Summer 3rd Quarter Journal 2005 July-September

 

July

1 July 2005 Friday

The Center Space at the GLBT Community Center of Utah extended its hours “We are now open on Fridays from 3pm – 9pm and on Sundays from 10am – 2pm! This is in addition to our regular hours of 6-9pm Monday thru Friday. The Center Space has free internet access, a lending library of both fiction and non-fiction GLBTQ books, magazines, local community information, resources and more! The Center Space also offers drip coffee, drinks, and snacks.

 

2 July 2005-3 July 2005

No Entries

 

4 July 2005 Monday

Mike Romero took off camping with some guy he met but I stayed home most of the day with the pups. They almost won’t let me out of their sight. I was invited by the Giles to a BBQ in the late afternoon  but just stayed home in the evening to watch over Priscilla who just goes nuts hearing fireworks.

            I called Mom and she said that Dennis and Charline and Denise came for the three day weekend. At least Vegas is a destination and mom is more likely to see people there than in Palmdale.

 

5 July 2005-7 July 2005

No Entries

 

8 July 2005 Friday

Queer Beach Bingo! Held in Multi-Purpose Room at The GLBT Community Center: “Calling all Beef Cakes, Sun Goddesses & Beach Divas! Where else can you show off those six packs, "thigh master" thighs, Dolly Parton- like implants and dead stopping curves but Gay Bingo? Unnatural orange glow, leathery skin and freckles from hell will be considered faux pa. Proof of Brazilian waxing required prior to admission. Admission $5 includes your first game board.

It was Open Mic Night at the Center Space “Open Mic night is back – bigger and better! We have a new PA system and increased attendance. Come strut your stuff – be it music, poetry, or the spoken word! All of ya’ll without any entertainment type talent come on out too – everyone needs an appreciative audience!”

Krystyna Shaylee Empress 30, Kim Russo, Prince Royale 23, and Kyra Prespentte Princess Royale 26 held a benefit for the Royal Court’s People’s Concern Fund. A show called “Seeing Stars" was held at Paper Moon, $5.00 Suggested Donation

 

9 July 2005 Saturday

No Entry

 

10 July 2005 Sunday

The Center Space at The GLBT Community Center held a Yoga class in the morning. “NEW! Up- dog , Down-dog ? What dog?? Come find out what it all means and find YOUR personal center at your community center! FREE every Sunday with the amazing and lovely Leraine. Bring your own mat if you have one. All levels welcome. It's best not to eat before hand – so save your appetite for the potluck brunch that follows!!

Sunday Brunch and Potluck – Center Space (11am-2pm) NEW! Every Sunday! It's a potluck! Come socialize with old friends and make new ones over coffee and a dish you have brought to share. Everyone welcome!

 

11 July 2005 Monday

No Entry

 

12 July 2005 Tuesday

A COMMUNITY CALL TO ACTION On July 12, 2005, the Salt Lake County Council considered, and then voted down by a one vote margin, a proposal to extend domestic partner benefits to county employees. The proposal, and the public discussion, are major steps on the road to fair and equal treatment for all people, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation, and gender identity. This letter is to ask you to show your support for this type of legislation by taking one (or all) of the following action steps:

1). THANK the supporters of this proposal:

Jenny Wilson (SPONSOR) 801-468-2934 jwilson@slco.org

Joe Hatch 801-468-2933 jhatch@slco.org

Randy Horiuchi 801-468-2936 rhoriuchi@slco.org

Jim Bradley 801-468-2939 jbradley@slco.org

2). Let the opponents know of your disappointment:

Michael Jensen 801-468-2932 mhjensen@slco.org

David Wilde 801-468-2931 dwilde@slco.org

Mark Crocket 801-468-2937 mcrockett@slco.org

Cortlund Ashton 801-468-2935 cashton@slco.org

Marvin Hendrickson 801-468-2938 mhendrickson@slco.org

3). Write a Letter to the Editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News, or your local paper, and let them know you support domestic partner benefits. Let them know your personal story and how you are impacted!

4). Let your GLBT friends and neighbors working at Salt Lake County know you care.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: What would the proposal have done? It would have allowed employees of Salt Lake County to provide domestic partners and dependent children with the following benefits: health and dental insurance, life insurance, extended funeral leave, sick leave to care for a dependent, employee assistance program, COBRA benefits. In short - it would have recognized the reality that unmarried employees also have partners for whom they are providing, and that under the current system, those employees (by being denied substantial benefits such as health insurance coverage for their partners) are simply paid less than their married counterparts.

A majority of the five Republican council members who voted against this proposal cited the State's approval of Amendment 3 as their reason for voting against the proposal. Council Chairman Michael Jensen was quoted in the 7/13/05 Salt Lake Tribune as having said, "Maybe in 10 years or 20 years the county will be ready for this move. My sense is the valley spoke in November."

 

Senator Scott McCoy, who attended the hearing, pointed out that Amendment 3 does not prohibit basic benefits for lgbt people. "Unfortunately, it is being used as an excuse by some officials to vote against anything that might benefit lgbt individuals and their families. However, it is important to continue the discussion. By fighting the fight, we are making the future come faster."

 ACT NOW - People need to hear our stories! Sincerely, Jane Marquardt, Board Chair, Equality Utah Valerie Larabee, Executive Director, GLBTCC of Utah Bruce Bastian, Board of Directors, Human Rights Campaign Mike Picardi, Chair, Utah Stonewall Democrats, Gordon Storrs, President, Utah Log Cabin Republicans

 

13 July 2005 Wednesday

Derek P. Jensen of the Salt Lake Tribune reported; “Partner benefits turned down Emotional County Council kills proposal on 5-4 party-line vote.”

“As national news outlets pressed for the vote tally, advocacy groups and some state lawmakers slumped through the halls of the Salt Lake County Government Center on Tuesday. Staggering through the humanity, one Republican councilman appeared dazed as his eyes welled with tears.

Just moments after a 5-4 party-line decision, it was clear the County Council's refusal to become the first local government in Utah to offer domestic-partner benefits to gay employees weighed heavily on some.

"It pains me to send any message to someone if they take it that we don't value them," said a tearful Mark Crockett, the GOP councilman some insiders thought might provide the swing vote for the benefits proposal. But Crockett said as long as society links offering such benefits with gay marriage, he would be hard pressed to back the controversial move.

His four Republican colleagues agreed - the council's four Democrats voted for the measure - ensuring Salt Lake County did not follow the University of Utah's lead in offering benefits for domestic partners.

"I am hugely disappointed," said an emotional Jan Donchess, chairwoman of the county's gay and lesbian employee association. "There are members of this council who in their mind knew they made the wrong decision. I'm sure Mark Crockett will lose sleep over this."

The proposal, hatched by first-year County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, caught county leaders off guard. Suddenly, this week, she was extolling the benefit of offering insurance for health, dental and life as well as funeral leave for unmarried domestic partners, gay or not. Wilson insisted the cost would be minimal - analysts suggest less than 100 employees would qualify at an annual total tab between $37,000 and $74,000 - and proposed making those interested sign an affidavit proving cohabitation.

After the vote, Wilson said equating the employee benefits with an endorsement of gay marriage - as several Republicans argued – was a "broad leap." But she remained optimistic. "It will happen," she said. "It's just a matter of when."

Scott McCoy, an openly gay state senator from Salt Lake City who watched Tuesday's debate, agreed. "The younger generations are absolutely in favor of this," he said. "By fighting the fight, we're making the future come faster."

Still, Council Chairman Michael Jensen reminded everyone that Utahns voted decisively last election to ban gay marriage under Amendment 3. "Maybe in 10 years or 20 years the county will be ready for this move," Jensen said. "My sense is the Valley spoke in November."

Fellow Republican Councilman Cort Ashton agreed, saying the community feels this benefit ought to be exclusive to nuclear families. Plus, he worried about letting down his south and southwest Salt Lake Valley district, which he called the most conservative in the county. "I know we are overwhelmingly opposed to this type of action," Ashton said.

Deputy District Attorney Gavin Anderson said he could not find any legal constraints to such a move. But he noted, local governments in Virginia and Georgia had similar policies overturned because they violated state statutes there.

Democrats Joe Hatch and Randy Horiuchi argued in vain that amending the county's personnel policy for domestic partners is a matter of fairness. A self-described "hick" from Ames, Iowa, and Logan, Hatch said his awareness of alternative lifestyle came late in life but should be accepted. "This is not a religious issue. This is not a moral issue. This is not a right-wrong issue," he said. "It is a human issue."

Horiuchi said he represented a "triple threat" when elected: a Democrat, a non-Mormon, and a non-Anglo. Being elected "demonstrated the openness of this great community." To deny gay employees the same benefits the council members afford themselves, he said, is "dead wrong."

While Crockett insisted he could not make the measure a priority, Donchess said Tuesday's vote was a missed opportunity. "Employees are not vanilla," she said. "I see [them] more as Neapolitan."

A Salt Lake Tribune Editorial commented; “Disappointing vote: Amendment 3 has insidious effect on County Council's decision PARTNER BENEFITS DENIED Amendment 3 changed the Utah Constitution to reflect the prevailing belief that marriage is solely for a man and a woman. But the new law is also cheating unmarried couples out of basic legal rights - something many of the amendment's supporters vowed would never happen.

The latest evidence of this ostensibly unintended consequence of the amendment is the 5-4 decision of the Salt Lake County Council to unfairly deny cohabiting county employees - gay and straight – the same insurance and family leave benefits as married couples.

Utah State University earlier this year also decided against granting benefits to domestic partners, citing a potential legal battle over Part 2 of the amendment.

The amendment states: (1) Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman. (2) No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.

The amendment passed by a huge margin last November, even though polls showed only about half of Utahns would favor refusing marriage- like rights to cohabiting adults, gay or otherwise. The other half were convinced by amendment supporters, including the conservative "Yes on 3" group, that Part 2 would not prohibit governments or private companies from offering benefits like health, dental and life insurance, and funeral leave to unmarried couples. They were duped.

Wednesday's party-line vote clearly demonstrates how Amendment 3 neatly, and insidiously, links the specter of gay marriage to the fair-minded recognition that domestic couples who decide to make a life together deserve legal protections and benefits.

The Tribune does not support gay marriage but favors legal rights for domestic partnerships. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., as a candidate last year, supported Amendment 3 but also backed legislation that would have made it possible for unmarried adults who live together to contractually grant each other some of the rights afforded married couples. That proposal was voted down in the Utah Senate 18-10. Though some legislators denied they were influenced by the amendment, it clearly gave them political cover to deny equal rights to all Utah citizens.

Some of the five Republicans on the Salt Lake County Council cited Amendment 3 as justification for their negative votes, affirming yet again Part 2's utility as political cover for what is morally indefensible.

 

14 July 2005 Thursday

Stephen Hunt  of the Salt Lake Tribune reported: “It didn't seem logical  Both sides say homicide was not about sexual orientation Victim's aunt says: The slain woman was a lesbian but the family doesn't want that to be an issue.”

“ The word "lesbian" was never mentioned at a Tuesday preliminary hearing for Trey Holloway Brown, who is accused of fatally stabbing his estranged wife's girlfriend last month outside a West Valley City apartment complex.

Gay and lesbian groups have used the June 10 death of 27-year-old Norma Hernandez Espinoza to rally support against hate crimes. But prosecutors and the defense insist the victim's sexual orientation had nothing to do with the slaying.

According to testimony, Brown, 25, was upset because he believed his wife had left their children - ages 3, 5 and 10 - home alone. And he attacked Espinoza only after she intervened in the married couple's argument.

Third District Judge Denise Lindberg ordered Brown to stand trial on one count of first-degree felony murder. A scheduling hearing is set for Monday. If convicted, Brown faces up to life in prison. But the defense may claim Brown was under extreme emotional distress and that manslaughter is the more appropriate charge.

But West Valley City Detective Gavin Cook testified that during an interview just hours after the stabbing, Brown was "very calm, relaxed."  "He was not upset at all," Cook said. "There was no remorse."

Even more bizarre, Cook added, was Brown's purported motive for the slaying. After dazing the woman by punching her in the head, Brown told the detective he got a knife from the kitchen to give to Espinoza. "He said it was to even up the odds," Cook testified. "The knife was to make the fight more fair."

But when Espinoza ran outside, Brown became enraged. "He said he doesn't like people to run away from him," Cook testified. "It upset him extremely - he snapped." 

