Metro Volume 2, Issue 18

Utah’s Gay and Lesbian Biweekly Newspaper Volume 2 ■ Issue 18 September 1–14

Back to School

Queer youth speak out

Queer Parental Rights Tested Calif. courts okay gay parent rights. Utah legislator threatens legislation

Is AIDS Still Controversial?

Plan-B explores HIV issues in ‘Patient A’

Utah Colleges Declared Anti-Gay BYU, UofU rank low on national survey Laurie’s Tips on Job Hunting Gay Wendover Weekend Jere: Why Are We Acting Like Pussies?

Gay Agenda

News WORLD AND NATIONAL

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California Supreme Court Makes Landmark Decision for Gay Parents

by Danny McCoy San Francisco—The California Supreme Court this week became the first in the nation to grant full parenting rights and obligations to gays and lesbians who have children.

In three closely watched cases, the justices set rules in an area where changes in family structure and advances in technology have outpaced the evolution of legal principles. In each case, they delivered a ruling guaranteeing that children born to gay couples have two legally recognized parents.

Each of the cases involved a lesbian couple that had children and later split up.

In one case, the court ruled unanimously that a lesbian mother cannot avoid paying child support for her partner’s biological children who were conceived when the pair lived together. That ruling puts lesbian couples on a par with unmarried couples whose relationships end.

In a second case, the justices held on a 4-2 vote that a Marin County woman who provided eggs to a partner who was then artificially inseminated is legally the children’s second mother.

That ruling came despite the fact that before the children were conceived, the woman who donated the eggs had signed an agreement with her partner waiving parental rights.

The third case, involving a Los Angelesarea couple, was decided largely on procedural grounds. It upheld the parental rights of a woman whose partner became pregnant Courtney Joslin, National Center for through artifiLesian Rights senior staff attorney cial insemination while the two lived together.

Other state courts have granted partial custody or visitation rights without acknowledging full parental status, said Courtney Joslin, senior staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represented the mother seeking child support.

“The court broke ground,” Joslin said, adding that the ruling will affect “thousands and thousands” of same-gender couples and their children.

On the other side of the debate, opponents of gay marriage are pushing to place several constitutional amendments that would ban same-gender marriage and roll back domestic partner benefits on the June 2006 ballot. Existing domestic partnership rights already cover many gay couples with children.

For children born after Jan. 1 of this year, state law says that children born to registered domestic partners should be treated the same as children born to married couples.

But for thousands of gay couples who had children before the domestic partnership law went into effect or have not registered as domestic partners, the rules have been confusing and often inconsistent.

The rulings sought to bring order to the legal chaos. The rulings drew praise from advocates for gay rights and were sharply criticized by groups opposed to same-gender unions.

Calif. Senate Calls for End to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Sacramento, Calif.—The California State Senate passed a resolution August 22 calling on Congress and President Bush to enact the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would end the military’s ban against gays and lesbians serving openly.

“These servicemen and women are heroes,” said resolution sponsor Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego. “They have fought our enemies abroad, they have helped to spread democracy around the world, and yet they must fight for their own equality at home.”

The resolution was sponsored by Equality California, which previously sponsored a successful 2004 bill allowing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender officers to serve openly in the California State Militia.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a lobby group for queer members of the nation’s armed forces, praised the resolution’s passage.

“From coast to coast, the movement to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is gaining momentum,” said Dixon C. Osburn, SLDN executive director. “As home to the nation’s largest community of lesbian and gay veterans, California is taking an historic step to honor their service, and the service of more than 65,000 gay Americans now on duty, through the state’s effort to support an end to discrimination in our armed forces.” According to a 2004 Urban Institute Study, nearly 137,000 gay and lesbian veterans currently reside in California.

The resolution has been sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for signature.

Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1059) to Congress earlier this year. It currently has 94 co-sponsors, 22 of which come from California’s Congressional delegation. California now joins Chicago and New York in urging the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.—JV

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News WORLD AND NATIONAL

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San Diego Pride Director Resigns Amid Sex Offender Scandal

by Ross von Metzke San Diego, Calif.—Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Executive Director Suanne Pauley resigned her post Monday in the wake of a scandal involving sex offenders listed as volunteers at this year’s celebration.

Weeks before the July 30 festivities it was discovered that three registered sex offenders were volunteers for the event.

Two quit amid pressure and one ended up working the event for several hours.

Now, investigations are underway as to whether a clown working in the festival’s Children’s Garden since the late 1990s may also be a sex offender.

The news was delivered during a meeting at the gay and lesbian comLesbian, Gay, Bisexual and munity center Transgender Pride Executive on August 15.

Director Suanne Pauley “It was brought to our attention by a board member from Los Angeles that a name on Megan’s List is that of a clown who worked in our Children’s Garden since the 1990s,” said the board in a written statement. “To our shock and dismay, we are currently contacting professional and community sources to help us confirm whether the information ... is accurate or false.”

Megan’s List is the compilation of registered sex offenders companies often use to research potential employees and volunteers.

“I was shocked. We’ve got to do more to protect our children,” said meeting organizer Ray Drew.

One critic of the board’s actions, San Diego gay rights activist Nicole Murray Ramirez, told a San Diego television station that he was upset about the way the Pride board handled the matter and about “the way Pride knew about this issue since July 2 and did not act until the week of Pride: July 24 and 25.”

The community meeting was held at the San Diego Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center in Hillcrest on August 15. During the meeting, Pride board co-chair Phillip Princetta issued an apology to the audience, saying, “The board of directors apologizes to this community for creating this situation. It was never the intent of any board member to deceive or lie to our community ... Did we make a mis-

take? We most certainly did. Did we mean for this to happen? Definitely not.”

Some of the meeting’s attendees said they feared the reputation of the festival is now forever tarnished. In recent years, Pride organizers have been reaching out to make the three-day celebration, San Diego’s largest annual event, more family-oriented.

“My biggest fear is that the cohesiveness we have as an LGBT community is going to fall apart as a result,” said Modest Brown, who was a participant at the meeting.

Dutch Court: Aruba Must File Gay Marriage Oranjestad, Aruba—Aruba’s Superior Court has ruled that a lesbian couple has the right to register their marriage in this former Dutch colony, despite opposition from Aruba’s government.

Last year, Charlene and Esther OduberLamers sued the island nation’s government for discrimination when the Public Registry rejected their marriage certificate.

The government’s refusal to recognize their marriage meant Esther, a Dutch citizen, could not get health benefits from her partner’s job or stay on the island for longer than six months each year under Aruban immigration law. The couple also faced verbal and physical harassment when they tried to register, causing them to flee to the Netherlands, where they had wed in 2001.

According to the court ruling, Aruba’s government must recognize the marriage because of Aruba’s relationship with its former colonial government.

“The Dutch marriage can be inscribed in the register,” the decision read. “Since Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it must comply with the demands of the Kingdom,” where same-gender marriage has been legal since 2001. Dutch law requires that the Kingdom’s three member governments—Aruba, Holland and the Dutch Antilles—recognize each other’s legal documents, which include marriage licenses. Aruba’s government, however, has said that Dutch law also grants them the right to self rule, which would allow it not to accept gay marriages.

Government officials said they would appeal the case to Holland’s Supreme Court, which they may do within the next three months.

“We give neither legal nor moral recognition to same-sex marriages,” the Associated Press quoted Ruben Trapenberg, spokesman for Aruban Prime Minister Nelson Oduber, as saying.—JV

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News LOCAL AND REGIONAL

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According to the Deseret Morning News, the custody case between Keri Jones and Cheryl Barlow may lead to legislation specifically aimed at preventing gay and lesbian people from claiming a parental relationship with their partner’s children.

Last December, Third District Judge Timothy Hanson ruled that although there was no legal relationship between Jones and the child through adoption or marriage, continued visitation with Jones was in the best interest of the child, even if that Utah State Representative is against the wishes of the biological parent.

LaVar Christensen His ruling applied the legal doctrine of “in loco parentis,” which is Latin for “instead of parent,” to establish that Jones had a parent-like relationship, even if there was no formal legal relationship.

Barlow appealed the judge’s decision and the case has been heard by the Utah

Supreme Court, which has up to a year to make a ruling.

But Representative LaVar Christensen believes the case could cause a “crisis” for parental rights.

Christensen, R-Sandy, declared that he’s working on legislation that would require parents to have a biological, adoptive or marital relationship before courts can order visitation rights.

“The mother [Barlow] of the child renounced that lifestyle and chose to move on with her daughter,” Christensen said. “This court used (common law) doctrine and treated it as a marriage and a breakup of a marriage.”

Christensen, who has been an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, threatened legislation the previous week against Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson’s plans to extend medical and insurance benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees. Christensen also sponsored (along with Defense of Marriage Alliance co-chair Sen. Chris Buttars) the bill which put Amendment 3 on the ballots last November.—JK

MICHAEL AARON

Christensen Threatens Legislation to Prevent Gay Parenting Rights

PrIdaho! Celebrates Fifth Year PrIdaho GLBT Pride and Diversity Festival pageant winners wave at the crowd in Pocatello, Idaho. In its fifth year, the festival drew hundreds to the parking lot across from the region’s only gay bar, Charleys. Royalty from the Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire in Salt Lake and the Imperial Sovereign Gem Court of Boise, Idaho attended the event, along with many Salt Lake and Northern Utah visitors. Walter! presented Oz, the Twisted to a sold out crowd on Sunday, August 21. More PrIdaho pictures are available at slmetro.com.

