lake City Library from
6:00 - 9:00 PM where this award will be announced publicly, and at Pride on
Sunday, June 12. Thanks to you all,
Craig [Miller]
- Melissa Larson: Missy has been one of the most active members in multiple non-profit events ranging in diversity from The Hope Alliance, to the League of Women Voters, to Utah Families Coalition (under the GLBTU umbrella), to name just a few. She exemplifies what an activist should embody & does not limit her service to just that of the gay, lesbian, and transgender community. She truly deserves to be recognized for her un-wavering efforts to promote compassion, leadership and courage. Last year she received the GLBTCCU’s Volunteer of the Year Award. She embodies what it means to be a humanitarian. Nominated by Jodie Johnson.
- Capt. Tracy Tingey: I would like to nominate a friend of mine, my partner’s, and the GLBT community for the Dr. Kristen Rice Community Service Award: Capt. Tracy Tingey, South Salt Lake Police Department. I feel he deserves such public recognition for being: * an openly gay police officer, for starters - ranked fourth highest in his department; * active with the GLBT Public Safety Liaison Committee; * a co-organizer of a group of gay and lesbian cops in the Salt Lake Valley, allowing for safe socializing and networking; * a visible (and popular!) law enforcement presence at the Queer Prom 2005; and, * open and honest about his involvement in alternative (fetish) activities, having served several terms as an elected officer of Wasatch Leathermen's Association (an affiliate group of the GLBT Community Center of Utah), a social group for gay leathermen that raised several hundred dollars for The Center during his term as President (May '04 to Apr '05). I am glad to see Salt Lake Metro's latest edition (volume 2, issue 10, page 10) includes an extensive article about gay and lesbian police officers - with significant coverage of Capt. Tingey. Respectfully submitted, Jay Heuman 581 Douglas Street Curator of Education Ogden, UT 84404
- Scott McCoy (nominated 2004): Craig, I nominate attorney Scott McCoy. He's a board member of Equality Utah, and has led the charge to stop (or at least slow down) the hateful anti gay marriage legislation that came out of the session. He's worked, and is working, tirelessly on our issues, and has now taken a leave of absence from his law firm to head up the "Don't Amend" campaign to fight the proposed change to the Utah Constitution banning gay marriage and civil unions. That will be on the ballot this November. Nominated by Regards, Laura M. Gray
- Jane A. Marquardt and Tami E. Marquardt (nominated 2004) I nominate Jane A. Marquardt and Tami E. Marquardt for the Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award. Jane and Tami are tireless activists who are committed to bringing about political and social change in
- Michael Picardi (nominated 2004) I respectfully submit the name of Michael Picardi as a nominee for the Dr. Kristin Ries Award. I met Michael during the 2003 session of the Utah State Legislature. As the chair of the Utah Stonewall Democrats, he lobbied for the passage of an effective hate crimes law for Utah. Michael was one of the few advocates of the bill who was at the Capitol on a daily basis. His persistent and friendly nature was instrumental in winning a few legislators to our side. Even though the bill did not pass, Michael did not give up the fight. During the fall of 2003, I was honored to serve with Michael on a coalition of community advocates. This coalition was formed to help pass hate crimes legislation during the 2004 legislative session. I vividly remember sitting around the table of our first meeting and thinking that only a few advocates would stick it out to the end. Michael was one of them. He brought to the coalition new ideas we had not tried before. His endurance and passion about the issue inspired all of us on the coalition. Again, during the 2004 legislative session, Michael was one advocate lobbying on a daily basis. This year, however, not only was hate crimes an issue, but also gay marriage. He organized and taught others how to lobby their elected officials. On the last night of the session, when over 100 members of the GLBT community were at the Capitol, Michael was there giving direction and encouragement to those who had come. With the passage of the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage as well as the defeat of a hate crimes bill, Michael vowed not to stop his fight. In his capacity as a leader in the GLBT community, he has proved to be an invaluable asset. He has shown time and time again his dedication and perseverance to fighting the injustices placed on the community by those in power. Michael was recently chosen by Democrats statewide to represent Utah at the Democratic National Convention in July. The look of shock on his face when the results were announced is one I will always remember. This honor shows that Michael is an excellent representative of Utah’s GLBT community. Helen Keller once said, "I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do." Michael Picardi is the embodiment of this quote. He is always willing to stand up for the rights of everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. He will do anything to help another, even if he does not know them. Michael Picardi is, in my opinion, very deserving of this award. Thank you for your consideration of this request. Sincerely, Megan Risbon
2006 Gays
fighting marriage amendment They hope to rally support through Utah Pride
events By Deborah Bulkeley Deseret Morning News Gay and lesbian activists hope
to use this weekend's Utah Pride Celebration to counter the LDS Church LDS
Church Salt Lake City
on Sunday and predicted more will watch the Pride Parade. "I think it is
important that people get involved," he said. "There is a real
difference that can be made. . . . We are a large and thriving community."
