September 30 – October 13 Volume 1 ■ Issue 12
Web Woes Equality Utah’s domain hijacked by homophobes
‘No on 3’ Support Broadens McCoy: Defeat of Utah amendment will shock the nation
Utahns in Speedos QUAC sends 48 swimmers to international meet
Calling in Angry Could Oct. 8 boycott unleash gay power?
A Man of God Televangelist makes anti-gay death threat A&E Reviews by our new film critic Eric Tierney
Ruby Ridge What if Amendment 3 were to pass?
Red, White & Bubbly Jarvis does five shots of vodka, then writes column
News NATIONAL AND REGIONAL
Louisiana Voters Approve Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment louisiana — In a 78-22 percent vote, Louisiana voters decided Sept. 18 to amend their state constitution to prohibit gay marriage. “We’re really happy with the incredible mandate the voters sent that says we want to preserve traditional marriage,” said Louisiana state Rep. Steve Scalise. “We hope this sets the stage for the remaining states that have marriage amendments on the Nov. 2 election.” Although Scalise said that the amendment put the state “in a much better position to deal with challenges” to Louisiana’s ban on gay marriage, opponents said they would continue to fight the amendment in the courts, despite a failed suit against the
secretary of state to keep the amendment off the ballot — a suit which the state’s highest court unanimously ruled not to hear. Although the court’s decision surprised him, an attorney working for a group called Forum for Equality, which helped bring the unsuccessful suit to block the measure, said Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero’s accompanying comments encouraged him. The justice wrote that he agreed with Forum for Equality’s assertion that the amendment may violate Louisiana’s “more than one single object law” — which requires an amendment to serve only one purpose — because it asked voters to decide both on the rights of gays to marry and enter into civil unions. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged similar amendments in Washington, Arkansas and Oklahoma on similar grounds. — JV
House Prepares for Marriage Amendment Vote washington d.c. — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment, formerly the Federal Marriage Amendment, today (Sept. 30). Members on both sides of the issue vow their side will prevail. “We all know that this is nothing but a political effort to draw attention away from Congress’s failure to do something about the economy, healthcare costs, and national security,” said Human Rights Coalition president Cheryl Jacques. “We need to send a message that playing politics with people’s lives is wrong. We need to discourage future votes on this isHuman Rights Campaign sue by showing that it’s President Cheryl Jacques a waste of time.” Amendment supporters, such as Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, have said that the amendment is necessary to keep judges from arbitrarily imposing same-sex marriage on the states. Only 144 votes are needed to keep the House from adopting the amendment. While Democrats number in the minority, their party still boasts 208 representatives who could vote by themselves to block the FMA. And while several House Republicans have voiced support for the amendment, opponents, including openly gay Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., are expected to lead their party’s opposition. On July 22, the House passed the Marriage Protection Act of 2004 by a 233-194 vote. This act prohibits federal courts from ruling on issues pertaining to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which says that states can’t be forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. — JV
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Lesbian Couple Splits; Custody Battle Ensues galveston, texas — A Texan mother of a six year-old girl is attempting to overturn the child’s previous adoption by her former lesbian partner of eight years after the couple separated last March. Julie Anne Hobbs used artificial insemination to conceive her daughter, who her then-partner Janet Kathleen van Stavern legally adopted in 2001. According to Hobbs, however, Texas law says that a child’s relationship to biological parents must be terminated before the child can be adopted. Further, a parent whose rights have not been terminated must also marry the individual seeking to adopt before that adoption can be legal. As Texas doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, Hobbs and her lawyers said the adoption should not have happened. “The granting of this adoption was directly contrary to and in violation of Texas law and, therefore, void as a matter of law,” her attorneys Marie Trefethern and Christine Mangle argued in a legal brief. “The court had no authority to grant the adoption as Janet Kathleen Van Stavern could not be the ‘spouse’ of Julie Anne Hobbs nor the ‘stepparent’ to the child.” In response, Van Stavern’s attorney, Shannon
Warren, said that Hobbs had waited too long to challenge the adoption, which was approved after six months. Trefethern also said that Hobbs had brought the suit only to see that her child’s parentage was protected. “The fact that Janet Kathleen Van Stavern and Julie Anne Hobbs were in a homosexual relationship is not really the issue in this case,” the attorney wrote in a legal filing. “If Janet Kathleen Van Stavern had been the male boyfriend of Julie Anne Hobbs, the adoption would also be void, as no spouse or stepparent existed as intended by the legislature in order for the child to be adoptable.” Van Stavern has paid $400 in child support each month and has visited the child since the couple’s separation. — JV