MICHAEL AARON

Protesters at the Aug. 22 rally at Pioneer Park during President George Bush’s visit to Salt Lake City. More photos are available at slmetro.com/peace.

Gay Man’s Killer Sentenced Fresno, Calif.—On August 24 a Fresno County Superior Court judge sentenced a man to four years in jail for stabbing a crossdressing man to death. Four years is the minimum sentence for such a crime.

The defendant, Estanislao Martinez, had previously pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the August 2004 death of Joel Robles. After discovering Robles, whom he had brought home, was a man dressed in women’s clothes, Martinez stabbed him 20 times before fleeing the apartment.

Martinez’s attorneys argued that “gay panic” drove their client to commit the murder.

According to them, the defendant became enraged when he discovered that Robles was male. The judge could have upped Martinez’ sentence to as many as 11 years, plus one additional year for using a knife.

Local gay and lesbian groups denounced the sentence as too light.

“If I just stole money from you, I’d serve more time than this person did for stabbing someone 20 times,” Charlotte Jenks, executive director of Central California Pride Network, told the Associated Press.

Prosecutors would not comment on the case.—JV

Teen Pleads Guilty in Beating of Arizona Gay Couple

Hong Kong Overturns Sodomy Laws Hong Kong—A Hong Kong high court judge struck down several laws against gay sex, including the age of consent for gay men.

High Court Judge Michael Hartmann ruled on Aug. 24 that the laws discriminated “on the basis of sexual orientation” and were also “demeaning of gay men who are, through the legislation, stereotyped as deviant.”

He added that the laws were a “grave and arbitrary interference with the right of gay men to self-autonomy in the most intimate aspects of their private lives.”

“I can finally have a loving relationship without being scared [of life imprisonment],” William Roy Leung told the Associated Press on the day of the ruling. A 20-yearold gay man, Leung brought the challenge against the laws.

The former laws, which made sex between men illegal when at least one partner was under the age of 21, did not apply to opposite-gender or lesbian couples, whose age of consent is 16 and above. The laws have been on the books since 1991.

The government can still appeal the ruling, and said that it was reviewing the decision.—JV

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Santa Fe, N.M.—A 17-year-old Santa Fe, New Mexico boy has pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and other charges in a February attack on a gay couple.

David Trinidad, the first of six defendants to go to court, pleaded guilty August 23 to aggravated battery, battery, conspiracy, and criminal damage to property. An attorney for another man charged in the beatings said his client will not plea-bargain, while a lawyer for a third said his client will plead to some charges and testify against codefendants who go to trial.

New Mexico district judge Michael Vigil ordered that Trinidad undergo a 15-day evaluation before sentencing. If the teen is sentenced as a juvenile, it could include his being committed to the state until his 21st birthday. If he is sentenced as an adult, he could face up to seven and a half years in prison. Trinidad was on probation for a rape conviction involving a four-year-old boy at

the time of the beating.

James Maestas, 21, and Joshua Stockham, 23, were attacked by a group of men Feb. 27 in the parking lot of a Santa Fe motel after an earlier confrontation at a restaurant.

District attorney Henry Valdez has said he will seek tougher sentences under New Mexico’s hate-crimes law.

Maestas, who spent more than a week in intensive care, had to undergo extensive physical and speech therapy, said Assistant District Attorney Heidi Pircher. Stockham suffered minor injuries.

Also charged are Isaia Medina, 19; Gabriel Maturin, 20; Paul Montoya, 20; Joseph Cano, 19; and Jonathan Valdez, 23. Lawyers have said prosecutors have offered pleas to at least four, though none has appeared in court.

Maturin and Medina are charged with aggravated battery, battery, and conspiracy.

Cano, Valdez, and Montoya are charged with aggravated battery, conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and criminal damage to property under an accessory theory.—RVM

LOCAL

Rocky to Go Forward with Partner Benefits Plan

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by JoSelle Vanderhooft joselle@slmetro.com According to legal research done by city council staff, Mayor Rocky Anderson can extend health care benefits to the unmarried partners of city employees, straight and gay, any time he wishes. On Tuesday, August 23 the mayor announced that he would “absolutely” do so, just as soon as research is finished on the plan.

While Anderson is also waiting for a formal answer on whether he can move forward without a City Council vote on the proposal, he said he hopes council members will still pass a resolution in favor of his plan.

“As long as we’re going to do this, we should demonstrate unity on this issue,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune on August 24.

“Providing for equality should not create more division in our community.”

On August 23, Anderson also met with Councilwoman Jill Remington Love to discuss extending the benefits. Before learning of the mayor’s plan earlier this

month, Love had considered bringing the issue to a council vote. Upon discovering that she and Anderson were working on the same thing, Love said she “encouraged him to move ahead.”

Anderson said that he wants the plan in place by November, when city employees change benefits packages.

Anderson’s plan, however, has met with opposition. In a KSL Radio interview, Rep. Lavar Christiansen, R-Sandy, said Anderson was “moving ahead in total disregard of the existing [Utah] law on the subject.”

“I believe that’s tantamount to the San Francisco mayor performing same-sex marriages on the city hall steps in disregard of California law,” he said.

Christiansen said that Utah law, which prohibits the legal recognition of any sexual relationship save the legal marriage of a man and a woman, should be enough to prohibit Anderson from offering the benefits. If not, he said the government

MICHAEL AARON

News

“would address” the matter “if additional legislation was needed.”

“What it comes down to is whether or not you’re sanctioning those relationships or creating a new classification of domestic unions and then trying to give it special legal effect, and that’s the thing that we have not done,” said Christiansen, adding that while Utah courts have recognized samegender couples’ right to privacy, they have not recognized “the right to demand legal public sanction and public recognition.”

He also said there were other things samegender couples could do to protect themselves, such as transferring property through joint tenancy deeds and using durable power of attorney to make “medical decisions.”

While it’s true that certain legal rights can be attained with the help of a lawyer, certain benefits of marriage—such as not being forced to testify against a partner in court, taking time off through Family and Medical Leave Act to care for a partner— cannot be gained without marriage or a similar relationship existing.

Anderson’s proposal would use public money to establish something that Utah law does not permit, according to Christiansen.

“If you’re a private employer and you want to expand health coverage for anyone and everyone, then you have the right to do that,” he said. “If you’re a public employer and you’re using tax dollars, you absolutely have to respect the public policy of the state as codified in its statutes and its constitution.”

Cost has also been a concern for those on both sides of the debate. A task force formed to research the implementation of the benefits program has estimated that domestic partners would have to pay around $2,200 a year for the health plan, the same amount

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson speaking at a peace rally August 22.

currently paid by spouses.

When other cities have offered similar benefits packages, one to two percent of their work force has applied. If Salt Lake City maintains the trend, the Tribune estimates this would cost the city up to $121,000 more each year, a 0.6 percent increase in the city’s $18.7 million benefits budget.

Anderson, however, has said the cost would be less than this.

The City Attorney’s Office has yet to issue an opinion on Anderson’s proposal.

If Anderson’s proposal is enacted, Salt Lake City will become the first Utah city to extend benefits to the unmarried partners of employees.

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News LOCAL

BYU, UofU Ranked Low in Acceptance of Queer Students

by Jere Keys jere@slmetro.com According to the Princeton Review in their annual review of 361 universities and colleges across the country, Brigham Young University ranks as the 10th worst school for acceptance of queer people. The University of Utah comes in at number 18.

The rankings in the well-known publication are based on survey questionnaires filled out by over 110,000 students. The 70-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and to report on their experiences while attending. Topics include academics/administration, life at school, fellow students, and themselves.

The list “Alternative Lifestyles Not an Alternative” ranks Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia as the nation’s most anti-gay institution for higher learning. BYU placed tenth on that list but ranked first for “Students Pray on a Regular Basis;” “Got Milk” (lack of beer use); “Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch” (use of hard liquor); “Stone-Cold

Sober Schools;” and “Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution” (general social and political conservatism).

University of Utah ranked 18 on the list of the 20 most anti-gay schools.

Charles Milne, program coordinator for the LGBT Resource Center at the University of Utah, disagrees with the anti-gay ranking.

“I don’t think it’s a fair assessment,” Milne said. “I don’t think it takes into account the programs and initiatives that are happening on campus.”

Besides the LGBT Resource Center, the UofU has several programs both to assist queer students and to promote understanding. Among these are the Queer Peers and the Speakers Bureau led by the LGBT Resource Center, as well as the Gay and Lesbian Law Alliance (GALLA). Milne also mentions there are currently diversity initiatives in various departments which would impact queer students positively.

“They only ask one or two questions [about queer issues] on the survey and make as-

Community Briefs

AIDS. The memorial will be up throughout the day, culminating in a rally at 7:30pm with short speeches from community leaders and activists.