Pride festivities will include a political stage with speeches on issues
ranging from candidate endorsements to national issues. Two years ago, the
events were aimed largely at defeating a state constitutional amendment
defining marriage as the union of "a man and a woman." That amendment
was later approved by two-thirds of Utah
voters. "Pride is always, in my view, a political statement," said
Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender
Community Center of Utah, which sponsors the annual event. While it is a
coincidence the federal marriage amendment debate is taking place at the same
time as the Utah Pride celebration, organizers expect it will dominate
conversations. This won't be the first time the U.S. Congress has debated a
constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. A previous federal amendment was
passed by the House but not the Senate. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, co-sponsor of
the current federal amendment, said after a Judiciary Committee meeting earlier
this month that it is needed to "defend traditional marriage from being
undermined." "The bedrock of society is the family, and it is
traditional marriage that undergirds the family," Hatch said. "But
recent court decisions have proven that some courts are usurping the role of legislatures by creating their
own definitions of marriage." Apparently in response to the LDS Church Utah 's
other Republican senator, Bob Bennett, supports allowing the debate on the
federal marriage amendment to go forward, said his spokeswoman, MaryJane
Collipriest. Bennett's office didn't report an unusually high number of calls
on the topic. To be added to the Constitution, the amendment would need
approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate and of three-fourths of the
nation's state legislatures. The Utah Pride Parade will start at 10 a.m. Sunday
at 300 South and State. The Pride Festival at Washington and Library squares will run from
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the festival is $5 or $3 for seniors. For more
information, visit www.utahpride.org.
2006 Pride Film Festival To kick off and celebrate Pride, the Salt
Lake Film Center and Utah Pride present the Damn These Heels Film Festival. All
films are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come,
first-served basis. This schedule is subject to change, so check back for the
latest information. June 1, 7:30 pm: Lover Other @ the Broadway Theatre (111
East 300 South). June 2, 10:00 pm: Say Uncle @ Brewvies (677 South 200 West).
June 3, 5:00 pm: Boy Culture @ the Broadway Theatre (111 East 300 South).
2007 Grand Marshal Reception, Festival Grounds (main entrance opens
6:00pm) We begin our festivities with the annual Grand Marshal's Reception.
This year we are proud to announce as our esteemed Grand Marshal, Mr. John
Amaechi. Our reception will open at 6:30pm with cocktails and hor d' ouerves,
as we mix and mingle with Mr. Amaechi, city representatives, and important
sponsors. As a fundraising activity for the Utah Pride Center
2009 Cheney backs gay marriage, says it should be states' call -
Washington Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gays being
able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the
decision.
2010 WVC approves legal protections for LGBT people \Ordinances »
Mayor Winder, who is LDS, says he is just following Christian beliefs. By
Jennifer W. Sanchez The Salt Lake Tribune Updated:06/01/2010 The West Valley
City Council, in a 5-1 vote, approved Tuesday an anti-discrimination ordinance
similar to those recently passed in other Utah cities. About 60 people attended
the meeting at City Hall. Rep. Janice Fisher, D-West Valley City, and about
seven others spoke in favor of the proposal to protect gay and transgender
residents from housing and employment discrimination. No one spoke publicly
against it. The ordinance will go into affect Tuesday when Mayor Mike Winder
signs it during a 4 p.m. ceremony at City Hall hosted by Equality Utah, a
nonprofit gay advocacy group. Winder called it a "historic day" for
the state's second largest city. As a Mormon, he said supporting the ordinance
is following in his Christian ways to treat people the way you would want to be
treated. "It was the right thing to do," Winder told the crowd.
Councilman Corey Rushton agreed, saying it was about time city leaders pulled
their heads out of the sand and demand "equal protection" for all
residents. "It's unfortunate when we have to legislate niceness,"
Councilman Steve Vincent said. Councilman Russ Brooks, who was the only member
to vote against the ordinance, said he's been on the council for 14 years and
the issue had never come up until Salt Lake City brought it up. It seems like
West Valley City is just "following the streams that go down the
river" and being "like our big sister Salt Lake City," he said.
"We're being asked to do something that we're not ready to do," he
said, adding it might be more work for the city. Several of the people who
supported the ordinance were affiliated with Equality Utah. Todd Olsen, an
Equality Utah board member, said the ordinance will show that "West Valley
City treats everyone equally and fairly." Larry Gonzalez, a West Valley
City landlord, said the ordinance is "necessary." Stacia Ireland, a
West Valley City resident, taught in area schools for 30 years. She said she
knows the city's growing diversity, but it's not just about including people's
various traditions and cultures. "Diversity is not just in skin
color," she said. "We are all tax paying citizens and deserve the
same protection." Winder suggested the ordinance at an annual planning
retreat in January. The 12-page ordinance is essentially a compilation of Salt
Lake City's two anti-discrimination measures on housing and employment, passed
in November. Violations by West Valley City landlords with four to 20 units, or
by employers with 14 or fewer workers, will carry a $500 fine. The fine will be
$1,000 for landlords with 21 or more units or employers of 15 or more workers.