Chasing Espinoza across a parking lot, Brown stabbed her three times in the chest. After the bleeding woman collapsed, Brown kicked her in the head several times and jumped up and down on her chest. The defendant told Cook he continued the attack "to finish the job, to kill her . . . because he was going to jail anyway."

Brown's explanation dumbfounded the detective. "It didn't make sense to me," Cook said. "It didn't seem logical."

Brown's wife of five years, Miriam Olvera, called the dead woman "my friend." Olvera testified that she, Brown, and Espinoza all met while working at a fast food restaurant, and that Brown and Espinoza got along. "He told me she was a good person," Olvera testified.

As for Brown, from whom she had separated about two weeks before the homicide, Olvera said she had never seen him so angry before. Espinoza joined in the couple's argument by telling Olvera she "didn't have to explain anything" to her husband.

Olvera said Brown started hitting Espinoza after he asked Olvera for a hug and Espinoza told him to leave her alone. Brown told police that he hit Espinoza only after she pushed him. But Olvera said she never saw Espinoza touch her husband.

The victim's aunt, who asked not to be named, said Espinoza was a lesbian but added family members do not want that to become an issue. "We loved her and we miss her," the aunt said, adding that Espinoza provided the sole financial support for her aging mother and three younger siblings who reside in Mexico.

An new support group Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous was held in the  Multi-Purpose Room at The GLBT Community Center. “NEW support group being offered at the Center, occurring every Thursday night. Addicted to love, but not in the good way? There is a new group for you. Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is a Twelve Step - Twelve Tradition oriented fellowship based on the model pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Many people feel the effects of love and sex addiction in their lives, and now there is an affirming place to find the support you need. Members reach out to others in the fellowship, practice the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of S.L.A.A. and seek a relationship with a higher power to counter the destructive consequences of one or more addictive behaviors related to sex addiction, love addiction, dependency on romantic attachments, emotional dependency, and sexual, social, and emotional anorexia. We find a common denominator in our obsessive, compulsive patterns which renders any personal differences of sexual or gender orientation irrelevant. Please come and see if this is something that can work for you.

Holly Mullen a Salt Lake Tribune Columnist wrote: Fear drove county vote on benefits”

“The back story of the Salt Lake County Council's 5-4 vote Tuesday against extending health insurance and other benefits to employees in established domestic partnerships got its start in the hallways outside the chambers. "They know what's right. You could hear it in their statements," said Councilman Joe Hatch to fellow Democrat Jenny Wilson, the proposal's sponsor (and in the interest of disclosure, my stepdaughter). "It's only a matter of time before they come around."

The "they" to whom Hatch referred were the five Republicans on the nine-member council, each of whom gave a passionate - if not downright pained - explanation of his vote being less about moral judgments on homosexuality than a simple desire to reflect the will of the people in opposing same-sex unions.

Councilman Michael Jensen, a bright and typically moderate sort, said "government derives its power from the people. And most people would tie this into [the passage of Amendment 3 to ban gay marriage]."

At least no one made any outer-limits statements of the kind we usually hear at the Legislature or at the annual meeting of the Eagle Forum. No references to the "gay agenda," the book of Deuteronomy or Heather Has Two Mommies, thank goodness. It was all quite thoughtful.

Republican Councilman Mark Crockett, for one, described the many gay friends and associates he has had. "I couldn't tell you how important these people were and are in my life," he said. Minutes later, his voice catching, Crockett voted "no."

If Hatch was correct in his summary - that his opponents knew what was right - what kept them from actually choosing the right? It wasn't about money. The estimate on the benefits change came to less than $75,000. There wasn't a good legal argument, either. The council's own lawyer advised they were on firm ground. Other legal decisions, he said, have established that local governments may set their own employee benefits policies, which likely removed this issue from the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

So, we return to the back story. What the vote truly reflects is a palpable fear among council members of the few but powerful moral bigots in the Republican Party. This amounts to 300 to 400 ultraconservative votes at the Salt Lake County nominating convention, which rolls around every even-numbered year. Keeping these single-minded folks happy is lesson No. 1 for any Republican hoping to win reelection to the County Council or to launch into greater power in Utah politics.

Stories of moderate Republicans who got drummed out of a race by the party's right-wing are legend, with gubernatorial candidates Olene Walker and Nolan Karras (neither liked tuition tax credits) in 2004 as the latest examples. We live in a state that shows no political will for establishing a direct primary election system - which might actually result in a win for the people's will over ideologue shrill. So we will continue to get just what we deserve: Policy built on cowardice. Down inside, those council members who voted "no" knew what to do otherwise might put their political life at stake. Anger the vocal GOP right wing on anything that even hints at true equality for gay people and you may as well start packing.

Watch something like Tuesday's vote and it becomes clear as a cold day in the Wasatch: The tears, anguished sighs and hand wringing amount to little more than theatrics. There is doing what is right and there is doing what is politically expedient. Next time, we could use more of the right thing and less of the drama.

 

15 July 2005 Friday

No Entry

 

16 July 2005 Saturday

The Swerve Family Picnic held in the Multi-Purpose Room & back lawn Events The GLBT Community Center “Bring yourself, your kids, Frisbees, basketballs & games. Also bring whatever you would like to grill and we'll have the grill hot and ready to go! We will also have plenty of sodas and snacks on hand! Come join us for this family friendly celebration of summer.”

Krystyna Shaylee Empress 30, Heidi Ho West Waters Empress 28, Kim Russo, Prince Royale 23, and Kyra Prespentte Princess Royale 26 held a benefit for the Royal Court’s People With AIDS Fund. A show called “Xmas in July was held at Modigitty’s.

Derek P. Jensen of the Salt Lake Tribune reported; “E-mail blitz blisters S.L. Co. GOP councilmen Talk of the Morning: Domestic-Partner Controversy.”

“Sore hands, swollen knuckles, slumped shoulders. No, Salt Lake County Council aides haven't been in a brawl. It just feels like it. Since Tuesday, they have been swarmed by hundreds of e-mails lambasting the five Republican councilmen for rejecting domestic-partner benefits for county employees in a 5-4 party-line vote. The staffers are typing furiously at their computers trying to respond to the deluge, one by one. "We've had about all we can handle this week," says Michael Chabries, aide to Republicans Cort Ashton and Mark Crockett. "Bigots, homophobes and hatemongers. And those are the nice things they say."

A taste of the invective: l "You five persons showed that you stand for injustice, intolerance, bigotry and inequality. These are not the values of an American citizen and I am ashamed to have you in a position of influence in my community."

 "Thanks for the two-faced lies, people. I'm wondering WWJD [what would Jesus do] if asked to stand up and honor his word."

 "It is you who are less because, instead of standing up and fighting for the rights of others, you cower behind the public beliefs of the masses."

 "This vote adds to the disgusting record of this governmental body. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I am very disappointed in each and every one of you, and I expect an apology."

As quickly as the zingers arrive, they are forwarded to the councilmen. Still, aides say, it has been exhausting to answer the scores of insults prompted partly by a letter-writing campaign organized through a prominent gay-rights group.

"It seems like they're all replying from a mass e-mail from Equality Utah," says Ryan Perry, aide to Council Chairman Michael Jensen, who estimates his boss has 200 messages alone. "The name-calling and the bigot comments are kind of hard to read. But, other than that, people have been pretty civil."

Tuesday's vote and subsequent e-mail barrage follow an emotional debate that left Crockett and the county's Gay and Lesbian Employee Association chairwoman in tears. The issue was framed by Democrats as a matter of fairness, while their GOP counterparts argued such a move would signal an endorsement of gay marriage, which they note Utah voters soundly rejected in November by passing Amendment 3.

The shotgun e-mail, which triggered much of the response, included the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of each council member. It was a "joint statement" from the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah, Human Rights Campaign, Stonewall Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans and Equality Utah, according to the last organization's acting executive director, Jane Marquardt.

"It was never our intent to encourage hateful speech," Marquardt says. "But we have to have constructive debate to let the council know there are real unmarried partners who deserve the benefits since they do the same amount of work." She insists using the Amendment 3 argument in denying benefits for gay people is "just wrong."

That failed to convince Jensen, who stands by his decision. "Most people would draw a connection between the domestic-partner benefits and the vote we held in November," he says. Jensen also downplays the feedback, saying the council also gets "swamped" over zoning issues. "It's just democracy in action."

Chabries, who spent Friday wading through the missives, isn't so sure. "Anytime you deal with sexual politics it incites a different kind of passion," he says.

Of the e-mails, consider this one from a University of Utah professor who helped the U. become Utah's only public employer to offer such benefits. "One day so will the rest of this sadly homophobic, intellectually challenged majority."

 

17 July 2005-19 July 2005

No Entry

 

20 July 2005 Wednesday

James Doohan who played engineer Scotty and kept the Enterprise humming on "Star Trek," on TV and in the movies died at the age of 85 on the anniversary of landing on the moon. Scotty has beamed up for the last time.

 

21 July 2005 Thursday

My Lambda Lore Column for the Salt Lake Metro “Pioneer Days Volume 2 Issue 15. “Homosexuality in Utah was a furtive lifestyle fraught with perilous and clandestine conduct; in much of rural Utah, it still is. Before the Gay civil rights movement of the late 20th century, homosexuality was an illicit behavior in Utah, ranging from a felony to a misdemeanor offense. Gays were the sexual outlaws of the Wild West.

In Utah’s pioneer theocracy, adultery was a capital offense. Many a pioneer journal recorded that heads of women were found in isolated ravines, cut off for wayward offenses. Wayward men, however, were more likely to be simply castrated by bowie knife or primitive tourniquet.

Nothing happened to aficionados of male on male sex, generally. The most common practices, group, and dual masturbation were perennial pulpit denouncements, but one could live, (and keep ones balls), with that. Gay Gentile men were left alone, unless they diddled with underage Mormon priesthood holders, and then they were often assassinated.

Masturbation, frottage, and vaginal and anal intercourse were, before the days of better penile and vaginal hygiene, the preferred sexual practices over oral sex. Crotch odors from people who bathed infrequently and generally wore temple undergarments until they rotted off, made keeping one’s nasal organs and taste buds away from such a pungent region paramount. Oral sex is a by-product of modern plumbing. It is a matter of taste.

I have this theory that descendants of Mormon polygamous families inherited a “horny gene” from their stud ancestors. It’s simple really. The more a man copulated, the more children he had, and therefore more likely to pass on his ability to have prodigious amounts of sex. Mormon men who were not as potent or were not driven by a desire for copious amounts of sex, obviously had fewer descendants. Someone should do a study on the Mormon sex gene. After all, these were the days before Viagra.

Some others proposed a theory that “socialized homosexuality” was dominant in Utah because of the lack of a sexual outlet for males with females. While the ratio of males to females was pretty similar in polygamy days, access to the female population was limited to the whims and dictates of Brigham Young as holder of the keys of who could marry in Utah. When one man married 26 women, it is obvious that 26 other men went without connubial bliss. Penalties for straying from marriage vows were severe in Mormon pioneer Utah. See above.

The only hard records of homosexuality found in Utah archives, from the 19th and early 20th century, are criminal records. Sodomy was a felony and men, usually non-Mormon transients, were sent to prison for up to 20 years. True, many of these cases involved male rape, but many others were of a consensual nature which had the misfortune of being caught flagrante delicto.

Homosexuals were not simply being arrested for engaging in sexual conduct in barns, stables, public parks, and public toilets—they were also being spied on by vice officers in private spaces. Homosexuals were pursued in hotels and motels, sneak-peeked on in parked vehicles, and even arrested in their own homes. Until the early 1980’s, many landlords even had the legal right to refuse to rent one bedroom apartments to more than one person of the same gender.

This was hardly conducive for building a relationship with a partner. Hetero-controlled society pushed homosexuals into areas of semi-public places to “hook up” and then pointed to these practices as examples of homosexuals being perverted.

 Most homosexuals did not dare live with a partner even if they could find an accommodating landlord. People were expected to marry and raise families or stay home with their parents as “old maids” or “confirmed bachelors.” Those who did not were subject to all forms of scurrilous speculation.

Rumors and innuendos of being homosexual ended careers, and often drove people to despair, self-loathing, and suicide. Lillian Hellmann’s 1930s classic play, The Children’s Hour, was made into a Hollywood movie in the late 1950s. In the film, Shirley MacLaine is driven to suicide simply because of her desire for Audrey Hepburn. “I feel so damn dirty!” she agonized. Homosexual lust alone, especially for the angelic heterosexual Audrey, it seemed to Hollywood, was justification enough for Shirley MacLaine to kick a chair out from beneath her.