As support for this event grows, team captains are needed to collect shoes and donations (which will be used to send Utah activists along with the caravan).

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‘Salt Lake Metro’ Seeks Writers Salt Lake Metro is looking for new talent to fill the pages of the paper. At this time, Metro is searching for two new regular columnists and an undetermined number of freelance writers.

Specifically, Metro is searching for a columnist to cover the world of internet and technology in a fun and interesting way. The second columnist will be profiling community members in a biweekly spotlight column. Columnists appear in each issue of the paper and must be reliable.

Freelance writers are assigned to cover a wide variety of topics: politics, events, arts, entertainment, crime or anything else that touches the lives of the queer community of Utah. Metro pays industry-standard rates by the word or article.

For details about how to apply for these positions, visit www.slmetro.com or contact us at editor@slmetro.com.—JK

Pair Up 2 End AIDS A coalition of community leaders is looking for volunteers to help with “Pair Up 2 End AIDS.” This month, a caravan of HIV/ AIDS activists is leaving San Francisco to travel to Washington D.C., where they will demand our government appropriately address the national and global crisis of HIV/ AIDS. As they pass through Salt Lake City on September 25, local leaders plan to put 8500 pairs of old shoes in Library Square to honor the 8500 people a day who die of

To learn about the caravan, visit campaigntoendaids.org. To volunteer for Pair Up 2 End AIDS, contact Jennifer Nuttall at 5398800 x13 or jennifer@glbtccu.org.

Allies Dinner Fast Approaching Equality Utah’s annual Allies Dinner (themed “Ripples of Hope”) is just around the corner and tickets are on sale now. To be held September 21 in the Salt Palace Grand Ballroom, cocktails begin at 6:00 and dinner starts at 7:00.

Tim McFeeley, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives and former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, will be the guest speaker.

Tickets can be purchased online at equalityutah.org or by calling Melissa Larsen at 355-3479

Excuse Me, You Have Something on Your Shoe The Utah AIDS Foundation food bank is getting very low on toilet paper. As things ramp up toward the 17th Annual Walk For Life on Sept. 17, UAF is asking people planning to participate in the 10K walk to bring as many rolls of toilet paper to the event as possible.

Toilet paper is one of the most important items supplied by the UAF food bank.

Springdale City Park was the beautiful setting of Southern Utah Pride at Zion August 26–28.

sumptions based on the answers to those two questions,” said Milne. “I think there are a lot more anti-LGBT schools across the country.”

Milne also feels that the ranking was influenced by “stereotypes about the area,” which believe Utah to be an overwhelmingly conservative state.

Carri Jenkins, spokesperson for BYU, emphasizes that the rankings are based on student opinions and not official policy.

“We follow the counsel of [LDS President] Gordon B. Hinkley,” Jenkins said, “which is to treat all people with love and kindness and respect.”

Jenkins also referred to the BYU Honor Code, which is a code of conduct for behavior

based on the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All BYU students are expected to adhere to the honor code.

On the topic of homosexuality, the code states: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and BYU affirm that sexual relationships outside the covenant of marriage are inappropriate,” and “Any level of sexual or similar misconduct at BYU is significant and may lead to a separation from the university.”

Princeton Review also ranked the 20 best schools for gay and lesbian students, with New College of Florida taking the number 1 slot, followed by Macalester College in Minnesota and Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

This year’s Walk for Life honors 20 years of care from UAF. By popular demand, the Walk has returned to the morning. Participants can walk on their own, walk with friends and family, walk with co-workers, request a Walk Buddy, or bring their dog.

This year, the Walk will begin at Liberty Park and finish at the 9th & 9th Street Festival, just in time to enjoy live music, festival booths and other treats.

around charges of corruption, police brutality and censorship.

By Tuesday, August 22, one DJ’s account of assault rifles, beatings of party-goers and confiscated camera equipment became the 30th most-linked-to story in the entire world of blogs according to blogpulse. com. Even filmmaker Michael Moore made reference to the raid in his blog.

Ravers are angrily denouncing the picture painted by law enforcement in the local media of both the event and raid— calling it anything from ugly stereotypes to outright lies and slander. Judge for yourself: many attendees of the event have begun posting their own accounts of the night’s events on a message board at utrave.org (“Versus II Raid”) and a website (www.music-versus-guns.org) was set up to collect images and video about the raid.

Registration and other information is available at utahaids.org.

Getting Busy With the Court The Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire has a busy month planned with multiple fundraising activities every weekend throughout September. Filled with theme performances such as “Divas on the Catwalk” and “Absolutely Sinful: Gospel Show,” as well as social events like the “Vegetative State BBQ” or the “PWA BBQ,” the Court will raise funds for a variety of charities, such as the PWA Christmas Fund and the People’s Concern Fund.

For up-to-the-minute details about the various events, including locations and times, visit the Court’s online calendar at rcgse.org/calendar.

Did Utah County Police Go To Far? When police raided a rave dance party in Spanish Fork on August 20, they probably expected to catch some drug dealers and send a message to young people about these loud gatherings of free-spirited music lovers. What they did was cause a large number of angry young people to organize

Sign Up For Camp Pinecliff The Registration forms for the 14th annual Camp Pinecliff weekend are now available.

The camp for people with HIV/AIDS, their support givers and volunteers, is being held September 23–25 at Camp Pinecliff, 18 miles above Coalville on the Wyoming border. The cost is $35 though a limited number of scholarships is available. The weekend retreat includes crafts, hikes, bingo, activities, a great location and a “really great menu.”

Registration forms are available at the Utah AIDS Foundation food bank, MCC, the GLBT Community Center of Utah, the Salt Lake Metro office, or from UAF support group facilitator David Ferguson. Call Dick at 250-2553 with questions.

University of Utah Pride: Breaking Through in October

by Jere Keys jere@slmetro.com The University of Utah has announced plans for its campus-wide Pride celebrations this October. In an effort to promote diversity and bring awareness about queer issues to the college, this year’s Pride is themed “Breaking Through…” and will take place from October 11 to 22.

Highlights of the plans include the Fifth Annual University of Utah LGBT Resource Center PRIDE Gala Dinner (October 18), featuring Riki Wilchins, executive director of GenderPAC, and a special performance from out artist Sacha Sacket. Also not to be missed is Queer Comedy 101, featuring comedians Jerry Callum, Alan Walker and more. Queer Comedy 101 will take place at the Rose Wagner on October 21st.

Kicking things off on the 11th, which is also National Coming Out Day, the UofU is sponsoring the Pseudo Drag queen Dash Invitational (PD(q)DI) at noon. A clever relay format race involving students, faculty and staff, PD(q)DI will raise money to support the LGBT Resource Center through departmental and community sponsorship of contestants. There will be an intercollegiate barbecue on the upper campus following the PD(q)DI. Next is the return of the popular and much-anticipated Queer Spelling Bee. On October 15 at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah,

“Queertestants” will compete for prizes and top honors as queertators test the queertestants’ skills with queer-themed words.

On October 19 and 20, two educational events will address issues of queer identity and understanding. On the 19th, “Ending Gender Stereotypes: a New Path to Full Equality” has Wilchins addressing important issues in gender politics. “Breaking Through the Queer Entity: What it is to be gay” brings together a panel of noted community leaders as well as university professors on the 20th.

Several movie and media screenings dealing with transgender issues will take place during University Pride. On October 13, UofU Pride will host a screening of the premier episode of the new Sundance Channel series Transgeneration, followed by a discussion. Transgeneration follows the lives of transgender college students.

On the 16th, they will show a screening of Boys Don’t Cry, and Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink) follows on October 22.

Several organizations are partnering with the University and the LGBT Resource Center to support the Pride events, including The Center, the National Gay Men’s Health Summit, the Utah AIDS Foundation, Salt Lake Film Society, and more.

For more information about University of Utah Pride, contact the LGBT Resource Center at 587-7973 or www.sa.utah.edu/lgbt/

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Publisher Michael Aaron Editor Jere Keys Arts Editor Eric J. Tierney Proofreader Nicholas Rupp

Opinion

Contributing Brandie Balken Writers Kim Burgess Vanessa Chang Jason Clark Beau Jarvis Laurie Mecham William T. Park Nicholas Rupp Mandy Q. Racer Ruby Ridge Kim Russo David Samsel Joel Shoemaker Brendan Shumway Eric J. Tierney Darren Tucker JoSelle Vanderhooft Ross von Metzke John Wilkes Ben Williams Contributing David Harris Photographers William H. Munk Kim Russo Art Director Michael Aaron Designer Kris Kramer Sales Director Steven Peterson Display Ad Dave Harris 548-6995 Sales Russ Moss 259-0844 801-323-9500 National Rivendell Media Advertising 212-242-6863 Representative 1248 Rte 22 West Mountainside NJ 07092

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352 S. Denver Street, Suite 350 Salt Lake City, UT 84111

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Michael Aaron Steven Peterson Steve Whittaker Larry Tanner

Public Enemy Number One When LaVar Christensen and fellow lawmakers wrote Amendment 3, by his own words to KSL, they “made sure it carefully and adequately reinforces marriage and doesn’t deny rights to others, as is falsely alleged.” (Aug 27, 2004) Now, it seems Christensen is concerned the law may not be clear enough for Utah. Despite what supporters of the amendment once said, it’s very clear they now meant to say “gay people may not have access to any rights whatsoever usually granted to family or marriage.”