Salt Lake County, Park City and, most recently, Logan also passed similar
measures. Other local governments, including Ogden, Taylorsville and Summit
County, are considering similar ordinances. jsanchez@sltrib.com
 |
| James Bennion |
2012 Jim Dabakis : There are few people (maybe no one) who have spent as much time and devotion,completely volunteer, to building up our community over the last 40 years as Ben Williams. Generations from now, it will be Ben's work, in intricate detail, that will tell our story. Without Ben little would be left to document our lives and our progress. His thousands of pages of journals and boxes of programs, tickets, meeting notes, magazines and defunct newspapers are the document the backbone of what has happened to LGBT people in Utah! He can get a little crusty, especially if someone is messing with history or overlooking someone's contributions but it is impossible to find someone who has given more. But few have a bigger heart. Between HRC, Equality and Pride we ought to recognize his work--Ben is a quiet hero. Maybe that will motivate him to get out of the hot tub, pull out those tens of thousands of documents and turn them into our history book!
2017 Salt Lake City Weekly The PRIDE Issue Be bold. Be brave. Be proud. Be you.
By
City Weekly Staff and Enrique Limón @EnriqueLimon The
quote "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken," is often
attributed to Oscar Wilde, though some could argue it was perhaps a marketing
ploy by the brilliant minds at Hobby Lobby to sell more ready-made art.
Still,
the queer playwright and poet's words carry with them a dose of self-acceptance
heft. Despite many misconceptions, LGBTQ culture in Salt Lake City is thriving,
and this week's Pride festivities are a testament to that—from the 8th annual
Miss City Weekly on Thursday, to Sunday's parade, to a series of splinter
festivities across town—SLC's rainbow colors run deep. This
issue is licensed as a celebration, not a condemnation. To wit, subjects
highlighted in this extra-special edition range from locals celebrating
breakthrough milestones, to festival mainstage headliner Big Freedia, to a
group of golden gays living life to the fullest, plus a revealing conversation
with covergirl Alaska Thunderfuck. In these pages, you'll also get chummy with
some of the city's top bartenders, learn to embrace often-misunderstood
bisexuality and look back at some of the past 365 days' landmark headlines. This
is for you: the different, the outsiders, the weirdos. Go ahead and relish in
the oddities that shape your individuality and remember to be bold. Be brave.
Be proud. Be you. —Enrique
Limón
The
Year in Queer, from A-Z By
Enrique Limón A is for allies. Be them from inside the LGBTQ community (lesbians played a huge role helping out their gay brothers during the height of the AIDS crisis), or outside, the queer movement owes a lot to those who've lent their voice when they didn't have to. Think the revolutionary flame has extinguished? Just last March, students at Mount Ogden Junior High School got approval from the Ogden Board of Education to start the district's first gay-straight alliance club.
B is for bathrooms. In February, the current administration rescinded former President Obama's pledge that transgender students in public schools could use the bathroom that matched their gender. "This is a mean-spirited attack on hundreds of thousands of students who simply want to be their true selves and be treated with dignity while attending school," Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said at the time. As recently as last week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) once again implied that he'd press legislators to return for a special session on the matter.
C is for Cox. Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox. Though he shares a party affiliation with his Texas counterpart, their values could not be any more different. On June 15, in the wake of the savage Pulse shooting, Cox addressed a crowd of devastated locals outside the City and County Building, identifying himself as a straight, white, middle-aged, Republican "with all of the expectations and privileges that come with those labels." Six months after the watershed, headline-making speech, Cox told City Weekly he thought it was sad that "a no-name, nobody lieutenant governor from a small state in the middle of nowhere" would get so much attention just by preaching kindness, adding, "I think that's how far political discourse in our country has fallen, and people are just hungry for us to stop calling each other names, and to try to work together, and to be kind."
D is for dichotomy. Last October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched Mormon and Gay. The move came almost a year to the day after the church declared that married same-sex couples should be considered apostates and that their children cannot be baptized until they turned 18 and were out of the household. Many, like Mormons Building Bridges' Kendall Wilcox were quick to point out the message was far from timely, though he did note the website represents "a huge step forward."
E is for Ellen DeGeneres. It's hard to believe, but last April marked 20 years since the comedian came out publicly on the cover of TIME magazine. As witnessed by her perennially popular TV show and the $1.068 billion global box office Finding Dory garnered last year, the move clearly ruined her.
F is for film. A little more than a decade after Brokeback Mountain made a splash, Moonlight became the first LGBTQ movie to receive a Best Picture Oscar. Locally, the Damn These Heels festival, whose mission it is to provide a "safe, supportive environment that empowers historically marginalized LGBT voices and [to] facilitate discussions crucial to inspiring positive social change," has educated and entertained audiences for 14 years. Watch out for their latest iteration July 14-16.
G is for Gilbert Baker, the man behind the rainbow pride flag. Prompted by Harvey Milk, Baker designed the iconic flag in 1978, with each colored stripe representing different qualities (red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art and indigo for harmony). Before passing away on March 31, Baker saw his creation become an emblem of the gay liberation movement, a crosswalk adornment—in streets from the Castro to Saskatchewan—a Facebook filter and an emoji. Following his death, California State Sen. Scott Weiner said Baker's work "helped define the modern LGBT movement."