            In the 1970s it was a good thing that Laverne DeFazio never told Shirley Feeney how much she loved sharing an apartment with her in Milwaukee, or the sitcom Laverne & Shirley would never have been so funny. Imagine Lenny and Squiggy pulling Laverne down from the rafters, dangling from her pasted-on letter ‘L.’ Of course the ‘L’ was for “lesbian!”

Some today are upset that much of Gay culture is identified with tavern life, but they have no concept of history. Gay bars have never been about getting an alcoholic beverage, especially in Salt Lake City. While Gay bars were never safe, due to police raids, blackmail, or assault on queers by heterosexuals, they were, however, the wellsprings of modern Gay culture, where the beginnings of homosexual consciousness bubbled up. They were, in effect, pseudo-community centers. In these places we knew we were not alone. We were not an aberration, for there were simply too many of us to be simply freaks of nature.

Also, the bars were the only semi-secure place homosexuals could meet, even if discreetly. But yet there still we often had to speak in code. “Do you have a light . . . dear?” “Do you know Dorothy?” “I have a red tie at home just like yours,” and other antiquated phrases. The "red necktie" was used as a symbol by Gay men prior to the 1950's to let other Gay men know of their identity. And as sad as some of these places were, they were safer than being arrested or beaten up in public toilets and parks.

Gay bars and gay-friendly bars were mostly associated with the red light districts of Commercial and Regent Streets in old Salt Lake City in the early half of the 20th century. Later after the brothels closed, 200 South in Salt Lake City became the predominate place for homosexuals to meet and cruise. In Ogden, being a railroad town, the place was wide open. There appears to have even been a gay bar in the basement of the county courthouse called the Court.

Horny heterosexual males often made little distinction between “loose women” and “sissy men” and used each for personal sexual gratification. Frequently, sissy men were preferred because they didn't charge and would perform oral sex—which the women sometimes loathed to do.

In fact, to many older homosexual men the word “gay” always had a semi-sexual connotation. The term “gay blade” did not connote a happy fellow but rather a person who was “randy” and usually frequented houses of prostitution—male or female. In the 1930s the term “gay cat” was a man who would punk for another man.

For a good number of police officers, before Stonewall the words homosexual, whore, and prostitute were all synonymous. Homosexuality was simply a vice that plagued cities and had to be controlled. Moralists called for regular city sweeps of the dens of Sodom and Gomorrah. Mothers protect your children! Paddy wagons were used in Salt Lake City to empty out saloons and bars, wholesale, of suspected prostitutes and homosexuals. Same gender dancing was completely illegal.

 In Utah, a fortunate few homosexuals had cliques that functioned as a social gathering place outside the bars and parks, but unless initiated into such a group, you were out of luck. These cliques jealously guarded their privacy, knowing that exposure could destroy lives. But Mildred Berryman, a lesbian, kept a private journal in the 1920s and 30s of her clique of Gay friends in Salt Lake City, for a master’s thesis.

The lucky lesbians had their softball leagues in the 1940s and were always allowed to be more “Tom Boy-ish.” Lesbians were historically divided between “fems” and “butches.” The butches were allowed to wear sporty men’s clothing, with slicked-back or short-cropped hair, to distinguish themselves from the fems, who were attired in party dresses and lipstick.

Several individuals who were practicing homosexuals prior to Stonewall tell me that much of the “gay” scene was conducted at such private parties, at private residences—much like what is still happening today in Utah. Invitees often brought acquaintances or “initiates” to these top-secret parties that were very much middle class soirees, only with the curtains drawn and the shades pulled down. People dressed up, coats and ties for men, dresses, and makeup for women. Drag was not even a remote possibility. Cocktails were served, and small talk made. These parties tried to imitate the cosmopolitan air of similar chic parties on the east and west coasts.

If one had not “come out” to himself and did not consider himself a homosexual, which was considered one step worse than being a Communist in the 1950s, then the dangerous world of illicit sexual encounters in semi-public places were all that was available. Quick anonymous sex was sometimes addicting—an adrenaline rush, as was the fear factor of being caught. But anonymous sex afforded the luxury of returning to whatever “normal” life one was leading. It wasn't really real sex after all . . . just fooling around.

The 1960s “free love” movement never caught on in Utah. Utah was not a place to “Drop Out, Tune In and Turn On.” Hippie communes and such radical concepts as sexual freedom and control over one’s own body, were just plain “crazy talk” for all but the young. Utah hippies and advocates of free love generally decided that California or Oregon “was the place,” not the barren Great Basin.

As strange as it seems today, it was only a few decades ago that police could issue citations for not wearing enough clothing appropriate for one’s gender. Shirtless men in public parks could also be ticketed. Often in public lavatories, police officers initiated sexual behavior to make an arrest, using enticing young decoys to entrap people. No one protested. How could they?

When I first moved to Utah in 1973 at the age of 21, I was amazed how easy it was to have sex here with nearly any man as long as you did not talk about it . . . . or kiss. Some temple-going elders told me that they did not feel they were violating their oaths of chastity by having sex with men because the oath, at that time, only pertained to having sexual intercourse with the “Daughters of Eve.” I guess the Sons of Adam were fair game, or so it seemed. And of course lesbian sex was not even sex according to Utah patriarchy. Where’s the penis? No penis, no sex. That simple.

When I attended Brigham Young University, from 1973 to 1976, there was nary a bathroom stall that did not have some homosexual graffiti on it. I remember one in the Smithfield House that pleaded, “I really need a BJ. I am so desperate.” I bet he was.

 When I was cast out into outer darkness in 1976, I soon discovered a local phenomenon—and it wasn't City Creek’s “Gravity Hill.” It seemed to me that the closer one got to Temple Square the cruisier the bathrooms became. There was a direct correlation between the amount of homosexual bathroom graffiti and the distance from Main and South Temple. Maybe it was gravity hill after all. 

 

22 July 2005 Friday

Leon D'Souza of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote, “Two approaches to gay activism create tug-of-war Different ideas about gay liberation Meditating on the meaning of life.

“Formed in the cultural ferment of the 1970s, the Village People were something of a musical declaration of independence for the timid homosexual. With their flamboyant costumes and bizarre antics, the gay-themed disco band's performers - a policeman, a sailor, a cowboy, a Native American, a leather enthusiast and a hardhat - stood as emblems of an offbeat, sexualized masculinity. But the Village People also may have given expression to a struggle within the gay community; a tug-of-war between "homophiles," who politely picketed for social freedoms while dressed in their Sunday best and drag queens and the like who subscribed to a theatrical form of activism.

"We're not divided on the issue of basic civil rights and opportunities," University of Utah history professor Elizabeth Clement told a packed assembly hall at Salt Lake City's First Unitarian Church on Sunday. "We are often divided over tactics and ideologies. So while we want civil rights, we disagree over the basic meaning of liberation itself."

Central to that debate, in her view, are questions of identity: "Are gays the same as straight people? Do they have different ideas about the appropriate roles of men and women? And do those differences in understanding gender influence the way gays think about family, marriage, and sexual relational practices like monogamy?"

Answering those questions may get at the bigger issue of whether gay Americans could help strengthen the family "by incorporating more flexibility in understanding gender, parenting and relationships." That's food for thought.

And now, heard in the pews.

FIRST UNITARIAN Continuing her presentation on the dissentious history of gay liberation in the United States, Clement pointed out that the homophile strategy of emphasizing similarities between gays and heterosexuals found hardly any takers within the community itself. "The largest expression of organization in 1950s gay culture was in the bars," Clement said. "That culture tended to be very accepting of, and in fact, almost requiring gender experimentation and difference. This is the era of butch-femme role playing, where you have very, very butch women and very, very feminine women pairing off."

Homophiles viewed this vibrant bar culture with a lot of disdain. "One organization called the 'Daughters of Bilitis' published a newsletter in which they argued that 'The kids with butch haircuts and mannish manner are the worst publicity we can get.' '' But that dour attitude presented a recruitment problem. "When working class, particularly butch or drag queens, wandered by a homophile meeting and thought of joining, they had great difficulty understanding what the homophiles stood for," Clement explained. "[The drag queens] already were living much more political lives." Their soberly dressed counterparts just weren't provocative enough.

Look at it this way: "The last thing you really wanted to be in the 1950s was a butch-lesbian construction worker with a nice femme girlfriend that other heterosexual men might actually be interested in," Clement said. "That's a recipe for getting the snot beat out of you on a regular basis." Still, what better way to be front and center?

 

23 July 2005 Saturday

The Youth Activity Center at the GLBTCCU hosted a volunteer training on. If you are interested in committing to the future of GLBTQ youth, email Stan Burnett to register for the training.

“Make a difference in the lives of GLBTQ young people by volunteering at the Youth Activity Center , a program of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah. Volunteers are needed to support ongoing programs, to help develop new programming, to staff the youth drop-in center, and to help with administrative tasks. Many positions require a weekly commitment of 3-4 hours. Some positions require a monthly commitment of 4-6 hours. Other volunteer possibilities could include a onetime activity or event.

            Responsibilities may include the following: Welcome, support, listen to, and refer young people. Foster a warm, welcoming, and pleasant atmosphere. Accurately report and document data, events, and happenings. Build relationships with and between youth. Participate in volunteer meetings and development trainings as requested by the Director of Youth Programs. Abide by the protocols and standards of the GLBT Community Center . Report any incidents involving abuse of, by, or against youth clients. Contribute creativity, skills, perspective, influence, resources, and associations to youth programs. Consider voices not present or not represented. Participate in discussions, fulfill assignments, and contribute to orderly problem-solving and decision-making processes.

Interested volunteers must: Pay for and successfully pass a background check. Attend initial and ongoing volunteer training. Demonstrate expertise or competence that will help the Youth Activity Center meet its goals and objectives.

Prove to be reliable, consistent, and committed to the mission and philosophy of the Youth Activity Center.

 

24 July 2005 Sunday

The Hall’s kids net door set off so many fireworks all night long. I had Priscilla huddle under the blankets with me while I played the television loudly. July is a very hard time for my little girl. Saffy and Smokey don’t seem to be as bothered.

            I am heading down to Vegas tomorrow for a week to check on mom.

 

25 July 2005 Monday

No Entry

 

26 July 2005 Tuesday

The Sunstone Symposium has a wealth of audio files dealing with gay Mormons. Here are just some of the audio files about homosexuality which they have available for download:

+Shall the Youth of Zion Falter? A Panel by Young Gay Mormons ** (Aaron Cloward, Stephen Shroy)

+Discussion of the Smith Family

+Long-Term Gay Male Relationships

+Committed Same-sex Unions: Is a Theological Accommodation Possible?

+Christ and Culture in Conflict: The Gospel and the Homosexual

+Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Eagle Scout, Missionary, Husband, Father, Homosexual . . . Human

+Same-sex Attraction, Spirituality and Mormonism: The Hero's Journey

+Embracing Our Homosexual Children

+The Persistence Of Same-Sex Attraction In Latter-day Saints Who +Undergo Counseling Or Change Therapy

+Voices In Exile: Stories of Lesbian Mormons

+In Quiet Desperation **(Robert A. Rees)

+Not Just Lip Service: How We Can Help Gays and Lesbians Feel Welcome

In Our Religious Communities **(Robert A. Rees)

Holly Mullen a Salt Lake Tribune Columnist wrote: “GAYPLAT is cool, sez judge”

The Motor Vehicle Division of the Utah state Tax Commission sent its standard rejection letter in March to Elizabeth Solomon, denying two of her three requested personalized license plates. "GAYWEGO" was OK but "GAYSROK" and "GAYRYTS" were not. The reason for the denial? The commission reserves the right to ban license plates as a "public forum." Little did the bureaucracy know it had unleashed a tsunami.

"My mommy button got pushed. My friend button got pushed. I wasn't going to take no for an answer," says the 60-year-old Solomon, whom everyone knows as "Beano." She lives in Park City, has long been active in gay rights organizations and has a lesbian daughter. "And I have adopted in my heart two young men who are gay," Solomon says.

Solomon decided to appeal the decision and enlisted the aid of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. On July 19, Administrative Law Judge Jane Phan ruled at an initial hearing in favor of Solomon. Barring any appeal by parties requesting a formal hearing, the decision becomes final on Aug. 19 and Solomon will have her plates. It is the first time the Tax Commission has ever approved a personalized plate containing the word "gay."

