Metro, Volume 2, Issue 22

Utah’s Gay and Lesbian Biweekly Newspaper Volume 2 ■ Issue 22 October 27–November 9

Provo High’s Gay/Straight Student Club School board considering guidelines for first time

85,000 Pairs of Shoes at City Hall Campaign 2 End AIDS caravan stops in Salt Lake

Lesbians Named to Human Rights Commission Chris Johnson resigns from Stonewall Democrats seat

Kraft, Walgreens Targeted for Gay Games Support Companies not wavering to threats of boycott Jere: What I Learned at Salt Lake Metro In the Box or In Their Boxers?

Gay Agenda

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SALT LAKE METRO ■ OCTOBER 27, 2005

WORLD AND NATIONAL

Kansas High Court Strikes Down Harsher Sentences Against Gays claimed for it,” Luckert wrote. “Moral disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate state interest.”

Limon is expected to soon be released.

“As of today, Matthew Limon has already served four years and five months longer than a heterosexual teenager would have received for the same act,” said Lisa Brunner of the ACLU. “He has long since paid his debt to society, and we’re thrilled that he will be going home to his family soon,” said Brunner.

“Justice has been a long time coming in this case.”

“The Kansas Supreme Court leveled the playing field today,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We teach our children not to treat people differently but our law does just that. Matthew Limon has served more than his time and we applaud the American Civil Liberties Union and the court for this important victory for equal treatment under the law.”

People with HIV/AIDS Encouraged to Sign up for New Medicare Drug Benefit Washington, D.C.—The AIDS Institute is encouraging the nearly 100,000 people with HIV/AIDS who qualify to sign up for the new Medicare prescription benefit.

“Given the importance of taking daily medications for survival and remaining healthy, the new Medicare drug benefit is critically vital to people living with HIV/AIDS,” said Dr. Gene Copello, executive director of the Institute. “Therefore, we urge all people with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers to become familiar with the new Medicare drug coverage, and take the necessary steps to enroll in the plan that best meets their needs. Failure to do so can result in a lapse in medications and severe health consequences.”

Enrollment in Medicare’s prescription drug coverage begins on Nov. 15, while actual coverage begins on Jan. 1, 2006.

“The good news for people living with HIV/AIDS is that every drug plan will be required to cover all anti-retroviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS,” said Copello. “This is recognition of the treatment needs of people living with HIV/ AIDS, who require a specific daily drug regiment and must have the ability to access other drugs, without any interruption, as they develop drug resistance or side effects to their current regiment.”

People can learn more about the new coverage by calling 1-800-MEDICARE or visiting www.medicare.gov. During the month of October, all beneficiaries will be receiving the handbook Medicare and You, which details information about coverage in their particular area.

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 3

Topeka, Kansas—The Kansas Supreme Court struck down a law Oct. 21 that requires significantly longer sentences for gays convicted of sex crimes.

The case involved Matthew Limon, convicted in 2000 of having sex at the age of 18 with a 14-year-old boy when both were residents of a Paola group home for the developmentally disabled.

Limon was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for violating the state’s anti-sodomy law, having two similar offenses on his juvenile Matthew Limon record. If the other teen had been a female, Limon would have been charged with the lesser offense of unlawful sexual relations and faced a maximum sentence of one year and three months in prison.

In a unanimous decision the state Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had said the state could justify the harsher punishment as protecting children’s traditional development, fighting disease or strengthening traditional values.

The Supreme Court justices discounted arguments from Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline who said that the state’s sodomy law must be maintained to stop gay marriage, incest, and sex with children.

Kline accused the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Limon, of attempting to undermine the morality of Kansas citizens.

Kline told the justices that the ACLU position was an assault on the state’s prohibition of same-sex marriage and Kansas laws against polygamy, incest, bestiality and sex between adults and children.

He said that the ACLU’s position was that all people, no matter their sexual orientation, were protected from discrimination.

Kline said that would lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage—as well as marriages with multiple partners, incestuous marriages and bestiality.

In its ruling, the high court ordered Limon to be resentenced as if the law treated illegal gay sex and illegal straight sex the same, and it struck language from the law that resulted in the different treatment.

Writing for the high court, Justice Marla Luckert said the Kansas law specifying harsher treatment for illegal gay sex is too broad to meet those goals.

“The statute inflicts immediate, continuing and real injuries that outrun and belie any legitimate justification that may be

Shepard Visit to Montana College Marred by Phelps

by Tony Hobday tony@slmetro.com

NATIONAL BRIEFS

Rights commission member resigns in protest Spokane, Wash.—Mike Kress has resigned his title as vice chairman of Spokane’s Human Rights Commission in protest over the commission’s handling of a sexual harassment complaint against Mayor Jim West for appointing a young gay man, Ryan Oelrich, and pressuring him for sex.

In September, the commission ruled West “behaved inappropriately and violated community mores” in interactions with the 24 year-old Oelrich. They didn’t, however, find that Oelrich was discriminated against nor did they call for West’s resignation.

Kress’ Oct. 5 resignation letter stated that the commission should have ruled that West violated city policies against sexual harassment. He further said that West had “eroded the heart and effectiveness” of the commission, which is “not the proactive, ‘human rights eyes and ears’ of the community it was when I was appointed.”

Kress was appointed by former Spokane Mayor Sheri Barnard in 2002 and his term was due to expire in December. Barnard had created the commission in 1991.

Kress also sent a letter to Oelrich, the

director of Quest, a group serving gay and lesbian youth in Spokane, apologizing for the commission’s decision.

“Your testimony before the SHRC, the preponderance of available evidence and my experience and knowledge led me to conclude Mayor James E. West sexually harassed you, and thus discriminated against you. I argued this before the commission,” Kress wrote.

“It’s also understood that in your personal interview for your Commission appointment the Mayor offered you the position of Commission Chair, which you declined. After you accepted a position on the Commission he offered you trips out of state wherein you’d share a bed and monetary donations to your nonprofit group,” the letter continued.

Kress said the mayor violated city policy HR-35 on sexual harassment, defined as “any verbal, non-verbal, or physical behavior of a sexual nature which is unwelcome, uninvited, and offensive to a reasonable person.”

West has refused to comment on the resignation.—MA

Helena, Mont.—Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew Shepard was brutally slain seven years ago for being a homosexual, appeared at Carroll College Tuesday October 18th to address the students on hate crimes. Her guest appearance drew controversy and idle threats from Fred Phelps’ anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church.

But just days before her visit, college officials made a decision to ban the Human Rights Network, a local organization dedicated to equal rights, from setting up an information table during the lecture due to threats of violence and possible picketers.

State Rep. Christine Kaufmann, HRN codirector, said the college is “dancing around” the fact that Matthew Shepard was murdered because he was gay. “We thought that it was important [to have an information booth],” she said. “Since they were not willing to say he was gay, there should be something about gay and lesbian equality there.”

Nancy Lee, spokesperson for Carroll, said the point of the conference was to promote tolerance for everyone, regardless of their race, sex, religion or sexual orientation. But what concerned her about allowing HRN to set up a table on campus was a threat by a radical anti-gay organization to picket the event. She added that one flier distributed on campus made reference to “improvised explosive devices.”

The Westboro Baptist Church faxed fliers to the college, causing Carroll to notify the Helena Police Department.

“We are concerned about the Westboro reaction if there are open tables out there, and that causes controversy in the meeting,” Lee said. “We don’t want to engage them and that’s the number one thing.”

Judy Shepard, mother of the slain Matthew Shepard of Laramie, Wyoming

In a press release, Westboro planned to picket “the sodomite whorehouse masquerading as Carroll College” for bringing Judy Shepard to the campus. However, according to the Helena Independent Record—which also commented on Westboro as a “deity of hate”—the “showdown” with Westboro didn’t materialize; members of the group were not visible Tuesday night.

Shepard’s lecture drew a crowd of 500 who sat quietly as she recounted the day she found out her son was left for dead, bound to a barbed-wire fence for “$20 and some twisted reason known only to the killers.” Shepard also spoke on issues of same-sex marriage and discrimination.

“Until marriage, financial and workplace biases are made illegal, why would anyone come out?” she asked.

Judy Shepard recently called on Congress to enact legislation adding sexuality to hate crimes laws. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enhancement Act last month. The hate crime legislation now moves to the Senate.

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Boycott Threatened Against Kraft, Walgreens for Gay Games Support Chicago—Two conservative Christian groups are targeting Kraft Foods Inc., Harris Bank and Walgreens for their sponsorship of Gay Games VII, a gay and lesbian sporting event to be held in Chicago next summer.

The American Family Association and the Illinois Family Institute say sponsorship of the Gay Games promotes the “immoral homosexual lifestyle.” The organizations are urging members to call and write sponsors, asking them to withdraw support. They threaten further action, such as product boycotts and picketing, if the sponsors don’t withdraw.

Kraft Foods, headquartered in Northfield, Ill., and Chicago-based Harris Bank both say they will continue to support the Gay Games. They have each donated $25,000.

For their participation, Walgreens officials are unapologetic about their $100,000 contribution. They told the Chicago Tribune they are participating in the Games to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. The

company’s pharmacists have been serving HIV-positive patients since the early 1980s, said a Walgreens spokesman, and the sponsorship is a way of giving back to the community.

The protest is the latest example of how conservative religious organizations are stepping up the pressure on corporations that support gay-related activities or issues.

“The Gay Games are about homosexuality, and I think it’s wrong for Walgreens to sponsor it,” said Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute.

“If they want to donate HIV drugs, that’s one thing,” LaBarbera said. “Homosexual behavior itself is a leading cause of HIV.” LaBarbera’s group wants the company to rescind its funding; otherwise, he will encourage members of his group to consider boycotting the drugstore chain.

The Gay Games will be an eight-day event held throughout Chicago in July 2006. More than 10,000 athletes are expected to compete. Chicago officials expect about 100,000 spectators to attend.—MA

LOCAL NEWS

Love Your Body Day Sponsored by NOW

by Kim Burgess kim@slmetro.com

Be proud of how you look, whatever your shape or size. That was the message of the eighth annual Love Your Body Day, an event sponsored by the National Organization for Women.

Held Oct. 19, the goal of LYBD is to encourage acceptance of all body types and to combat offensive advertising, particularly directed at women. Bonnie Rice, national LYBD coordinator, wrote that the event works to change “the unrealistic vision of Hollywood, fashion advertising and diet industries,” as well as to speak out against the risks of silicone breast implants and tobacco products.

To spread the word about LYBD, The NOW Young Feminist Task Force set up a booth at the University of Utah Union Building. NOW volunteers gave away LYBD posters, calendars showing famous women, and hand-made buttons with slogans such as “Pretty” and “I Am Beautiful.”

Meghan Jobson, founder of the NOW Young Feminist Task Force, said she views LYBD as an important reminder to view ads critically. “Mothers should ask their daughters, ‘What does this ad make you think of?’” Jobson said. “We need to focus on education. Body education for young children is necessary so they can be aware of what is normal. When my mom was in school, there was no discussion of what

was normal. Everyone threw up their food and no one said it was bad for you.”

The Social Issues Research Centre reported that 80 percent of fourth grade girls have been on a fad diet, and 5 to 10 million American females have anorexia or bulimia. The death rate for eating disorders is about 20 percent.

While LYBD is directed mainly at women, Utah NOW board member Veronica Argyle said its message is also pertinent to men.

Eating disorders and cosmetic surgery are rapidly growing among males, and shows like “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” are placing more emphasis on looks. “Body image is affecting men much more in the media. It’s definitely there,” Argyle said. “Men are invited to love their bodies as well.”

Thomas Nelson, co-president of the University of Utah’s LGBT Resource Center and a NOW Young Feminist Task Force volunteer, said he feels queer males face pressures about appearance. “If you look at any issue of Out or The Advocate, you’ll see images of men who are objectified in a feminine way, a way that women are usually objectified,” he said. “It’s a complex issue because there are overlying issues of masculinity and sexuality. We have to be men but also be pretty.”

To get involved with the NOW Young Feminist Task Force, visit utahnow.org/youngfeminist/ or write to utahyftf@gmail.com.

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LOCAL AND REGIONAL

Participants at the GLBT Community Center of Utah’s biannual town hall meeting break into discussion groups.

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Unheard Voices Get Heard at Center Town Hall Mtg.

by Jere Keys Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson may have hit the nail on the head when he quoted a famous remark by Cesar Chavez at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center’s biannual Town Hall Meeting. “We don’t need a perfect political system; we need perfect participation.”

About 80 people attended the gathering at the Episcopal Jubilee Center to participate in shaping the queer community as the Center reached out to hear the “Unheard Voices.”

For the first half of the program, participants learned about programs at the Center and heard from Mayor Anderson and Salt Lake County Deputy Mayor Karen SuzukiOkabe. In the second hour of the Meeting, small break-out groups discussed their wishes and hopes for a better community.

Mayor Anderson’s speech focused on the economic advantages of a diverse community. As he spoke about his unwavering support of queer rights, he related a story about how the diversity of Salt Lake City, and especially the visibility and strength of our queer community, were instrumental in convincing AlphaGraphics to relocate their world headquarters to the valley. “I may have bought them a few drinks on the city tab, too,” he quipped. Anderson also pointed out that AlphaGraphics was able to renovate the historic Brooks Arcade Building, a contribution the whole city can be proud of.

Anderson stressed the need for queer people to help get more gay-friendly people elected to city council—specifically encouraging support for District 3 challenger Janneke House.

“That should be the most liberal district in the city,” said Rocky, “but it’s got one of the most conservative councilmen.” He was referring to incumbent Eric Jergensen.

Deputy Mayor Suzuki-Okabe focused her remarks on the diversity initiatives of the County government, particularly the newly formed Council on Diversity Affairs, which has been meeting since June. She also urged the community to support gay-friendly candidates. She said that she has learned, in conversation with Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, that domestic partner benefits legislation will likely be introduced again next year, and it will pass if they can tip the balance of power in the 5-4 Republican-controlled body.

Small group discussion focused on a variety of topics ranging from the practical to the silly. “We need dancing girls,” joked actor Alexis Baigue. “Everything is better with dancing girls.”

Serious discussion was given to matters such as the diminishing support for AIDS issues from within the queer community, the availability of access to information about resources, and concerns about healthy interaction between queer adults and youth. A free-flowing forum for ideas, other areas of concern which were brought up included racy ads in Salt Lake Metro, Little Lavender Book, and the Pillar; the need for a larger and better-located community center; the need for more bisexual support services; and ways of identifying queer-friendly businesses.

Support for the Center’s Town Hall Meeting came from Lavender Catering, Cactus & Tropicals and the Episcopal Church Jubilee Center.

JOSELLE VANDERHOOFT

Utah Gay Rodeo Association donated dozens of pairs of shoes in memory of their members who have died of AIDS.

85,000 Pairs of Shoes Displayed at Campaign to End AIDS Rally

Visit the Campaign to End AIDS on the web at campaigntoendaids.org.

Cootchiesnortcher Wins the Bee Again “Master, can you please use the word queerly in the form of a sentence or statement?”