H is for HIV. According to a City Weekly story published in February of this year, the Utah AIDS Foundation estimates that approximately 3,000 Utahns are living with HIV. Of those, between 200 and 400 could be carrying the virus and not know it. No longer synonymous with a death sentence, prevention, early detection and treatment continue to be paramount in preventing its spread. Unsure of your status? The foundation offers twice-weekly free STI screenings on a walk-in basis. Best part: It's conducted in a completely welcoming, sex-positive and nonjudgmental environment.
I is for Interfaith service. Contrary to popular belief, we're not all boozehound deviants (at least not since that damn .05 DUI bill passed). Designed to "celebrate the sacred in all of us," this year's Pride-sponsored worship service takes place Thursday evening at First United Methodist Church. So get off the apps and nurture your spiritual side before the party kicks into high gear. What's that? Jesus is less than 25 feet away?
J is for J. Stuart Adams. Call him a man of contrasts. Sure, the Layton Republican vocally opposed April's decision by a federal judge in Chicago to expand the definition of workplace sex discrimination to include LGBTQ individuals. Yet, at the same time, he led a cross-country tour promoting a "Fairness for All" ideal. The concept, Adams says, is an extension of the basic "Love thy neighbor" principal. "Now I'm living my religion," he told The Christian Science Monitor. "I'm being more compassionate and tolerant, and I'm getting respect back from the other side."
K is for Kids. The Bad ones. Founded in June 2012 as a response strict gender norms and even stricter nightlife regulations, the Bad Kids Collective continues to be a shining beacon for any and all that march to the beat of their own drum. Follow them on Facebook, and if you see they're throwing a party, go. Your vision of SLC's nightlife will never be the same.
L is for Luxemburg. The small, landlocked European nation seldom makes headlines, so people paid attention when it started trending on social media last week. The reason? In a picture depicting NATO WAGS, the White House failed to acknowledge first husband Gauthier Destenay's existence. "Is there a reason the @WhiteHouse didn't include the First Gentleman of Luxembourg in this photo caption?" Weekend editor for The Daily Beast, Scott Bixby, tweeted. "Like, a non-homophobic one?" The gaffe was corrected 9 hours later.
M is for Misty K. Snow, the self-defined "true Progressive" who last year became the first openly transgender candidate to win a major party's U.S. Senate primary. Snow lost to Republican incumbent Mike Lee in November, but don't count her out yet. On April 13, the Salt Lake City native announced she plans to run against incumbent Rep. Chris Stewart for Utah's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2018.
N is for "No promo homo." While this year's legislative session included few surprises, the Republican-controlled assembly approved Senate Bill 196, sponsored by Mr. J himself—Sen. J. Stuart Adams—with inordinate bipartisan support. Squashing the state's dated "promotion of homosexuality" stature, the bill passed both houses and was signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert. "Today is a historic day for Utah's LGBTQ youth," Troy Williams, Equality Utah's executive director, said in a statement. The measure goes into effect July 1, 2017.
O is for Orlando. Salt Lake City and the world shared the gut-wrenching pain on June 12, 2016, when an armed gunman opened fire at Pulse nightclub leaving, 50 dead. We honor your legacy. We will forever remember your light.
P is, for the second year in a row, for Pre-exposure prophylaxis. Taken once daily, PrEP has proven to be more than 90 perfect effective in preventing HIV exposure. Get the facts, and if it's right for you, get on it.
Q is for Queer Prom. Being gay is hard enough, but being gay and young—and living in Utah for that matter—is quite the trifecta. Luckily, Pride's Youth Activity Center circled the wagons and staged the 12th annual event last April. With a carnival-theme, Queer Prom represented a safe-space for youth ages 14-20 to experience the right of passage with their chosen attire and dates without fear of ridicule.
R is for resistance. As a nation, we collectively saw the worst and the best of people in the aftermath of last year's presidential election. One positive side effect was that a sleeping giant was awakened. A new slew of queer activists was born, lending their energy to a variety of topics, LGBTQ-related or not. In January, for example, Ella Mendoza passionately addressed the crowd gathered at Salt Lake City International Airport protesting the current administration's travel ban against visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries. "I want you to know that when they come for us, you need to be there," Mendoza, a defender of gender-nonconforming, PoC and Latinx voices, said over a megaphone. "The time is now!"
S is for sodomy. Fourteen states, including ours, still have obsolete anti-sodomy laws on their books despite a 2003 Supreme Court ruling nullifying them.
T is for Trump. At a rally in Colorado last October, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump held up a rainbow flag emblazoned with "LGBT's for Trump." A spokesperson later said Trump was "proud to carry the 'L.G.B.T. for Trump' rainbow flag on stage," being his aim was to be "president for all Americans." Insert collective sigh here.