In two weeks, Christensen—who represents the Draper/Sandy area in the state’s House of Representatives—has threatened new legislation twice because he doesn’t like how other branches of government are interpreting Utah’s policy on queer issues.

First, Christensen threatened to sponsor state legislation to prevent Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson from extending health and medical insurance to the partners of gay and lesbian couples and creating a domestic partner registry. Such steps, Christensen believes, are the same thing as San Fransisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsome marrying gay couples.

Christensen also believes that offering medical benefits to domestic partners would violate the second part of the amendment, which outlaws anything that is “the same or substantially equivalent” to marriage.

Second, Christensen has threatened legislation if the Supreme Court rules that the non-biological mother of a child has visitation privileges with her ex-partner’s baby. If he has his way, the state legislature will consider a bill in the next session to prevent courts from ordering visitation or custody for any parent who doesn’t have a marital, adoptive or biological relationship with the child in question.

Since Utah law already prevents same-gender

couples from jointly adopting children, this would effectively destroy any chances for both members of gay and lesbian couples to have a legal relationship with their children.

If that’s not enough, LaVar Christensen is one of the original sponsors of Amendment 3, has consistently fought against hate crime legislation, and is among Utah’s most outspoken anti-gay voices.

Simply put, LaVar Christensen has got to go.

He’s up for reelection in 13 months (November 2006) and Salt Lake Metro believes that if the queer community can only organize against one political opponent between now and then, Christensen should be that one.

His views are out of step with the majority of Utah citizens and he is an extremist of frightening levels. Polls have consistently shown over 60 percent of Utahns support hate crime legislation. Despite being opposed to gay marriage, Utahns are slowly beginning to favor an increasing number of rights for gay and lesbian couples—including health insurance, medical decisions, parenting and inheritance.

Christensen will have none of that. As far as he’s concerned, there’s no reason he can’t use the law to bully people into following his moral and religious beliefs.

Christensen was first narrowly elected (33 votes) by defeating moderate Democratic incumbent Trisha Beck. Although Christensen claims innocence, some feel that Beck’s loss can be attributed to negative attack mailers alleging that Beck was a lesbian in the last days of the election.

Whether he’s replaced by a more moderate Republican or a Democrat, it doesn’t matter.

The only thing that is certain is that the queer community of Utah needs to help put an end to LaVar Christensen’s political career.

From the Editor When Did We Lose Our Radicals?

by Jere Keys jere@slmetro.com Sometimes it seems like the universe is really trying to send a message.

This past two weeks, one of the most common themes in my life has been social activism.

What should social activism look like? What does it hope to accomplish? When and where is it appropriate?

From the rally during Dubya’s Salt Lake visit to the allegations of police brutality at a Spanish Fork rave, from documentaries on television about 60s protests of the Vietnam War to conversations with friends online and in real life about the practical value of protests, it seems that I can’t escape the topic.

Let me start with this: I think the queer community missed an incredible opportunity during the president’s visit. While many queer people answered Mayor Anderson’s challenge to attend the rally, I think we were lost among the many in the crowd. While I know that opposition to the war was the common unifying theme of all the people at the rally, I was personally protesting the President’s visit for a variety of reasons, including his positions on education, environment, women’s rights and especially queer rights. Those concerns could have been much better articulated had the queer community stood together at the demonstration with a common message and a visible presence set apart within the larger crowd.

I told our publisher that I wanted to call this article “Why are our leaders acting like pussies?” but after some thought, I know why they take the positions they do. I know firsthand that being in a leadership position—accountable to a large group of people—makes it difficult to take a controversial stand. We expect the institutions and organizations that represent us to be respectful of the diversity of our political opinions and experiences. It would be inappropriate for the Center (as an example) to forget that there are queer people who vote Republican and support the war.

But here’s where I have a problem: If we lose the extremist voices in our community, then the moderates begin to sound like extremists.

In the early days of the queer rights movement and the AIDS epidemic, the most powerful organizations for affecting change were groups like ACT UP and the Radical Faeries. They were not afraid of controversial actions such as civil disobedience, “outing” celebrities and officials, and staging elaborate attention-getting stunts.

As a result, the more moderate organizations made what seemed like reasonable requests when compared to the antics of the queer extremists.

We can’t expect organizations like the Human Rights Campaign or Equality Utah to truly gain bipartisan support in an environment like Utah when they seem like the most radically liberal groups lobbying our legislatures.

We can’t expect organizations like the Utah AIDS Foundation or The Center to jeopardize their very existence by violating non-partisan requirements of the IRS code for non-profits.

Still, I sense a growing anger within our community. Anger that people like Lavar see “From the Editor” on the next page

Letters Offer Rape Victims Advice About Defending Themselves Dear Editor: The matter of above-average criminal sexual violence in Utah (“Sexual Violence a Problem in Utah,” Salt Lake Metro, Aug. 18) and the understandable concern about its myriad of reasons (“Why Is Rape Such a Problem in Utah?,” Salt Lake Metro, Aug. 18) offers nothing but empathy to the victims of such crime.

The statistics that define these problems are no more compelling than those that offer the empowerment of self-defense, as well as empathy: Fact: American men and women use firearms every year to stop more than 2.5 million crimes (14 times more than they start) according to 2002 U.S. Department of Justice crime studies. Among those prevented crimes, more than 7.7 percent (192,500) are by women defending themselves against criminal sexual violence, and the firearms are fired less than 0.9 percent of the time.

Fact: Women who are victims of criminal violence are 2.5 times more likely (and men are 1.4 times more likely) to be seriously injured if they do nothing during an attack than if they use a firearm according to 2002 U.S. Department of Justice crime studies.

Fact: Forty-percent of convicted felons said that they avoided committing crime when they believed the victim might have

and use a firearm. Sixty-percent said they did so when they knew the victim had and would use a firearm according to 1986 crime studies.

All in all, men and women who are victims of crime, particularly violent or hate crime, benefit when they become familiar with firearms and learn to use them legally, responsibly and safely for their self-defense.

David Nelson Salt Lake City

Fight ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ It appears Utah’s GLBT and allied communities are reaching further and further into fighting the inequities regarding human rights. There is much work to be done with the antiquated principles behind the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) regulations placed on our armed forces. I look forward to working with these organizations in helping to create initiatives our legislatures will have to address.

Daily, our men and women service personnel serve, fight and die for our freedom and the freedom of others.

Regardless of whether or not our country should be involved, they serve, obey orders from their superiors, and carry out their missions. Their sexual preferences are not what makes them soldiers, it is their loved ones, back home, that make them believe what they are doing is right. Some of them will not return and the partners of these GLBT soldiers will be left with noth-

AberRant Good Job Hunting

soldiers the right to serve openly regarding their lifestyle, and to acknowledge their right to have relationships, just like anyone else.

Thank you for your time.

tion. You have to anticipate what questions the interviewer will ask and be ready to give an insightful, synergistic answer that coalesces deliverables with emotional intelligence on a high-yield global scale.

I mentally rehearse the part of the interview where the person to whom I must sell myself asks, “Tell me about one of your weaknesses.” The job coaches tell you to take a positive quality and frame it as though it were a weakness, something like, “I tend to love the work so much that I forget to do little things like take vacation or ask for a raise.” I’ve got my answer prepared. “I guess you could say that one of my weaknesses is that my superior work ethic and productivity sometimes make my colleagues feel inferior. Fortunately, this is usually balanced by my extraordinary humility and likeability, so it tends not to be an issue.”

The job-hunting gurus say that it is good to quantify your achievements with solid numbers, for example: “I reduced operating costs by eight percent in two months.” I don’t have that kind of job. The only thing I could say like that would be, “Over the ten year period of my employ-

ment, I accumulated around my desk 25 percent of all pieces of paper generated by 80 percent of University departments during that time.” I could also say that I answered the phone 98% of the time when I was at my desk, unless I was in the middle of hearing a really good story from a coworker and the caller I.D. spelled trouble.

On the other hand, too many statistics like this could give your resume a robotic quality. The ideal is to appear human, but almost too good to be true. You may want to list that you were nominated for a Nobel Prize, but if you actually won a Nobel, you should low-key it. Be certain to avoid charged topics like religion. For example, if you served a mission, be sure to include “fluent in Norwegian” on your summary of qualifications, but don’t list the number of baptisms or excommunications for which you were responsible.

I’m going to go ahead, probably this week, and start submitting applications to some really big corporations where they are bound to get lost. I will keep you posted on my progress. After all, I have an uncanny ability to write six or seven hundred words of pure drivel and get it published in the Salt Lake Metro. It’s one of my biggest weaknesses.

Note to Readers: I stole the following idea from a blog and want to share it with you. What is the gayest thing you’ve ever done? Email me at laurie@slmetro.com

I guess you could say that one of my weaknesses is that my superior work ethic and productivity sometimes make my colleagues feel inferior.