That question was just one of the requirements for all “queertestants” in the second annual Queer Spelling Bee. Another was to say all words with a lisp.

The event, which was a fundraiser for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center at the University of Utah, was held Oct. 15 at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah as part of the University’s PRIDE 2005 celebration.

Queertestants were asked to spell such words as consommé, prepuce, and kumquat.

Utah State Valley College student Anastasia Niedrich (spell THAT correctly!) won the event, spelling the word cootchiesnortcher from the Vagina Monologues, as in, “I am tired of her cootchiesnortcher getting in my way.” She was joined by two other prize winners in doing the “Hokey Pokey” in celebration while losers were shunned to the “Corner of Shame.”

Kellie Foreman, admissions counselor and diversity programs coordinator at the University, facilitated the game under the title of “Master.” The game is her brainchild from the rules to coming up with the words.

Brandie Balken (bedecked in hardcore feminine dominatrix boots) and Jim Rengstorf, board members of The Center, along with Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah, judged the event.—MA

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health care—in which 45 million Americans

by JoSelle Vanderhooft joselle@slmetro.com currently lack health insurance—“a crime”.

“If we had [the money from] one week in Salt Lake City HIV/AIDS activists and supIraq, we would be able to fully fund AIDS porters attended a half-hour rally capping prevention,” he said to cheers and apthe Pair Up 2 Fight AIDS project on the plause from attendees. evening of October 22. The rally was held Several members of the Portland caravan to welcome a caravan of Portland, Ore. also addressed the crowd, including Lowen AIDS/HIV activists with the Campaign Berman, Program Manager for Ecumenical to End AIDS trekking through the Rocky Ministries of Oregon HIV Services.

Mountains on their way to a rally in Wash“At the HIV Day Center in Portland over ington, DC. the past five years we’ve seen our numbers Local politicians and HIV/AIDS activists more than double, and yet the funding addressed the 100-member crowd, many of has gone down,” he said, adding that three whom had turned out to look at the Pair Up Portland-based AIDS service organizations 2 Fight AIDS shoe display before the rally.

Consisting of 85,000 pairs of shoes, one pair for each person worldwide who dies of AIDS every day, the display lined the plaza of Library Square from noon to 6:30 pm.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon welcomed the caravan, who had just arrived from Boise, Idaho. In doing so, he called the empty pairs of shoes “a sobering reminder of AIDS”.

“Over a short time, I hope our nation itself will conduct a war on this deadly infection. It’s a war that must be won,” he said.

Corroon added that over 16,000 Utah residents currently live Ricky Casias, Lowen Berman and Christopher Robinson of the Portland with AIDS. contingent of the Campaign 2 End AIDS. Jim Pickett, the Illinois-coorwere recently closed due to budget cuts while dinator for the Campaign to End AIDS and other programs have seen their funding drop. a caravan member, spoke next. He called Berman urged attendees to write to their his organization a “brand new massive congressional representatives about fully grass-roots organization” primed to engage funding the Ryan White CARE Act, federal state and municipal governments, as well legislation that funds primary health care as individual citizens, in fighting the AIDS and support services for people living with epidemic.

HIV/AIDS, particularly for those without “We have the tools, we have what it takes health insurance or the means to pay for to end this disease,” said Pickett, referring medication. In the past few years, said to education and to recent medicines that Berman, the CARE Act has received flat can lengthen the lives of people living with funding from the government, even as the HIV and the AIDS virus. number of AIDS and HIV cases has risen.

Pickett also called the state of American

“Year after year in Utah we’ve had to cut service after service until nothing remains to be cut but the people, especially the working poor,” said Stuart Merrill, a Utahbased AIDS activist.

Like Merrill, State Sen. Scott McCoy, formerly of Equality Utah, said he wanted the Utah legislature to get serious about preventing the epidemic. He called the current lack of statewide funding for HIV/AIDS prevention “a tragedy”.

“There is a perception in this state that HIV is a gay disease,” he said. “Unfortunately in this state if it’s classified as gay it gets pushed to the back of the line.”

Though McCoy said he has made it his job to talk to his fellow lawmakers about the epidemic and the need for funding, he said legislators’ constituents could actually play a more important role.

“What legislators will really respond to is if you people come up and talk to them in January, February and March as the session is letting out,” he said.

The rally closed with the introduction of a contingent of Utah activists who would join the Portland caravan on its way to Laramie, Wyoming the next morning. According to Merrill, Utah has more people joining Campaign to End AIDS caravans than any other state.

On Nov. 5 this caravan will join nine others in the nation’s capitol for Five Days of Action to End AIDS, a week-long event including an interfaith prayer service, meetings with national law makers and a culminating rally in Anacostia, a section of the city hit hard by the epidemic.

LOCAL

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Johnson Appointed to Human Rights Commission, Quits Stonewall Demos The Mayor and Salt Lake City Council have begun the process of filling the nine seats of the Human Rights Commission established earlier this year.

Mayor Rocky Anderson forwarded seven names for ratification by the council.

Commission members are chosen one from each of the seven city districts and two at-large that “represent the diversity of the community.”

Anderson recommended Orin Howell, District 1; Adrian Comollo, District 3; Jim Teall, District 4; Chris Johnson, District 5; Christina Carver, District 7; Patrick Leary, District 5, and Francisca Blanc, at-large.

Chris Johnson, board member of Equality Utah and Vice Chair of Utah Stonewall Democrats, was approved by the council Oct. 18.

“I consider this a high honor and most serious responsibility to represent the LGBT population in this capacity,” said Johnson in a letter sent a letter to members of the Stonewall Democrats the next morning. “I feel I must resign as Vice-Chair of the Stonewall Democrats. I appreciate the opportunity to serve the LGBT and ally delegates from Utah as a Stonewall board member, but feel my efforts must focus more closely on the Human Rights Commission in upcoming years.”

“The Commission, having just formed, will require a great deal of time to initiate, create policy and protocol for its administration. In addition, the educational outreach aspect of this appointment will require great focus, detail and time,” she continued.

Johnson was elected at the Utah State Democratic Convention last May in a contentious caucus meeting where two political factions seemed to be colliding in the room: the ‘grassroots’ activists vs. the ‘suit and tie’ activists. In an interesting turn of events, each faction won a top seat of the organization: the grassroots Mike Picardi as chair and Johnson as vice chair.

“Chris had great promise for the Stonewall Democrats,” said Picardi. “I’d hoped that she could bring great things to the board and great ideas.”

Also resigning from the Stonewall board is Jan Lovett, former candidate for Utah State Democratic Party Chair. Picardi said that she resigned for family reasons.

Picardi has two names as replacements for the outgoing board members: Katie Thompson, a new business development manager at the Summit Group, and Jonell Evans, artist and mediation specialist at TURN Community Services. He will put these names before the Stonewall board at their next meeting in November.

The city council also approved Blanc, a Romanian immigrant, student and certified nursing assistant for Rocky Mountain

Home Care, to the commission. Blanc revealed in her interview with the council that she is a lesbian.

According to city ordinance, the Human Rights Commission was created to make recommendations to the mayor and city council regarding educational resources on issues of discrimination and equal treatment. Commissioners will review complaints of discrimination involving city departments or services to identify possible sources. They will review legislation, policies or other actions by the city designed to further eliminate prejudice and discrimination.

They will also review pending legislation, policy changes or other city action that may impact human rights. And lastly, the commission is charged with working in partnership to foster positive inter-group relations through educational programs.

Also confirmed by the city council last week were Orin Howell, human resources specialist at Veterans Health Care System, Adrian Comollo, director of the Italian Center of Utah, and Patrick Leary, chief administrator of the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

In their next meeting, the council will consider Christina Carver, associate accountant at the University of Utah, and Jim Teall, preacher at the First Presbyterian Church.

Mark Alvarez, Salt Lake City Administrator of Minority Affairs, provides staff support for the commission. He said that the group will begin meeting once all nine members have been appointed.

Thanksgiving Volunteers Many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals have experienced rejection by family members and may not have a welcoming place to celebrate the holidays and be themselves.

Last year two volunteers organized a pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah to help fill this need. It was well attended and appreciated.

The Center wishes to provide this service again this year and is calling for volunteers.

Being a volunteer for this event would mean helping to publicize the event, making calls to ensure that certain dishes are prepared and brought, opening the Center, supervising the meal, cleaning up and closing down.

There will be no cooking on site, so all dishes must be made in advance and brought ready to serve. The Center will open the Multi-purpose Room for the dinner, the Youth Activities Center for games and movies and the kitchen for clean up.

If you are interested in being involved, call or email Jennifer Nuttall, 539-8800 ext.

13 or jennifer@glbtccu.org

JOEL SHOEMAKER

Utah Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, could only utter the words, “The gay?” when asked by The Salt Lake Tribune for comment on former No on 3 Campaign chairman Scott McCoy’s mid-term appointment to replace Utah Sen. Paula Julander. But after Utah recently approved the word “gay” on Utah license plates following action from Utah’s ACLU, Sen. McCoy now owns Buttars’ disparaging remark on his own license plate. —JS

Provo School District Grapples with Gay/Straight Alliance Club

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 9

Many consider Provo, Utah to be the most sion after two lawsuits were filed. conservative city in the United States, so Since that time, over 3,000 GSAs have when Provo High School senior Kaisha been formed in U.S. high schools. According Medford applied to create a Gay-Straight to Stan Burnett, Director of Youth Programs Alliance student club at her school, it made at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender headlines nationwide.

Community Center of Utah, 14 GSAs have The group first met Oct. 13 and Director existed in Utah high schools, though as few of Student Services for the Provo City School as seven may currently be active.

District Greg Hudnall said the club was “Many schools require that a club get given the thumbs up Oct 14. reapproved every year, so if a club loses its The Provo City School District Board of leadership to graduation, sometimes a club Education, however, may yet rain on the loses its status,” he expained. students’ parade. The board is considering a Medford said she started the club after policy that would require parental permistalking to many gay and lesbian students sion and otherwise regulate school clubs. and found a lot of harassment happening They may even consider banning all student at the school. She attended a Gay Lesbian clubs altogether. The next board meeting is Straight Education Network summit in Salt Nov. 8 where many parents and students are Lake City over the summer to learn how to expected to air their opinions. start the club and submitted the application Interestingly, this controversy started in in September.

Utah nearly ten years ago when student The club is “half-way between a support Kelli Petersen asked for and was denied the group and social group, a place where we can right to create a Gay/Straight Alliance at just hang out and talk, not necessarily about East High School. The gay, lesbian, bi-sexual GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCES IN UTAH Salt Lake City School and transgender issues, Bountiful High Layton High Park City High District banned all but about everything,” (Lancers Opening Brighton High Understanding Doors- Rowland Hall St non-curricular clubs she told the media.

Copper Hills High Loud) Marks School in an attempt to keep East High She sees the club as “a Mt Logan Middle (Amnesty Intl) (Environmntl Club) West High the group out of the place where you can Hillcrest High school, but years later Hunter High go to know that you’re Northridge High Source: Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education (The Community reversed their deciaccepted.”—MA Logan High Network Justice Council)

From the Editor Listening

Executive Editor Michael Aaron

by Michael Aaron michael@slmetro.com

Arts Editor Eric J. Tierney Proofreader Nicholas Rupp Contributing Kim Burgess Writers Vanessa Chang Jason Clark Benjamin Cohen Matthew Gerber Tony Hobday Beau Jarvis Jere Keys Laurie Mecham Stuart Merrill David Nelson Ruby Ridge Eric Rofes David Samsel Joel Shoemaker Brendan Shumway Eric J. Tierney Darren Tucker JoSelle Vanderhooft Ross von Metzke Ben Williams Contributing David Harris Photographers William H. Munk Joel Shoemaker Sales Director Steven Peterson Display Ad Russ Moss 259-0844 Sales 801-323-9500 National Rivendell Media Advertising 212-242-6863 Representative 1248 Rte 22 West Mountainside NJ 07092

Office Mgr. Tony Hobday Intern Rusty Baum Distribution Jarrod Ames Richar Boria Brandon Hurst Russ Lane Courtney Moser

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Michael Aaron Steven Peterson Steve Whittaker Larry Tanner

Vote November 8—For the One Vote Just one vote on the Salt Lake County Commission would have changed the outcome of Jenny Wilson’s attempt to add domestic partner benefits to employees of the county. Just one vote would have given funeral leave and health, life, and dental insurance to domestic partners in long-term relationships. Salt Lake County employs over 6,000 people. How many gay and lesbian employees are struggling with health insurance because we were unable to convince just one person to vote in favor of the proposal?

On November 8, residents of Salt Lake City and other municipalities around the state will go to the polls to elect their representatives. As we reported Oct. 13, several candidates for Salt Lake City Council are in favor of domestic partner benefits for city employees, as well as forcing companies doing business with the city to abide by nondiscriminatory practices in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity. We think that is a huge development.

Voter turnout at municipal races is generally low. It is amazing that those who represent our most basic needs—roads, police and fire departments, economic development—get the least interest at the polls.

This means your vote is at its most powerful.

We invite you to look at three Salt Lake City Council races. If you live in these districts, we are going to ask you to get off the couch or away from the computer and get yourself to your voting place.

We also ask you to call your friends in the districts and get them to do the same. If you have the means or time, get out and help these people get elected.

District 1—Northwest Salt Lake, bounded by North Temple and 900 West. Leslie Reynolds-Benns has been a long-time supporter of our community. She is a firecracker and she will work hard on our issues. Vote for her. Walk her district with her.

Help her win. Her opponent is one of the staunchest conservatives on the council. Christensen is one of those who rescinded the ordinance that prohibited discrimination “against an otherwise qualified employee or applicant based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation or disability.” Show him we remember and we care.

District 3—Capitol Hill and Avenues, bounded on the west by 900 West and the south by South Temple. Janneke House is young, energetic and extremely well-spoken. Her background is in city planning, open space and she is the interim program manager of the Salt Lake County Zoo Arts and Parks Program. Her opponent, the incumbent Eric Jergensen, while a social moderate, scoffs at Mayor Rocky Anderson’s contention that a healthy gay and lesbian community is needed to create a vibrant and healthy city. He is one of Anderson’s most outspoken detractors and this race is being considered by some to be a shootout between the two.

District 7—Sugar House and Liberty Wells, southeast Salt Lake City below 2100 South and east of 500 East, along with a section below 1700 South between 600 East and 1300 East. Soren Simonsen returned to us easily the most thoughtful, well-articulated responses to the questionnaire we sent all council candidates. His opponent, incumbent Dale Lambert, didn’t bother to respond at all. When asked if he believes Salt Lake City should force those it does business with to protect the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, Simonsen responded, “I believe that the city should require similar equitable hiring practices from companies it contracts with. My company is a contractor who has provided services to Salt Lake City in the past, and we follow this practice, even though not currently required. Furthermore, I support the development of a policy and ordinance that would allow for domestic partner registry that would allow businesses in Salt Lake City the right to extend benefits to households where they cannot currently. As an employer, I would be among the first such business to extend such benefits to employees who are not presently eligible for benefits to their households.” Wouldn’t he be a great councilmember?