Tax commissioner Marc Johnson said Wednesday that commission policy precludes him from addressing the merits or details of the case during the 30-day appeal period.

The Utah ACLU considered the matter a "routine free-speech case," says executive director Dani Eyer. "We thought the restrictions the commission had applied were arbitrary. They can't pick subjects they like and don't like for a personalized license plate." What Utah statute does permit is rejection of plates that "may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency or that would be misleading."

The commission also has its own administrative rules that give it more specific powers, including the right to reject plates that serve as a "public forum," or that can be deemed as "vulgar, derogatory, profane or obscene."

Other grounds for denial: messages that "relate to sexual and eliminatory functions" or expressions of "contempt, ridicule, or superiority of a race, religion, deity, ethnic heritage, gender or political affiliation."

Phan's ruling determined that an "objective and reasonable person" would not see the slogans "GAYSROK" and "GAYRYTS" on their own as offensive or indecent. Nor could she see a problem with the plates referring to "current political or social issues." Neither did the plates refer to any specific sexual function or obscene act.

Solomon says she never saw controversy in her request - she is a typically proud mother and takes any opportunity to proclaim her children as "normal and decent people who lead a lifestyle like everyone else's." But the state's rejection letter set her to boiling. "I was on fire," she says. "If the ACLU hadn't accepted my case, I would have hired my own civil rights attorney. I have the time, energy and resources and I was prepared to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The real issue, says Solomon, was in the challenge. "Too many people are afraid to fight. I'm not arrogant but I'm also not afraid. I've changed something that was wrong and I'm very proud of myself." So proud, in fact, that she hopes to encourage a whole conga line of vehicles with pro-gay license plates.

A regular benefactor of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Center of Utah, Solomon says she will donate $50 to the center for each of the first 100 vehicle owners who can produce proof of plates with the word "gay." Call the GLBT Center at 539-8800 and go from there.

 

27 July 2005 Wednesday

No Entry

 

28 July 2005 Thursday

The Center Space at The GLBT Community Center held a film and discussion event. “Come watch a different type of reality show, which Director Mark Saxenmeyer calls "Reality TV with a Purpose."

The GLBT Community Center: Experiment: Gay & Straight follows the lives of ten Chicago-area strangers, five men and five women, during a one-week period in which they live together in a three bedroom/three-bath house on the Windy City's north side.

Their task was to help bridge the gap between America's gay and straight communities, and to forge better understanding between the two groups. Winner of seven film awards, his film combines elements of popular entertainment like Survivor with serious and sometimes explosive issues involving sexuality, human rights, and discrimination.

Much of what these participants say echoes the views of the general public – opinions and feelings many people voice privately, but fear speaking aloud because of the potential repercussions in our "politically correct" culture. In

The Experiment, the housemates are refreshingly and sometimes stunningly honest. There is no tip-toeing around any issue whatsoever. Please bring your straight friends and family for a frank discussion to follow, facilitated by the Salt Lake Film Center's Development Officer, Naomi Lee.

 

Stephen Hunt of the Salt Lake Tribune reported; “Howard Johnson Sent to Jail  Sexual liaison with teen boy brings jail term for lawyer Met in chat room: The attorney was HIV-positive, and knew it, when he met with the youth at his home.”

            A Utah attorney who knew he was HIV-positive when he had sex with a 14-year-old boy two years ago was sentenced Wednesday to probation and 90 days in jail.

Third District Judge Timothy Hanson said he was not imposing jail time because Howard P. Johnson is gay or HIV-positive, but because he committed a crime. "There has to be some punitive sanction, and 90 days is about right," said Hanson.

Johnson, 51, who met the boy in an Internet chat room, is not a pedophile or a predator, according to defense attorney John Caine. "But he has had some lapses in judgment."

The judge agreed, saying that when the boy appeared on Johnson's doorstep in Salt Lake City, the defendant should have sent him away. "You are an attorney. I expect more from an attorney," the judge said. Johnson was charged with two counts of first-degree felony forcible sodomy and one second-degree felony count of enticing a minor over the Internet. He pleaded guilty to reduced counts of third-degree felony unlawful sexual activity with a minor and class A misdemeanor enticing a minor over the Internet.

When the teen arrived at Johnson's home on Oct. 15, 2003, Johnson answered the door naked and the two engaged in oral and anal sex. The boy wore a condom but later grew concerned about HIV because of some vials he saw in Johnson's bedroom. The teen was tested for HIV and the results were negative. Health officials reported the case to police.

Johnson told authorities he believed the boy was an adult. But prosecutor Paul Amann said the victim "appears young" to the extent that no one would have any doubt about his youth.

Caine called the victim "a sophisticated 14-year-old who had his own Web site and was seeking activity." Caine suggested home confinement instead of jail time. But Amann - who requested a one-year sentence for Johnson – noted that Johnson claims he is "always naked at home," and that he answers the door in the nude when receiving postal and pizza deliveries. "He's a person with no boundaries," said Amann.

The prosecutor also claimed that when, as part of a pre-sentence evaluation, Johnson's sexual proclivities were tested with a device that measures blood flow to the penis, Johnson tried to defeat the test "by flexing and relaxing his pelvis muscles." Amann also said Johnson has blamed the victim for what happened.

Johnson made no comment in court but had written a letter to the judge in which he took responsibility and apologized to the victim, Caine said. "He realized he'd crossed the line. But he did feel that the victim bore some responsibility."

Now that Johnson has been sentenced, he faces possible disbarment. "My assumption is that if someone is convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, which this is, you'll be disbarred," Amann said after the hearing.

29 July 2005 Friday

No Entry

30 July 2005 Saturday

Beyond the U-Haul: Surviving & Thriving in Lesbian Relationships, A Workshop Presented by Donna Hawxhurst & Sue Morrow in the GLBTCCU’s Middle Meeting Room.

Donna & Sue are celebrating over 30 years of passion, politics, and love. They have provided therapy and facilitated workshops for lesbians in and out of relationships for over 27 years. Join them for their 4th Salt Lake City gig! Proceeds will be donated to the GLBT Community Center of Utah. Pre-registration is Required - $25 for all Lesbians in and out of relationships.

31 July 2005 Sunday

No Entry

 

AUGUST

1 August 2005 Monday

I came back to Salt Lake last night from staying at Mom’s place in Vegas. She has been driving around getting uses to the city and eating a lot of McDonald’s Happy Meals. She said it’s just about right for her.

            She stays indoors mostly as its been super-hot but she managed to get that tool shed taken away and a small ramp to accommodate her walker.

2 August 2005 – 3 August 2005

No entry

 

4 August 2005 Wednesday

My Lambda Lore column Second South Greek Active and Passive Vol 2 Issue 16

“This column is about a stretch of road between 500 and 600 West on 2nd South. Like most of you, I have eaten there, walked there, and partied there without giving much thought about the old derelict buildings on the block. Doing a little investigating I was flabbergasted by the life and sexual vitality that was crammed into this little nook on the west side of Salt Lake City. In its hay day, between 1910 and 1915, it was as crowded at Sugar House ever was. Over 75 businesses operated on the block, not including the infamous Stockade where anywhere between 75 and 100 women were making a living in the sex trade.

In 1915 alone, 12 of Salt Lake’s 24 Coffee Houses were located within its borders. Besides the Coffee Houses between 1910 and 1915 there were a shoe repair Shop,  7 barber shops, 3 meat markets, a candy store, 7 neighbor grocery stores, a dry goods store, a drug store, 6 clothing stores, 3 cigar stores, 3 rooming houses, 3 hotels, a boardinghouse,  4 furnished room establishments, a café, 7 restaurants, an Italian Bakery, 17 bars and saloons, 4 billiards parlors and 2 pool halls.

It was a community geared to mainly single ethnic gentile men, and the women of the Stockade. If one lived there, one would not have had to venture out of the area for lodging, food, clothing, and recreation.

Second South Street has always been randy ever since pioneer days, although in the 19th Century the action was located between Main and State. Here Whiskey Street, Plum Alley, and Commercial Street were filled with saloons, brothels, and opium dens, just a stone throw away from the Mormon Temple. By 1894, as Salt Lake City began to mature and statehood was eminent, steps were taken to have  SLC’s vice and “bums” removed nearer the railroad tracks on the west side of town.

At the beginning of the 20th century 500-600 West and 2nd South became the heart of “Greek Town”. In 1900 there were only three Greeks in all of Utah according to census records. However through the efforts of Leonidas G. Skliris, a labor agent, by 1910, the largest concentration of Greeks in the United States was in Utah, nearly 4,000. Greeks settled all over the intermountain west but were concentrated on 2nd South where the Skliris’ coffeehouse was located at 507 West.

When the gentile Greeks, Turks, and Italians moved in the old genteel Mormons moved out. In 1900 the block was filled with dressmakers, bakeries, and barber shops but by 1910 all but the barbershops remained.

It was not only the influx of Southern Europeans that drove the respectable citizenry from the neighborhood but also a beautiful woman named Mrs. Dora B. Topham. In 1908 SLC’s Mayor Bransford established a red light district between 530 and 560 West on 2nd south called the “Stockade” to rid downtown Salt Lake of its brothels and prostitutes. The mayor put Mrs. Dora B. Topham, a professional madam, in charge of the sex business. She was the employer of nearly 100 men and women at any given time.

The decision to place the Stockade in the neighborhood was influenced by “class and ethnic biases” with city councilmen stating that the area was full of Italians, Greeks, and “Japs.”

The Stockade, which was surrounded by a ten foot wall, was approximately behind where the Obit Café is today, and operated for three years before Topham was convicted of inducing a minor “to enter the stockade for immoral purposes."  In 1911, the Stockade was closed and Topham returned to Ogden, although she quietly continued to lease a brothel in the southwest corner of the Stockade until 1913. Eventually the Stockade was torn down to "rubble".

The end of the city’s supported sex trade and the beginning of Prohibition in 1919 doomed the businesses on the block. By 1920, national Prohibition had a sobering effect with the Polk Directory for Salt Lake City, under that heading “Saloons”, declaring, “see Soft Drinks”. However several enterprising businessmen did open seven soft drink establishments along 2nd South. They didn’t last.

The Greeks and Italians had assimilated mostly by the 1920’s and moved away from the increasingly shabby neighborhood. Also new minority began mixing with the Greeks in the 1920’s. During the “Roaring Twenties” the ethnic make-up of the block began to change as more Southwestern Latinos moved to SLC and settled on 2nd South.

By the 1930’s, the block had past its prime with pool halls, newly reopened bars, and flop houses for the Depression’s destitute being the block’s main businesses. The Great Depression Years hit the block hard and by the 1940’s the Polk Directory showed many vacant lots on the block where old businesses had been torn down. The place was a ghost town and quickly becoming a skid row. A soul saving mission and soup kitchen was operated by the Church of God at 559 West for those down on their luck.

By the 1950’s only a few flop houses and bars remained. A business called the Three Aces Tavern operating at 579 West stayed in business for over 35 years and was at a time a Gay friendly bar in the 1960’s as Gays were became the newest minority to inhabit and frequent  the block.

The reputation of 2nd South as a place to solicit sex remained long after the Stockade closed. The deserted Westside neighborhood was ideally suited for “vice.” In 1964 the Utah State Health Department cited west 2nd South as the worse area for venereal disease cases reported since records were kept. Violence crime was also becoming rampant.

In 1967 SLC vice officers led a morals drive along the 500 block of West 2nd South with a massive round up of prostitutes. The city fathers were embarrassed because SLC had ranked in the top 1/3 of cities its size for prostitution. The morals drive failed and the area was still the main location to solicit illicit sex in Salt Lake City until the late 1970’s. The block's most noticeable “john” arrested in 1975 on 2nd South was Utah’s 2nd District Congressman Allen Howe.

Street Walking prostitution peaked in 1977 when city commissioners put up “no parking signs” along 5th West and 2nd South to curb road side services. However the occasional hooker still picked up tricks on the corner of 600 South and 2nd South well into the 1980’s outside the In-Between’s front entrance.

In the early 1980’s, the Sun Club relocated to 702 West 2nd South where the Kozy Corner Bar had operated since 1905. Also a Gay bathhouse was operating at 1414 West 2nd South since the late 1970’s. Second South was increasingly becoming Gay. The first official Gay Bar on the 500 West block was the In-Between. The In-Between opened in 1986 at 579 West 2nd South at the Three Aces old location. The bar was positioned between The Sun Club and Backstreet on 500 West hence the name. The owners were Bob Dubray and his lover Donny Eastepp. After the death of Dubray, the bar was bought by Joe Redburn who renamed the bar, “Bricks.” Through a succession of owners the club is called now called Club Sound. Little do patron  know, nor probably care, that they are dancing on the location of the old Albany Hotel and Demiris & Veros’ Saloon.