Karla McGuigan

From the Editor Continued from previous page Christensen and Chris Buttars can get away with lying (“Amendment 3 is not about denying things like domestic partner benefits”—remember that?). Anger that other socially liberal folks have blamed us, as a community, for the re-election of Bush simply because we’ve been asking for equal treatment under the law. Anger that after 10 years, we still can’t get hate crime legislation passed in Utah, not to mention non-discrimination in the workplace, housing or public accommodation.

So, if the anger is festering, who’s ready to step forward as leadership of this community unafraid to be controversial? Who isn’t going to be a pussy about asking for what we really want (the message is that we want gay marriage—not that we’re defending common-law relationships)? Who has the cajones to tell the world, loudly and proudly, that Christensen, Buttars, and their kind are nothing but a bunch of lying, bigoted hypocrites? We can’t ask our “professional gays” to do this work—their careers depend on remaining more moderate and cooperative—this is work for angry individuals.

It’s called grass-roots activism, folks, and it’s been known to work in the past.

Laurie Mecham manages her anxiety through a breathing technique that consists of alternately gasping and sighing.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 13

by Laurie Mecham laurie@slmetro.com I know a lot is going on politically; I keep track.

Massachusetts could be two steps away from getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to prohibit equal marriage for non-heterosexuals.

My soon-to-be-home state of Oregon was this close to instituting civil unions such as Vermont recognizes. The bill passed in the state senate and then a single representative—House Speaker Karen Minnis, who lives at ... hmm, I’ll get back to you—hijacked it and prevented a vote in the house. Damn those activist judges! Oh, wait ...

I point this out 1) because it is important, and B) to show that I know what is going on in the world, even though I’ve chosen to write yet another column focused on me me me! Sorry, but my life is in flux and I think that many of you will relate. I’m getting ever closer to the inevitable prospect of (insert scary music here) applying for jobs. Nobody likes this part of being a grownup. In fact, some people avoid it altogether by maintaining a Peter Pan type of existence—minus the tights … or maybe not—in the basement

of Mom’s house.

I’ve been looking for jobs online. OK, I’ve been looking at jobs online. I’m overqualified for the jobs that feel safe (cashier at dry cleaners, parking lot attendant), and they don’t pay enough. The jobs for which my resume indicates I am abundantly qualified scare the shiz-it out of me. My wife understands this and gently coaxes me to go ahead and apply if I ever want to share the same bed again. She points out that the best-case scenario is that I’ll never even get a call, and in the extreme worst case, I will be offered the job. Do you see how it is? Once again, The Man is out to get me.

I have come to accept the fact that eventually, in the next year or two, I will have to endure a job interview. I have been reading up on interviewing tips, in between looking at jobs online and curling up on the floor in the fetal position.

The key to acing the interview is prepara-

ing more than photos and memories. Not even the flag that covers their caskets will be given to them—it will go to a surviving blood relative. But still these GLBT men and women serve our country.

I am a veteran and I remember what a difficult time it was to love someone and to know that love could end your military career. The pressure on my term of service was not a tenth of the pressure on the military of today.

If we do nothing more than write a letter to our government officials asking for new regulations pertaining to the Armed Forces DADT policy, it could start the pendulum swaying the other way. And, as the old army motto goes, “Write home to your loved ones and let them know you are a happy soldier!” Wouldn’t it be a letter of true joy and happiness when our GLBT soldiers can openly relate to their partners without the fear of reprisals?

Our very own community has men and women who are on active duty. They can’t attend many GLBT functions because of fear. They have no support groups to lean on during a personal crisis. And, imagine the feeling of alienation they must feel, not to being able to march proudly in the dyke march or attend a gay pride event.

They truly are set apart, just because they chose to serve their country. To me this reaches down to the core of what we all want equal rights to be about ... not “special rights, just equal rights” And those who serve are absolutely part of those rights.

Please write your state and federal officials today, asking them to support any initiatives that repeal the current DADT policies, to support policies that give

Ruby Ridge Living and so welcoming. I tend to take it for granted, sort of like people who live in Orange County that never go to Disneyland. It’s a shame because P.C. really is

by Ruby Ridge a nice town. I will go out on a limb and ruby@slmetro.com say it actually shines best during the So, darlings, did you off season when you don’t have to deal get a chance to see with the pretentious ski crowd or the La Cage Aux Folles mayhem and peripheral tackiness of the at the Egyptian Sundance Film Festival.

Theater Company Anyway, cupcakes, the reason for my in Park City? I sincerely hope you did Park City jaunt was to see our very own because it was a delightful production Kenny Wayne, who did a wonderful job of one of my favorite musicals in one as the flamboyant and touching Albin. of my favorite little theaters, in one of Kenny performed as a Cyber Slut under my favorite locations. You know, petals, the wonderfully tongue-in-cheek non there is just something so liberating and de plume of “Iva Recommend.” We miss cathartic about getting out of the Salt her energy and her wig teasing skills Lake Valley, having a nice pre-show nosh, dearly, but it’s so gratifying to see one of wandering around our girls actually go Main Street, and legit. And I would be catching a show in completely remiss if I Park City. Talk about didn’t mention Walter relieving some stress, By the terrified look who played the role oh my God, kittens, I of Phaedra, one of Les on their shocked could actually feel my Cagelles. Muffins, I blood pressure plumhave absolutely no oblittle faces they meting while I was jectivity when it comes didn’t know if they window shopping, it to a seasoned pro like was THAT relaxing!

Walter because I just were caught in a Well I should say admire him so much. it was relaxing until drive by, or if they He is one of those recar loads of theater ally gifted performers had just celebrity goers recognized who just grabs your atmoi and felt comtention and doesn’t let spotted Reba pelled to shatter the go, even if he’s buried Macintyre after a tranquility of the in a chorus line. And moment by screamalthough he will probcorn bread and ing, “Oh My God, ably kick my butt for chicken binge. it’s Ruby Ridge!!!” saying it…the old girl Precious ones, I am can still hoof her way deeply touched for and cartwheel across the recognition and the stage like a kid half adoration but you scared the living hell her age. Bravo baby! out of an elderly couple of Iowan tourists So to review, chiclets, the moral of who happened to be walking beside me. today’s lesson is this: Park City is close; By the terrified look on their shocked the weather is cooler; the shopping little faces they didn’t know if they were is fun; the restaurants and clubs are caught in a drive by, or if they had just friendly; and there’s no excuse to ever celebrity spotted Reba Macintyre after a stay at home bored. Do yourself a favor corn bread and chicken binge. Can’t you and drag a few friends up the canyon just hear them bragging to their friends and have a nice night out in Park City. at the Des Moines VFW now? “Well her Just don’t yell at me if I’m working a corhair looked fabulous but boy has she put ner on Main Street O.K.? Ciao! on some weight!” What can I say darRuby Ridge is a well-known local performer lings….God loves the simple ones! who enjoys supporting charity work. Ruby is I don’t know about you, kittens, but I not afraid of smacking down the paparazzi— keep forgetting that Park City is so close “I’m entitled to a private life, too!”

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Ruby Does Park City

Late-breaking news, national news and articles in this paper are available at:

Lambda Lore Pissed Off? Try Epistemology

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

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

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

WRITERS WANTED Send a writing sample to editor@slmetro.com

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 15

Ah, that formulated phrase… “queer,” or homosexual, a rose by any other name.

This word queer was stuff of cold sweats and clammy nightmares for many of my generation, until the paradigm shift we call Stonewall turned the world topsy-turvy.

Still, it was several years after Stonewall before I was ready to embrace my sexual essence and years more until I was ready to proclaim to the world, “I’m here. I’m queer.

Get used to it.” I’ve lived long enough to see most of the world get used to it and now nearly bored by how ordinary I’ve become.

However, that’s another subject.

So how did we get from the love that dares not speak its name to the love that won’t shut up? We found the words, baby!

Some members of the “community” have questioned why the Utah Stonewall Historical Society uses the word “lambda” so much, and exactly what the hell is a lambda anyway? In a nutshell, the lambda is a letter in the Greek alphabet that was first chosen as a symbol for the gay rights movement when it was adopted in 1970 by the New York Gay Activists Alliance.

By 1974, the lambda was adopted by the International Gay Rights Congress held in Edinburgh, Scotland as the symbol for worldwide homosexual rights. It looks like an upside down Y: λ So, what’s the big deal on what we call ourselves? Plenty. For centuries “converse sex lovers” identified we “equivalent sex lovers” only by our actions, not by who we are. Say what? In plain talk: straights have been calling the shots on how to define us forever! Yikes! That is so wrong, according to my “new left” college professors in Minority Liberation 101. An empowered people should demand, and choose, their own self-identifying terms. Well, at least we thought so in 1969.

Take, for example, the “black power” movement of the sixties, which demanded that people of African heritage be no longer called “Negro” or “colored.” By their example, eventually Indians became “Native Americans,” and just forget calling some one from Asia “Oriental.” It’s “Asian,” thank you very much!

So what’s a sexual minority to do?