Televangelist’s Anti-Gay Threats Draw Criticism baton rouge, la. — American gay rights organizations have criticized evangelist Jimmy Swaggart for a recent sermon in which he called for a federal marriage amendment and said he would kill a gay man if one ever displayed sexual interest in him. “I’m trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men,” Swaggart said in a broadcast Sept. 12. “I’ve never seen a man in my life I Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart wanted to marry. And I’m gonna be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that I’m going to kill him and tell God he died. In case anybody doesn’t know, God calls it an abomination. It’s an abomination! It’s an abomination!” Although Swaggart added he was only “knocking” pro-gay lawmakers, not the “poor homosexual” who needed “salvation just like anybody else,” a Toronto television station pulled the sermon after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council received a complaint. Additionally, Cheryl Jacques, Human Rights Coalition president, criticized Swaggart for his remarks: “His language only encourages an environment where hate crimes occur.” Swaggart publicly apologized Sept. 21, saying that he intended the comments as a joke: “It was a tongue-in-cheek statement best left unsaid. I won’t make it anymore.” According to Swaggart, he has made similar remarks in the past about killing members of other groups, including other preachers. He also said his remarks were not intended to encourage violence against gays and lesbians, as some gay rights groups have suggested. “Good gracious alive, it would be a long stretch of the imagination to come up with that,” he said. Popular during the 1980s, Swaggart’s television ministry faced a serious blow when New Orleans police caught him soliciting a prostitute in a motel. In 1987, California police also pulled him over for having a suspected prostitute in his car. — JV
Locals Skeptical About Oct. 8 ‘Boycott for Equality’ by Mandy Q. Racer
More information is available online at www. boycottforequality.com.
The Boycott Here’s how the boycott’s organizers say gays, lesbians and their allies can participate in the Oct. 8 boycott: Withdraw from work. Call in sick or
1use a personal/vacation day. You do not have to come out to anyone in doing so unless you choose to do so. This will impact overall economic productivity. If you own a business, consider closing for the day to honor the goal. Withdraw from your ATM. We are
2 asking GLBT citizens to withdraw $80 from their bank accounts on that Friday and hold the cash in their pockets. This is the symbolic average daily contribution of gay people to the economy. There are an estimated 20 million GLBT citizens with a daily spending power of $1.4 billion, equivalent to $500 billion annually! Withdraw from commerce. Do not
3 purchase or buy anything. This
includes groceries, services, retail goods etc. No movies, restaurants, or entertainment — nothing! If we make no purchases, we do not generate sales tax for government coffers or revenues for businesses. Withdraw from cell phone com-
4 munication. Do not use your cell
SALT LAKE METRO ■
The Salt Lake Metro offices will be closed October 8 in support of the Boycott for Equality.
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phone for the entire day. We are planning on GLBT citizens to disappear for the day so that our fellow citizens feel the loss of our presence in their lives.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2004 5
Organizers nationwide are promoting an Oct. 8 boycott in support the queer community and its allies. Called “Boycott for Equality” the event is being organized by Dale Duncan of Atlanta, Ga. The boycott calls for participants to withdraw from economic society: No work, no shopping, no cell phones and an $80 ATM withdrawal. Interest in the boycott exists locally as well as nationally, although some are skeptical. “Boycotting is only an option for the elite,” said Shauna Sanchez, a local photographer and bartender. “Most young people who are financially Boycott for Equality organizer struggling can’t afDale Duncan ford to miss work.” However, Duncan says, “That’s why we made it multifaceted. People can do what they want to do.” Participants may, for example, choose to work that day, but refrain from making purchases. Janice Eberhardt, publisher of the local magazine Women 4 Women, said, “For people who are working for employers that offer sick leave benefits, it seems that taking a paid sick day just bites the hand that feeds them. This may not be the most effective way to impact the anti-gay establishment.” Real estate agent Mark Barr said, “I only see this boycott making sense in a context of working for an employer with a majority of heterosexual employees or management to emphasize a point of how many of us there really are and that we should not be forgotten when the time comes to support us, whether it be standing up for our community, or offering our families benefits and rights.” Local comments about the boycott reflect a concern that the protest will be but a drop in the U.S. economy’s ocean — the effect of one day won’t be felt, regardless of the $1.4 million that Witeck-Combs Communications estimates is spent daily by the queer community. Don’t focus on the numbers, Duncan stresses: “We’re not going to shut down the country. We’re not going to put a huge dent in the economy.” Instead, the boycott’s purpose is to “show people we are together as one.” Duncan repeats the importance of unity within this embattled community. The boycott will “put our issues in front of the American public.” When President Bush called for a Federal Marriage Amendment, Duncan and his long time partner were horrified. In that moment, Boycott for Equality was born. “We had never done anything like this before,” he said. The men funneled their own money and enormous amounts of time into this boycott with an overwhelming response. The website, www.boycottforequality.org, has received over one million hits, fueled purely through grassroots-inspired word-of-mouth. Large organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign will not back the boycott.