 

5 August 2005 Friday

Heather May of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote, “Rocky pushes for gay benefits Heterosexual domestic partners would also be included.

“Salt Lake County was the first government in Utah to try to offer benefits to partners of gay employees, but Salt Lake City could become the first to actually do it. Mayor Rocky Anderson and City Councilwoman Jill Remington Love are separately exploring ways to offer domestic-partner benefits, such as health and dental insurance, not only to employees' gay partners, but their heterosexual ones and other significant others - such as siblings and parents - with whom they live.

"I've always been in favor of equal benefits for employees, regardless of sexual orientation," Anderson said Thursday, vowing to sign an executive order launching the benefits if city lawyers determine the measure doesn't require City Council approval. "We need to put that in place."

Love didn't know Anderson was interested in the idea until Thursday. "I've wondered why the mayor hasn't been working on it," she said. She doesn't want the debate to be just about gay rights. She says it's about fairness "to our employees." "Good employers across the country are expanding their benefits," said Love, who considers herself "sensitive and supportive of gay rights."

While Anderson and Love have each considered extending domestic-partner benefits for years, there has been no real movement until now. Their  independent pushes come on the heels of Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson's attempt last month. After an emotional debate, the County Council voted against the measure along Republican-Democrat lines. City politics are officially nonpartisan, but the council leans toward conservative even though residents are more liberal.

Because of this conservative bent and the near-constant tension between the mayor and council, Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah, suspects it may be more difficult to get a domestic-partner plan approved by the City Council than by the county. Still Larabee says the discussion "is long overdue. I was wondering when this was going to come about."

Anderson mentioned the idea during his 2003 re-election campaign. But he said he was initially - and it turns out wrongly – advised that extending benefits might be impossible. He said he is now also pursuing a domestic partner registry – for not only gay city employees but gay couples throughout the community.

Love said she made inquiries about expanding benefits after she was elected in 2001 but was told it would be too costly. This summer, she directed council staff to research the concept and found almost half of Fortune 500 companies offer benefits to gay partners, along with 11 states, 295 colleges and universities (including the University of Utah) and 129 city and county governments. "It was time to ask the question again," she said.

More research needs to be done. It's unknown how many city employees would be eligible - of the roughly 2,600 employees who receive benefits, 885 are enrolled on a single plan, although it's unclear how many are gay and have partners.  

The cost to taxpayers also is unknown. Salt Lake County estimated its tab would run between $35,000 and $75,000 more a year. Love said if there is a "huge price tag, it's probably not something we could do right away." Anderson estimates costs would increase by just 1 percent.

It's not even clear if the council has a say, or if Anderson can do it on his own. Love has asked the City Attorney to figure that out. She wrote a letter to Anderson Thursday urging him to pursue the idea and offering to work with him to win approval by the council if needed.

Anderson said he was pleased with Love's interest but also took umbrage that she spoke to The Salt Lake Tribune about her letter before he read the letter. If it comes to a council vote, Love would be an important ally for the mayor. She already has broached the idea with some council members and drummed up interest.

Councilman Carlton Christensen – who helped defeat an ordinance that banned discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation (Anderson later instituted the policy by executive order) - said Thursday he is interested in the benefits discussion. To gain Christensen's support, "It would have to have a broader inclusion than just gay couples. I would hope the fiscal impact would be minimal," the councilman said.

Election-year politics may complicate the matter. Four of the seven council seats are up for grabs in November, and three of the incumbents - Love, Christensen, and Eric Jergensen - are running for re-election. For her part, County Councilwoman Wilson is cheering the city from the sidelines. "I hope they can do it."

 

6 August 2005-7 August 2005

No Entries

8 August 2005 Monday

Barbara Bel Geddes who co-starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s "Vertigo" died at rhe age of 82. She was more famous as Miss Ellie on "Dallas."

 

9 August 2005-12 August 2005

No entry

 

13 August 2005 Saturday

Heather May of The Salt Lake Tribune wrote, “Domestic partner registry proposed Rocky's plan: It would permit gay and heterosexual couples to document their relationships at City Hall”

Mayor Rocky Anderson wants to allow domestic partners - gay and heterosexual - to register their relationships at City Hall. Salt Lake City Attorney Ed Rutan is exploring whether such a registry is legal. Registries typically are used as a way for committed partners to document and celebrate their relationships but lacking any rights.

But a conservative state lawmaker already has an answer. Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, said Friday that state law forbids the mayor from creating a "synonym or substitute for marriage," though supporters of registries insist they aren't the same as marriages or civil unions.

"His attempt to circumvent existing law is tantamount to the San Francisco mayor standing on the steps [of City Hall] and performing [gay] marriages," Christensen said. The GOP legislator maintains state law also would prevent Salt

Lake City from extending health benefits to partners of gay employees, which the city is also exploring. If the law isn't clear, Christensen said, he is willing to sponsor a bill to stop the city from proceeding.

Anderson declined to comment Friday but told The Salt Lake Tribune for a story last week he was interested in the registry "for people to signify . . . they are partners, that they formed a domestic partnership."

Rutan is analyzing state law - including Amendment 3, the constitutional provision Utah voters adopted last year that says, "no other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect."

Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, who is openly gay and tried to defeat Amendment 3, said that measure shouldn't prevent the city from creating the registry or extending benefits. A registry "doesn't do anything close to a marriage or a civil union," he said. "They [opponents] use Amendment 3 as if it were a referendum on anything gay. That's a misuse and misinterpretation of Amendment 3. Amendment 3 supposedly was just about marriage and civil unions."

The gay community sees the registry as an important move even if it lacks legal clout. "The registry's a wonderful tool that can be used by a municipality or a city or state to allow nontraditional partners to validate their relationships," said Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah. "Any step toward recognizing nontraditional families and partnerships is a step in the right direction."

But some City Council members see it as a misstep. Councilman Dave Buhler said Friday he doesn't consider the issue a city matter. And Councilman Carlton Christensen said he wouldn't support it either, though it isn't clear if the mayor could create the registry on his own or if he would need council approval.

A vote by the council on the registry could affect this November's municipal election. Four of the seven council seats are up for grabs and three incumbents - Christensen, Jill Remington Love and Eric Jergensen - are seeking re-election. Gay matters can mobilize voters, as the issue of gay marriage did in the 2004 national election.

Anderson, who has called for a more diverse council, often is at odds with council members. He has targeted Jergensen in particular as someone he wants ousted. Jergensen represents the Avenues and Capitol Hill - arguably two of the most liberal neighborhoods in the city where gay issues might resonate. Those neighborhoods voted against Amendment 3, as did most of the city. Jergensen wants to see what the mayor proposes before saying how he might vote on the registry. "I hope this isn't being raised to force an election issue," he said.

The situation elsewhere- Domestic partner registries vary across the nation.

* In Kansas City, Mo., the registry simply documents the relationship, according to the city's Web site. Domestic partners are defined as two adults who live together and are "jointly responsible for the basic necessities of life" - such as the cost of food, shelter, and other expenses.

* Tucson, Ariz., allows people living inside and outside the city to register as domestic partners. The registry there grants participants the right to visit the partner in a health-care facility and treats the couple as if they were married.

 

14 August 2005 Sunday’

No entry

 

15 August 2005 Monday

Salt Lake Tribune Editorial “Domestic-Partner Registry: Mayor's proposal is nothing like sanctioning gay marriage.”

Unmarried couples just can't catch a break. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's reasonable attempt to give unmarried couples, gay or straight, some recognition with a listing on a city registry is a lightning rod attracting opposition from those who are determined to prevent any legal standing for people who live together but are not married.

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, believes that all legal benefits of being in a committed relationship are reserved for married folk and he has vowed to put a halt to the mayor's proposal. He said Anderson's idea is "tantamount to the San Francisco mayor standing on the steps [of city hall] and performing [gay] marriages."

Saying so doesn't make it so, of course; signing a registry is nothing like taking marriage vows. Still, it is possible that even this small recognition could lead - as, in fairness, it should – to the granting of hospital visitation rights, survivor rights and employee benefits for all city residents in committed relationships.

And that is why Christensen and the gay community, in their own ways, both see a city registry as important. Conservatives are concerned that it is a way to let the proverbial camel push his nose into the marriage tent for unmarried people to follow, while homosexual couples see it as a welcome step toward granting equal rights to nontraditional partnerships.

Anderson told The Salt Lake Tribune that the registry he envisions would be a way for people to signify that they have formed a domestic partnership. But those are red-flag words to conservatives in the Legislature who created the constitutional amendment to restrict the legitimacy of such partnerships.

Supporters of Amendment 3 sold it as a way to protect traditional marriage. They said that Part 2 of the amendment, stating, "No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect" would not prevent private or public entities from extending benefits to unmarried couples. In practice, however, it has had exactly that effect.

The Salt Lake County Council and Utah State University officials cited the amendment when they voted against extending benefits to unmarried couples.

A registry would not sanction gay marriage, which The Tribune does not support, or even civil unions, which we do. It would simply recognize a partnership, and nobody should be afraid of that.

 

16 August 2005-17 August 2005

No entries

18 August 2005 Thursday

My Lambda Lore Column  NAUGHTY SECOND SOUTH Volume 2 Issue 17 Salt Lake Metro Ben Williams

Is it me or was Salt Lake City hornier in the olden days? There were whore houses and saloons all over the place. The majority of Salt Lake’s sex trade, before the building of the Stockades, however, was located on Blocks 70 and 57 in the heart of downtown. Before the mid-20th century development of Blocks 70 and 57, several streets and alleys crisscrossed them. Commercial Street, Franklin Street, Victoria Alley and Plum Alley have all been paved asunder but just imagine the sexual energy amassed there.

            Commercial Street, now named Regent, was a rip roaring bawdy thoroughfare that ran north-south through Block 70 between 100 and 200 South. Oriental Plum Alley ran just east of it, near Carl Jr’s parking lot. Franklin Street lay south of Commercial Street and the venereal Victoria Alley ran east-west from State Street to Main Street. All these streets, being on the interior of the blocks, allowed "disreputable" businesses to be “relatively less visible and obnoxious to passersby than they would have been on the outside streets of the block.”

Commercial Street, (now Regent Street) originally housed two buildings used as brothels on during the late 1800's and early 1900's. "Commercial Street was created in 1871, one of the first streets to be cut through Salt Lake City's large city blocks." By the 1880's the "Salt Lake Tribune" referred to the street as "a resort of gamblers and fast women" and, according to the "Deseret News", the occupants of Commercial Street were "the demi-monde, the male parasite, the dope fiend, the gambler and the begger." In 1893 a two-story structure was built by Gustav S. Holmes at 167 Regent Street and in 1899 a similar structure was built by Stephen Hayes at 169 Regent Street. The second floor of each building was a "parlor house," so named because prostitutes ordinarily received their customers in a common parlor or sitting room. The large center room was surrounded by 10 rooms, or "cribs," just large enough for a bed, wash stand, dresser, and a chair or two. The architect of the site at 169 Regent Street was Walter E. Ware, one of early Salt Lake's prominent designers.

"In those days, the hot spots of Salt Lake were located in a tidy manner on a street that ran between 1st and 2nd South and Main and State. Within the street were saloons, cafes, parlor houses, and cribs [small cubicles] that were rented nightly to the itinerant Ladies of the Calling. It was against the rules to solicit, so these soiled doves would sit at the top of the stairs and coo their invitation to, 'C'mon up, kid.'", wrote John Held Jr. a cartoonist for the Salt Lake Tribune recalling his early life in Salt Lake City.

Houses of Ill Repute came to Utah with the U.S. army and the railroad. By 1872, the infamous Kate Flint also known as Utah's first Madam,  and other prostitutes “joined the influx of miners and railroad men” and moved to Salt Lake City where she operate the first whorehouse on Commercial Street. It was so successful that later even Gustav Holmes, the respectable director of the National Bank of the Republic, owned a building that was used as a brothel at what is now 165 Regent Street. It still stands.

Plum Alley was the center of Salt Lake City's tiny, but “overwhelmingly male, Chinatown.” Among all the saloons, laundry houses and opium dens was the “Big V". This brothel, located at 5 Plum Alley, had six bedrooms downstairs and ten upstairs to service Salt Lake’s randy clientele.