All three of these candidates tout equal treatment and equal benefits as one of their key three issues. How refreshing is that?

Salt Lake Metro heartily endorses these three candidates. Equality Utah has also endorsed these candidates. Take some time out of your Tuesday and vote. Take some time out of your weekend and help them walk their districts. It may well make that one vote difference.

I had a small window of opportunity to attend last week’s National Gay Men’s Health Summit so I chose to go to a session titled “Listening to Crystal without Prejudice.” Gay men’s health guru Eric Rofes moderated the session as two other panelists read from articles they had written on the topic.

Psychotherapist Jean Malpas read vignettes of three men’s lives with meth, but then dug deeper to get at the root of ‘why’ they became addicted.

The easy answer that most cling to and never progress beyond, he says, is escapism and gratification. Malpas asks if there is also an element of homophobia at work. Social attitudes shape our self-esteem, self-respect and self-worth.

“Few talk about how external and internalized homophobia, with its ‘stigma-shame-acting out’ nexus, might be the catalyst to crystal addiction and to risk-taking behaviors leading to HIV infection,” he writes. For one of the men, “doing crystal was a way of adhering to the norms of the group he wanted to be part of. [He] found in the ‘rituals’ of sex parties and circuit parties an environment that supports his identity as a gay man.”

The other panelist, Tony Valenzuela, read from an article so powerful that each word seemed to plunge through my heart like a saw-toothed blade.

“Ours is a culture of death beautified. Our organizations’ boardrooms and community fundraisers are rife with professional mourners eliciting the gay plague with every new predicament we face. It takes a strong will to believe in longevity, even in defiance of the HIV that may run through your veins. It takes a discerning mind to filter the bombardment of frightful messages concerning our sexual choices; a mind that resists the perpetual reminders from many of our activists, our health organizations, that peril is everywhere … This paradigm of terror always looming over our intimate lives is an inescapable reality. But it is worth noting that in the gay community, the sky is always falling — because it did once, because we fear it might again, and so we shouldn’t be shocked when an alarming number of us respond to endemic fatalism by practicing nihilism by rote.”

“One doesn’t have to have a problem with drugs or be infected with HIV to feel the painful legacy of AIDS or to know the slow suffocation of homophobia. These cataclysms reside beneath the surface of our skins and come up as boils every time another state writes anti-gay discrimination into its constitution, another school board erases us from textbooks, or more parents teach their children to revile us. The future of drug addiction is all but guaranteed in a population of gay kids growing up in today’s savagely anti-gay, Constitution-hating age of hyperbole.”

We talked in the session about how many gay men feel very isolated, that they don’t belong to the community. They, in turn, join the ‘cland’ of PnP parties or alcholism or über-sex. Don’t we all look pretty great when we’re high or drunk or in the hormone-miasma that permeates through hot sex?

Society is forever feeding us that we are not worthwhile human beings. The name-calling, the institutionalized hate, the “love the sinner, hate the sin.” The sin is part of us. It is an important part of us.

Valenzuela continued about a panelist at a West Hollywood event. “[He] held his head down when asked to pose a solution to the “crystal pandemic,” as one panelist called it. For a moment, I thought he was about to cry. Finally, he looked up and said, ‘I’m not sure what the answers are.’”

We didn’t get to answers in the session either, but it gave us all a great deal to think about.

And I only had an hour and a half.

Letters

Salt Lake Metro welcomes letters from our readers.

Please email letters@slmetro.com or fax 801-323-9986.

We reserve the right to edit for length, suitability and libel.

Consequences Editor’s note: We received many responses about the “From the Editor” column in the October 13 issue of this newspaper. Many had personal stories of how friends and family on meth have affected their lives.

We have chosen to run the following letters withholding the identities of the writers.

Editor, My heart throbbed and ached as I read your story. WOW! I can relate. I took in someone who was an addict, also trying to help. I ended up being a victim of identity theft. It has destroyed my credit, and will probably take years to correct.

I am right on this with you. I am sorry you guys had to go through this. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being bold to speak out against drugs.

Name Withheld Salt Lake City

Name Withheld Salt Lake City Editor, I’m so relieved to hear that you and your partner are physically fine. I know the mental aspect of your terrifying ordeal will take time to heal. Sharing your terrifying experience with others will really make a difference.

I too have had a bad experience with a friend that is into meth. At one point I really feared for my safety and have since completely severed all ties in order to protect my physical and mental well being. I have lost a good friend. Soulless is what he has become.

He is in my prayers, but not my life. I sometimes wonder what to do when he has his funeral—do I go to it and remember who he was? Or not? I have deep feelings of guilt for leaving him to this hell.

His choices have had terrible consequences. He has lost his health, job, friends, three homes, vehicles and his family is now a huge mess.

He started experimenting with meth and ecstasy for fun. Zero-to-addicted in no time flat!

He has taught me that just experimenting with that stuff is dangerous and I don’t plan on ever doing it. Maybe he was in my life to help me see what can happen, a cautionary tale, so to speak.

Let Statement Stand

Editor, Your articles on the Evergreen International conference [“Evergreen Holds 15th Conference,” “Mason: Sexuality Not a Choice,” Oct. 13, 2005] simply allowed the hateful group to spew their venom to the very people they prey upon. I could not believe you used precious newsprint space to pass on their lies and deceit. Weren’t there two other stories about the positive things Utah’s gay community did that news cycle?

Let the right wing promote their agenda in their own publications. Keep ours free of their malevolence.

Editor, I agree with your editorial about some members of the Salt Lake City Council wanting to “overshadow” [Mayor Rocky] Anderson’s executive order on health benefits for domestic partners [“Anderson on Tack. Council is Not,” Sept. 29].

The mayor’s action made a statement about how the city wants to treat its gay and lesbian employees.

The council members who want to extend benefits to anyone and everyone who lives with a person are making apologies where none need to be made.

Let Rocky’s statement stand. Leave the issue alone.

Jonathan Fontaine

Elizabeth Rowley

Midvale

Salt Lake City

Name Withheld Salt Lake City Editor, I recently had to cut someone out of my life because his meth use was making him crazy. It broke my heart because he was like a brother to me in many ways and we’d known each other a very long time. It still stabs at my heart. He’s making his choices and I’m making mine.

Thank you for sharing your story. It’s incredibly important that you share it.

Name Withheld Washington, D.C. Editor, Wow! I really appreciate your column about your experience. I don’t use drugs nor know anyone who does, but I can honestly say I’ve thought about it. This story is horrifying and more than merits attention by the media. As a society we are thick and callused. We need repetition of those important messages! This story would have meant nearly nothing to me if it were a third person’s account or about a straight couple. But since you share my lifestyle, my ideals, and the same kinds of friends, it really rang home to me! It is my life too and other people’s choices do affect it. Thank you for helping me realize that!

Name Withheld Murray.

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OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 11

Editor, I just read your column regarding this most vile and offensive intrusion into your and your partner’s private lives.

I just wanted to tell you I am eternally grateful to the spiritual power(s), your lives were spared. I am also incredibly moved by your courage to divulge something so terrifying and personal—as a way of alerting our community to such horrible consequences resulting from the use of meth and other drugs within our society, that could only be minutes away from happening to any of us.

I sincerely hope you will not allow this awful event to color your world and keep you from remaining a good-hearted person. Your hospitality, although offered in honesty, was grossly maligned. But, know there are people out there who are worth your generosity and giving nature. I applaud your caring and know that “karma” will prevail in some reward for you, somewhere, sometime.

I have always believed the good are the victims and never the victors. However, try to realize these individuals, who put you in the shadow of death, are ill and their illness is created by a society of haves and have-nots.

The path they have taken is sick and wrong, but it is because they were never given the opportunities to live without some sort of “crutch.” I don’t know if it is childhood or adult situations that causes a person to turn to drugs. But, I do believe it happens because they are not prepared for life and drug delusions are the only answer for them.

I am not making excuses, I am as vehemently against drugs as anyone. I have lost a brother and a sister to drugs. I have watched drugs take down the mighty to their own deaths. I am just saying our society is responsible for why drugs are rampant. It is an easy way out of responsibility for some and a necessary tool for survival for others.

In a country so great in freedom causes, we can not even help our own to establish and maintain healthy, productive lives. It is a nation of classes and casts and a nation of hiding our poor and hungry. It is why apathy is running amok and it will be the final undoing of our great nation.

Police departments nationwide can not fix a problem that is without borders and laws and resources. And, it is the reason why we must always be able to take care of

what is ours—our loved ones, our property and our lives. Because, no one else will.

We need to take back our country and stop policing the other country’s, when we are so sick at home.

Again, I am so glad you and your partner were spared and we still have you within our grasps. So, here is a hug sent to you and a tear of gratitude you are safe. We can’t lose more of our community to statistics.

Besides, we are possibly our only hope for a better world.

Don’t Provide the Enemy Space in Our Publications

AberRant Ore-Goner

by Laurie Mecham laurie@slmetro.com

Lately, I’ve noticed the strangest thing. Apparently, I LIVE IN PORTLAND now. How did I get here? Where did my house go? Where are all the places, and how do you get there? Where do you go for food? How do you get money if you don’t have a job? You can see how all these questions have captured my attention, and the whole thing is wearing me out.

Here we are in this little apartment, which leads to even more questions.

Exactly what are the people upstairs doing each night at 2:00 a.m.? Who the hell is smoking outside our window? There’s no place to stand outside our window. How are you supposed to get your clean laundry from the laundry room back to your apartment without dropping a pair of thong underwear on the sidewalk? And, most importantly, was that woman really having that great a time in the sack for forty minutes?

Forty minutes? She must be a lesbian.

Why won’t the dogs pee when they’re on a leash? Why won’t they pee on the ivy? There is no grass outside, just cement and stones and ivy, because apparently WE LIVE IN AN APARTMENT IN OREGON now.

I think I have an answer to the money question, and to all of the apartment questions. See, right off the bat, Ann got herself a job. She goes there five days a week, bada boom, bada bing, they pay her money. What we need to do is get me one a’ them jobs, and then we’ll have more money, and then we’ll buy the first house we see, as long as it is more than two rooms and it has a square foot of grass. Actually, I have had a couple of interviews and I have a couple more lined up. One of them is a callback. But speaking of job interviews, why does my weight always change? Why do I always have to buy a new suit? Why do suits cost so much? Communist China has it right, man. Uniforms for everyone. It would be so simple.

To help you understand my fractured frame of mind, you might like to know a little about our neighborhood. To get to our apartment, you drive pass the disturbingly-named “Golden Touch Family Restaurant.” Continue past “Tobacco Town.” Cross the overpass and look for the tiny house that says, “G Girls Private Adult Entertainment.” Just past that, you will see a sign for a restaurant that has no name, it just says, “Szechwan Food.” I’m not sure there really is a restaurant there, because most of that building is actually taken up

by the “Boom Boom Room.” The sign has red and yellow flames licking up into the black lettering. That’s how you find our street. Turn at the Boom Boom Room. If you miss that and go too far, you will see what is probably a sister business, “The Big Bang.” It has the same flames and black lettering. Make a U-turn, which is OK everywhere here because the streets are so odd anyway. Go back past “Baby Dolls Modeling and Lingerie” and look again for “The Boom Boom Room.” I told all of this to my niece, who is a half-proper Mormon mom but also my blood kin. She is thinking about borrowing the Boom Boom’s font to stencil Love at Home or Families Are Forever. Someone suggested a new town motto: “Portland: Come for the woods, stay for the woodies.”

Here are some things I’ve learned about Portland. It has: many white people with dreads; aging hippies; new-millenium hippies; medical marijuana; many, many people on bikes, going up mountains, for chrissakes.

(Note: People on bikes don’t necessarily look to see if it is safe to cross the street. Apparently they just use The Force.)

Portland has polite drivers. It is so bizarre. I’ll be at a stop sign on a hopeless intersection where there is no way that I will ever be able to get into the traffic stream, and someone will just stop to let me in. This has happened time and again. Nobody ever does that in Utah. In the last two decades in Salt Lake County, I was the only person who ever stopped to let someone into traffic. And this politeness seems to come without a hidden agenda. Can you believe it? They don’t want you to join their religion or anything. They just want you to recycle.

Although there are a million cool things to do here, we have not done much—OK, any—fun stuff yet. For Ann’s birthday, we ran some errands, picked up some food from Wendy’s and came home to have a coma. A coma that gets to be interrupted by getting up, getting dressed, leashing the dogs, taking them outside to consider if they might like eventually to pee, or not, or maybe they were just thirsty, or they heard a sound, like the people upstairs or the 40-minute lady.

Hopefully by the time you hear from me next, I will have an exciting new job. And then, we will get a house. It will be a goodsized house that was built in the 70s and has avocado shag carpeting and Calvin Klein soft-porn faux-wood paneling. There will be a fenced yard for the dogs and plenty of room to gather in the kitchen and make merry with our friends—the friends that we’re going to have. When we both have jobs. When we both have jobs.

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SALT LAKE METRO ■ OCTOBER 27, 2005

How are you supposed to get your clean laundry from the laundry room back to your apartment without dropping a pair of thong underwear on the sidewalk?

Laurie Mecham has noticed, Toto, that we’re not in Kansas any more.

Jere Keys is the former editor of Salt Lake Metro.

West Valley Village Inn this afternoon.

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svelte either. In five inch heels and an 18 inch wig I barely become what the self-appointed body Nazis of the gay chat rooms call “Height and Weight Proportionate” which we all know is thinly-veiled code for “no fatties.” Cherubs, I am here to defiantly

by Ruby Ridge, tell you that big can be beautiful … but ruby@slmetro.com more importantly, us big girls can kick your Petals, before I get skinny little butts, survive longer without into my column I food (although we are WAY not happy desperately need to about it!) and float longer in frigid water get something off without getting hypothermia. So there! Go my chest that is absolutely consuming me. eat a Trisket and shut the hell up.