“Too risky,” Duncan said. “We have to lead our leaders.” Duncan warns repeatedly against the cynicism that is held by the majority of the queer community, one that is at times difficult to incite to action. “Stop assuming that people won’t participate,” he said. “We cannot lose by organizing this event. Even if no one participates — nothing will change the fact that there are 20 million of us.” According to Duncan, the boycott itself is flexible. For organizations that cannot close for the day, Duncan suggests donating revenue to queer charities. When stocking up on supplies the day before or after, do so at gay-owned businesses. To individuals and businesses worried about losing the day’s revenue, Duncan said, “We are losing money. Look at the long-term picture.” He says that partnered couples denied the benefits of marriage, such as social security benefits and tax breaks, are losing far more money over their lifetimes than they can earn in one day.
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Opinion
Boycott Offers Opportunity to Make a Difference
by Brandon Burt
SALT LAKE METRO ■
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I’m not really sure now what to do with my collection of Jimmy Swaggart porn. Swaggart is the blue-haired televangelist who is just so hot, hot, hot — to gay men at least — he finally had to break down and make a death threat against the next faggot who looked at him “like that.” (You know the look he means. It’s the look gay men get when they become enamored of a semiliterate, puffy Bible-banger who makes his living bilking little old ladies out of their Social Security checks.) Yes, it was a terrible blow to discover old “hot cheeks” Jimmy is absolutely, unapologetically, 100-percent heterosexual. My hopes of getting it on with him — of finally having the opportunity to touch that flaccid, withered, somewhat gray and quivering flesh — have been utterly dashed. But there’s nothing that can be done about it. If he’s straight, he’s straight. Unfortunately for hetero Jimmy, the lusty animal magnetism he holds for gay men the world over does not extend to women. This is a man who does, remember, have to pay hookers in order to get his rocks off. Not that there’s anything especially wrong with hookers. As long as they’ve chosen their profession of their own free will and are allowed to maintain enough self-esteem to stick up for themselves and ensure they’re treated well, who am I to disapprove? It’s just that, while I’m not one to disapprove, Jimmy certainly is. One imagines the entire time he was sweating, grunting and flopping around on top of those call-girls he could barely contain the feeling of disgust he felt for himself, for them, and for a world that could hold such temptations of the flesh. That much became clear the day he had his spiritual epiphany, causing him to make a tearful speech of public repentance, which — as such spiritual epiphanies often do — came immediately after he got caught. It was this epiphany, this complete turnaround in his spiritual convictions, that first made me realize Jimmy could change — if not with the prayers of his aged and rather superstitious viewers, then at least with the everlasting love of the right man. After all, God didn’t make Jimmy a hypocrite — Jimmy’s just living the hypocrite lifestyle. Hate the sin, love the sinner. Nobody is born a right-wing religious nut. Ask any right-wing religious nut — he’ll tell you the story of his conversion. Likely he started out as a normal hellion: drinking, carousing, doing drugs, worshiping Satan. The kind of person you meet every day. It isn’t until, in a moment of personal crisis, he is recruited by a member of the nefarious, world-wide, right-wing religious nut organization. These are the folks who hang out at political conventions and in churches, on college campuses and in prisons, in a never-ending hunt for their next victim. That victim is exposed to religious literature, tempted to attend revival meetings, even subjected to the laying-on of hands — and, unless something can be done quickly, the predators’ job is quickly done: The victim joins their ranks and becomes a predator himself. It is a vicious circle, but the predatory practices of right-wing Christians are well known. Some even go door-to-door! All is not lost, however. It is important to remember that being a right-wing religious nut is a chosen lifestyle. Remembering this can be difficult in an age when the Washington D.C. elite and the Republican-dominated media are constantly barraging us with the false message that being a right-wing Christian is perfectly normal, even desirable. However, I was heartened to learn that there is no gene that causes people to be right-wing religious nuts. This