In 1880, Kate Flint removed to Block 57, where a narrow northern  street opened on Second South Street. Here she operated another whorehouse at 44 East 2nd Sound. This was the first brothel in Block 57, which is today dominated by the Gallivan Plaza.

            Victoria Alley ran east-west through Block 57 from State Street to Main. Only twelve feet wide at its State Street entrance, the alley allowed “discreet access to the brothels and dwellings in the interior.” On the north side of Victoria Alley were rooms called cribs while a house of ill fame operated on the south side at 7 Victoria Alley. This place was managed by Helen Smith aka Dreyfus better known as  Helen Blazes. Helen Blazes was a lucrative business woman who in 1914 filed a police report that she had $3000 worth of diamonds stolen from her. Operating less than ten feet from Helen Blazes' brothel was another brothel at 243 South Main ran by Ida Wilson. Another important brothel, called the Three Deuces, stood some twenty-five feet northeast of Victoria Alley at 222 South State Street.

Victoria Alley, like Plum Alley, was wide open to all type of “vice.” An article in 1899 showed that the police tried to force the prostitutes from Victoria Alley to Plum Alley or Commercial Street. Victoria Alley Crusade Jan. 30, 1899 A police raid in 1907 on Victoria Alley found "morphine, cocaine and opium fiends, as well as inveterate drunkards" of both sexes. The Herald Republican newspaper even claimed the residents of the Victoria Alley cribs were so degraded as to be unsexed: "Having the forms and faces of women, they have no other attributes of their sex."  The paper probably meant that crib workers “did not display gender-appropriate behavior” but could have also meant that transsexuals were employed there. Many Houses of Ill Fame also employed homosexual males who sometimes were passive partners for other men. Eureka, Utah was said to have an all-male house of ill fame in the 1890’s.

 A description of Victoria Alley is given in an article Councilmen Went Slumming Dec. 24, 1902 SL Tribune Another article in the Salt Lake Tribune suggests that $15,000 was being paid to the police to keep the brothels in Salt Lake City from being shut down. Only one policeman was assigned to patrol the entire area of block 57.

In 1907, Edward Burke, an employee of the Bell Telephone Company was arrested at 235 South State, charged with an “unspeakable crime”. He was arrested for having sex with a fifteen year old run away named Leon Young of Eureka, Utah. Young said he ran away from home because of some mistreatment by his stepfather and met Burke on Commercial Street. Burke who was described as “a fine specimen of physical manhood,” invited Young for lunch and a show. After eating, Young was invited back to Burke’s room where they had sex. According to a newspaper account Burke did not live at this rooming house but used it to “entice young boys” (teenagers). Burke was charged with “carnally (knowing) the said Leon Young, and then and there unlawfully, feloniously, wickedly, diabolically and against the order of nature with the said Leon Young did commit and perpetrate the detestable and abominable crime of Sodomy; Contrary to the provisions of the statute of the State …and against the peace and dignity of the State of Utah.”

As the commerce aspects of Salt Lake City began to expand, businessmen saw the need to clean up Second South. As early as 1903 a proposal was made to move the prostitutes and sex trade to west of the railroad yards. Changing Streets Apr.1, 1903 SL Tribune  However the brothels were not closed on Victoria Alley until September 1907 when the Salt Lake Chief of Police finally ordered them closed. Houses On Victoria Alley Are Closed Sept. 12, 1907 SL Tribune. The Tribune also pointed out that some Mormon Church leaders actually owned the buildings that housed the brothels naming Elder Joseph J Snell and Patriarch Winberg as rent collector.

 By 1908 the hand writing was on the wall for all of Salt Lake’s downtown brothels when their workers were ordered to move west. Wants a Stockade For Fallen Women Jan. 22, 1908 SL Tribune The opening of the Stockades on west 2nd South  was supposed to have closed the whorehouses and cribs downtown  but in October 1908 the Salt Lake Tribune featured a column saying, "Houses Are Again Running Full Blast".

 The SLC police tried insured their removal west by reportedly taking down patrons' names as well as fining the brothels. Any madam refusing to relocate was convicted in city court of keeping houses of ill fame. In effect this moral crusade to give Dora Topham a monopoly on prostitution in Salt Lake City. Newspapers even claimed that Topham directed the police to suppress the competitive downtown brothels. The Stockade itself closed in 1911 as the Salt Lake City’s “Betterment League” decided to clear the city of vice.

 The stockade operated for three years until on September 28, 1911, Belle London unexpectedly announced, "The stockade will be closed on Thursday and the same will not be reopened again."  Some people expressed great relief while others felt very upset to "have the streets flooded with the scarlet ladies," again. Some of the former occupants accepted the offer of the Women's League, going to the Women's Rescue Station and leaving their lives of sin. Others returned to Commercial Street which continued to be a red-light district until the 1930s, or remained near 500 West 200 South, an area for prostitution until the 1980s.

 When Brigham F. Grant, (1857-1936) the half-brother of LDS President Heber J. Grant, became police chief of Salt Lake in 1911, he moved against all legitimate and illegitimate prostitution. Police officers visited whorehouses on State Street, Victoria Alley, Commercial Street, and elsewhere and told the madams they had thirty-six hours to shut down. Grant claimed his "particular hobby [was] to guard the young from disreputable and demoralizing influences."  However police reports from the Salt Lake Tribune show that Victoria Alley was still the location for houses of ill-repute and opium dens even in 1913 a hundred years ago.

 Times were changing. By the 1920’s Salt Lake’s infamous madams, London Belle, Kate Flint, Ida Wilson, and Helen Blazes and their fine brothels and bordellos were distant memories. These places were so opulent at one time that one was even called the Palace. My favorite however was the “Big V.”  Wouldn’t it be great if some enterprising person opened a Lesbian bar called the “Big V” after that notorious brothel at Number 5 Plum Alley? Or a dance club named “The Stockade” after Salt Lake City’s infamous red light district?

 

19 August 2005 Friday

No entry

20 August 2005 Saturday

By Mike Gorrell of The Salt Lake Tribune wrote, “Salt Lake outed: It's rated a top gay-friendly travel destination”

Forget the stereotypes. When it comes to being a place friendly to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers, Salt Lake City is a much nicer place than most people would think - based on Utah's reputation as a bastion of conservatism.

"It's a surprisingly fun gay getaway," said Ed Salvato, a travel editor who put together the 12th annual "Out and About Travel Awards" for PlanetOut Inc., a San Francisco-based online media service for the gay and lesbian community. "I actually like Salt Lake. I've had great times there. There's an energetic, vibrant nightlife and very friendly locals," he said Friday in a telephone interview. "And before I came there, I thought it would be the land of blondes and Mormons. But it really was diverse."

Salvato's rankings also single out Park City's Queer Lounge for its prominence during the Sundance Film Festival. "It really is a fun and vibrant forum for gay filmmakers and gay film buffs to meet," he said. "In the last few years, all of the celebrities showed their faces there. It's a surprise they can be in

this desert that is Utah and can find a gay oasis."

Although Utah voters approved a constitutional amendment in November prohibiting legal recognition of domestic unions outside of marriage between a man and woman, Salvato said he was impressed that Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County both considered extending benefits to partners of gay employees.

"I know it's being stymied, but just the fact that it was being discussed shows there's an effort being made," he said. "It's not one of the worst places in America for gays and lesbians."

Government activities aside, Salvato said the most important consideration is the reaction gays and lesbian travelers receive when finding lodging. "If a staff member tells a gay couple, 'I'm sorry, there's been a mistake, there's only one bed,' well, it sounds silly but it's painful when you go through it," he said, praising two Salt Lake City hotels, the Monaco and Peery, for being so accepting and accommodating.

It's good business, he added, contending gays and lesbians spend $54 billion annually on travel. "The dual income, no-kid proposition means they tend to have more disposable time and money, and travel more than heterosexuals."

Salvato's endorsement pleased MaryLynn Beck, Hotel Monaco's general manager. "I wouldn't say we go out of our way to [take good care of] gays and lesbians, but we feel it's important for everybody to feel comfortable, no matter what their sexual preference or race," she said. "We train our staff, in general, to make sure they don't assume anything and they're not judgmental."

Noting that Hotel Monaco's parent company, Kimpton Hotels, is based in San Francisco and has 17 hotels in that gay-friendly city, Beck added "our employees are proud to work for a company that celebrates diversity the way we do."

Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Community Center of Utah, was not surprised that PlanetOut commended Salt Lake City. "I've been here since 1997 and have found that there is a wonderful community of gays and lesbians living here, very

supportive of each other," she said. "What we would like to see is our elected officials embrace us more widely," Larabee added. "How can the community be such a wonderful, open-armed place and yet have such intolerance coming from the Legislature and elected people?"

The best and worse for gay travelers-PlanetOut Inc.'s 12th annual list of the best and worst places for gay and lesbian travel included the following awards for 2005: Destination of the Year: Spain Top 5 Gay Resort Towns: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Key West, Fla.; Miami; Palm Springs, Calif.; Provincetown, Mass. Great Gay Marketing: Icelandair Holidays, Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. Tour Operators: Arco Iris Tours.

Events/Organizers of the Year: Burning Man.

Tourism Development: Bloomington, Ind., for showcasing itself as a progressive college town with surprising cultural opportunities.

Special Mention: Yosemite National Park, for courting gays and lesbians despite "a challenging political climate."

 

21 August 2005 Sunday

Michael N. Westley of  The Salt Lake Tribune reported; “Meth conference tackles HIV issue, Meth, sex are often a dangerous mixture”

At the height of his methamphetamine-induced psychosis, Josh Pace found himself wandering through a Salt Lake City cemetery following signs to a funeral.

He was sure the funeral he was looking for was his own. The psychosis, along with paranoia, compulsion, and restlessness, are all classic repercussions of a long-term, high-dose methamphetamine addiction - effects that new reports show are including HIV infection at an alarming rate. Pace was infected with HIV through unprotected sex with a man while high on crystal meth in June 2002. His story reflects a rising trend of HIV infection among gay men drawn in by the powerful allure of crystal methamphetamine and the pleasure of having sex while high. "Every sense is heightened. Everything is intense," said the 29-year-old Salt Lake City man.

The prevention and education of drug use and the promotion of safe sex were focal points of the inaugural National Conference on Methamphetamine, HIV and Hepatitis held Friday and Saturday in Salt Lake City. The conference, which was sponsored by the Harm Reduction Project, attracted more than 900 attendees from around the country.

The harm-reduction model sits in stark contrast to the conservative abstinence-only-based curriculum of Utah's education programs in that it accepts drug use and sexual behavior and then searches for ways to inform at-risk populations about how to engage in those behaviors safely.

People have been using some kind of substance for ages, said Patrick Fleming, director of the Salt Lake County Division of Substance Abuse, during a panel discussion Friday night. "It's the consequence of having a well-developed brain."

Though not connected with the weekend conference, Pace agreed to tell his story. He says he tried meth for the first time when he was 18 years old. He didn't use the drug again until he was 24, at which time he was battling depression and was looking for an escape.

"I was always open to experimentation. I found it at parties and in the club scene. That's back when it was all just fun for me," Pace said. "I did meth and everything was fine. I was happy." That was December 2001.

For a few months, his meth use was recreational - every other weekend. But it didn't take long before it became a weekly event, and the weekends stretched from Thursday to Tuesday.

On leave from his job for the depression, Pace had plenty of time to cycle the party from one friend to the next. Within a few months, meth had become his lifestyle. He would snort, smoke, or ingest the powerful stimulant, he said.

For Pace, having sex on meth did not become a regular habit until more than a year after he began using. The incident in which he contracted the virus in June 2002 was a random, brief, and seemingly unsatisfying event, he said.

By December 2002, and with his life in shambles - his job gone, his car impounded, his belongings confiscated when he lost his apartment, and his original "party" friends all taken in by their own addictions - Pace turned to the Internet for validation through sex.

From a random online hookup in March 2003, Pace found a man who was also HIV positive who was looking to "PNP," an acronym that stands for "Party and Play," or have sex on meth. It was his first experience with a needle. "I figured, why not? Snorting and smoking isn't getting me high," Pace said. "And the rush was wonderful."

An HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment report funded by the Utah Department of Health in 2004 revealed that youths, men who have sex with men, intravenous drug users and inmates in prison or jail were more likely to report having sex under the influence of drugs when compared with the overall sample of 425 respondents.