U is for uterus. Aka a place where no crusty, white, male politician has a say. On the campaign trail, Trump said he intended to defund Planned Parenthood and overturn Roe v. Wade. Since then, people like Karrie Galloway, president/CEO of Planned Parenthood of Utah, have been working tirelessly to keep providing health services—including cancer screenings and birth control—for free or at a reduced cost. "Women need a safe and confidential place to get their reproductive health care," Galloway told City Weekly in January. "We can't let them down."
V is for visibility. On March 31, the Utah Pride Center joined others across the world to commemorate Transgender Day of Visibility. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 2016 was a record-breaking year for violence against transgender individuals in the U.S., registering 22 deaths. This year, violence has already claimed 11 trans* lives.
W is for wedding registry. Utah's ban on same-sex marriage was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court on Dec. 20, 2013. After a series of legal maneuvers, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Utah's appeal on Oct. 6, 2014. And guess what? The world hasn't ended.
X is for X Factor. Sophia Hawes-Tingley has it, and she's hoping it'll take her all the way to the Midvale Mayor's office. If she wins, she'll be the first transgender mayor of a Utah city. Read more on her here.
Y is for youth suicide rates. They're the principal cause of death for people under 24 in the state, and while no official statistic exists pairing them with conservatism and the mainstream religion, the dots aren't hard to connect. "Please make a space for your gay members," Neon Trees frontman Tyler Glenn said in an emotional Facebook Live video in July 2016. "Please tell them they are OK and they're made in the image of God and they're not flawed. Please stop telling them that they are abnormal. Please, please, please, how many more? How many more?"
Z is for President Obama's Zero-Fucks-Given wrap-up tour, which on June 24, 2016, included a National Monument designation for the Stonewall Inn. Learn your history, kids, and bow down to those who opened the watershed. Had it not been for those brave pioneers your school probably didn't teach you about, there would be no Pride.
- Excerpts from the Journal of Ben Williams: "I barely had time to feed the hounds and take Coco home before getting ready for the Pride Spectacular Award Banquet that started at 5. It was over where Michael Aaron held the wedding reception after marriage equality came about. Before the crowds were let into the banquet area, Luci Malin and I ducked under the tape that was there to keep people out to find our table and sit down...They had us mingling for about an hour upstairs and we were tired LOL. My ticket said table 16 so I went and sat and when people started arriving all these Lesbians began sitting down and then Carol Gnade came over and said they had me sitting at the wrong table. I then sat next to Dr. Kristen Ries and Maggie Snyder. Their energy puts me to shame... they just got back from a 3 week adventure in China and then they went to New Orleans. Dr Ries and I visited like Magpies... she is such a dear, dear woman. She said she follows me on my FB account. I gave her a kiss on the cheek. I did not eat a thing but a dinner roll and butter but heard the food was good. I had them take mine away and I guess someone else got it LOL. When I was waiting to come inside at the start I gave a souvenir button to Carol Gnade from the 20th Anniversary of Stonewall and she was upset that it had fallen off somewhere. We laughed when she said it turned up in a salad of someone at her table. She received a richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. Mayor Biskupski presented the award to her. I also gave a commemorative button to Robert Moolman from the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. My battery in my phone went dead so I didn't get to record the acceptance speech Alan Anderson the big boobie made. He got a standing ovation when Todd Bennett presented him with the Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award. Well deserved I might add and he was doing all he could to keep from tearing up as he spoke. So thankful that Carol Gnade gave me a ticket so I could witness his special night. At my table was Dr. Ries, Maggie Snyder, Connell O'Donovan, and the man who directed Silent Heroes, Craig Miller and Ernie, his husband. There were also Linda Hunt and two others whom I didn't know. It was fun to watch Gil Sims rocking out to one of the entertainers. After Carol’s acceptance speech, it was getting tiresome for Chuck Whyte’s old body so he asked for a ride and I took him home... truth be told I was tired too. Kudos to those who put it all together. Much of the cost of putting it on was donated like all the cost of the printing by Alphagraphics and Mark Miller Suburu...they raised nearly $20,000 tonight night... the place was packed, up and downstairs, so I am sure there was a good profit margin just from ticket sales...all money raised went to support the center. I think there was more people in that space then was at the 1st pride I attended in 1986 at Pioneer Park."