Thomas Kinkade (The Painter of Light) Anyway Peaches, we had a fascinating needs to die. I’m sure he’s probably a very discussion about body image, the sexual nice man, but his saccharine paintings of economy and how we see ourselves, and cottages and rustic bridges, collectibles, how we objectify others. The facilitaand schmaltzy products (including, I kid tor raised an interesting point. Negative you not, golf gear and nightlights) are just body image affects almost killing me. For those of everyone in our commuyou unfamiliar with his nity. For all of the husky “art,” Thomas Kinkade is gay men struggling to lose to painting what Richard In 5˝ heels and an weight, there are thousands Paul Evans (the author of more trying to gain weight, 18˝ wig I barely The Christmas Box) is to bulk up, or add muscle literature. He’s commerbecome what the tone in a constant effort to cially successful but so over avoiding aging, strive for self-appointed hyped and so damn cloyporn image-perfect looks, body nazis of the ingly gooey that you just or overcompensating for want him dead. gay chat rooms some unresolved emoSpeaking of which ... tional issues. It’s not healthy call “Height I was in the West Valley people! We spend all sorts Sam’s Club a few weeks and Weight of money, time and energy back and there was Mr. grasping for unattainable Proportionate” Evans signing his latest results while ignoring the “just-in-time-for-Christbasic health and wellness mas-gift-giving-to-peopleconcepts which would you-don’t-really-love-but-you-feel-obligatactually do us some good—like getting ed-to-buy-something-under-20-bucks-for” adequate rest, enjoying social support from book. It’s funny Muffins, I never thought of our peers, doing some moderate exercise myself as a particularly religious person, and reasonable dieting, and toning down but there I was, surrounded by fleece pullour excesses of alcohol and drugs, etc., etc. overs probably made by Chinese prison Now darlings, I know this is going to laborers, fervently praying to God with all be unpopular with some of you, but if we my might that a pallet of deep frying turkey wanted to dramatically improve gay men’s cookers would fall on Richard Paul Evans (and women’s) health tomorrow, then we and crush him. Now I’m not totally familiar would encourage our partners, friends, and with their lingo, but I think that’s what the acquaintances to quit smoking. It would Religious Right calls a “faith-based initiaproduce HUGE benefits and we would all tive.” I might be wrong though. live longer and healthier, whether you are skinny, proportionate, or a curvaceous big Anyway Kittens, the real gist of my column is about the Gay Men’s Health Summit boned gal like me. Ciao Muffins! that was held at the Hilton last week. The Ruby Ridge is one of the more opinionated members of the Utah Cyber Sluts, a camp drag Utah AIDS Foundation and the hard-workgroup of performers who raise funds and suping event committee did a great job. I port local charities. Her opinions are her own was able to attend a seminar on Gay Men and fluctuate wildly due to irritability and getand Obesity. Now Petals, I am not grossly ting food poisoning from a Reuben Melt at the overweight but let’s face it, I’m not exactly

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guys to pose for pictures was like asking Oprah for her cell phone number, something that earned me a look of vague horror and apprehension. The all-too-common response was a polite, “I’m not pretty today.”

9. You can lead a queer to the opposite sex, but you can’t make them … It’s astonishing to me how few people actually take advantage of the recommendations we made about restaurants, events, products, etc. The writers and the editorial staff have put their personal credibility and sincerest efforts into point-

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OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 13

by Jere Keys Everyone always imagines that when the time comes to leave one career behind, they will take the opportunity to really say what they think. For some (most, perhaps) this involves telling the boss exactly what kind of horse urine he smells like accompanied by some suge gestions about sexual positions that would be anatomically difficult if not impossible.

Well, it’s been a few weeks since I cleaned out my office at Metro and I’ve had a few days to reflect on a parting message to leave behind about the experience. As it turns out, Metro taught me more than a few life lessons.

1. Deadlines are like speed limits, interesting suggestions that most people feel free to ignore. The writers for Salt Lake Metro are among the funniest, friendliest and most interesting people I’ve met in Zion, but they’re not always great about meeting deadlines. Some are better than others, of course, and some could really use the gift of a personal organizer this year if you’re thinking about holiday gifts.

2. No matter how random, unrelated and tragic a crime, David Nelson will use it to remind us that more people should have guns.

Haha, just kidding David! Kind of.

3. The people who will complain the loudest have the least right to. Specifically, I’m referring to those people who will always claim that Metro doesn’t have enough coverage of local events, but don’t send press releases or information about those events until the last minute after we’re gone to press or finalized our content.

4. When it comes down to it, I’m a lazy bastard, too. Organizations and events who sent us a well-written, grammatically correct press release on a subject relevant to our readership were 99.9% more likely to be included in the paper than the groups who write 30 word invites without punctuation, spell-check or quotes from the people involved in the subject of the release.

5. Even big news sounds boring after a while. The points in #4 notwithstanding, how many “emerging gay artists” or “innovative film experiments” can really live up to the hype their P.R. company gives them?

How many events can be “the biggest of the year” or the “most anticipated?” Find other ways to catch the attention of the editorial staff as well as our readers!

6. What we are and what other people want us to be are rarely the same thing. Salt Lake Metro is a business. As such, we have costs for printing every page, demographics to appeal to, and salaries to pay. As much as we’d enjoy giving everybody free advertising, cover stories and 3,000 word articles, it’s a quick road to no more Metro.

7. My niece and nephew really are the cutest in the world. It’s amazing how many people are convinced that their career/life dstory/birthday party/favorite topic would be interesting to all the readers of this paper.

Show of hands, who really turns to Metro for authoritative advice on retirement investing?

8. The guy I’m drooling over feels fat and ugly. On the few occasions I ventured out with a camera in hand, asking the hottest

g

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Everything I Ever Needed To Know, I Learned at Salt Lake Metro

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ing the entire community in the direction of really cool stuff. Sometimes, for reasons we can’t grasp, y’all just aren’t interested.

10. Gay Republican Mormons are fucked up. For a year I’ve tried to find nicer ways to say that, tried to see things from their point of view, tried to be politically correct and leave room for personal faith that is drastically different from mine. I give up. I don’t get it. How you can be queer while belonging to a political party and a religion that routinely treats you like shit… and don’t give me that crap about making change from within, if anything, the visible presence of queers has pushed both groups to further extremism while allowing them to falsely claim that they are compassionate and inclusive … y’all are just fucked up.

This Week In Lambda History October 16–31

by Ben Williams ben@slmetro.com

16 OCTOBER

be of greater service’’ to patients and their families.

18 OCTOBER 1998 Eight West and East high pupils challenged the Salt Lake City School Board’s ban of all non-curricular clubs as unfair and shortchanging students.

1975 Ms Magazine editor Gloria Steinem spoke at the University of Utah to an audience of over 5,000 on the Equal Rights Amendment.

She mentioned Utah’s Gay Community Service Center and that new consciousness raising sessions were soon to be initiated by a lesbian counselor associated with the center.

1988 Utah Valley Men’s Group said that BYU is threatening gay students with expulsion unless they agree to undergo “reorientation therapy”.

1998 A 13-year-old boy at Provo’s Centennial Middle School stepped to the microphone and wished that “gay men be crucified on Main Street and lesbians be burned at the stake.’’ Some of the students cheered.

19 OCTOBER

17 OCTOBER

21 OCTOBER

1956 Radio City Tavern had its beer permit suspended by the Salt Lake City Police Department vice squad.

1987 Chris Trujillo and Yvette Del Rio won the Mr. & Miss Golden Spike Universe Pageant Contest at Backstreet.

1987 The organizational meeting of the Gay Community Council was held at Aardvarks Cabaret. At the meeting, they officially adopted the name Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah.

1988 Ben Williams spoke at the Utah Valley Men’s Group on “Gay History and Gay Liberation through Political Activism.” The group was under attack by Brigham Young University Standards officers.

1988 Utahn Barry Fairbanks died of AIDS at age 34.

1992 Elder Loren Dunn of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints First Quorum of the Seventy stated that the church was now willing to talk with leaders in the AIDS community to “explore how the church could

1980 Dr. Nyla Cole, Dean of the Psychology Department at the University of Utah spoke at a Salt Lake Affirmation Meeting on her research in human sexology.

1983 The Lesbian and Gay Student Union of the Univ. of Utah and KRCL sponsored a concert with singers Cris Williamson and Tret Fure at Kingsbury Hall.

1986 The Mayor of Salt Lake City and the Governor of Utah both declared the last week in October as AIDS Awareness Week.

1989 Rocky (Connell) O’Donavan and Ben Williams spoke at the National Organization for Women conference on the role of men in the feminist movement.

1998 About 300 people protested the Salt Lake City Board of Education ban on all non-curricular high school clubs.

1915 George Tainter and Mike Murphy of Salt Lake City were convicted of sodomy with Louis Smith. Murphy and Tainter were sent to prison.

1963 Third District Judge Joseph C. Jeppson ordered that only men may wear trousers in family disputes arising before the court. Slacks and toreador pants were considered improper attire for women in divorce actions.

20 OCTOBER 1991 Salt Lake Tribune featured an article on Peggy Tingey and her son Chance, both infected with AIDS. They are the sister and nephew of activist Becky Moss.

22 OCTOBER 1976 LDS First Presidency spoke against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, saying, “We fear it will even stifle many God-given feminine instincts.” The First Presidency stated its first objection to passage of the ERA fearing: “an increase in the practice of homosexual and lesbian activities, and other concepts which could alter the natural, God-given relationship of men and women.”

1976 Conscious Raising Encounter Group began to meet at University of Utah campus to “talk openly of their hang-ups” with dealing with their own homosexuality.

1985 Dr. David Perkins, a Logan pathologist, said “because homosexuals are mostly likely to be exposed to AIDS, there is a rule that a person who has ever had even one homosexual experience since 1977, cannot donate blood,” to calm fear about the spread of AIDS through blood transfusions.

1997 Spanish Fork High School teacher Wendy Weaver sued the Nebo School District over its order prohibiting her from discussing her sexual orientation or lifestyle.

23 OCTOBER 1914 Bert Downie of Salt Lake City filed a complaint against Frank Thompson charging him with assault with intent to commit the “infamous crime against nature” upon Downie, “who was then and there a male person”.

1979 Salt Lake Tribune ran the story “BYU Security Personnel Can Operate Off Campus: Gays Protest Power.”

1983 Lesbian Mothers, co-parents and lesbians considering parenthood meetings were held at 20 Rue Jacob.

1987 AIDS Awareness Week is sponsored by AIDS Project Utah, Rocky Mountain Infection Control, Salt Lake Women’s Council of Realtors, KTVX Channel 4, ASUU of the UofU, and the Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire. The morality rate of people with AIDS in Utah is higher than in other states because Utah had no Medicare-approved hospices for the terminally ill.

1988 AIDS Project Utah’s AIDS Awareness Week Benefit was canceled.

1992 Feminist singer Margie Adam performed on the University of Utah campus as a benefit for the Utah AIDS Foundation and the University Student Health Services.

1994 First awards banquet of the People With AIDS Coalition of Utah was held. Sen. Orrin Hatch was the recipient of the Political Social Award for sponsorship of the 1990 Kennedy-Hatch Bill which established the Ryan White Fund.

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24 OCTOBER 1954 Salt Lake City police arrested one man and sought another for masquerading on city streets as women.

1986 AIDS Project Utah sponsored an AIDS Awareness Week with comedian Roseanne Barr, “Domestic Goddess” and sister of APU founder Ben Barr, performing at Symphony Hall. Other entertainers included Johnny Crawford of the Rifleman series, the Saliva Sisters, mime Joe Pitti, and singers Rusty Richards and Davyd Daniels. The event was hosted by actress June Lockhart and emceed by radio host Todd Collard.

1986 Richard Cochran, director of APU, caused a riff in the community when he expressed his gratitude for “the first AIDS Awareness Week,” though the Royal Court had twice sponsored such activities.

1987 The Run for Life race held as an AIDS benefit sponsored by lesbian bar Your Place or Mine.

1989 Melissa Sillitoe and Michelle Davies are elected Utah Gay and Lesbian Youth Group officers.

1994 About 20 skinheads from the “Army of Israel’’ hassled a meeting of Cedar City gays and lesbians held to promote understanding among Southern Utahns.

25 OCTOBER 1979 Approximately 40 men and women formed the Gay Awareness League in Pocatello to increase awareness of the existence and needs of gays in Pocatello and eastern Idaho.

1987 AIDS Project Utah sponsored “Laugh for a Life” again with Roseanne Barr, and comedians Pam Matteson and Louie Anderson at Symphony Hall. The Salt Lake Men’s Choir and the Lovebirds, who were the first gay drag performers to play at Symphony Hall, were local acts.

1988 Ben Barr and Ben Williams founded the Utah AIDS Memorial Quilt Project.

26 OCTOBER 1986 Singers and Gay activists Romanovsky and Phillips performed a benefit for AIDS Project Utah.

1997 Cleve Jones, founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, was a speaker at the People With AIDS Coalition of Utah’s fourth Community Awards.

1998 The LDS Church gave $600,000 to the political-action group Save Traditional Marriage ’98 according to a report in the Honolulu Advertiser.

27 OCTOBER 1979 Women Aware, a lesbian-feminist organization sponsored a Womyn’s Dance at the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City.

1986 Nine different speakers came to Utah to participate in a lecture series on AIDS sponsored by APU. Dr. Mathilde Krim suggested that AIDS spread in the gay men’s community from tainted gamma goblin during the Hepatitis B experiments on gay men in the late 1970s.

1992 The Salt Lake Tribune featured an article on AIDS activist Mason Rankin and his Kindly Gifts Organization that held meetings called Stitch and Bitch.

28 OCTOBER 1864 A Salt Lake City trial court dismissed sodomy charges against Frederick Jones, a soldier at Camp Douglas, because Utah had no sodomy law. Later that day, unknown assailants murdered the man for having molested an LDS youth.

1977 Utah Supreme Court Justice Albert H. Ellett stated that pornographers were “depraved, mentally deficient, mind warped queers”.

1979 Studio 8 held a benefit show for The Boise Seven.

Some of the lesbians involved in the lawsuit against the city of Boise were at the benefit.

1985 The Gay/Lesbian Alliance, a support group for homosexuals, was formed at Utah State University in Logan.

1987 Dr. Paul Volberding spoke at the University of Utah about the pandemic nature of AIDS.

29 OCTOBER 1979 The Salt Lake Gay Athletic Association was formed to put gay people in contact with others who would like to participate in sports and to form group activities.

1985 An LDS Hospital obstetrician who used donor sperm to inseminate infertile women said he won’t perform the procedure again until he was certain that donors could be adequately screened for AIDS.

30 OCTOBER 1973 University of Utah’s Daily Chronicle featured the story “Gay Church Welcomes Community Unwanted” about the Metropolitan Community Church of Salt Lake City.

1978 The Gay Student Union of the University of Utah elected Allen Blaich as chairman, and Carl Boyer and Jimmy Hamamoto as officers in charge.

1982 Chuck Whyte presented the first Unity Show to unify the gay community.

1987 Women Against AIDS benefit was held at Puss N Boots.

31 OCTOBER 1975 Rev. Bob Darst, pastor of Grace Christian Church, resigned.

1980 Rev. Robert Waldrop pastor of MCC Salt Lake was a candidate for state representative.

1980 Bob Edwards began The Imperial Court of Utah’s fundraiser for Toys for Tots with a Halloween Fashion show.

1988 The Blue Horizon bar in Ogden closed.

1988 Rocky (Connell) O’Donavan, Robert Erichssen, and Ben WIlliams formed the Gay Historical Society and Archives for Utah.

1995 Stuart Reid, a Democratic Mormon Salt Lake mayoral candidate, stated, “I’m opposed to an attempt

by Rich McKeown and the homosexual community to get special recognition from city government for particular hiring preferences, and also for the homosexuals to gain special benefits for their companions.’’

Deedee Corradini won the election.

