The now infamous “Patriots For A Moral Utah” group played one of the most elaborate hoaxes on Utah the state has ever seen. Claiming to be the new America Forever or Eagle Forum, the group announced a citizen’s initiative which would require LGBT residents to either enter therapy and convert to heterosexuality or by loaded onto a train and be shipped off to San Francisco.
Backing the group up was an incredibly thourough and well-laid out bill, adding to the plausibility of the initiative. The story was picked up by Joe.My.God and the entire nation seemed to go crazy on it for a day. That in itself I think makes the satire a success, as it got people to stand up and do something, even if just for a day. What makes this story so scary is that even though they paralleled the 3rd Reich, it was still believable! Everyone still thought it could happen.
Today the group launched their website, utahfairsolution.com. The site continues the farce, but the activists also included a personal message on one of the pages outlining their full intent and reasons of why they chose to go on such a creative route. You know.. I say bravo. Well done for standing up and doing something that got people talking, even if it was a little unorthodox!
When the “compromise” first started rolling out, Utahns were told that a year-long study would be included to show legislators just what type of discrimination was happening in the reddest-of-red states. But Senate President Waddoups and Senator Neiderhauser decided it wasn’t a good idea. Taking the initiative, Equality Utah has announced that they will be launching a study of their own in an attempt to show our legislators what is happening to their constituents! I applaud this effort and encourage anyone inside of Utah to take the quick survey!
SLC – Senate President Michael Waddoups has come under heavy fire over the last week since he released a statement with a thinly-veiled threat telling the LGBT
UT Senate President Michael Waddoups
community to be quiet. Now he’s released a new statement trying to backpedal, while issuing the threat all over again!
Last night on the Senate’s blog, Waddoups claimed that “Reports of my willingness to censor people have been greatly exaggerated,” and that he encourages dialogue between the LGBT community and the rest of Utah. But in the same post, he also says he wants “activists in this cultural divide to avoid behavior that would polarize.” Ok, so let’s see.. between last week and last night the LGBT community and gay rights activists have been told to avoid “offensive behavior that would push the legislature to take action against the LGBT community” and to avoid “behavior that would polarize.” Sounds like he just wants everyone to play nice right? Wrong.
Let’s not kid ourselves, virtually every advancement in the gay / lesbian / bi / transgender movement has stemmed from radical action focused on bringing attention and pressure on government leaders. Nothing can ever be accomplished in a civil rights movement without drastic, poignant outcries from a community which no one would ever hear about otherwise. This is the time to step up and show Waddoups, Neiderhauser and Buttars and all others trying to steal our rights that we are here and will never be silenced. If nothing else, never let it be said that the Queers are not proud of who we are and will always fight for what is rightfully ours!
If you’re in Utah, attend the LGBT Community Forum tonight at 7pm at the UofU! You will have a chance to let your voice be heard and learn about upcoming events and suggest actions of your own! More info on that here.
SLC – With the controversial “compromise” between the pro-human rights legislators and the extremist right-wing hanging in the balance, a closed-door meeting between leading Republican Senators ended with a slap in the face to Utah’s LGBT community.
Last week, Representative Christine Johnson and Senator Stephenson announced a joint bill saying that no pro or anti gay legislation would be run this year by either side, and a committee would be assigned to study the necessity of anti-discrimination laws over the coming year. Call it an olive branch to Utah’s ultra-conservative lawmakers, a way for them to finally recognize the suffering of their constituents while still saving face by claiming that they were unaware of the problems in Utah before the committee delivered their report.
But now, Republicans have denied even that. In an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Senate President Michael Waddoups announced that they would hold up their end of no anti gay legislation this session, but that he saw no need for a committee to look into anything this upcoming year. On top of that, he threatened the gay community against speaking up, saying any “offensive activities” would push the Republicans into drafting legislation against the LGBT community.
Um… excuse me?? The queer community in Utah is one of the most oppressed in the country, being one of the few states that does not even afford housing or workplace protections to its’ citizens. There’s barely a handful of supportive legislators on Capital Hill supporting their basic rights and he wants the gay community to shut up and fall in line? Their strategy is clear, Republicans are in essence buying themselves a free-pass for the year from the constant barrage of negative press for their dark-age views, while giving nothing in return.