2018 How Salt Lake City, of All Places, Built America's Most Impressive Pride Celebration By Kastalia Medrano Utah’s first Gay and Lesbian Pride March, in 1990, drew maybe 250 people. It went more or less unopposed. The biggest issue it ran into was that the route took marchers past a bunch of parked horse carriages, the sort tourists ride around the downtown. “We were marching by, chanting and screaming,” says Connell “Rocky” O’Donovan, the march’s founder and a man introduced to me as “the local gay historian.” The horses, naturally, were startled -- presumably at the sight of a vocal gay march in Salt Lake City, or perhaps at the ruckus itself. “That actually got really dangerous,” O’Donovan continues. “I felt really bad for the horses. And the drivers and the police had approved the route, but then they said, ‘Oh, shoot, this wasn’t a good idea, was it.’” But aside from the horse encounters, it was, in fact, a pretty good idea. At the second march, in 1991, turnout roughly doubled. O’Donovan led marchers on a new route from the state capitol down to the city council building, where the Salt Lake City Pride Festival is held today. And this time, they arrived to find a handful of neo-Nazis waiting. “They’d taken over the premises, and they had not gotten permits to be there,” O’Donovan says. “I was so angry that I had gone through all these hoops to get a permit and they just showed up. We went to the cops, and the cops were like, ‘they were here first.’ And I was like, ‘but they don’t have a permit to be here!’ O’Donovan, bullhorn in hand, outwardly maintained his composure as he blared the message to his marchers that Nazis, too, had the right to free speech and freedom of assembly. Inwardly? “I’m freaking out,” he says, “thinking if any of them have a gun they’re gonna shoot me.” No state was in need of a big, gay party quite like Utah Today, Salt Lake City Pride is most definitely A Thing. The parade draws well over 30,000 people each year. And the lead-up to the parade is stacked with events: an interfaith service; a youth dance; a 5K. When it’s time for the parade itself, marchers carry rainbow flags the length of a city block. Marriages are officiated from moving floats. As is the trend, this year’s festivities will feature former contestants from RuPaul’s Drag Race -- including Aja, the queen who re-emerged from the ashes of an unremarkable performance on Season 9 with a Season 10 debut so gag-worthy (i.e., excellent) that she made the entire internet look foolish (myself included). If you’re looking for a good time June 2 and 3, visit Salt Lake, it’ll be lit. Pride here is now so large and so commercialized that old-timers like O’Donovan can feel estranged. (Its many, many sponsors include Goldman Sachs, which employs thousands in the city and which played a substantial role in making the city more cosmopolitan.) That’s a pretty typical dialogue around the nation’s largest, most established Prides. What makes Salt Lake City Pride quite atypical, though, is where it was established. Across just about every metric, you've got to put Utah firmly among the most conservative states in America. The last time its electoral votes went toward a Democrat for president was 1944, FDR's final term, and its senior senator today is Orrin Hatch, who votes with Donald Trump roughly 97% of the time. Since Karl Malone retired from the Utah Jazz -- since 1979 the most ironically name in American professional sports, after the team moved from New Orleans -- the national face of the state has been Mitt Romney, a Mormon and private-equity multimillionaire who tempts his faith’s bans on alcohol and caffeine by enjoying the occasional coffee ice cream. Even if you’re not Mormon, and you’d like to enjoy so much as a Bud Light, things can get dicey in Utah. If want to buy beer with more than 4% alcohol in Utah, you've got to buy it from a state-run liquor store, and no one can sell alcohol after 1am throughout the state. Until last year, bartenders had to stand behind a frosted window called a Zion curtain to prepare drinks; the idea was to keep alcohol out of sight of people who weren't drinking. In Salt Lake, the Pride parade is free, but the Festival itself has an admittance charge -- the state’s liquor laws won’t allow Bud Light et al to sponsor free events (proceeds go to the Utah Pride Center). It can skew a bit uptight, is what we’re saying here. No surprise, Mormonism is a powerful theme in Salt Lake City’s queer community. But it’s that variable, and the state’s unique religious identity, that has made the city’s Pride so bold and so trailblazing. It’s also what has made it an inspiration to anyone invested in seeing equal rights become the norm for queer Americans. Certainly for dispossessed people who grew up in a strict religious environments, it has been a godsend. Those tensions don’t exist elsewhere in this precise way because no other city is home to the LDS headquarters, and perhaps no other American city of Salt Lake City’s size (1.15 million metro area) has so much power concentrated in its church. That original march route, the one that startled the horses, O’Donovan chose because it would take marchers past two sides of downtown’s Salt Lake Temple -- a startling, Gothic castle-like so sheer and upright in design it looks like a 3-D puzzle, almost digitally superimposed on its surroundings. About half of Utahns are affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, the American religious group that Gallup has found is most likely to identify as conservative. The LDS church adheres to a law of chastity specifying that the only acceptable sex is straight sex, and those edicts show in the state’s politics. In 2004, for instance, Utah voters approved, by a two-to-1 margin, a state constitutional amendment that withheld legal recognition from same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships. Obviously, something had to give. Gay pride in Utah (before there was Gay Pride in Utah) In the late 1980s, the different factions of Utah’s queer community were loosely organized under an umbrella organization, the Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah. By democratic