Ben Williams is the founder and president of the Utah Stonewall Historical Society, at utahstonewallhistoricalsociety.com

TOM WEIGAND DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, TWEIGAND.COM

Sports

Salt Lake City Avalanche players at the San Diego Gay Super Bowl. Back row (left to right) Fred Neber, Cody Cowan, Mike Chacon, Ralph Ingersoll, Mark Barr, Cory Chambers, Center - Chris Whitmore. Front row Trevor Kuecker, Dale McKinney, Kacey Wilson, Mark McGowan.

Salt Lake Avalanche Plays in San Diego Gay Super Bowl

by Michael Aaron michael@slmetro.com

TEAM STANDINGS: RANK

1 2 3 3 5 5 5 5 9 10 11 11 13 13

TEAM

RECORD/POINTS SC. /POINTS ALL

Chicago Flames Atlanta Storm Washington Monuments New York Warriors Los Angeles Motion Boston Hancocks Texas Bulls Phoenix Hellraisers San Diego Sharks Chicago Crew San Diego Shredders Salt Lake City Avalanche San Francisco Shockwaves Alabama Slammers

5-1 / 33.2 / 22.3 3-3 / 29.0 / 22.5 3-2 / 33.6 / 26.2 3-2 / 23.4 / 16.2 3-1 / 27.5 / 23.3 2-2 / 22.8 / 23.3 2-2 / 23.3 / 22.5 2-2 / 15.5 / 17.5 4-2 / 38.8 / 16.5 3-3 / 22.7 / 32.8 1-3 / 20.3 / 21.4 1-3 / 16.3 / 21.5 1-3 / 15.8 / 23.0 0-4 / 01.5 / 56.0

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 15

San Diego—The Chicago Flames finally broke through and won the Gay Super Bowl after two years of defeats in the final game. The team beat the Atlanta Storm in the finals, 34-19. The flag football tournament, held in San Diego Oct. 7–9, continued a great tradition of strong on-field play and lots of playing after the games.

In its inaugural year, the Salt Lake Avalanche went to the Bowl with eleven players and ended up with one win and three losses in the tournament.

In the first day of round robin play, Salt Lake lost to the Los Angeles Motion 26 to 13 and the Phoenix Hellraisers 13 to 6. On Saturday Oct. 8, the team came back to win against the Chicago Crew 33 to 13.

On the final day of single elimination tournament play, the team lost against the San Diego Sharks 34 to 13.

Trevor Kuecker and Cory Chambers were named Defense MVPs for the season.

The entire offensive unit was named Offense MVP because each game had different MVPs. Kacey Wilson had a great game against Chicago that got the team all going.

Trevor Kuecker and Mike Chacon had good games and big catches. Cody Cowan and Chris Whitmore fought through to make some clutch grabs when the team needed it most. Fred Neber went over to offense to give the unit a much needed spark of power against San Diego.

The team named Ralph Ingersol their Unsung Hero. He is the back-up QB who played center and never missed an exchange with the QB. He also brought an

experienced, great natured attitude to the field and helped the team to be a better and more cohesive unit.

Second Unsung Hero was Mike Chacon, whose enthusiasm and pure love for the game helped pick the team up and keep their spirits in the game.

The team was proud of their first bowl season. They came together as a team in victory and defeat and played a good clean game, respectful of their opponents. They felt they gained respect and represented Utah proudly.

In the parties after the game, Mike Chacon took home the $500 cash prize at Flick’s Video Bar in the Wet Underwear Contest. Unfortunately, Salt Lake Metro was unable to get photos of this particular event before press time.

The team is hosting flag football ‘pickup’ games each Sunday at 11 a.m. at Sunnyside Park through the end of the year, rain or shine, sleet or hail.

by Joel Shoemaker

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joel@slmetro.com

any people may know Ken Prince as a three-term member of the Sandy City Council in the 1980s and 1990s. Or they know his name as a Sandy mayoral candidate, where in 1993 he lost to Mayor Tom Dolan by only 207 votes. But the father of six children who married twice, served an LDS mission and later served in the LDS church leadership, struggled all his life with internal feelings that conflicted with his outward body appearance.

On the inside, he felt he was a woman.

In her first interview talking openly about her past political life, Jennifer Lee Jackson (or Jenni, as she likes to be called) tells Salt Lake Metro that while much of her life may have been mixed with the pain of not feeling complete, she now considers herself a success. Back into politics as a board member of the advocacy group Equality Utah, Jenni is joining others concerned about gender issues for a meeting at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah on Oct. 27. The meeting is an effort to help organize a gender advocacy group that will act as a

M

contact point for people in Utah interested in transgender issues. As someone who says she’s faced considerable discrimination for being transgender, Jenni shares her story to help open up the dialogue in the community.

METRO: In your life were there pivotal moments where you realized you had to go through the change—maybe a pinnacle moment that capsulizes the feelings that you had?

JENNI: Oh, there are many moments … When I was six, I totally thought for all those years I was a little girl. I played with little girls, I didn’t go to school yet at that time, but I dressed up as a girl. My mom didn’t seem to care; I mostly got the clothes from other girls out playing with them. But I was quite young. And then one night—my father was an alcoholic, and his way of expression wasn’t always the best way—he didn’t like my expressing as a female. So one night he did tell me through a major beating that if I did this again and shamed him that I could look forward to more beatings.

So it was my choice, [but] he wasn’t going to have a fag for a little boy. I tried all my life, especially when I was in high school. I was a football player, I did track, I dated, I was in many school plays, and I went on an LDS mission. But it

was at that time when I was almost done with my mission that I started to feel these strong urges that said I wasn’t who I was supposed to be. I had these emotions, these feelings, even body feelings, that were not what you call masculine.

And so I fought those feelings all that time. When I came back from the mission, the church leaders told me that I just needed to get married. That was the fix-it-all. If you’re gay or transgender, that would fix it … So, you ask me, how many times in my life? Oh, all my life. There are so many times where it caused heartache in my marriages, with my children. I was a city councilman, I was a LDS church leader, I mean, I really, really tried. I spent so many years on my knees just praying to God to let me have peace.

METRO: When did you go through the change?

JENNI: When did I go through the sex change? We call it S.R.S., Sexual Reassignment Surgery. I was 52. It was just last year.

METRO: And you consider yourself a success story, right?

There have been some people who have gone through the operation and it hasn’t been everything they hoped for. So why is your life now so successful and happy?

JENNI: I really believe it’s because I’m congruent now. I’ve lived almost two years now as a female. One of the things we try to do as transsexuals is live life as the other sex before we make that sudden shift with surgery. During that time there are hormones and a lot of therapy, so there’s a doctor and a therapist working together to make sure you’re a good candidate. I think a lot of us are very successful. But then a lot of us drift, we try to blend, out of fear mostly. One of our biggest fears is to be put in the same group as being gay or lesbian. And I’ve got to tell you, as a transgender person, that’s a big, broad umbrella. There’s a transvestite, a cross-dresser, there’s an inter-sex child who has ambiguous genitalia.

METRO: So for you, the success is, “I found myself.”

JENNI: I did find myself, but you know it came with a price. My brother to this day will not talk to me. My parents did talk to me before they died, they welcomed me as their daughter, and a lot of my relatives accept me, a lot of friends. But I was excommunicated from the Mormon Church because they do not understand. To that I say, What about the inter-sex child? What about those who don’t have what it takes to be one or the other as far as outward appearance? What about the poor people who are born without arms or legs? There is a reason why nature does the things it does. It’s wonderful, the diversity. And if we can get over that ruling that you have to be a certain sex, it’s like saying everyone has to have red hair and blue eyes. That’s not what it’s supposed to be.

METRO: You mentioned before this “broad umbrella.”

The current politically-correct catchphrase is “GLBT.” But the “T,” should that be part of the gay and lesbian movement or are those issues unique on their own. Is GLBT too broad a term for people outside our community to understand? What’s the best way to go forward with transgender issues?

JENNI: Excellent question. GLBT almost sounds like a sandwich doesn’t it? The T is really symbolic, but what it does allow is for transgender people to come into a safe environment. The gay, lesbian and bisexual community has been through such a struggle that today it’s more appropriate to be gay or lesbian than it would be to be transgender. Yes, they do provide a safe environment. I can go over to the GLBT Center and there is no animosity, the feeling is welcome. The only problem is that sexual orientation is far from that of gender identity. And so just recently, many of us in the transgender community have realized we can’t just blend. Somebody has to be vocal enough and say, “This is what it’s all about—love us or leave us but try and understand us. Being transgender is just another way of expression in life.” That is why we’re having this meeting at The Center.

METRO: Would you rather be identified as transgender or female?

JENNI: You know, I’d rather be recognized as female, because that’s what my brain has always said. But for a short time, the next five to ten years, whatever it takes, I would just as well be identified as transgender. Because I want them to see I am as normal as they are, the only difference is I had to pay a lot of money to get there.

The meeting to start the Gender Advocacy Board will be at The Center on Thursday, October 27 at 6:30pm. For more information, contact Jennifer Lee Jackson at jenniferlee252@comcast.net.

Transgender Awareness Month

by JoSelle Vanderhooft joselle@slmetro.com

of mouth. For every person that and doesn’t have a bad reaction to it, they’re going to tell someone else. That only increases our support base.”

Robyn nods and adds that a website is also in development.

Though Stamp hopes to someday build a resource center for transgender individuals, he says that he does not see Transcendence as an organization existing apart from the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah, or any other transgender support group in the city.

“We plan definitely on working with The Center,” he says. “Jennifer [Nuttall, Adult

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 17

Lucas Stamp had a life-long dream of creating a support center for transgender men and women, and for him no possibility seems truly out of reach. When speaking about his plans for Transcendence—the name of his project—Stamp’s eyes light up and a smile overtakes his face.

“With transcendence we want to go bigger, we really do,” says Stamp, a transgender man. “We actually want to open up a physical center, and a library. We want to have a doctor and a psychologist, and we want to do resource support—a hotline. Everything you can think of that will help people with gender differences and variances.”

But Stamp’s dream for such unification remained just that for several years. Though he lived in places as diverse Gavin Adams, Lucas Stamp and Robyn Adams as Tucson, Arizona and CanaPrograms Director] and I have spoken quite da he was never able to find the resources and a bit about it. Most of the people who work support he needed for such a venture—that there do understand that there is a large need is, until he moved to the Wasatch Front two for this kind of thing.” years ago. Shortly after arriving, Stamp met Still, the three know they have a long way to Robyn Adams. Though Stamp says he often go in making their dream a reality—particuwaits a few weeks before telling new aclarly in educating gays, lesbians and bisexuquaintances about his transition, he made an als about the unique challenges transgender exception that night. people face.

“Within twenty minutes of meeting me he “It’s not like the rest of the community told me [he is transgender], and I was like, where it’s more of an orientation,” says Stamp. “okay”,” laughs Adams, a straight woman and “So there’s this misunderstanding, there’s this the vice president of Transcendence. “We lack of education basically about why we are had some mutual friends who were trans who we are.” It’s a problem he says he sees or hermaphrodite and I guess that was the among gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, the moment where he thought ‘well she accepts segment of the community Stamp is most them, why wouldn’t she accept me?’ After that interested in educating. we just started talking about all these things “You know how they always say kids can he wanted to do.” be cruel,” he asks. “That falls in this society Shortly after, Stamp met Adams’ husband and in any kind of community that you have, Gavin. Like his wife, Adams was also acceptand I find it here as well. I have not witnessed ing of Stamp and his plans. A computer proit personally but I have been hearing a lot grammer, he quickly signed onto Transcenof things. I’m willing to work with the youth dence as CIO. group so they understand.”

Stamp refers to them as his adopted “I mean there’s so much discrimination out brother and sister. “I knew right away they there, we can’t afford to discriminate amongst were family. We clicked,” he explains. The ourselves,” he continues. “If we can educate three behave like a family, often completing them, I think if they’re able to ask questions each other’s sentences and prompting one I think that would help a lot. Where commuanother when asked about their burgeoning nication ceases is when you close yourself off organization. and don’t answer questions about yourself.

“Right now it’s in the educational phase,” They can’t understand if you’re unwilling to Stamp says. “We’re getting volunteers, getting share. I’m definitely willing to share, if it’s resources, finding people who are willing to going to make things a lot better within the work with us because right now there are so community.” few of us. We want everybody to join and be And then there’s the matter of simply there and do things. That’s why we’re talking reaching isolated transgender individuals about doing some potlucks and so we can who don’t regularly come to The Center. get to know people. I want everyone here so “It’s going to be hard because a lot of peowe can hash things out and find out what we ple have closed themselves off, even from the want to do.” community. It’s very concerning because they “We’ve discussed bylaws and written down feel like there’s no help or hope,” says Stamp. rough drafts of everything, where we want “We want to show them that they’re not alone. to head and our plan of action as far as what Yes it’s a horrible thing we have to go through steps we need to take to get from point A to and yes most people won’t understand but point B,” Robyn interjects. you can change that and but it’s not the end “We’re still networking,” Gavin adds. “We’re of the world. Once they realize that I think still building all of our relationships so we can things’ll be a lot better. Once they realize that get the support. A lot of the way the meswe can do this together, we can do anything.” sage is traveling right now is through word

JOSELLE VANDERHOOFT

Local Trans Man to Start Transgender Organization

Transgender Awareness Month These articles are written by Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, who spoke at University of Utah Pride 2005 in October. The four articles are used here to give our readers a glimpse of the issues faced by transgender men and women in today’s society. Gender PAC’s vision is to ensure every American can participate in the workplace, the classroom, and the community regardless of whether they meet ideals for masculinity or femininity. More information can be found at gpac.org.

Ladies’ Room

by Riki Wilchins

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SALT LAKE METRO ■ OCTOBER 27, 2005

Executive Director, Gender PAC

It seemed like just another quiet dinner at the T.G.I. Friday’s in Laurel, Maryland when TK—proud nose-guard for the women’s professional football team the D.C. Divas—got up to use the women’s room.

But it wasn’t. As she went in, another woman said, “This is the women’s room.”

TK, unfazed, replied simply, “I know it is.”

For thousands of women whose gender expression transcends narrow feminine ideals, a simple trip to the restroom to fulfill a private need can turn into a humiliating public ordeal. She emerged to find herself confronted by a T.G.I. Friday’s employee and a uniformed Laurel policeman, who was shortly joined by another.

TK tried to show identification, which clearly listed her as female. But at no time did anyone ask to see her ID, or even stop to ask what sex she was. Apparently, her more masculine gender expression was affront enough so that no one, except of course TK, cared. She soon found herself face-down on the ground, arm twisted up behind her back, handcuffed and under arrest.

Since she was, in fact, completely female, the only thing they charged TK with was disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, which in this case translated to her trying really hard to convince the officers that she was indeed female and asking for badge numbers when they refused to listen.

When thinking of the ever-notorious “bathroom issue,” we usually think of it as an issue of gender identity, a problem mostly for transgender women who have changed sexes.

But harassment, confrontation, and even arrest for being in the “wrong restroom” also plague thousands of women who simply don’t look like authorities think they should. Even my partner, who looks like a handsome, young boy, has found herself being pulled bodily out of the women’s room.