Pansy, fairy, butt pirate, Nancy boy, faggot, sodomite, cocksucker, bugger and queer just didn’t have the right ring for a national movement. I don’t think we would’ve ever been accepted as Cocksuckers Liberation, or Parents and Friends of Cocksuckers and

Carpet Munchers. I could be wrong.

A swishy 19th century German came up with the word “Uranian” to describe our type of love after Plato’s highest degree of love. It didn’t last, but it was a good start.

The newly emerging psychoanalytic community coined “homosexual,” a bastard word of Greek and Latin roots, to describe deviancy from “normal” behavior. A little known fact is that there were homosexuals before there were heterosexuals. The latter terminology wasn’t coined until the early 20th century.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Voice of Youth Editor’s Note: As we head into the fall and our youth are heading back to school, we thought it was a great time to check in with the youth of our community. The concept is simple; we asked a number of young people affiliated with the Center’s youth programs to write about any topic important to them. Thanks to Stan Burnett, Director of Youth Programs, for assistance with this project.

Everyday I’m Out

by Edna Lopez “Out” of place everywhere I go has been my sentiment growing up. From gender segregation to downright homophobic discrimination, it’s been hard to find my place in the community. I’ve been “different” since I can remember, but I’ve been gay since Ellen came out. Into what? From what? I almost feel like a born-again Christian: a whole new culture to learn, new rules to follow, new traditions to rebel against, new terminology and stereotypes to justify my insecurity and apprehension.

“Maricon, femm, butt boy, bull dyke, queen, tranny, daddy, queer.” And then there’s, “Is that a boy or a girl?” “Excuse me sir, this is the ladies’ restroom.” “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”

Each day brings a new opportunity to explore myself and adopt a new label, but still gay doesn’t fit. Coming out is more than just declaring or even celebrating your difference, it’s also accepting a new level of consciousness and responsibility within our society. Because it’s more than sexuality or self-identity, it’s a social hierarchy and behavioral expectation. But what is today’s acceptable communicable term for “I don’t know the weight this label carries?”

The biggest problem I’ve had growing up is the lack of visible and approachable role models. I watched Ellen religiously and late at night I secretly watched “independent” movies. Today, my world stops for Six Feet Under, The L Word, and Queer as Folk. I’ve lived long enough to know life is not like the movies, even if you’re young, fabulous, and gay—especially in Salt Lake City. So the problem remains: Whom do I emulate? What model do I use in a relationship? Even learning about sex was a lonely, desperate ordeal; I had to special-order so many books and I still didn’t have a clue.

The same dilemma: Where do I fit and who are my peers? It’s great to see our society evolve and be more accepting, to have GSAs in school and coffee shops, but still I have a hard time finding our community and my place in it.

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More Than Gay

by Ari Dennis-Freston Every day we use words to describe and identify ourselves, our size, shape, style of clothing, what we refuse or choose to eat, our preference in music, our preference in lovers. Everything about us can be summed up in adjectives. But for as much thought as we put into our labels, how much do we let them define us?

The words we use to describe ourselves in the gay culture are extremely encompassing. Not only do they carry heavy connotations and are associated with stereotypes, but they also seem to decide for us what our opinions and interests will be. Being queer, for youth especially, doesn’t just imply sexuality; it becomes the main focus of every conversation.

When with my queer friends, the discussion is continuously about being gay.

Not even the latest equal rights issue or an episode of The L Word, but just being gay. The trials, tribulations, and drama that can only be had with young gay people is fascinating in some respects and small doses, but I’m sometimes left wondering why we can’t talk about books (that aren’t by gay authors) or movies (that aren’t about someone coming to terms with being gay) like I do when I am with my straight friends.

When I define myself, the words iconoclast, nerd, bohemian, and artist come to mind. I also think actor, hedonist, or D&D enthusiast; lesbian is low on the list. I know that my queer friends don’t share all my same hobbies—I have some strange ones—but do they not have any of their own? Why is being part of the LGBT community such a focus for so many of the youth I know? Especially when it is really such a small part of who I am.

I doubt it’s all of who you are, too. I know that it’s tough to feel comfortable talking about your sexuality and what that entails to just anyone, and so you save it until in safe company. But there has to be more that drives you guys! Art, sports, music, games, crafting. When you aren’t being gay, what are you being? Bright, vibrant and varied kids shouldn’t confine themselves so completely, or keep themselves trapped within the restrictions of the words they have chosen with which to identify. We shouldn’t let sex or anything else restrict us. Because when we get fixated on words, we limit action.

Genderqueer

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 17

By Amanda Krebs School hasn’t started yet and already I’ve failed the first test. My mother took me to registration and I received a packet to fill out. All the questions on the first page were seemingly straightforward. I skipped the first page and turned to the second.

I had no problem filling out information on our insurance policy number or my emergency contacts. I finished the rest of the packet in a matter of minutes, and then sighed and turned back to the front page.

“Student Name” glared at me, challenging me to write what I really would like to be called. Just below is “Gender.” I wrote the name that’s on my birth certificate and checked the box marked F. It isn’t that I’m ashamed of how I’d prefer to answer these questions, it’s just that I’m not sure how that is. It’s much easier to check the F box than to write “I’m genderqueer, which means that I don’t identify with either female or male, but rather place myself somewhere on the spectrum between, or entirely outside of, the binary gender system.”

It’s much easier to write “Amanda” than “Amanda or Jack, depending on the day.” In my school, I’d probably enter the first day of class with teachers calling the roll: Amandaorjack Dependingontheday?

If I were to write the things I would like to on my registration forms, I might end up with appointments in the counseling center. Because anyone who doesn’t fit into this binary gender system clearly needs counseling. I would undoubtedly end up tokenized, explaining myself to people over and over—what it means to be genderqueer, why I think this system of gender is ridiculous, why I don’t identify with the label “transgender” and whether I am gay, lesbian, bi, or straight.

I don’t mind answering any of these questions when they’re asked honestly, by people who see me as a person, not an alien, and actively listen while I answer their questions. I’ve dealt with this before. I’m no stranger to being a gender warrior, and for the most part I enjoy it. I’ve learned who I can tell and who I need to avoid telling. I’ve learned to judge by my clothing which bathroom to use.

I’ve learned how to hurry around corners when I hear people who have threatened me in the past. I’ve learned not to let my fear rule my life. I’m still advocating for gender-free rest rooms and locker rooms, and although it hasn’t led to anything yet (other than an awkward conversation with my PE teacher and my guidance counselor), I hope that other students who are having the same feelings as I am about gender can improve on my work. Maybe if people keep having those awkward conversations with PE teachers, they will realize there really is a need for gender-free spaces and it’s not an isolated incident. And maybe, eventually, students won’t feel like they’ve failed tests before they’ve even started school.

NATALIE COLE See Tuesday, Sept. 13

THE GAY AGENDA

by Eric Tierney eric@slmetro.com

5MONDAY

We’re now in month three of one hundred degree days, kids, and everyone is suffering from the temptation to lie down in an air-conditioned room and not move until October. The Agenda, however, cares about your cardiovascular health, and so we present a variety of fun movement options that will make the effort of standing up worth it.

An Unfinished Life is a much-buzzedabout new film starring Bobby Redford, Morgan Freeman, Camryn Manheim and the Artist Formerly Known as J-Lo. The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Mark Spragg, who will be in attendance to answer your questions— about his book and the film, not Jennifer’s hair—after a free advance screening sponsored by the King’s English Bookstore and the Salt Lake Film Center.

2FRIDAY First up is the First Annual Salsa Congress of Utah, a three-day event that will feature exhibitions by and workshops with some of the hottest professional salsa dancers, instructors, and DJs direct from L.A. I recommend dancing in the back of the class—give your body and your libido a workout.

Dancing 9pm tonight through Sunday, workshops Saturday 1pm-5pm and Sunday 2pm-4pm, Duvan’s Karamba, 1051 E 2100 South. Presale tickets for the entire event $55 at 800-899-8499.

4SUNDAY Or, you might try the Contact Improv Dance Jam. Contact improv is exactly what it sounds like—participants use balance, weight and rhythm to interact and create instant, fluid, dance-like movement. The class welcomes drop-ins and beginners

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7pm-9pm, Joy of Movement, 1597 S. 1100 East. Pricing and information at 463-0900

6:30pm, Tower Theatre, 876 E 900 South.

Admission is free, information at 484-9100

6TUESDAY Been a long time since Tori Amos pulled into town, but she’s sure to make up for her absence when she plays Salt Lake City tonight. In her defense, I would like once and for all to point out that Tori is not a Cornflake Girl, but rather prefers “hangin’ with the raisin girls.” Yes, I do feel better.

8pm, USANA Amphitheatre, 5400 S 6200 West, West Valley City. Tickets $30-$56 at 467-TIXX or smithstix.com.

8THURSDAY Here’s the latest item in our continuing quest to keep you moving: The University of Utah Swing Club offers free lessons and dancing—this is a great activity because, in addition to the great exercise, I can personally vouch for the fact that nothing impresses people at a party like the ability to toss someone around rhythmically.