Mark Biggler, of Weber State University, explained in a conference lecture on Saturday that the first step in preventing the PNP phenomena is to address the pleasure factor associated with sex and drugs.

"There is a pleasure that bridges meth and sex. To recognize pleasure as a central theme keeps us from lying about why it is appealing," he said, and that honesty opens the door to effective education.

Pace said he took tips from a book distributed by the Harm Reduction Project titled Getting Off Right, which taught him how to safely process and inject meth.

"Most people want to take care of themselves, and that includes people who use drugs," said Michael Siever, director of the San Francisco-based Stonewall Project. The harm-reduction model works because it allows people to be counseled on how to reduce their drug use to a manageable level. "By not telling them what to do, they can make the decision to quit by themselves," Siever said.

For Pace, that decision came in November after spending most of the year bouncing from house to house, getting high and wandering the streets at night. His weight fell to 135 pounds. He began an outpatient drug-treatment program that has helped him identify the depression that pushed him toward the drug. He completed four months of the seven-month program and has not touched meth since November. His fear of the psychosis keeps him clean, he said.

Today, at 160 pounds, Pace is pleased with the man he sees in the mirror. He has a job, an apartment, and a partner. Telling his story was a big, and necessary, step to his recovery by letting go of the shame of having contracted HIV and the struggle of overcoming a drug addiction. "Nothing really good comes of silence," he said.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported, “SLC Anti-war protests scheduled-Anti-war Gold Star families, military families and veterans will gather in downtown Salt Lake City on Monday while President Bush addresses the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. They will urge the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan and the other military and Gold Star families camped outside the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. The gathering will take place at noon at Pioneer Park, located at the corner of 300 West and 300 South.

 

22 August 2005 Monday

END THE UNJUST WAR! Pioneer Park

During his visit to Salt Lake City, let George Bush know that we want answers to the questions: "Why are our sons and daughters dying and killing in Iraq?" and "Why is this a just war?" Join people from Utah and mothers from all over the country to ask Mr. Bush these questions and demand answers!

I would have liked to have gone but this was the first day I had to be at Washington Elementary for a faculty meeting and I am the new kid on the block.

My Lambda Lore Column GAY PAREE Ooh La La “As I stare at the empty bottle of French Syrah, I am thinking what ungrateful bastards we Americans are towards the French! Freedom fries my ass. I wager that when most Gay folks think of the French Revolution, if they consider it all, they either recall Dicken’s immortal lines- “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done” from Tale of Two Cities,  or that Miss Marie Antoinette retorted, when told that the poor had no bread, “Let Them eat cake.”  Spoken like a true queen I might add.

The French, after securing victory for us in the American Revolutionary War, and we went on to implement the noble ideals of the Age of Enlightenment the unappreciative Bush electing imbeciles have now disparaged the French.

 In 1789 a young idealistic closet case, named Robespierre, became the leading figure in the French Revolution, but eventually became a ruthless fanatical tyrant; eliminating almost all his friends and colleagues, kind of like some former monarchs of Utah’s Royal Court I heard tell of; but  I digress.

When the French National Assembly was formed by French revolutionaries, Robespierre, largely through his association with the Jacobin Club, not to be confuses with Club Try-Angles, initiated the famous Reign of Terror, and began executing his political opponents. This oddly enough only served to increase the number of his enemies and Robespierre himself was eventually arrested and sent to the Guillotine in 1794 at the age of 36. Poor misunderstood Robespierre.

  Okay here comes the part they skipped in World History 101. Robespierre was a flamer, although historians claim that he may have never acted on his homosexual feelings. “That would  be too icky,” I can just hear some Poindexter saying. But it would go a long way in explaining why Robespierre was such a bitch. Never the less, his so called “strong attraction towards members of his own sex” is well documented and his special attachment to the French drop dead gorgeous Louis Saint-Just, was the source of frequent rumors in a country which invented and perfected court gossip.

Louis Saint-Just, known as the "arch angel of death" (don't ask), looked great in silk stockings and was said to have believed fanatically in the “perfect state” based on rigorous “Spartan” virtue. Of course we all know what those Greek virtues were.

Although we will never know whether Saint-Just was “Greek Active” or my favorite “Greek Passive” we know he, “brooked no opposition to his political philosophy.” Butch, definitely a top.

Upon hearing of the coup which overthrew Robespierre and other members of the Committee of Public Safety, Saint-Just flew to General Assembly but was prevented from delivering a really top notch speech in defense of his lover, err I mean Robespierre. Not only did they not allow Saint-Just's to do his best “My Man I Love Him So” solo, but they also arrested his hairy ass and he was guillotined with Robespierre. I guess you could literally say he was head over heels in love- but I won’t.

  During this tumultuous time, which was especially hard on French wig makers, a minor French lawmaker named Jean-Jacques-Regis de Cambaceres threaded his way through the political landmines of his era, steering clear of the chopping block just in the nick of time to change the French legal code in a Gay way that is still felt or felt up in much of Western Europe.

Cambaceres was born 1753 into a family of minor nobility and was trained for the law. Why this “aristocrat” (spit after saying aristocrat in a true Madam de Farge manner. It’s fun!), was able to keep his powder wig and the head upon which it sat, quite jauntily I might add, is nobody’s business.

Let’s just say that while there is no record of when or how he recognized that he was a homosexual, it is evident that for much of his life he was open about his orientation. Some might say he was a ‘bon vivant’ and quite openly homosexual. Or some might say "it’s not who you know but who you blow" that gets you a head in this world.

Speaking of head I could have said that Cambaceres gave a lot of head to keep his. But that’s even too low for me. Nonetheless, to keep up appearances, (things never really change that much) Cambraceres was expected to have a mistress, and for this "role" he chose the actress Henriette Guizot.

Madam Guizot had a floorshow at the théâtre des Variétés where she sang couplets in boy drag. She had the Salt Lake Kings beat by 200 years! But again I digress.

Back to Cambaceres, his legal training proved helpful to the revolutionaries once the Revolution broke out. Even though an aristocrat (patooey-spit), he sided against the regime of King Louis XVI. Good call. In 1795, he even survived a term as president of the infamous Committee of Public Safety.

Four years later, when Napoleon screwed the whole sorry freakizoid lot by taking dictatorial power, the little General proposed the creation of a complete new legal code, reflecting the enlightenment of the Revolution. He decided to call it the Napoleonic Code because it was the first thing that popped into his head.

To draw up the new code, Napoleon sought someone with a superb legal background, someone with excellent diplomatic skills and someone who dressed well. After all this is the French who gave us powder blue helmets for U.N. Peacekeepers.

So for this momentous task, Napoleon selected "gay as a goose" Cambaceres who became, I mean really became the chief architect of the new,  never before seen on television, Napoleonic Code.

Historians say that Cambaceres was not cagey about his homosexuality, so in other words he was a real mincer, and it was through his fabulousity that the Napoleonic Code legalized private consenting homosexual acts between adults in the nations of Europe, after Napoleon invaded and plundered them in the name of Liberty, Equality,  and Fraternity.

Cambaceres died 1824 age 71 years and should be remembered as the first man to decriminalize homosexual acts, even as the sodomite that he was. The end.

 

23 August 2005 Tuesday

 No entry

 

24 August 2005 Wednesday

Heather May of The Salt Lake Tribune reported “Rocky set to extend benefits to partners Gay, straight: Approval from the City Council may not be legally necessary”

No lobbying or emotional debate necessary. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson apparently can extend health benefits to unmarried partners of gay and straight city employees anytime he wants. And he said Tuesday that he will "absolutely" offer the benefits once the city finishes its research on the plan and he gets formal word he can do it without a City Council vote.

Still, Anderson hopes the council passes a symbolic resolution supporting the idea. "As long as we're going to do this, we should demonstrate unity on this issue," he said. "Providing for equality should not create more division in our community."

Even a symbolic resolution is hardly a sure thing. The city's seven-member council leans conservative, and this is an election year for four of them. If the council rejects a resolution, Anderson said he would go ahead and offer the benefits anyway. Barring quick action from another city, Salt Lake City would become Utah's first government to offer domestic-partner benefits.

Mike Picardi, chairman of the Utah Stonewall Democrats, was excited about the news and said it could spur more governments and companies to follow suit. "It's about time that we have this," he said. "It gives recognition to a group of people in existence - you can't wish them away. They're a different type of family, but they are family." Picardi stressed the benefits would aid heterosexual couples, too. "People like to spin this into a gay issue. . . . It's an evolution of the nuclear family."

On Tuesday, Anderson met with Councilwoman Jill Remington Love to talk about domestic-partner benefits. She was looking at extending benefits via a council vote, but research by council staff found the mayor can "pick up the phone and do it," she said. "I encouraged him [Anderson] to move ahead," she recalled. "My main goal is that it gets done."

The City Attorney's Office has yet to issue an opinion.

Anderson said he wants the plan in place before November, when employees change their benefits package. "It's a matter of getting it drafted," he said.

Brenda Hancock, director of the city's Human Resources Department, said a task force is studying which benefits could be offered to employees' partners, how to implement the program and the legalities. Possible benefits include health, life, and dental insurance. Just like employees' spouses, the domestic partners would have to pay about $2,200 a year to join the health plan.

The city might also offer partners the chance to buy auto insurance and legal assistance - benefits now offered to employees' spouses.

Other cities and employers offering domestic-partners benefits see 1 percent to 2 percent of the work force apply. If that holds true in Salt Lake City, it could cost the city up to $121,000 more a year to cover domestic partners and their children. That's a 0.6 percent increase in the city's $18.7 million benefits budget. And it's equivalent to what the city spends when employees get married.

Anderson predicted the price tag would be even less. While at least one lawmaker believes that offering domestic-partner benefits runs afoul of state law - and Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, said he would be willing to sponsor legislation to stop the city from proceeding - Salt Lake County attorneys already have found it would be legal, according to County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson. After an emotional debate last month, the County Council rejected Wilson's plan to offer domestic-partner benefits to county employees. While Love wants benefits extended to siblings and parents as well, the mayor is seeking benefits for only gay and heterosexual partners. "I'm fine with that," Love said.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is continuing work on creating a domestic-partner registry, which would allow gay and heterosexual couples to register their relationships at City Hall. Employees are researching if the registry could provide any legal rights, such as hospital-visitation rights. "I'd like to go as far as we can to provide for equal treatment regardless of sexual orientation," Anderson said Tuesday.

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, has likened the registry to gay marriages. Supporters of such registries say they aren't the same. If a registry confers legal rights, Anderson said he would need City Council support. If it doesn't, he thinks he can create the registry on his own.

 

25 August 2005-28 August 2005

No entries

29 August 2005 Monday

Well today is my first day at Washington Elementary in Bountiful with students of which I have 36 and Mrs. Pratt the only other 5^th Grade teacher has as many or more. Not only is it a tight fit and sweltering in the classroom, the students didn’t have enough math or reading books but we are trying to get some from other schools that may have a surplus.

            The kids seem low on their math skills and my boys outnumber the girls two to one and some of the boys seem tough. Washington is a Title One school and about ten of my students are in Special Ed so they will be pulled out of class at all different times.

            I will have some Title One Tutors next week I am told but will muddle through this week. The kids like my song books at least.

30 August 2005-31 August 2005

No Entries

 

September

1 September 2005 Thursday

My Lambda Lore columns Pissed Off? Try Epistemology

When I was a youngster the worse thing a person could call someone was “queer.” It was a word that sliced through the soul. For most, it was fighting words but for a sissy boy like me it was a “Scarlet Letter” that stung with the fury of a thousand wasps. No wonder in college T.S. Elliott’s The Love Poem of J Alfred Prufrock held such significance for me.

 “And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase…”

Ah! that formulated phrase… “queer,” or homosexual, a rose by any other name… This word queer was stuff of cold sweats and clammy nightmares for many of my generation, until the paradigm shift we call Stonewall turned the world topsy-turvy. Still it was several years after Stonewall before I was ready to embrace my sexual essence and years more until I was ready to proclaim to the world “I’m here. I’m queer. Get used to it.”  I’ve lived long enough to see most of the world get used to it and now nearly bored by how ordinary I have become. However that’s another subject.

So how did we get from the love that dares not speak its name to the love that won’t shut up? Some members of the “community” have questioned why the Utah Stonewall Historical Society uses the word lambda so much, and exactly what the hell is a lambda anyway? In a nutshell the lambda is a letter in the Greek alphabet that was first chosen as a symbol for the Gay rights movement when it was adopted in 1970 by the New York Gay Activists Alliance. By 1974, the Lambda was adopted by the International Gay Rights Congress held in Edinburgh, Scotland as the symbol for worldwide homosexual rights. It looks like an upside down Y.