It doesn’t help that the ideals for feminine gender expression begin and end with slender, light-skinned women, preferably with a long, straight blond mane of hair—not muscular, darker-skinned athletes with short, kinky hair like TK. In short, our ideals are based on straight, white women, not black lesbians, and especially not women who like to pull on a helmet and pads every Sunday and go out and kick some serious girl-butt. For a “real woman,” shoulder pads are little foam things that ensure your blouse hangs right.

Lesbians like TK, my partner, and even feminists who transcend gender norms,

are often the same women who face workplace discrimination for being “too masculine,” or “too aggressive.”

For instance, GenderPAC recently joined groups like the ACLU in supporting the appeal of 44-year-old feminist Darlene Jespersen, who was fired after two decades at the same job when she refused to wear make-up and high heels under a new dress code.

And in a much-watched case, courts found that Antonio Sanchez, a young Latino waiter, was repeatedly and unlawfully harassed because co-workers considered him too effeminate.

What makes this especially pressing is that there is a sea-change finally happening in gender on the job. GenderPAC recently announced that over a thousand companies, like GenderPAC sponsors American Airlines, IBM, J.P. Morgan Chase and Kodak, have added gender protections to their equal employment opportunity policies. On Capitol Hill there is a concerted effort to add gender protections to federal legislation, like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. More than 55 cities, states, and municipalities have passed laws outlawing gender stereotyping on the job, including El Paso, Texas.

El Paso, Texas? That’s John Wayne country: rattlers, ranchers, pick-ups and revolvers. No longer confined to Berkeley and Boston, gender rights is going mainstream. This work is being driven largely by transgender activists and gay allies, who frame it as an issue of “transgender inclusion.”

Yet these heroic efforts to achieve longoverdue goals focus mostly on gender identity—not gender expression, which is in danger of being left behind, not only in some of the laws, but moreover in the way we articulate the problem and who the discussion focuses on.

Today, activists often pass EEO policies and local laws with scarce mention of gender expression, or with gender expression in a list of things that gender identity applies to. That could mean problems for the hundreds of thousands of people like Darlene and TK, for whom gender identity—who they feel they are inside—is not at issue.

Gender expression is the great “crossover issue,” one where gay, straight, and transgender concerns come together. The issue that helps connect us with issues of stereotypes about race.

It’s easy to stay in the LGBT model, to think of all our issues as belonging to one identity or another. But maybe it’s time to look outside that model too, and recognize that in gender, we have an issue that brings us together with other Americans, in ways that make all of us safer and more respected.

Airport Insecurity

by Riki Wilchins Executive Director, Gender PAC

der-phobe who’s backed up by a National Guardsman with an M-16. You can’t change who and what you are just to fly, and you also can’t afford to miss the wedding, vacation, or job interview at the end of your flight, so you just shut up and take it.

Reports of gender profiling have flowed into GenderPAC since late 2001, when airlines appropriately increased their focus on security. With the new focus came a shift in power in favor of security personnel—including the phobic few with a dislike for

Even in the best of times, gender-queers have faced increased scrutiny or harassment when they travel simply because of the way they look, act, or dress. But as Katie “Zak” Szymanski, a boy-identified dyke, can attest after a recent flight out of New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, never has this scrutiny been as intense as it since Sept. 11, 2001.

“First they made a big deal about whether a male or female officer should pat me down,” says Szymanski, who recently underwent a prophylactic mastectomy due to a family history of breast cancer. “Then they took a lot of time searching my breasts, not because there was anyplace left to hide something there, but because they couldn’t figure out why there wasn’t more ‘me’ there. I was still healing, and it was really painful.”

What happened to Szymanski is called “gender profiling.”

It occurs when a person is singled out solely because they are perceived as not conforming to gender norms. And if you are one of the millions of travelers Riki Wilchins, executive director of Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, speaking at the who happens to be University of Utah Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center Gala Dinner. a little butch, a little femme, transgender, or otherwise visibly anyone who crosses gender lines. What we’re queer, then there’s a good chance it will seeing is a pattern of travelers being singled happen to you. out for invasive treatment simply because Daphne Scholinski, a gender-queer they don’t meet someone’s ideal of a “real author and trans-identified lesbian, was man” or a “real woman.” This prejudice falls targeted at the San Francisco airport, one disproportionately on travelers who are gay, of the most liberal cities in the country. lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

“Nobody questioned my I.D., and my One report that especially struck me luggage passed right through X-ray,” she involved a transsexual who was traveling says. “But they said my belt buckle was a from London. Pulled out of line as she was problem and made me undo my pants in boarding, she was mocked by a security public—right by the X-ray machine—and person who loudly examined her (female) pull them down to my thighs.”

I.D. She was then subjected to a luggage “If I try to defend my rights,” Scholinski search and full body pat-down. adds, “they can label me a troublemaker.

She made her flight but complained to Then I could find myself being strip-searched airline management, who declined to act. in custody while my flight takes off.”

“How many terrorists do they think travel We’re all used to a certain degree of gender first class and have sex-reassignment surinspection. From childhood, people stare, gery so they can be female?” she asks. “They mock, correct, or punish us when we cross just didn’t like that I was transgender.” lines. This is an old problem in a new setting.

Of course, the racial profiling of Middle But when three guys intimidate and Eastern fliers is a terrible problem. And the harass you and your girlfriend when “DWB”—driving while black—stings are a you’re out for a walk, you can at least yell similarly-heinous practice and are finally something pithy and then tell the proper getting some long-overdue attention. But authorities about the perpetrators. In these perhaps it’s time we add a new category— cases, though, the perpetrators are the “traveling while queer.” proper authorities. There’s no one to tell, The Japanese have a saying: “The nail and pithiness could get you busted. that sticks out gets hammered in.” If you’re All of which can leave you feeling helpless the one that “sticks out” the next time you when confronted with a uniformed gentravel, it could happen to you.

Boys DO Cry

by Riki Wilchins Executive Director, Gender PAC

Brandon Teena

When Lotter and Nissen discovered Brandon had gone to the Sheriff—which was easy since he invited all three to his office at the same time—they returned as they’d promised and killed Brandon right after Christmas Day in 1993. They shot and then stabbed him in the stomach until he was dead. Then they killed an AfricanAmerican friend who was staying over and his girlfriend to prevent any witnesses. The couple’s infant child they spared.

As the first day of the trial ended, we packed up, hugged quick good-byes, and returned to Iowa City or New York or Mendocino. We had no way of knowing that right then, back in Haverill, Mass., a transgender woman named Debbie Forte was being strangled and stabbed to death.

May 20, 2001—almost six years to the day—a Nebraska State Supreme Court unanimously told Sheriff Charles Laux what I believe we had been trying to say: That his behavior was “extreme and outrageous;” that he was “negligent” in his duty; that victims of gender-based violence have the right to equal protection under the law, regardless of their gender. It’s a lesson our prisons, police, and schools must learn.

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 19

I heard the news of the ruling in JoAnn Brandon’s wrongful death suit in the murder of her son, Brandon Teena. It was just days after the Human Rights Watch broke the news on their survey on male prisoner rape, and only weeks after still another school shooting involving a student who had reportedly been routinely intimidated and gender-baited.

Gender-based violence runs like a faultline through society, separating the strong from the weak, the dominant from the vulnerable, and the violent from the more peaceful. The authorities’ frequent failure to act mirrors our own inactivity and silence, as if gender-based violence is an ugly, but unavoidable, by-product of gender roles.

According to HRW’s report, prison guards look the other way in thousands of rapes of victims who are smaller, less violent, and thus more sexually vulnerable. An article in the Bay Area Reporter, stated that school officials ignored the frequent harassment and bullying directed at the majority of recent school shooting assailants. And for transgender violence, activists in New York held a memorial vigil for Amanda Milan, who bled to death in 2000 after her throat was cut as she was entering a cab.

In each case, gender is used to dehumanize and degrade. Prisoners who have been raped are often referred to as “bitches.” The favored taunt used against student assailants was “faggot.” Amanda Milan’s assailant reportedly yelled, “You’re a man!” and, “I know that’s a dick you have in-between your legs!”

Of the murdered Brandon Teena, Sheriff Charles Laux famously retorted, “You can call it ‘it’ for all I care.” Forty of us quietly assembled on the courthouse square to hold a memorial vigil on May 15, 1995, the day John Lotter and Tom Nissen went on trial. I doubt any of us could have clearly explained why we were there, except to say by our presence that his murder was terribly wrong and those at fault should be held accountable.

We stood quietly in the cold sunlight with our posters and tee-shirts and signs and by noon the local neo-Nazi’s were circling the square in their cars, giving us stiff-armed “Sieg Heil” salutes out the windows, spitting at us, and occasionally trying to run us off the sidewalks with their pickups.

Townspeople drove by and offered every reaction in the world, from the incredulous gaze to complete indifference, the quiet supportive word to the unprintable observation on Brandon’s body. A local farmer confided he hated this whole murder thing because his taxes had gone up so much to pay for the trial that he was in danger of having to sell his farm.

Nissen got life without possibility of parole. Lotter got the death sentence.

Sheriff Laux went on to become a county commissioner.

Five days before they killed him, Lotter and Nissen abducted Brandon, beat him bloody, took turns raping him, and then forced him to shower to remove evidence of their assault. They threatened to kill him

if he told the sheriff, which he immediately did, believing he would get protection.

He was wrong. Instead, Sheriff Laux subjected Brandon to a demeaning interview that featured exchanges like these: CBL: And what did you have in your underpants? You didn’t have a sock? Do you run around once in a while with a sock in your pants to make you look like a boy?

BT: Yeah.

CBL: Okay. So then after he could stick it in your vagina he stuck it in your box, or in your buttocks, is that right?

BT: Yes, sir.

CBL: How long did he do that?

BT: Long enough, I didn’t time it.

CBL: I mean did he, did it seem like a lifetime. Or what?

BT: It seems like it took forever.

CBL: All right, did it feel like he stuck it in very far? Or not?

BT: I don’t know how far. It hurt.

CBL: Did you holler all the time he was putting it in?

MY MORNING JACKET. See Nov. 1

THE GAY AGENDA

by Eric Tierney, eric@slmero.com

28FRIDAY Ladies and gentlemen, our time has finally come: at long last, the queers have their own slasher movie. HELLBENT features everything you’d expect from a classic horror flick: blood, pretty people with no clothes, and an impossible evil villain.

Only this time around we get shirtless boys instead of vapid blonde co-eds. Take a date and you’ll have an excuse to cling to him during the scary parts.

Opens tonight at the Regency Trolley Square Cinemas, 602 E. 500 South. Information at 746-1555 or regencymovies.com

29SATURDAY What better way to spend the day than communing with your community at the Center? Valerie, Jennifer and the gang have put together no fewer than two terrific events for your weekend enjoyment: Spend the afternoon at the QUEER CARNIVAL: psychics, tarot card readers, massage therapists and henna tattoo artists will be on hand while live music and the scent of fresh baked goods for sale will fill the air. Games for the kids, a raffle, costume contests…that’s what I call family fun. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

Then, when the sun goes down, let your wild side show at the LESBIAN HALLOWEEN DANCE. Utah’s lesbians are invited to put on their Halloween best

and then salsa, meringue, and party until the Witching Hour.

1TUESDAY

Carnival: 3pm to 7pm. Dance: 8pm-11pm.

Both events at The Center, 355 N. 300 South.

Admission is free, information at 539-8800 or glbtccu.org

MY MORNING JACKET is the kind of hipster band that your vintage sweater/ hornrimmed glasses friend loves. The only reason you don’t love them yet as well is that you haven’t really listened yet. Come to the show tonight and you’ll find yourself at the thrift shop tomorrow!

30SUNDAY DAVID GRAY is one terrific songwriter, “Babylon” aside. Gentle melodies, intimate lyrics, and a voice like watered-silk: sounds like the perfect way to spend a Sunday evening before you have to get up and face a non-David Gray type work week.

7:30pm, Kingsbury Hall, 1395 East President’s Circle, University of Utah. Tickets $30 at 467-TIXX or smithstix.com

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31MONDAY Everyone knows the story of how Orson Welles gave the country a collective coronary with his infamous War of the Worlds broadcast. Nothing is as terrifying as our own imaginations, which radio has a unique power to exploit. Plan B Theatre Company will have you scaring the bejesus out of yourself tonight when it broadcasts RADIO POE over KUER 90.1’s airwaves: a talented group of actors, aided by a splendid array of live sound effects, will interpret “The Tell Tale Heart” and “Premature Burial”, two of Edgar Allan’s most macabre stories. I suggest your listen with the lights on, or take comfort in numbers at one of two listening parties at the Beehive Tea Room.

Free listening parties at 11am (live) and 7pm (rebroadcast) at the Beehive Tea Room, 12 West 300 South. Information at planbtheatrecompany.org

7pm, In the Venue, 219 S. 600 West. Tickets $15 at 467-TIXX or smithstix.com

2WEDNESDAY While best known for crafting what is inarguably one of the most obnoxious ditties in the history of western music, the “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” theme song, ROCKAPELLA are actually a respected and much loved group with more than twenty original albums to their credit. I’m sure they’re as embarrassed about the Carmen thing as we all are, so check them out tonight and give their real stuff a chance.

Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm, Ellen Eccles Theatre, 43 South Main Street, Logan.

Tickets $15 to $25 at 355-2787 or arttix.org

ROB THOMAS is an earnest pretty boy, sure, but people seem to like him. Finally dropping the dead weight and leaving Matchbox Twenty, he’s released a solo album that’s garnering generally favorable reviews. I suggest fellow bitter, My Morning Jacket loving skeptics like myself give him the benefit of the doubt when he attempts to prove himself in West Valley tonight.

7:30pm, E Center, 3200 S Decker Lake Drive, West Valley. Tickets $35 at 355-2787 or smithstix.com

3THURSDAY

should attend: a room full of gay athletes. Need I say more?

In the Box

SONG OF SINGAPORE is equal parts jazz concert and musical theatre—a rollicking satire of great romantic films of the forties like Casablanca. The Grand Theatre’s production, which continues through this week, features some of Utah’s best jazz musicians turned actors, and, judging from audience response, the boys already have chops.

7–9pm, The Trapp Door 100 S 615 West.

by Eric Tierny

6SUNDAY

Tonight through Saturday at 7:30pm, The Grand Theatre, 1575 S State Street. Tickets $10-$24 at 957-3322 or the-grand.org

CONOR OBERST, better known as BRIGHT EYES, is 24 years old and has been a highly successful recording artist for more than a decade. He owns his own record label. He’s played with some of the most esteemed musicians of our time.

He’s been called the Second Coming of Dylan. And people say my generation lacks focus.

4FRIDAY

7:30pm, Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E President’s Circle, University of Utah. Tickets $25 at

This weeekend’s program at the Utah Symphony features pianist VLADIMIR FELTSMAN playing Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto, which will, I promise, turn all of your insides into warm water. I think that about says it all.