meant that Jimmy, my Jimmy, could change! He could even — dare I dream it? — be mine! Visions of our perfect love danced through my head: the birds chirping sweetly, his massive neck-jowls fluttering manfully in the breeze, his lips pursed, for once, not in a wrinkled expression of his disapproval, but in a kiss barely tinged with the sweetness of Fixodent. Not only was I looking at him “like that,” he was looking at me “like that” right back. And then, with this — this public avowal of his heterosexuality and with his determination to kill the myriad gay men who look upon his sagging man-breasts with constant, unbridled passion — my dream was dashed to bits. Right-wing religious nut? That I could live with … I could even help him change. But heterosexual? No, there’s nothing that could be done about that.
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gay community’s boycott against Coors Brewing Company in the 1970s and ’80s did generate a substantive response from the company — even if it didn’t change the politics of the Coors family itself — but it was a boycott which lasted for years, and was adopted almost universally by gay bar owners. What good could possibly come of a boycott that lasts only one day and isn’t really even directed at anything in particular? In our community, things like these tend to become annual events — so even if this year’s boycott doesn’t make as much of a splash as its organizers hope, there’s still a good reason to participate: Not only will participants feel good about having been involved from the very beginning, but each person who does participate serves to increase the likelihood of the boycott’s eventual success — which, in the long run, could be huge. And, considering the existence of a community fed up with a Bush administration — not to mention various state governments — that seek to capitalize on the unpopularity of our civil rights each election year, the boycott could crystallize into something beyond its organizers’ wildest hopes. The first people to notice whether the boycott is a success or not will be the bean counters. Now, advertisers and accountants have known for years that the gay market is a lucrative one. However, the business world is about one thing: making money. This has led to a state of affairs in which gays and lesbians are recognized as a consumer demographic even as our status as human beings is ignored. This kind of dehumanization is a natural by-product of corporatization. Finally, then, this boycott represents the first thing in years our community can do that actually decreases our participation in the consumerist culture that continues to dehumanize us. For these reasons, Salt Lake Metro plans to participate in the Boycott for Equality. Our offices will be closed Oct. 8, and we encourage everybody who can to participate.
For the Love of Jimmy
SEPTEMBER 30, 2004
Organizers of the national Boycott for Equality Oct. 8 are conducting a unique experiment — to see if enough of us participate that mainstream America notices. This is in response, organizers say, to the fact that “on February 24, 2004, the President of the United States declared war on gay/bisexual/transgendered Americans when he decided to support a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage denying us over 1,000 rights and responsibilities that all other Americans currently enjoy.” By participating in the boycott, they say, we could wake the country up to the fact that we are just as much a vital part of society as everybody else. While gays and lesbians who are out of the closet help achieve this goal every day, just by going about their daily business, Boycott for Equality believes that there are so many of us still in the closet that a one-day boycott — “a silent protest that can be measured in dollars” — is the only way for society to experience the full, collective force of our numbers. Or at least it would be, if we all participated. Organizers are asking participants to do four things: 1. Withdraw $80. 2. Take the day off work. 3. Refrain from spending. 4. Turn off cell phones. For many gay people, doing either of the last two things alone would be hardship enough, and it’s unfortunate that for many others, either of the first two things might be impossible. Still, many great things have been accomplished by people who asked questions starting with the words “What if …” What if we all participated by dropping out of the consumer pool — if not completely, then to the greatest extent possible? Taking time off work might not be an option for some — for those without jobs in this Bush economy it’s meaningless — but it is still possible to curb spending and consumption. Some doubt that a one-day boycott is practicable. The
From the Editor