Now, the LGBT community of Utah is rising and coming together again. Enough. We have had it with our state constantly spitting on us, of teaching our children that they have no human worth just because they’re born differently. We are thrown from our parents’ homes, shunned from our churches and communities, fired from our jobs, evicted from our homes, denied every possible right to our partners and now are told our suffering isn’t even worth taking a deeper look at.
Enough. We’re sick of being the whipping-boy for those law makers who care nothing that thousands of their constituents are being persecuted. Sit Down, Shut Up and Fall In Line? Never.
UT – Speculation is flying fast and thick in Utah’s LGBT community right now. Is the agreement by our Legislators to not run any gay-rights bills this year in return for no anti-gay bills and an independent commission a good thing? Or are they just backing down from the fight?
State Representative Christine Johnson
Last week, State Representative Christine Johnson and Senator Ben McAdams announced that they had reached a compromise with the conservatives on the hill like Senator Howard Stephenson. In return for our community not running any gay-rights bills this year, the anti-human right’ers would not run any of their proposed 5 bills which would make it illegal for cities or municipalities in Utah to provide any of their own protections – forcing everything to go through Capital Hill. According to Equality Utah, the 5 bills from the conservative side would have (among other things) stripped away any chance of housing and workplace protections state-wide, including a reversal of Salt Lake City and County’s newly granted protections. Also included in the compromise is the use of an interim committee over the next year, which has been charged with evaluating the need for such protections in the state. Next year, during the 2011 legislative session, the committee will make a recommendation to the lawmakers on whether or not these protections are needed, based off of their findings.
But now some in the local LGBT community are speaking out against the compromise, saying that pro-LGBT lawmakers are failing in their duties to fight for their constituents rights. Local resident and gay-rights supporter Jodene Rudolf is not in favor of the compromise, saying “I cannot help but think of it as a slap in the face of what is right and just. The good fight should continue and we should just fight harder..Yes, it is tiring to face defeat time after time. But if we retreat from the battlefield won’t the other side advance its objective again and again anyway?”
But Equality Utah and Rep Johnson say this compromise provides an enormous open-door for the queer community. “This [compromise] gives us a big opportunity this year” says Brandie Balken, Executive Director of Equality Utah. “We have a whole year to do outreach and help educate both our lawmakers as well as our fellow citizens.”
But what about those of us in the community who are not part of an official advocacy group like Equality Utah? Where does this leave us? Well according to Rep
Equality Utah Exec. Director Brandie Balken
Johnson, our efforts are key to the success of this deal. “We need our community to step up to the plate this year,” she says, and it’s true. The community is needed to speak up at public hearings, committee meetings and most importantly to their straight neighbors and co-workers. This compromise has the possibility of being the greatest thing to ever happen to the queer community in Utah. We have one whole pressure-free year to tell our stories, to help our neighbors and elected officials understand what we go through on a daily basis. We can talk politics or religion all day long, but the most important and effective thing we could ever do is put a face to who we are. The LGBT community suffers horrors that very few other communities have ever even imagined, and if history has taught us anything it’s that once people see us and understand what we go through, that’s when we gain our greatest allies and the writing on the wall starts to get a little revision.
As Reed Cowan will tell you, “Every life has a story, every story has a lesson and every lesson has the power to change the world.” I pledge to do all I can this next year, I hope you join me.
UPDATE: A word from State Representative Christine Johnson:
SLC – In an announcement from Capitol Hill today, Utah legislators announced that in return for ultra-conservatives law-makers not passing a law outlawing all non-discrimination ordinances state wide, pro-human legislators will agree to not run any gay rights bills this year.
Since Salt Lake City and County passed their historic ordinances this past year banning discrimination against LGBT people in housing or employment, some nut-job elected officials (spurned on by Paul Mero and Gayle Ruzicka) have been pushing a “pre-emptive” strike against the gay community by making those laws and any others like them illegal. But now after intense negotiations from some of the heroes in the legislature like Senator Ben McAdams and Representative Christine Johnson, the legislature has agreed to a two-party “stand down.” This means that while Buttars and his stooges will agree to not pass the pre-emptive bills, our side also agrees to not try to pass any gay rights bills this year.