9WEDNESDAY

Tonight and tomorrow at 8pm, Abravanel Hall, 123 S West Temple. Tickets $12 to $42 at 533-NOTE or utahsymphony.org

5SATURDAY

JIMMIE WALKER, the guy who said “Dynomite” in the seventies, is in Salt Lake tonight. Hopefully he’s got some other material as well, because otherwise you’re in for a very awkward 29 minutes and 50 seconds of dead air.

8pm, Wise Guys Comedy Café, 3500 S 2200 West, West Valley City. Tickets $10 at 467-TIXX or arttix.org

Athletes and athletic supporters are invited to attend the GAY GAMES KICK OFF PARTY tonight at the HELLBENT Trapp Door. Utah native See Nov. 1 and current Gay Games Co-Vice President Kevin Boyer will be on hand to talk about creating and fostering sports organizations in Utah as well as to encourage Utah athletes to compete in the next Games.

Even if you’re like me and you only run if you’re being pursued by something, you

Lisa Marie Independent who also form the live band. Both are first rate, journeyman musicians: Beecher’s fiddling, which can be described as nothing less than virtuosic, make Martie Seidel of the Dixie Chicks look like a wimp, while Tebbs takes on a variety of responsibilities, from guitar to backup vocals, with impeccable musicianship.

“Super Duper” is a preview of the forthcoming full-length album, Awake. Co-produced by Tebbs and Mark Towner Williams, the disc is being recorded at William’s Andromeda Studios in Park City. Williams, son of famed composer John Williams, is one of the most sought-after drummers in the industry, having recorded and toured with the likes of Tina Turner. He lends a finely tuned, sensitive ear to the production, and he and Tebbs and carefully crafting the album, capturing the enormous power of Lisa Marie’s voice and giving each song its own fully realized texture and character.

Work on the record will continue through the fall and winter in between Lisa Marie’s dates with Blessid Union.

Lisa Marie and the band will play the “Super Duper” tracks and other new songs at the upcoming In the Box event at MoDiggity’s (see story, opposite). Copies of the EP will also be on hand—pick one up now, because someday it will be a collector’s item: the first release of a major singing and songwriting talent.

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 21

Lisa Marie has been a fixture on the Salt Lake music scene for more than a decade.

She’s the gorgeous girl with the earth-shattering voice who can play anything: bass, drums, guitar, keys. As leader of cover band Lisa Marie and the Co-Dependents for more than twelve years, she consistently rocked audiences around Utah, more often than not sounding better and playing with more soul than the artists who wrote the songs. Now, she’s breaking out on her own, touring the country as the opening act for Blessid Union of Souls, writing and recording her first solo album, and releasing a four song EP called “Super Duper.”

The songs on Super Duper, while the first that Lisa Marie has written, are not the work of a nascent songwriter dipping her toe in the musical pool. Rather, she’s yemerged as a fully formed artist, writing with the kind of skill, passion and grace that some musicians spend their entire careers trying to cultivate. From raw, blood and guts passion-plays like “No More Time”, the EP’s first cut, to the playful groove of the title track, the songs reveal the soulful, insightful tunesmith who’s lived in Lisa Marie all these years, waiting for the right moment to claim its place in the collective musical subconscious.

Joining Lisa Marie on the EP are Brownwen Beecher on fiddle and back up vocal and longtime collaborator Mary Tebbs,

eric@slmetro.com

“What you have just seen,” Karla McGuigan whispered over a glass of Malbec at the Red Door recently, “captured a minute amount of pure, absolute, artistic energy.”

She was referring to a preview of Daisy Johnson’s In the Box, a collection of photography that the artist will present Nov. 5 at MoDiggity’s in South Salt Lake. Rather than hang the work gallery style, Johnson has created an eight minute DVD presentation set to the passionate and powerful music of legendary local artist Lisa Marie. The show, impressive enough on a 17-inch PowerBook monitor, promises to be stunning when presented on the big screen.

The concept behind the photos of In the Box is simple enough—a series of portraits of women in boxer shorts. The impact and complexity of the art, however, goes far beyond mere titillation. The viewer is collections as well as a one-hour photo treated to an astoundingly diverse array of shoot valued at $500. Bronwen Beecher, women—all ages, all body types—as well as fiddler and vocalist for both Lisa Marie and emotions, ideas, and statements. If there is the popular Celtic fusion group the Salty a link between the images, it is sensuality— Frogs, offers a two-hour private perfornot sexuality or even eroticism—although mance. Lisa Marie also offers a private certain images are definitely arousing. The performance, as well as the chance to stunning photos, some in black and white observe one of her recording sessions at and some in color, are about beauty in all its producer Mark Towner Williams’ Andromforms: aesthetic, interpersonal, spiritual. eda Studios in Park City. Williams, son of Johnson and company are showing famed composer John Williams, is one of the work in the context of a larger event the industry’s most sough-after percuscelebrating women, beauty, and artistry. sionists and has recorded and played live While the focus of the evening is Johnson’s with the likes of Tina Turner. work and a live performance by Lisa Marie For an additional donation of $25, guests and band in support of her upcoming solo can access the event’s VIP room— a quiet, record, Awake, the event will feature a host luxurious oasis in the midst of the club. of other activities.

Prestigious Utah floral designers Sax and In the Box is also a celebration and Romney will adorn the space with their fundraiser for Utah’s transgender comexquisite arrangements, and the Robin’s munity. All proceeds raised from the event Nest Café will provide hors d’oeuvres. VIP will go to the Lynn E. Stewart Memorial guests can also drink in the music of acfund at Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender claimed Utah singer/songwriter Lorraine Community Center of Utah. Stewart was a Horstmanschoff, a prolific musician who transgender woman with many friends in plays everything from the guitar to the the community. Her friends describe her as didgeridoo to soda bottles. an avid birdwatcher and stargazer as well While all of the artists presenting work as an accomplished pianist. On July 24 of for the event are lesbian, they are all quick this year, Stewart took her life. Her friends, to point out that their sexuality is not the Johnson and McGuigan among them, focus of the evening. “This is about just bedecided to honor her spirit and the legacy ing, not about being a gay artist,” says Lisa of love she left behind in the community by Marie. “I feel like more of an activist for the creating the fund, which will raise community by just living, feeling IN THE BOX awareness of transgender issues like I can talk or hang out with and causes, may provide counseling Saturday, anyone. Then there’s no conflict, Nov. 5 for youth in crisis, and will procure no drama … there’s power in wav7:30pm resources like books and literature ing flags, but there’s power in not MoDiggity’s for the community’s use through waving them, too.”

3424 S State St The Center.

The work goes beyond just Valerie Larabee of the GLBT sensuality, Johnson notes. “The Community Center of Utah will speak about art is representative of how we live our its transgender programs and relations belives, which is in the belief that anything is tween the community and its transgender possible. We can make anything happen.” members. Information tables will offer The work is not necessarily about women, literature and educational resources. not necessarily about love even: “It’s about Fund raising will be focused on a one embracing beauty. Embracing beauty of a kind silent auction which will offer regardless of hate and animosity. Beauty is bidders both valuable artwork and unique what moves the world. You have to come experiences. Johnson will donate original from love, because love is what makes work from both In the Box and her other things happen.”

Les Madeleines Patisserie

by Vanessa Chang, vanessa@slmetro.com 660 S. State Street, SLC (801) 355-2294 Monday–Friday 8:00a.m. to 6p.m.

Saturday 9:00a.m. to 11p.m.

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With shopping bags in tow, the Russians sat round their plate of pastries. Between sips of illy lattes and Harney & Sons teas they nibbled at the toffee-studded square of butter cookie and the minivanilla cupcake from Les Madeleines’ pastry case. Nibbles gave way to bigger bites. And apparently more interesting conversation. “Where is the pastry chef from?” one of them asks in accented English. When Elisa, the waitress, replies, “she’s American,” the group takes on a brief look of disbelief. “These things are in a European-style,” they reply. Elisa answers back, “she trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City.”

This was sufficient. They nodded and

continued to eat until only a few vanilla sprinkles and chocolate crumbs were left on their shiny white plates.

The American who makes “European-style” pastries is Romina Rasmussen. And indeed, she is an alum of FCI. Raised in Salt Lake City, she traveled the world and spent much time in Asia before embarking in pastry arts. In the ordered mess of her pastry kitchen, her palate and perfectionist tendencies thrive. For us lucky few who know about this patisserie (read: pastry shop), that means flaky layers of golden brown croissant, quite possibly the best Èclair this side of the Atlantic, and a rotating roster of diminutively perfect pastries that artfully combine the world’s best flavors into edible packages.

The mantra here is “pretty food that tastes good.” Try things that you can’t pronounce or have never seen before.

Financiers (bite-size browned butter cakes) hide morsels of seasonal fruit.

And kouing aman (koo-ing ah-mon) is awesome example of how seemingly simple ingredients—butter, flour, yeast, good sea salt, and sugar—can transform into a dense puck of divine, caramel lacquered flavor (pictured above).

At the counter, the cases envelop you into a cozy corner of the signature green and dark wood. Romina’s pantry is an amateur pastry chef’s wet dream.

European-style butter, Nielsen-Massey Bourbon Madagascar Vanilla extract, and Valrhona chocolate are all part of her pastry arsenal. From these basic ingredients, not only does she craft the usual suspects for the case, but she also plots her “Cupcake Revolution.” Instead of those god-awful Crisco-heaped monstrosities, she produces mini cupcakes with huge flavor and creative names.

Cancun (pina colada), Margaritaville (a cocktail turned cupcake), and Bali (passion fruit buttercream) harken the flavors of exotic locales where we’d all like

to be. And Audrey Hepburn fans will love the Roman Holiday, a coffee cupcake with espresso buttercream. They’re chic.

They’re pretty. And they’re all delicious.

You’ll likely find Romina behind the counter. Astonishingly, she has no army of pastry minions to do her dirty work.

And she gets full satisfaction when people enjoy her pastries. And she experiences the painful frustration of her doing her craft in a culture where cheap mass counts. Sure, a loyal bunch come day in and day out for their fix of therapeutic butter-sugar scents. It’s quite invigorating to pick up something pretty and delicious for yourself on a daily basis. But, it’s downright disconcerting to see such world-class talent go unnoticed or unjustifiably criticized for being too shi-shi for enjoyment.

In honor of the Cupcake Revolution, here’s my Pastry Manifesto. Made from scratch or pretty and good don’t mean shi-shi. Les Madeleine’s pastries are for the willing masses bent on shattering the status quo of under-quality butter and under-baked croissants. The underprivileged pastry-craving have spoken. And more will rise. This longing goes across the board. And none tugs at the heart strings of the pastry proletariat more than tabletop S’mores. Available after 3p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, you can communally roast made-from-scratch marshmallows (yes, there is such a thing) on skewers over a sterno fire and sandwich it with squares of Dolfin French chocolate, and house-baked graham crackers. For another extra dollar, you can get a stash of Nutella, peanut butter, or dulce de leche for extra goodness.

And on this Saturday night, the Russians are eyeing my S’mores. They’ve finished their pastries and are intrigued by my roasting technique. They look longingly. But I’m afraid this is where I draw the line in socialist tendencies— there will be no communal sharing of my s’mores tonight, comrades.

Di ing Guide Dining de Bangkok Thai

Nick-N-Willy’s Pizza

1400 Foothill Dr. / 582-8424 HOURS: MO-TH 11:30-2, 5-9:30PM F 11:30AM-2PM, 5-10PM SA NOON-10PM, SU 5-9PM CUISINE: THAI PRICE: $ CARDS: TC AE D MC V

4538 S, HIGHLAND DR./ 273-8282

Rated “Best Thai” 1992–2005 by local and national press.

Dine in or take-out. Call ahead and we’ll have it ready.

Albertsons Shopping Ctr.

Café Med 420 E. 3300 S. / 493-0100 HOURS: SU-TH 11AM-9PM F-SA 11AM-10PM CUISINE: MEDITERRANEAN PRICE: $ CARDS: TC AE D MC V

Persian, Greek, Italian, Turkish and Vegetarian in a warm, relaxing atmosphere.

Coffee Garden 898 S 900 E / 355-3425 HOURS: SU-TH 6AM-11PM F-SA 6AM-12AM CUISINE: COFFEEHOUSE PRICE: ¢ CARDS: AE D MC V

nicknwillyspizza.com HOURS: CUISINE: PRICE:

SU-TH 11AM-10PM F-SA 11AM-12PM PIZZA $ CARDS: AE D MC V

Orbit Cafe 540 W. 200 S. / 322-3808 orbitslc.com HOURS: SU-TH 11AM-10PM F-SA 11AM-3AM CUISINE: AMERICAN ECLECTIC PRICE: $ CARDS: TC AE D MC V

Open late nights on Fridays and Saturdays with DJs and a special menu.

Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta

1063 E. 2100 S. / 484-1804 SLC’s buzzing java shop with a saltlakepizzaandpasta.com diverse crowd.

HOURS: M-SA 11AM-11PM

Fiddler’s Elbow 1063 E. 2100 S. / 463-9393

fiddlerselbowslc.com M-TH 11AM-11PM F-SA 11AM-12AM SU 9AM-10PM CUISINE: AMERICAN PRICE: $ CARDS: TC AE D MC V HOURS:

CUISINE: PRICE:

SU 11AM-10PM ITALIAN $ CARDS: TC AE D MC V

Voted as Utah’s Best Pizza two years in a row! Great beer selection. Sugarhouse.

The Original

32 beers, including Utah’s best 1751 S 1100 EAST / 483-2971 HOURS: M-SA 11AM–7PM selection of microbrews.

Michelangelo Ristorante 2156 S, HIGHLAND DR./ 466-0961

michelangeloristorante.com TU-SA 11:30AM-1:30PM 5:45-9PM CUISINE: ITALIAN PRICE: $$ CARDS: AE D MC V HOURS:

Begun by childhood friends Paulo Celeste and Marco Gabrielli of Tuscany.

CUISINE: SANDWICHES PRICE: $ CARDS: TC AE D DC MC V

Now scoopin’ Spotted Dog Creamery Ice Cream.

TC–TRAVELERS CHECKS, AE– AMERICAN EXPRESS, D–DISCOVER, DC–DINER’S CLUB, MC–MASTERCARD, V–VISA ¢=0-$10, $=$11-$20, $$=$21-30, $$$=31-40.

de

Red,White Bubbly Don’t Believe the Hype

by Beau Jarvis, beau@slmetro.com

Beau Jarvis is a sommelier and wine educator.

He operates basicjuice.com, a wine review and info website. He also runs basicjuice.blogs.com

BANGKOK THAI 1400 FOOTHILL DRIVE •SLC 582-8424

Utah’s Best Seafood -Citysearch 2005

Purchase one Entree from our Extensive Seafood Menu and Get One FREE Pad Thai (Our most popular dish) Not Valid with any other offer Limit One offer per party - Dine in only Prices Rolled Back 10-20% on Our Vegetarian Menu Meatless Mondays™ Lunch $5.99 Dinner $7.99 For All Vegetarian Entrees

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 23

Picture this: You waltz into the wine shop with the intention of buying a nice bottle of wine for twelve bucks or so. You start inspecting bottles. There are classylooking labels, cartoon labels, and incredibly cryptic labels. You’re confused. Then, suddenly, as if a heavenly light descended from above, your eyes are drawn to a playing card-sized piece of paper taped below one of the bottles. In bold print it displays the number 88. You begin to notice similar pieces of paper dangling here and there down the aisle. Some proclaim even bigger numbers, 90, 91, and 94. Others display stars like the epaulets on a decorated general’s shoulder: three stars, four stars, even five stars! You’re relieved because surely these “shelf talkers” will help you locate the best bottle of wine for your money.