The event is open to all ages, so why not bring your son/daughter, niece/nephew,

godson/goddaughter, or a random child you find in a Smith’s parking lot? Imagine explaining that one to the police.

8:30pm-10:45, Union Ballroom at the University of Utah, 200 S Central Campus Drive.

Admission is free, information at 483-3141.

9FRIDAY We’ve got like a thousand words on Plan-B Theatre Company’s Patient A on page 22, so I’m not going to guild the lily too much here. I’ll just remind you that Plan-B is the only company in Utah committed to producing at least one queer-themed show per season, and that Metro awarded them a couple of our nifty “_____of Utah” Awards last year and they’ve got 21 Slammys to boot. In short, they’re doing something right.

Tonight and Saturday at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm through Sept. 25, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. Broadway. Tickets $18 at 355-2787 or planbtheatrecompany.org.

Four things guaranteed to get your heart beating faster this weekend: lube wrestling, gay wet t-shirt and whipped cream bikini contests, a pool party with QUAC, and hitting the jackpot. All this and more awaits you at Salt Lake Metro’s second annual Gay Wendover Weekend.

Come for a day or come for the weekend, just be prepared for anything to happen.

Through Sunday, City of West Wendover.

For prices, schedule of activities and more, visit www.slmetro.com/wendover or call 323-9500.

10SATURDAY If you don’t enjoy actually golfing, but you do like homos, seafood, dancing and prizes, then the Center, in its infinite wisdom, has created an event that you and your more golf-friendly friends can enjoy together: the night before they hit the

links, join them at the Pre-Classic Party at the Trapp Door. Ten bucks (which goes directly to the Center) buys you a seafood buffet from Gastronomy and a crack at some cool prizes, in addition to the opportunity to hobnob with our best and brightest. So you get to go to a swingin’ club the night before you got out and swing some clubs. My god, I hope that sentence doesn’t get me fired.

11pm, Trapp Door, 102 S 600 W. Tickets $10; information at 539-8800 ext 13.

11SUNDAY And then the next day is the actual, you know, golfing. The Center Golf Classic is your chance to go stroke for stroke with some of the best gay golfers in Utah. (My god, I hope that one doesn’t get me fired either.) Of course, some of our beloved straight advocates will be there as well, and all participants will receive lunch, a goody bag, prizes and a free golf cart, which will come in handy if you’re like my mother, who prefers to ride along drinking margaritas rather than actually playing. All proceeds go directly to benefiting the Center’s programs.

Registration begins at 7am, golf 8:30am12:30pm, Stonebridge Golf Club, 4415 W. Links Drive, West Valley. Registration $100, information at 539-8800, ext. 13

12MONDAY If Radiohead and the Killers were somehow to breed (which is a delightful thought for a variety of reasons, some musical and some not), their child might sound something like Interpol, a very serious, earnest, humorless and yet damn good band who will play the City by the Pestilent Sea™ tonight.

8pm, Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents’ Circle, University of Utah. Tickets $23.50 at 355-2787 or arttix.org

13TUESDAY

UPCOMING

Natalie Cole believes in using what she got of her father’s talent for good, which is why she’s headlining the 13th Annual Blue Cross/Blue Shield Gala Event, which raises money to give dental coverage to low-income Utah children.

This is a worthy cause indeed, as there is no reason that children living in the wealthiest country in the world shouldn’t have dental coverage in the first place, but you should also go because maybe Natalie will do that “Wild Women” song from the Pretty Woman soundtrack.

Now that you’ve spent two weeks moving about and getting cardiovascular, don’t forget to register for the Utah AIDS Foundation’s Walk for Life, which takes place next Saturday, the 17th. To register and for more information, go online at www.utahaids.org or call 487-2323.

Utah is host to the National Gay Men’s Health Summit October 19–23.

Register at ngmhs2005.org or email gmhs2005@utahaids.org for more information.

8pm, Abravanel Hall, 123 W South Temple.

Tickets $35-$50 at 355-2787n or arttix.org

GAY WENDOVER WEEKEND EVENT SCHEDULE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 9pm Welcome Reception

8-9pm Welcome Center Shooters Lounge. Get event tickets, a special goodies weekend bag, information. Free.

7pm Dutch Oven Dinner Leppy Hills. Sponsored by High Country Exploring. Have dinner in the canyons north of Wendover by the campfire. $20. First 20 people to buy tickets get 2-for-1 price. Shuttle from hotel.

Sports Bar. Cash bar. Free.

9pm Wet® Lube Wrestling Contest

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 2-4pm Welcome Center

11pm Ms. Gay Wendover contest

Shooters Lounge. Get event tickets, a special goodies weekend bag, information. Free.

4pm Texas Hold ‘em Lesson Wendover Nugget poker room. Sponsored by the Wendover Nugget. Free.

Club Shooters. Enter to win prizes. Sponsored by Wet Lubricants. Included in Party Pass.

Club Shooters. Enter to win prizes. Wet T-shirt, whipped cream bikini. Sponsored by Blue Boutique. Included in Party Pass.

12pm Mr. Gay Wendover contest

Wendover Nugget poker room. Sponsored by the Wendover Nugget. Free.

Club Shooters. Enter to win prizes. Wet briefs, whipped cream bikini. Sponsored by Club Exit.

Included in Party Pass.

7pm Drag Show

2am Blackout Party

5pm Craps, Roulette, Poker lesson

8pm Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament.

Club Shooters. Club, house, techno, trance, breakbeats with DJ Josh. Flourescent body paint.

Included in Party Pass.

Wendover Nugget poker room. Sponsored by the Wendover Nugget. Pot Limit. $25 buy-in gets $400 in tournament chips.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 11am Gay Brunch

Sports Bar stage. Sponsored by the Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire. Free.

8-9pm Welcome Center Shooters Lounge. Get event tickets, a special goodies weekend bag, information. Free.

9pm Movie/Slumber Party Shooters Lounge. Sponsored by Regency Theatres, Trolley Square. Showing: Eating Out, winner of almost every gay and lesbian film festival. Bring your pillows or sit in the posh booths and sofas.

Popcorn and cash bar. Included in Party Pass.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 11am-1pm ATV/Horseback Riding

Nugget Buffet, sponsored by the Utah GLBT Business Guild. $8.95 or free with Fabulous Fun Bus.

PARTY PASS The Gay Wendover Weekend Party Pass is yours for a lucky $13 for all events or included in your Fabulous Fun Bus ticket price.

FABULOUS FUN BUS

12pm Gay Brunch

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, $21

12-2pm Welcome Center

Nugget Buffet, sponsored by the Utah GLBT Business Guild. Regular buffet price: $8.95 or included with Fabulous Fun Bus.

6pm Salt Lake-Wendover 2am return, back in SLC by 4am

2pm Pool Party

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 , $21

Wendover Nugget Pool. Rubber Ducky Plunge raffle for ‘adult’ prizes. Swimwear fashion show.

Included in Party Pass. Cash bar.

10am Salt Lake-Wendover 6pm return, back in SLC by 8pm

5pm Craps, Roulette, Poker lesson

6pm Salt Lake-Wendover 2am return, back in SLC by 4am

Wendover Nugget poker room. Sponsored by the Wendover Nugget. Free.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, $15

7:30pm Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament.

8am Salt Lake-Wendover 4pm return, back in SLC by 6pm

Wendover Nugget poker room. Sponsored by the Wendover Nugget. No Limit. $30 buy-in gets $400 in tournament chips.

slmetro.com/wendover

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 19

Shooters Lounge. Get event tickets, a special goodies weekend bag, information. Free.

Save the driving and the gas and take a Fabulous Fun Bus to Wendover. Tickets include: Gay Wendover Weekend party pass, $7.00 Cash Back, A Free Grand Buffet, A Free Drink at any Casino Bar, A Free Starbucks Coffee Drink, A Lucky Buck to be used at the table games, more.

You may stay overnight and come back on another bus for an additional $10 bus ticket.

Leppy Hills. Sponsored by Intermountain Guide Service. First time or experienced riders welcome.

Experience the Nevada desert. $30. 9am, 1pm and 3pm rides also available. Shuttle from hotel.

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Tori’s Sacred Journey

by Eric J. Tierney eric@slmetro.com The first thing concertgoers encounters when they take their seat for a Tori Amos show is the Bosendorfer. The stately nine-foot concert grand piano—handmade with wood from the maker’s own forest—dominates the stage, primed and waiting for the moment when its mistress will appear and make it sing.

For Amos and her legions of devoted fans, the instrument is much more than a piano. For one thing, it’s been the artist’s most trusted friend and musical collaborator for more than ten years, appearing on each of Amos’ albums since Under the Pink in 1994. For another, it has been around the world almost ten times, playing to hundreds of thousands of rapt listeners. Waiting for the show to begin, the audience can’t help but feel the energy stored in its strings and pedals from the untold thousands of times Amos has played it, storing up all the wisdom, passion, anguish and joy that have been poured into it all these years.

Of course, for a Tori fan, those moments spent looking at the piano before she arrives on stage are charged with a special sort of anticipation; they know that while the Bose has seen the world, while it was in another city last night and will be in still another tomorrow, any minute now Tori Amos is going to come on stage and, for two hours, play it just for them. And they know they’re in for quite a ride.