process, each group across the state could vote to send three members to what amounted to an LGBT summit to represent their vote in various matters of the gay agenda, as it were. It was in this manner that the council came to appoint O’Donovan its director of public relations. “I chose to interpret that title very broadly,” O’Donovan says now. “And used it to organize the first march.” That’s a term distinct, he points out, from a parade, which is more celebratory. The march carried more overt political overtones. “I wanted to do a march -- ‘we’re here, we’re visible, we exist’ -- which had never been done before in Salt Lake.” O’Donovan was the one who applied for city permits, hired security, planned the route, went to the police department to get the necessary permissions. Thus it was that in 1990 he led that first Gay and Lesbian Pride March, the precursor to what would later become the Salt Lake City Pride Parade. Between the 1990 and 1991 marches, O’Donovan had founded activist group Queer Nation Utah to help radicalize the Salt Lake City community, and its members had taken non-violent activist training with a local Quaker church. O’Donovan instructed Queer Nation to form a line in front of the neo-Nazis -- who were bearing swastikas and chanting “Sieg Heil,” some of them in full Nazi Party uniform -- and keep them away from the marchers. Also present were a few additional protesters who did not appear to be Nazi-affiliated, but who milled around with signs denouncing homosexuality in general (“oh, you know, ‘AIDS IS GOD’S PUNISHMENT FOR FAGGOTS,’ that kind of thing,” O’Donovan says). It is good to remember this rule of thumb in life: Even though you may not consider yourself a Nazi, if you find yourself standing on the side of the Nazis it is time to commit to some self-reflection. Those first two years the march was held on June 27, to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. O’Donovan moved away, and for the next two years, no march took place. Then, in 1994, a small handful of activists stepped forward to pick up where he’d left off, and the Gay and Lesbian Pride March was reborn as the Salt Lake City Pride Parade. Over the course of the 1990s, Queer Nation Utah proved instrumental in galvanizing and mainstreaming Salt Lake City’s LGBTQ community. Today, the Pride Parade coexists with the Dyke March, the Transgender March, and the Interfaith March. “The impact an event like Salt Lake City Pride has on the community is powerful,” says Sara Grossman, communications manager at Matthew Shepard’s Foundation. The foundation’s name honors an LGBTQ+ student that was victim to a fatal hate crime, so Grossman understands how important it is to recognize the influence Pride has on youth. “This is who gay pride is for, after all. Not those of us who have lived in NYC or LA or SF, and have had no problem being our true selves because we were safe, but for those who live in places like Salt Lake City or Laramie, WY, or any other red dot in America.” Salt Lake City is a liberal island in a sea of red “The first Pride festivals actually go back in the ’70s and ’80s, and those were met with Nazis, people throwing rocks; it was a nasty time,” says Wyatt Seipp, Utah Pride Festival media director and a volunteer at the Utah Pride Center. [Not necessarily true… Ben Williams note] “Now, Salt Lake has the reputation of being one of the friendliest places for gay people. People who don’t live here always think they know what Salt Lake is like, and then they actually come here and find out it’s a lot different. Salt Lake is to Utah what Austin is to Texas: a very liberal island in a very conservative state.” The tensions remain, but the overall vibe today is “super-supportive,” Seipp says. Even with 30,000+ people turning out each year, the Pride parade is just the second-largest in Utah. The largest, which takes place every year on July 24, is Days of ’47, the commemoration of the day the first Mormon settlers came to Salt Lake Valley. If you were to attend both, you’d notice one a bit more dour than the other, with lots of pioneer cosplay and hand carts and such. “Ours is as over-the-top and colorful as you’d expect,” Seipp says. “And on a Sunday morning -- when all our LDS friends are at church.” The church will still only accept self-identified queer members if those members have promised to be celibate. Festivals and parades are ultimately the sum of the people who are in them; Salt Lake City Pride is a singular phenomenon because the city’s population is, too. “Oh, honey, we’re all ex-Mormons,” O’Donovan says. “The Episcopalians, the Unitarians -- they’re all ex-Mormons. I’m being a little flippant, but yeah, I can’t think of any of my fellow activists or colleagues back then who didn’t have a Mormon background. Ninety-nine percent. Most left on their own, or they came out and then were kicked out.” The newer guard, he says, is more religiously diverse. That includes the city’s current (since 2015) and first openly gay mayor, Jackie Biskupski, who grew up Catholic. In 2016, she married her fiancee Betty Iverson on the same day the Mormon church saw a mass resignation -- more than 100 people -- over its anti-LGBTQ policies. Such resignations are common enough that organizations such as QuitMormon have sprung up to help handle the transition. For many who leave the church, its refusal to accommodate its LGBTQ members has been central. “I was in and out of [the church] for a long time,” O’Donovan says. “It’s such a part of your conditioning and your sense of identity. I’d get angry and leave, and then I’d find a cool congregation and attend for a while, and then they’d find out I was gay and there’d be, y’know, problems, and I’d leave. It took four or five years to actually leave.” Mormons Building Bridges is a model for allies everywhere O’Donovan requested excommunication in 1990. But while huge contingents of Salt Lake City Pride Parade attendees were born into the Mormon Church, it is not the case that all of them have left it -- several different active LDS groups now march each year. The most visible of these is Mormons Building Bridges, which has sent a float and hundreds of active LDS members