But where does that leave us? Doesn’t that just mean we will face the same fight next year and we’ve just pushed it off for now? Apparently one of the stipulations of the stand down is that over the next year the state will launch a program similar to the what the Human Rights Commission ran for Salt Lake City, a comprehensive report on whether basic protections for Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender are needed.
So will this be a good thing? The bill is being co-sponsored by Representative Christine Johnson and Senator Stephenson, two unlikely partners as they sit on far opposites of their ideals. The committee will allow “for some breathing room, and to prevent any rash decisions of either side” they say. The 3 main LGBT bills this year were Johnson’s anti-discrimination bill, Senator McAdams Wrongful Death bill, and Rep Chavez-Houck’s Adoption legislation. Although unfortunately, all three were almost guaranteed to fail yet again.
“This will provide for some learning experience” Christine Johnson says, “I’m sick of seeing my bills shot down in committee every year and perhaps this will provide some insight as to why.” But what happens if the committee comes back next year and says that the non-discrimination ordinances are necessary but Majority leaders like Chris Buttars still quashes them? “Well that will open up things to a lot of class lawsuits” says Rep Johnson, “because at that point all the evidence is there and they won’t have any legs to stand on to shoot the [bills] down.”
America Forever strikes again! The self-stylized righteous warriors of the group America Forever ( led by the ever loony Sandra Rodrigues) sent out thousands of faxes to Utah condemning the upcoming film “8: The Mormon Proposition.”
The flyer attacks not only Sundance in general, but most directly the film’s creator and director, Reed Cowan. Among the many lies is the claim that he wore a BYU shirt to the now-infamous “pig-sex” interview with Senator Chris Buttars in order to put Buttars at ease. But, in the photo below taken during the interview, it’s obvious that is not the case. The flyer also claims that without knowing it, Reed was victimized by the “homosexual movement” and is now a puppet moving at the whims of others.
America Forever has become the laughing stock of Utah, and even the ultra-conservative LDS (Mormon) Church has tried to separate from them. America Forever used to protest at almost every gay event with their “Shame On You” signs, but not lately. Insiders reported that Sandra Rodrigues’ Bishop (pastor in the Mormon Church) pulled her aside and asked her to stop protesting because she was “embarrassing the church.” Either way… these nutjobs make Gayle Ruzicka look good!
Reed’s film opens this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, amidst international excitement that the truth of the ’cause and effect of the Mormon Church’s involvement in Proposition 8 is being revealed. See the trailer here.
Reed Cowan and Senator Chris Buttars during the infamous "pig-sex" interview. Note: Reed is NOT wearing a BYU shirt.
SLC – Last week the University of Utah hosted a debate on LGBT Rights And Family Law. But what started as a healthy conversation quickly set many teeth in the audience grinding as BYU Professor Lynn Wardle attacked Gays, Gay Families and Women in general.
UofU Professor Cliff Rosky
The debate was sponsored by the UofU club the “Outlaws,” and featured Professor Cliff Rosky (University of Utah law professor and board member of Equality Utah) and Professor Lynn Wardle (BYU Professor and Co-Author of Utah’s Amendment 3). The two started things off amiably, both stressing that they wanted this to be a “conversation” rather than a debate. However the tension in the room built almost immediately as Lynn Wardle mentioned in his opening remarks that “Traditional Marriage is the same across all cultures and times.”
Funny, but I seem to recall every history book telling me different, but who am I to argue?
Professor Wardle also showed a rather glaring lack of knowledge on the subject when he spoke of civil unions as being equivalent to marriage, despite the overwhelming evidence of the 1100+ rights that are given to married couples but denied to partners living with civil unions.