Don’t believe the hype.

Wine reviews, just like movie reviews, aren’t as reliable as you might hope. Many years ago I dragged a friend to a Michael J. Fox film. My friend complained that the movie’s plot seemed stupid. I confidently assured him that the film had received “two thumbs up” and four stars. I promised him he would love the movie. The movie stunk.

In fact, if I ever see Roger Ebert, I’m going to tell him he owes me twelve bucks for conning me into seeing such an awful flick. I no longer wholeheartedly trust film reviews.

And I really don’t trust many wine reviews.

The wine review methods practiced by major wine publications and many influential wine critics are mightily flawed. Generally speaking, wines are reviewed in bulk.

This means a critic or group of critics get together and taste a host of wines in a short period of time. They’ll taste 40, 60, or even hundreds of wine during a single tasting session. Are wine critics able to properly evaluate a wine if it’s the 59th wine tasted during a two-hour tasting session? I think not. Sure, the critic may be able to judge the wine to be generally good or generally bad. But, at this point in the tasting, who honestly believes the critic can discern between an 89-point wine and a 91-point wine? Imagine the review that Citizen Kane may have received if it had been a critic’s sixteenth film viewing of the day: “Citizen Kane; it’s a decent film.”

There are a few other problems with wine reviews. Wines are usually evaluated without the benefit of any food pairings. This is understandable, as pairing every candidate wine with food is impractical. However, wines that tend to stand out without food often clash when paired with food. The result?

When you proudly serve a 90 point wine with your labor-intensive Sunday dinner, your guests may be bowled over by the wine, but they won’t actually be able to taste the meal.

Wine is also extremely subjective. Some critics prefer bold fruity wines, while others have a taste for delicate, understated vino.

Perhaps your palette jibes with the critic who awarded the $50 wine in your hand a 92. Then again, this critic may also like liver and onions. Finally, there’s often an inher-

ent conflict of interest in commercial wine publications. At the same time wines are under review, the wine publication is trying to sell thousands of dollars of ad space to the wines’ producers. And who honestly believes the magazine will print the 82-point score for a wine after its producer takes out a full-page glossy advertisement?

So what’s a wine lover to do? I suggest you let your fingers do the walking. Hop online and visit any of the hundreds of wine web logs (blogs). You can find a fairly complete listing at wineblogwatch.arrr.net. Wine blogs are authored by people who love wine.

They purchase the wines about which they write. And most wine bloggers don’t taste 100 wines at a time—they write about the wine they sipped with Tuesday night’s dinner. If they discover a fantastic $10 bottle of wine, they’ll tell you. If they spend forty dollars on a mediocre wine, they’ll tell you that as well. Additionally, most wine bloggers are incredibly responsive, so don’t hesitate to ask questions during your visit. The best thing about these sites is that they’re all free.

They offer a wealth of wine knowledge along with numerous reviews and it won’t cost you a nickel. Before your next trip to the wine shop, I suggest you visit a few wine blogs, ask some questions, and get several solid recommendations. Just don’t smirk at the person holding the 89-point bottle in one hand and the 91-point bottle in the other.

Cheers.

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Night Planner THURSDAY, OCT 27 TODD’S ROAST at Trapp Door*, 6pm. AIDS benefit, $10 includes dinner.

LATIN FEVA at Club Exit*. Feel the fusion of dance beats and steamy top 40 with DJ Naomi. SPICE drag show at midnight.

FRIDAY, OCT. 28 HELLBENT begins playing at the Regency Theatres, Trolley Square. Gay thriller.

THE MONARCH’S AIDS SHOW at the Trapp Door*, 9pm, $5.00, hosted by Marshall and Sheneka BOOK OF SHADOWS at the Paper Moon*, 9pm, Hosted by Kyra and Kamie.

SATURDAY, OCT. 29 HALLOWEEN BASH at The Trapp* starting at 10:30pm. Cash prizes.

A NIGHT OF TERRORS at the Trapp Door* hosted

by Sheneka. Guest DJ Brent Vincent. Costume contest.

HALLOWEEN PARTY at Paper Moon* Party with all the ghouls. Prizes and give-aways all night long.

HALLOWEEN PARTY AND SPARKY’S SCARY BIRTHDAY PARTY at Club Try-Angles.* Food, prizes and fun. Help Sparky (Jim) turn 22.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30 HALLOWEEN PARTY at Club Try-Angles.* Food, prizes and fun.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31 DEVIL’S NIGHT HALLOWEEN at Club Exit.* Awesome decorations, Top 40 and Hip Hop from DJ Naomi. $500 casino prize package and 3 days, 2 nights in Fabulous Las Vegas to the costume contest winner. Hosted by Nova and Kayla.

FRIDAY, NOV. 4 GRAND OPENING at Club Ice* with Miss Coco Peru of Girls Will Be Girls fame. Fire dancers, food, gogo dancers, red carpet.

Get your event listed. Email clubevents@magazinem.com

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SALT LAKE METRO ■ OCTOBER 27, 2005

Classifieds

MALE ROOMMATE wanted to share house near Salt Lake Community College South Campus with two othHELP WANTED BUSINESS er guys. Animal friendOPPORTUNITY ADVERTISING SALES. ly. Large front yard and $2,500 WEEKLY inSalt Lake Metro, the porch. Garden in back. come. Easy work from leading gay and lesbi$375 per month inan publication in Utah, home. Honest compacludes utilities, broadis seeking an advertisnies. Assembly work, arts band internet. Call 801ing account executive. & crafts, stuffing enve- 485-3247.

You’ll be responsible for lopes, send $4 and SASE SUGARHOUSE. 400 all phases of the sales to Heather at 826 E 2600 sq.ft. room with priprocess: qualifying; N North Ogden, UT 84414 vate entrance, bath, cold-calling; prospect hspd-Int-TV-Cable. or call 801-725-0136. development; conceptuAll utils included. New COMMERCIAL alizing, planning and de& tile floors. Pets PROPERTIES paint livering sales presentanego. $425/month. tions; writing proposals, PERFECT ALTERNAamawarren@postinbox. negotiating contracts & TIVE Office Building! com or call 209-7634. closing new business.

Affordable Space AvailOne year of print or on- able! (100 to 1200 sq.

MISC. line advertising sales ex- ft.) 801-466-5285, ask ARE YOU HIV+? perience preferred, but for Belinda. 1800 S. Pride Counseling has renot necessary. We offer West Temple Ste. 216 started a Therapy/Supa challenging and excitport Group for men who ing opportunity in a fast- FOR SALE paced, goal-oriented (yet WANT A HOME of your are HIV infected and seeking support from fun) environment. We of- Own? Buy our mobile others in similar situfer competitive comhome in a gay-friendly ations. For information pensation; and specifpark. Only $6000! Can please call Jerry Buie ic training. If you have a lease to own. Comes proven track record in with wash/dryer/fridge/ LCSW at 595-0666 sales, are results-drivstove/swamp. Lot pay- TIRED OF THE BAR en & want to help build ment only $210. Good LIFE? Pride Counsela newspaper that has condition, good area of ing is offering a Gay a positive impact on town. Call 255-2007.

Men’s Therapy/Support your community, we Group. Gay men often FOR RENT want to hear from you. find that their options Send cover letter & reHIGHLAND PARK. to socialize limited to sume to: General ManCharming 3+ bdrm, clubs and bars. Most ager, Salt Lake Metro, 2ba 1,500 sq ft. home. insurance companies 352 S. Denver St #350, Hdwd floors, new winSalt Lake City UT 84111. dows and updates. Ga- billed, sliding fee scale.

Fax: (801) 323-9986. or rage, w/d hookups, nice For information please call Jerry Buie LCSW at steven@slmetro.com yard. $1,250/mo. +dep. 595-0666.

PRIDE COUNSELNo Smoking! 755-5971 ING is looking for an REMODELED SUGAR MSM Outreach WorkHOUSE Duplex: 2 bed- QUALITY NEWS er on a part time barooms, hardwood & sis. Please fax letter of Advertise in the tile floors, dishwasher, intent and resume to Salt Lake Metro. washer/Dryer hookups.

801-595-0669. AppliPets negotiable. 1147 Classified ads are cant must have profesE. Blaine. $700/Month. as low as $15 on sional boundaries and Call Rod at 755-7536. good writing skills. contract.

Save 40% Available Nov 1st.

APPLE ONE Employoff display ads on ROOMMATES ment Services is seekcontract.

Call our ing qualified call center WANTED office at 323-9500 LAYTON HOUSE to experienced in sales. today to get an ad Can earn $12+/hr plus share close to Hwy 89.

Two bedrooms available. commission. Apply tokit. The gay and Pet friendly, ideal for sm day. Employers, let us lesbian market is fill your staffing needs. to med size dog. $385 & loyal to those who Call Steven Whittaker at $285 per month + utilities. Call 430-4849. market to them.

463-4828 for an appt.

Comics A COUPLE OF GUYS by Dave Brousseau

BITTER GIRL by Joan Hilty

SUPPORT

ADAM AND ANDY by James Asal

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 27

Service Guide ATTORNEYS MARLIN G. CRIDDLE, P.C. Serving Utah’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender communities. Estate Planning, Probate, Criminal Law, Bankruptcy, Corporations/Business. 4742299. marlincriddle.com

AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES MEINEKE CAR Care Center. 2190 W. 3500 S. WVC 973-0860 EOE. Best service, Best price.

10% discount with this ad! Exhaust, brakes, a/ c, CV joints, oil changes, shocks, etc.

EMPLOYMENT APPLE ONE Employment is seeking qualified people in many skills. Apply and begin your qualification today. Employers, let us fill your staffing needs.

Call Steven Whittaker at 801-463-4828.

ESTATE PLANNING JANE MARQUARDT & DOUG FADEL Attorneys at Law, providing comprehensive estate planning services, designed to your unique family situation. Trusts, wills, partnership agreements, estate admin. 294-7777

JEWELERS CUSTOM DESIGN Jewelry. Relaxed atmosphere.

All types of stone settings. Commitment rings, wedding rings, earrings, pendants. Repairs welcome. Charley Hafen Jewelers. 1411 S. 900 E. 521-7711

MASSAGE

BEST THERAPISTS, best price, best place, best hours, call 486-5500 Pride Massage 1800 S. West Temple # A224 DENNIS MASSAGE Dennis is Utah’s only physique print model & massage therapist...see why he is so well liked at www.dennismassage. com, www.dennismodeling.com. (801) 598-8344 LMT#98212332470

TRAVEL/TOURS HIGH COUNTRY Exploring • Custom Pack Trips • Horseback Rides • Snowmobile Trips • ATV Rides • Fishing Trips • Dutch Oven Dinners • Motorcycle Tours • More Call 801-547-2750.

RESOURCES CONVERGYS EMPLOYEES Would you like to meet with some of your GLBT co-workers? Join the GLBT Convergys Yahoo Group at groups.yahoo. com/group/cvg-glbt and sign up. For questions, email cvg-glbt-owner@ yahoogroups.com CAMP PINECLIFF Weekend, annual retreat for people with HIV/AIDS and their care providers c/o Dick Dotson, Coordinator PO Box 608, Magna UT 84044 or 518-8733 SINGLE LESBIAN? Wondering how to meet other single lesbians for friendship and social events?

If so, you are invited to sign up for the Lesbian Singles Social Group at groups.yahoo.com/group/ lesbian_singles/ UTAH GAY Rodeo Association ugra.net PO Box 511255 SLC, UT 841511255 A social & Rodeo Sport Organization WANT A HOT summer body? Queer Utah Aquatic Club (QUAC) invites swimmers and water polo players of ANY skill level, including beginners, to join the team.

Visit QuacQuac.org for more info.

THE SALT Lake County Division of Youth Services provides youth and families in crisis with immediate and safe intervention, including 24-hour 7-day a week crisis counseling.

Most services are provided free of charge. Please call 269-7500.

GAY WINE group. qVinum.com is a fabulous group of wine lovers who hold winetastings at members’ homes, travel to wineries and hold special fund raisers for the community. qVinum.com

ENGENDERED SPECIES 801.320.0551. A social/ support group resources for transgender people. www.engenderedspecies.com AMERICAN CIVIL Liberties Union. Fighting for individual freedoms since 1958. www.acluutah.org BI MEN of Utah groups. yahoo.com/group/BiGay-Men-Utah. Social and support group for bi/ gay men of Utah.

GAY RM’S Social group for return missionaries of the LDS Church. Regular parties and group activities more info at gayRMs.com UTAH MALE Naturists meets through the summer for naked lunches, clothing optional outings and overnight camping trips in a sex-free environment. umen.org ROYAL COURT of the Golden Spike Empire. rcgse.org Membership meetings held twice monthly. Help support your community!

GAY MENS HEALTH SUMMIT. Gay men’s health is more than just HIV. visit us at utahgaymenshealth.com

CODE PINK. A womeninitiated peace and social justice movement by positive social change via creative protest and non-violent direct action. www.codepinkalert.com SAME-GENDER MARRIAGE is a Feminist Issue: NOW’s mission is to promote equality for ALL women. NOW has fought for gay and lesbian rights, and we won’t stop until we achieve equality for all. Join us utahnow.org AFFIRMATION: GAY and Lesbian Mormons. members.aol.com/wasatchweb/: Sunday meetings 534-8693 NEW IN TOWN or interested in meeting new friends? Come to sWerve Monthlies, 3rd Saturday of each month, GLBT Center. Info 539-8800 ext. 25 or swerveutah. com (join email list!)

UTAH QUEER Events.

Submit your group event to groups.yahoo.com/ group/utahqueerevents.

Join and see what’s happening in your community.

LIST YOUR organization in the Resources Guide for just $195 per year or $99 for six months for 5 lines.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS believe and aspire to 7 principles, the first of which is “the inherent worth and dignity of every person”. This Autumn, our church is offering a class called The Welcoming Congregation which is designed specifically to reach out to GLBT people who often have been hurt by organized religion. We hope to provide a different experience. This workshop series is an introspective and interactive educational journey into the issues surrounding the lives of individuals of all sexual orientation in our congregation and among our friends. It begins October 4th and continues for 8 consecutive Tuesday evenings at the First Unitarian Church, 569 S. 1300 E. Please contact Richard Teerlink to register and obtain more information.

OCTOBER 27, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 28

UNBELIEVABLE MASSAGE Athletic Male Therapists, 440-5851 Contact 641-4009

STIMULATE YOUR SENSES or feel deep peace with a relaxing full body massage. Call Therron at 879-3583 for $5 off mention this ad. LMT #5608006