to the parade each year since the group’s inception in 2012. “It was a big moment, when you first had 350 Mormons in their Sunday best marching in the Utah Pride Parade,” says Mormons Building Bridges co-founder Erika Munson. “And I think that indicated, hopefully, to church leaders that members wanted to use the principles of their religion to initiate LGBT outreach. Because of their religion. Not in spite of their religion. We want Mormons who aren’t a part of the parade to see us marching on a Sunday in our church clothes and say, ‘Oh, those people are my family. Maybe I’ve taken some distance but that’s my family.” Utah has the nation’s highest youth suicide rate, and that specter hangs lowest over the state’s Mormon LGBTQ youth. “It’s on everyone’s mind here,” Siepp says. “In part, it’s because of the predominant religion here teaching that being gay is wrong.” Mormons Building Bridges is now joined by an increasing number of active-Mormon groups like Affirmation, a support group for queer Mormons, and Mama Dragons, a network of Mormon mothers advocating for their LGBTQ children with a particular focus on preventing suicides. Munson (who is straight) says it’s dangerous to blame the LDS church for suicides -- and suicide experts would caution that such rhetoric is dangerous for those who are at-risk -- but that it’s something the church must reckon with honestly. No matter LDS policy, Mormons are going to continue having gay and trans children. "Salt Lake is to Utah what Austin is to Texas: a very liberal island in a very conservative state." True to its name, Mormons Building Bridges has applied for a float in the Days of ’47 parade in each of the past four years. Days of ’47 has rejected them each time; maybe the fifth time, this year, will be different. Munson says they’re patiently looking forward to the time when Days of ’47 recognizes their commonalities and accepts them. “We’ve seen initiatives on the part of the church that have helped,” Munson says. “We’ve seen church speakers be loud and clear about, ‘Don’t kick your gay kids out when they come out to you.’ But at the same time, there’s no doubt that they’re sticking to [their stance] that there’s no place in Mormon theology for same-gender couples.” It is no longer the church’s view that one can and should pray the gay away. And yet, in 2015, the church enacted a massively controversial new policy subjecting same-sex Mormon couples to excommunication and barring their children from baptism until they turned 18 (Mormon children are traditionally baptized at age 8). “Working for LGBT acceptance within the church, it’s a matter of learning how to live, in a healthy way, with dissonance,” Munson says. “But I’ll tell ya, committing yourself to a faith community where many have different perspectives than you? It’s a fabulous spiritual experience -- it is amazing how much you can learn about faith, about patience, and loneliness and connection. That’s what I see in gay and trans Mormons now.”
2019 Saturday Ben Williams Journal Excerpts " It was breezy and damp this morning so I had no idea how to dress today for staffing the Pride Day Booth. I ended up wearing jeans, my old pioneer shirt and hat. I had to be down at the Pride Center at 8 to pick up another small table. So Happy "flippin'" Pride Day... A lot of HUMBUGGERY. I hope all the spectators enjoy all the hard work we gladiator put in to it... It was such a busy day. I was down at the Pride Center at 8 to pick up another display table, then down at Pride Day grounds to set up at 8:30. I was able to get a handicap spot right on the corner of state and 4th South. Owen Edwards was already at our booth wanting to volunteer and he helped me carry the table over to our pavilion and helped, Randy Hoffman, Roy Zhang and Cristi Hebert set up. All of them are on the Utah Queer Historical Society's board and were there to help except Connell O’Donovan. He begged off saying he had to work. I bought a dozen Dunkin Donuts for all the workers in our booth. We did a great job with lots of visitors looking at our displays. So great to see people like David Nelson and Dominique Storni I had not seen in ages. I visited with Dominique Storni today. It was interesting to hear her talk about how she is not happy with the Social Justice Warriors aspect of the Trans movement. The 1-5 Club even had the gall to demand that Police and Security not march in the parade as it “triggers” them. I say if anyone is Gay or Gay friendly let them march. Washington Square was packed and. Biggest crowd ever, so I heard. By 5 I went home to feed my pups and decompress with them. Will do it all again tomorrow and have to be downtown by 9 to be in the Parade but thank God I am not walking but riding LOL. I told my committee folks...this is a marathon weekend... let’s just get through it than we can collapse. BTW We're Here We're Queer and some of us are really tired. We have a great team of Committee Chairs and we pulled off a great pavilion for Saturday's Pride Day. Daniel Cureton and Cristi Hebert's writing project was a hit with lots of folks using a typewriter for the first time. It was cute when this young girls asked where's the "enter" button. We have several stories from that project. Thanks to Randy Hoffman and Roy Zhang for staffing the booth all day and helping me solve the world's problems. Special thanks to Owen Edwards of the Zion Sisterhood for volunteering at the booth and agreeing to be the chair of the Oral Histories Project. He's itching to interview this Lesbian named Bonnie who was at Stonewall the night of the riots. It sure makes a task easier and lighter with so many hands helping. I am so proud of what was accomplish as well as we all should be. About 9 tonight a huge storm blew in out here at the airport. It was gusty, with Lighting and pounding rain. I heard the featured performer at Pride had to be canceled as the storm hit just as she was ready to perform. Sue Robbins said "Surprised many of us at the festival. Came in with blasting winds sending things flying and while we were gathering that, the skies opened up. At least it was late."
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