So what is the big deal on what we call ourselves? Plenty. For centuries “converse sex lovers” identified we “equivalent sex lovers” only by our actions not by who we are. Say what? In plain talk- straights have been calling the shots on how to define us forever! Yikes! That is so wrong according to my “new left” college professors in Minority Liberation 101. An empowered people should demand and choose their own self identifying terms.

            Take for example the “Black Power” movement of the Sixties which demanded that people of African heritage were to be no longer called “Negro,” or “colored people.” By their example eventually Indians became “Native Americans,” and just forget calling someone from Asia-Oriental. Its “Asian” thank you very much.

            So what’s a sexual minority to do? Pansy, fairy, butt pirate, Nancy boy, faggot, sodomite, cocksucker, bugger, and queer just didn’t have the right ring for a national movement. I don’t think we would have ever been accepted as Cocksuckers Liberation. Parents and Friends of Cocksuckers and Carpet Munchers. I could be wrong.

A 19th century swishy German came up with the world Uranian to describe our type of love after Plato’s highest degree of love. It didn’t last but it was a good start. Homosexual, a bastard word of Greek and Latin roots, was coined by the newly emerging psychoanalytic community to describe deviancy from “normal” behavior. A little known fact is that there were homosexuals before there were heterosexuals. The latter terminology wasn’t coined until the early 20th Century.

In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s a minor social phenomenon,  known as the “Pansy Movement”, minced around New York and Los Angeles for a while but not much elsewhere. It didn’t last.

In the 1950’s, the Greek roots homo (same) and Philo (like or love) were joined to promote the emerging consciousness of man on man sex. It didn’t last. In the late 1960’s, the radical youth movement, wanting to distance themselves from a name that conjured up conservative appeasement towards the medical and psychoanalytical establishments, chose Gay!

Gay! That sounded pretty good and it even had historical roots as a slang word for illicit sex. Check with Webster. Not only does “gay” mean happy but it also means licentiousness. So we began shouting Gay in everyone’s face and pissing people off that felt like we corrupted a perfect good rhyming word for a good time.

The snooty New York Times, which had barely gotten used to seeing the word “homosexual” in print, would have nothing to do with the word Gay for years. But finally, finally when the word became acceptable in general use the Associated Press’ powers said it was okay to use Gay to mean queer but refused to capitalize the word which would have recognize us as a proper noun! As the Cowardly Lion would have said “the noive!” 

Did they think we would not notice this effrontery? Well they were right. Here we are, some 35 years after “the Committee for Homosexual Freedom” voted “to request all publications to hereafter capitalize the word Gay”, and still we’re caught with our g’s down. Folks Gay is a proper noun and adjective that describes a people! We are a noun not a verb damn it!

Whether heterosexual writers and lexicographers are, by lower casing the word,  “blamed for psychological oppression of homosexuals,” as the Committee for Homosexual Freedom argued, is debatable. However the rules of English grammar state that those proper names of people, places, and things and the proper adjectives that describe people, places,  and things are to be capitalized! Period!

Okay before you think I am being awfully picky regarding a minute (mi-nute) matter, just humor me this. Are you defined by what you do or by who you are? If actions define your identity then you can lower case yourself all you want. But as for me “Give me a capital G or give me death!” As the great philosopher Popeye proudly proclaimed,” I yam who I yam.” Queer.

           

2 September 2005 Friday

3 September 2005 Saturday

This message is in response to a request to speak at LGSU October 24th. USHS will be happy to speak just let us know what topic you are interested in and where and when. Sincerely Ben Williams

 

4 September 2005-7 September 2005

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8 September 2005 Thursday

Ben, This is Bonnie Owens I am one of the LGSU co-presidents. I am so glad that you will be speaking to our group. We were hoping that you would talk to us about Gay history in general. You are welcome to use an hour of our meeting time at your discretion. The meeting starts at 7:30pm. It is in room 161 on the first floor of the Union Building. Here is a map and the address. Again thank you and feel free to email with any questions.

 

9 September 2005-12 September 2005

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13 September 2005 Tuesday

A man named Robert R. Massey wrote me, “Ben You mentioned Joe Dover (Spike?) in your recent Metro article. Joe Dover was a good friend and roommate at Upsala College. I had been in touch with him after he moved to Utah to do grad work at BYU but then he must have changed addresses. I subsequently lost touch with him. I would like to touch base with him again. I hope all is well with him.

I was actually in Provo on business for a full week about 3 or 4 years ago and I tried to locate him then to no avail. I couldn't find a listing in  any of the phone books but that doesn't surprise me since I know Joe was living modestly and may not have had a phone. I also poked around the BYU Library to see if anyone knew of him but I came up empty there also. Do you have any information on his whereabouts or how I might be able to contact him. Any information would be appreciated.”

I wrote him back, “I am sorry I can't help you. I only knew Joe when we both worked for the Salt Lake Triangle back in the late 1980's. He was an editor for Satu Servigna at the time. When the paper folded I lost track of him. We weren't in the same circle of friends and he was kind of a recluse as I recall.

 Perhaps if you contacted Affirmation or GAYBYU and posted that you are seeking information on him someone there might be able to help. GAYBYU is a Yahoo Group site and has nearly 700 members as I last recall. The local chapter of Affirmation might have some knowledge of his  whereabouts if he is still in the state and ventures out. Good Luck Ben Williams

Robert R. Massey replied bak, ‘Ben Thanks for at least pointing me in a couple of new directions. Maybe something will pan out. You are right, he was a bit of a recluse but there was also a wonderfully devilish side to him if you got to know him. When he came out I think he still carried a lot of guilt. It's not surprising since he was raised Catholic.

In one of my last conversations with him he was sure he had alienated our small group of friends from the Upsala days by telling them at a reunion he was gay. The truth was that nobody really cared. He was still a great friend and has not been forgotten. I would appreciate it if you would save my address in case you come up with any other ideas as to how I might track him down. Bob Massey

 

14 September 2005-18 September 2005

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19 September 2005 Monday

My lambda Lore column- HIGH SCHOOL DAZE: Issue 19 Volume 2- RARELY THE BEST OF TIMES AND MOSTLY THE WORST OF TIMES

I read with great interest the three views of today’s Queer youth in the last issue of the Metro. It got me to thinking about my own high school days some 40 years ago.

I began high school in September of 1965 and finished in June of 1969. Lyndon B. Johnson was president and the world outside of high school was volatile. To say there was unrest in America in the sixties is as they say an understatement. By the time I was a high school freshman, the Vietnam War was already into its second year and it would not end until I was a senior in college. That war was the single major milestone event of my generation.

Here in the land of the free, race riots erupted, not in the South where civil unrest led to marches and sit-ins, a source of constant agitation to my Texas relatives, but rather in northern cities such as Detroit and Chicago. I was not immune to these things by living in “white as wonder bread” Orange County, California either. Once riding on a train, coming home from a summer vacation in Texas, my sister and I rode through Los Angeles as the Watts Riots were in full fury. Standing between passenger cars with a Black porter, I remember at one railroad crossing a white couple getting out of their car and screaming racial obscenities at the porter. Even among my Texas relatives I had not seen such vileness directed against Blacks.

My sophomore year is a blur with the most vivid recognition being of the day Walt Disney died. I had spent my childhood and much of my adolescence watching Disney explain things to us in his kind reassuring tone. Whether it was the Mickey Mouse Club or the Wonderful World of Color, Walt Disney was almost like a member of my family, especially since I grew up in the shadow of Disneyland.

            Between the summer of my sophomore and junior year, it was the Summer of Love. I went to my first and only “love-in” at Irvine Park where my sister drove my friend Jerry  and I around while hundreds of flower children sat on the hoods of their cars or on blankets tapping on tambourines and saying such cool things such as “groovy,” “flower power” and “peace” all the while flashing two fingers, which in my father’s times stood for victory. In all that scenario of love, I didn’t see any type of love like that secreted in my heart.

By my junior year, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had been murdered, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam was sending home weekly 300 plus young men in body bags, and LBJ said he would not run for re-election. His noble visions of the Great Society and War on Poverty were in shambles due to America’s Military-Industrial Complex which President Eisenhower had warned us against. The anti-war movement, the free speech movement, the beatnik-hippie movement, the free sex and birth control movement, and the Black Panthers were nightly distractions in the news.

But since I was still in high school, these weightier issues didn’t seem very important to me. I was much more concerned with how to avoid gym class and when the next Superman comic would hit the stand. At twelve cents an issue, even I could afford to escape into the world of superheroes. I especially liked it when DC Comics started shadowing Superman’s crotch. It weaned me away from the Sears’ catalog underwear models which were airbrushed to avoid any hit of bulginess.

My high school years were a series of drudgeries to be endured. There is no other way to put it. There were no proms for me, no lettermen sweaters, no student councils, or any other type of recognition. I said to myself at the time that I really didn’t want them,  but in reality, I did not know how to achieve what seemed so easy for others, for I was a Gay boy in an openly hostile heterosexual world, high school.

Now don’t think for a moment that I had any hint of Gay Pride! I should have said that I was a queer boy, with disturbing fantasies of being sexually aroused by other boys. I was highly ashamed of these “pathological abnormalities” and at all cost had to hide them from even the closest of friends. Friends, this is not quite the right word because if one was queer, as I am, true friendships based on trust and confidentiality were not available. I was outside the pale of what others took for granted. And yet I tried to pass as normal, but I was far too artsy. I was just a tad bit too effeminate for my own good.

 Society had taught me well that I was contaminated by these feelings of male eroticism, therefore it became paramount not to draw attention to my sissy boy ways by being singled out or being noticed by anyone. To survive insurmountable labeling by sex deprived teenage boys, it was necessary to be a chameleon, lest I incurred the righteous and pure indignation of someone intuitive enough to know that I was queer. After all everyone knew that being queer was infectious; something you caught from others. Unclean! Unclean!

            There was probably no more hostile, intimidating, and unreceptive environment than high school if one was Gay in the Sixties, outside of the military. And none so lonely. We were so very much alone. The only portrayal, if any at all, of homosexuals was that of psychotics whose miserable and despicable existence usually ended in suicide, or worse in flowery pastels. High school’s true purpose in the sixties was not to give a basic well rounded education, guaranteeing success in the world of work, but rather to indoctrinate, and insure the transition of society’s sets of values and prejudices among the most impressionable- the pubescent.

 However a merciful God compensated us queer boys in the turbulent Sixties by giving us Rock and Roll. We had the best girl groups on the planet; the Supremes (and they were), Martha and the Vandellas, the tough as nails Shangri-las, the best bands, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys (when they were boys), the Turtles, the Monkees, the Animals, the Birds, the Yardbirds; and jeremiad troubadours who gave us warning as well as hope such as Peter Paul and Mary, Donavan, Joan Baez, and Dylan who promised us that “the times they are a changing.” There were songs about loving one another, going to San Francisco with flowers in your hair, and magical mystery  tours. We were assured that all we needed was love but where was a Gay boy to find love if that was all he needed?

To be assured I had, as Doris Day sang, “my secret love,” mostly crushes on my sisters’ boyfriends. There was Buddy the West Texas cowboy and Ricky the sailor boy. In fact my father’s house was a regular USO during the Viet Nam war. Having been in the navy during World War II, our house was always open to my sister’s latest navy boyfriend and their buddies. Since I was the only boy in the house and had my own full size bed, I had to bunk with half of the 7th Fleet during the war. I didn’t mind. It was my patriotic duty.

However it was not until the last semester of my senior year did I truly fall in love. I was seventeen and in my 5th period Creative Writing class. (How queer was that?) It was a drowsy spring day in March and as I halfheartedly listened to aged and petite Mrs. Appy drone on and on about pentadic meter, my eye caught a dust fairy swirling in a sunbeam streaming through a ceiling window. I watch as it danced along the ray of light until the gleam rested on the back of this young man’s head who, unlike me, was intently listening.

I stared at the beautiful form of this golden shrouded boy, unawares of my trance like state, until I was interrupted by the hostile glare of Linda, who as if she could read minds, shamed me into a deep crimson blush. No matter. I had a purpose in life. To find out whom this boy was and make him my "best friend" the only euphemism acceptable to Gays in the Sixties. And so began my quest to be loved as my heart dictated. It was a disaster.

 

20 September 2005-30 September 2005

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