History of the Gay Press in Utah by Ben Williams
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SALT LAKE METRO ■ APRIL 28, 2005
ben@slmetro.com
Freedom of the Press. So important is this basic concept that it was enshrined into our Constitution as the first part of the Bill of Rights. The founding fathers knew that a free press was essential for freedom from tyranny. They also knew a free press builds a sense of identity for a community or a people. Thirty years ago this month, Utah’s first paper specifically geared for the burgeoning queer community appeared. The early newspapers of the queer communities of Utah were primarily the work of volunteer editors, layout people, reporters and writers. Many of the papers had to be hand lettered and laid out. These periodicals were barely able to survive, sustained by advertising revenue from the few gay friendly businesses in town. What one read in these papers was guided not by editorial policy but by whatever the editors were able to persuade people to write. Little news and even less editorial comment were presented in most of these periodicals. In April 1975, the Gay Community Center launched the first queer publication, with Babs De Lay as the first editor. This periodical was printed on a mimeograph machine and was actually more of a newsletter. The first issue even had no name, as the name was to be chosen from a contest held at Pride Day. The winning name was The Gayzette. The paper’s handle only lasted until January 1976 when The Center changed the paper’s name to The Salt Lick, keeping Babs De Lay as editor. Places willing to distribute The Salt Lick were Cosmic Aeroplane, Open Book, Club Baths, The Sun, Sisters, Radio City, The Sunset Room, the Rape Crisis Center, the Name of the Game Jr., The Munch Shoppe, Mother Earth, MCC, Grace Christian Church, and Round Records. The Salt Lick was abandoned in 1976 after the Gay Community Center closed up shop and Babs De Lay went on to become editor of The Rocky Mountain Woman, a feminist paper. Utah’s queer community was without a paper for over a year until the Gay Community Services Coalition officially registered The Open Door with the state of Utah in December 1977. The Open Door, a reference to “coming out of the closet,” was the primary news organ for the gay community from 1977 until 1981. Editors and owners were Ray Hencke, Joseph Dover (alias “R. Spike Joseph”), Ken A. Kline, Michael Perry, and Robert “Bob” Waldrop, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church. The Open Door’s articles had more substance then the previous papers. Jeff Howrey’s “Mormon and Gay ... One Man’s Tale of Bloody Knuckles,” first printed in The Open Door, was later reprinted in the University of Utah’s Daily Chronicle. However, it was the “Payne Papers,” printed as a serial, which garnered national attention. Cloy Jenkins, a gay BYU student, after attending an anti-gay lecture by BYU professor Reed Payne, prepared a thoughtful anonymous response to the lecture. Now known as Prologue, the paper called for a “well-reasoned dialogue on these issues.” In 1978, The Advocate published an abridged version of
Jenkins’ anonymous work. The following year The Open Door ran this classified ad: “BYU Underground. Note: Community Voice-Persons interested in meeting other gays going to BYU. All correspondence will go through The Open Door for safety reasons. Write The Open Doors Number 1004.” While the editor of The Open Door vouched for the authenticity of the ad in an editorial piece, it was actually placed by BYU’s security to entrap gay students. In 1979, when BYU admitted its covert operation, the publisher of The Open Door sold the paper. The new owners of The Open Door began to charge 25 cents an issue, with 40% of the profits purportedly going back into the community. Religious organizations such as Affirmation, Integrity, and MCC were to receive 10%, another 10% was to be divided between the People’s Concern Fund of the Imperial Court of Utah and the Deacon Fund of MCC, another 10% to the Tony Adams Political Rights Defense Fund, and the final 10 % into a trust fund for the eventual establishment of a gay community center for Salt Lake City. The attempt to fund gay organizations by charging 25 cents for the paper fizzled. But The Open Door continued to crank out monthly issues until 1981 when Bob Waldrop’s social activism burned out. Another paper called the Gay Community News appeared between 1980 and 1981 but no copies of it have been located. A series of short-lived publications emerged after the demise of The Open Door. Michael Aaron’s Gay Community News lasted from 1981 to1982. Laura L. Ferreira, along with editor “Shar,” operated The Salt City Source from 1984 to 1985. David Nelson created the news magazine The Up Front, a project of Gay Community, a non-profit Utah corporation, from 1984 to 1985. Aaron and Nelson then teamed up to make a go of The Community Reporter, which lasted one year, 1985. That same year, The Salt City Source was given to the Utah Community Services Center and Clinic and renamed The Best Source. Beau Chaine ran the paper under the alias “Mitchell Cheney.” Most notably, The Best Source ran articles on the deadly AIDS epidemic. AIDS activist Sidney Spears, in a letter published by the paper, was first in the community to exhort gays to help with the emerging crisis. “We just have to help ourselves. We just can’t wait for the help to come to us. We have to be willing to seek it out where ever it is... just how many have to die before we take action?” The Best Source became the first newspaper in Utah to accept a condom ad for Trojan Naturallube Ribbed Rolled Latex Condom—“Don’t Leave Home Without One.” Additionally, Jay E. Lambert, M.D. became the first physician to advertise in a Utah gay publication with his ad in the Source. In the 1980s, there was a major reluctance on the part of physicians to advertised in queer publications. One even stated he “was already seeing more than a fair share of patients from the gay community.” In the latter half of the 1980s a monthly news magazine materialized that replaced all former publications. The first issue of The Triangle Magazine was published in March 1986. Many of the former editors and publishers of early print media, such as Michael Aaron and David Nelson, joined Scott Dunn, Mark Skeem, Richard (Ragnar)