The evening really took a downturn from there, as Wardle made veiled (barely) comparisons between gay relationships and incest. “Strong morality usually comes from a traditional family,” Wardle says, “Is it possible to have a strong incestuous family, is it possible to have a strong polyamorous family or a strong same-sex family? Yes, but it’s not likely.” Lynn surmises that gay couples cannot have the strength of commitment or love for one another as a
BYU Professor Lynn Wardle
heterosexual couple, and therefore cannot have a strong family.
Rosky pushed Wardle on the issue, asking why gay couples cannot have as strong a family as straight couples? Wardle replied that there are inherant traits to women and men in families, and only a man and a woman can fulfill those traits. Almost every female in the room gasped (remember most in the audience are law students) as they listened to a BYU professor tell them that the 1800’s gender roles should still be in place.
Yeah…. don’t think I’ll be rooting for BYU anytime soon.
After Senator Scott McCoy retired from the Utah State Senate a month ago, the question has been constant in Utah’s LGBT community: Will Ben McAdams live up to his pledge to support us? Looks like he’s making good!
"I want to raise my children in a society where everyone is treated equally under the law"
This weekend, Senator-elect Ben McAdams called us at PRIDE In Utah with the news that he will be spear-heading a Wrongful Death bill this session. Many may remember that this was Senator McCoy’s bill last year, but it was shot down in committee.
So does this bill have a chance this year where it failed last time? “It’s never passed before, but I’m hopeful in this climate it could pass,” said Ben, speaking of not only the LDS Church’s recent support of the Salt Lake City Non-Discrimination ordinances, but the nation-wide push to recognize American LGBT citizens as equal to everyone else.
So what exactly would this bill do? “Well currently,” said Ben, “if my wife died because a drunk truck driver hit her and killed her, I could sue the negligent driver for wrongful death and get compensation, because we’re inter-dependent. But a same-sex couple or any other inter-dependent but unmarried adults wouldn’t be able to make that claim. The genius of this bill is that it’s not just about same-sex partners, but all inter-dependent adults like mothers and daughters living together.”
This bill could have a major impact on Utah LGBT citizens, is this something Ben is taking seriously? Or is this just positioning for his LGBT constituents? “This bill is my priority,” he says, “[and] I’m running with the intent to pass it.” The wrongful death bill is sure to run into opposition in the legislature, but McAdams doesn’t seem to be too worried, “This is something the republicans can afford to support, both ethically and politically,” he says with a small laugh, “it’s a good bill.”
So what does this mean personally for Ben McAdams, why is he making this his priority? “Well I think we’ve got to keep the dialogue going at the legislature, this [Wrongful Death] bill highlights that there are many responses the legislature has given that these things can be accomplished in contract. But how often do people go out and do the contract? How often are people going to have what they need in place for an emergency? My wife and I are both attorneys and we haven’t even had a contract put together. So there’s a need to change the law. But it’s more than that, a wrongful death is different than hospital visitation, in that there’s no way to contract for it.”
The Utah Legislature constantly claims that because people can contract for rights like hospital visitation there is no need for putting laws in place to protect Utah citizens. But the arguments hold little weight, as it’s fairly commonplace for partners to be denied the rights even if they do manage to put a contract in place.
“There are needs that need to be met for financially interdependent adults,” Ben says, “I think equality is personal, if Julie (Ben’s wife) and I are entitled to it, then I want to raise my children in a society where everyone is treated equally under the law.”
I cannot say how thrilled I am to have Ben McAdams on our side!
Representative Christine Johnson has chosen to act as surrogate to a local gay couple.
So many many heart-felt congratulations and well-wishes to my amazing State Representative Christine Johnson for her amazing decision to act as a surrogate mother for a local gay couple.
According to the Deseret News, Ms. Johnson, one of only two openly gay people in the state legislature, is now in her 2nd trimester and decided last spring to act as surrogate for two male friends of hers who were married in California during the brief period pre-Prop 8 when it was legal.
There have been several stories about this already, I just want to again offer my congratulations to Christine Johnson and the two new soon-to-be-Dads!
"Eric, trying to have this conversation (lgbt rights) with you is ultimately like trying to teach a pig to dance, it just annoys the pig. So Eric, sorry to annoy you."
-Paul Mero, The Sutherland Institute.
PRIDE In Utah! 