After leaving the Peabody Conservatory of Music at eleven, Tori started playing her first professional gigs in Georgetown gay bars. A now-infamous story tells of cocktail servers teaching the thirteen-year-old girl still known as Myra Ellen Amos to perform fellatio using a cucumber.

Today, gays and lesbians are amongst Tori’s most ardent fans. Younger listeners, especially, find in Tori a kind of ally who is as vulnerable as they are. There is also the fact that Amos’s intense Christian background—she is the daughter of a Methodist minister—means she can definitely relate to sexual shame. Gay men and women also talk about how, as a marginalized and oppressed people, they are inspired

by Tori’s resolute determination, at all costs, to be herself.

Spirituality is essential to Amos’ worldview, and in a 1999 live chat session on gay.com, she commented that gays are not permitted to see themselves as spiritual beings, but must live under society’s reductive definition of them as leading purely sexual lives.

Picking up the theme, she says “I think there is a need in the gay community to balance sexuality and spirituality. People project ‘a sexual lifestyle and that’s all’ onto the idea of gay instead of the artistic and spiritual. And that’s something I’ve found that the community is demanding be integrated and recognized by the mass consciousness … it’s really important to add the idea of spirituality and sacredness into a gay relationship.”

The September 6 concert at West Valley’s Usana Amphitheatre will mark Amos’ eighth stop in Utah. Diehards will remember early shows at the Murray Park Amphitheatre and Cottonwood High School. She likens traveling to the city to approaching Mecca.

“I see it as an oasis in the desert, surrounded by the mountains … I find it very comforting because of the land itself,” she said. “I relate to the land, but not necessarily to the culture that has taken it over in such a short time.

I relate to the beauty … I’ve always been sort of a desert creature myself.”

Although the first leg of the tour was solo, Amos will hit Salt Lake with her longtime collaborators, bassist Jon Evans and percussionist Matt Chamberlain. This time around, she’s added a unique element to the show: each night she plays two covers from a list of requests submitted at toriamos.com, and as a result has found herself playing everything from Cat Stevens to Aersosmith. Audiences have responded to the tour with their typical adoration.

Amos is at her best live and her skill as a performer is practically unmatched — there aren’t many musicians who can entrance 15,000 people into silence. Tori Amos does it consistently.

Next week she’ll do it once again in Salt Lake. With her, of course, will be the Bose.

“There’s a trust factor [with the piano]. We share an understanding. I feel that I can come to her and if I don’t get it right, she forgives me and she guides me. That doesn’t mean I can’t play other pianos—if for some reason I was taken to Mars, I could still play piano there. But the Bose … we talk without speaking, and then we make music.”

As she says goodbye, Amos remarks on the journey through the beautiful upstate New York forest we’ve just taken together. She and her audience have been traveling together for some time now, and it’s clear that for both it’s the journey, and not the destination, that matters.

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Amos has been acclaimed as one of the best live acts in music today, and in the thirteen years that have elapsed since she released Little Earthquakes, the album which transformed the former-child-prodigy-turned-loungesinger-turned-heavy-metal-rocker into an internationallyrenowned artist. She has amassed a following of devotees who display the kind of almost religious fervor usually associated with bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish.

It is not uncommon to come across “Toriphiles” who’ve been to over a hundred shows—quite an accomplishment considering that she usually tours only every other year.

Eight albums after Earthquakes, Amos and her listeners show no sign of slowing down—she’s currently on the last leg of a world tour in support of her latest effort, The Beekeeper. Speaking from the bus on her way to a show in Saratoga Springs, NY, Amos talked about the journey she’s been on all that time, and what the girl who started on it would think of the music she’s making now.

“I think she’d be glad to know that all the work she was doing would pay off,” she says. “When I was writing [the early] works, I was desperately trying to feel them inside of myself, but they were very much outside of myself. I could only be in contact with those energies while I was performing. When I would walk offstage on the Under the Pink tour, I felt completely detached … I had to work very hard on my person, because the performer was far more advanced than the human. So I needed to invite the songs to live inside my being instead of just onstage and on disc.

And the woman I am today now walks with all the songs.

And I think that’s what that girl—that woman—would want me to have accomplished, because she was desperate. She was dying.”

The woman of today is thriving. While best known for the intensely personal nature of her writing—over the years she has fearlessly and powerfully sung about the most painful moments in her life, from the ending of a seven-year relationship to rape to miscarriage—Amos’ new work has moved beyond the subjective and personal to delve into universal themes.

Indeed, she now takes care to ensure the music doesn’t become too much about her: “My experience of the song will be woven into the interpretation that the listener will hear,” she explains, “but I have to be dead certain I am not taking it in a direction that could be misperceived because I get caught up in the translation.”

This freedom from putting herself under the knife has allowed her to dissect the world around her, and The Beekeeper is the most sophisticated album yet, reflecting new insight into traditional Amos themes like the manifestation of power in all its forms: personal, political, sexual and beyond. A voracious reader and student of the world’s

philosophies and religious traditions, she is fascinated by the constant manifestation of classical archetypes in the world, and wrote the new songs from archetypal points of view like Athena and the Magdalene.

Amos sees these archetypes in everything. “Mother Revolution,” one of the key tracks on the new album, was initially inspired by the state of the world’s political situation, especially the war in Iraq. During the writing, however, Tori realized the song was bigger than just the current state of affairs and her political views.

“This is about a consciousness. It’s the mothers refusing to get drawn into the guilt—from the time of Troy and the ancients to our current circumstances—of not wanting their son or daughter’s blood spilled for an agenda,” she said.

The powerful, eloquent song that resulted is the hallmark of the newer, wiser, more evolved Tori Amos; if she felt lost before, she’s definitely found herself now.

‘Patient A’ Explores a Moment in AIDS History T T T T

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by Eric J. Tierney eric@slmetro.com According to HIV/AIDS non-profit AVERT, there may be as many as two million Americans, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, living with HIV or AIDS today.

With the advent of antiretroviral therapies, people with HIV/AIDS are living increasingly longer and healthier lives.

As managing the disease becomes easier, its presence in the news media becomes diminished and public attention wanders. In an era when people are less and less concerned about exposure, it’s hard to remember that only a decade ago the United States—and especially the gay community—was in the midst of full-blown AIDS panic. Today, the public has grown complacent about the disease, complacent about exposure, complacent about treatment, and complacent about a cure. But AIDS—and hostile attitudes about those who have it—is alive and well in America today. Salt Lake’s Plan-B Theatre Company hopes to remind audiences of that when its season-closer, Lee Blessing’s Patient A, opens September 9 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

Patient A tells the true story of Kimberly Bergalis, who became the first confirmed case of AIDS transmission from a healthcare worker to a patient when she was exposed to the virus by her dentist in 1992.

The public outcry that followed opened up a major public discourse about HIV, homosexuality, healthcare, religion, and social justice. Blessing’s play about the case and events surrounding it premiered off-Broadway in 1993 at the prestigious Signature Theatre Company.

Patient A is equal parts fiction and docudrama, with much of the dialogue culled from interviews Blessing did with Bergalis shortly before her death. In addition to himself and Kimberly, Blessing created a third character, called Matthew, for the piece. An amalgam of Blessing’s real-life friends who died from AIDS, Matthew gives voice to the attitudes and feelings of the untold thousands of American men who have lived with the disease themselves or have watched those they love suffer and die from it.

As the production shows, the case was not without controversy. Bergalis was infected the same year that NBA star Magic Johnson came forward with his diagnosis, bringing about the kind of widespread media attention and research funding for which AIDS activists had been fighting for nearly a decade. Gay men noted bitterly that while hundreds of thousands of their community had died, AIDS patients found little sympathy from the public until a sports star and a pretty white girl were diagnosed.

Similar opinions are expressed through the play’s deconstructed form, which allows the players to move fluidly through the fourth wall as well as the confines of their characters—there are moments in the script when Kimberly or Matthew steps out of the story to confront Blessing’s storytelling techniques.

Although a lot has changed since 1993, Plan-B Producing Director Jerry Rapier feels the show is as relevant now as it was when it premiered more than a decade ago.

During a recent year spent as an event

planner for the Utah AIDS Foundation, Rapier was shocked to find that after all this time, attitudes toward the disease and those who live with it have not changed much. “I was shocked to learn that there are still people out there who feel that AIDS is a punishment—and a fitting one—for gay men. One of the questions the play asks is whether finding a cure for the virus would bring about a cure for the fear and hate.”

Noting recent statistics that show sharp increases in both unsafe sex and HIV diagnoses, Rapier further registers his surprise at the number of gay men who know little or nothing about AIDS. “They have this attitude that if they get it, they can just take a pill and be fine. They don’t know that the drugs are cost-prohibitive even for people who are well-set financially. They don’t know that every body reacts differently to the medicine. They don’t know what living with AIDS is like.”

Rapier has taken a spare, “almost clinical” approach to his direction, with an aim toward recreating for the audience what life for an AIDS patient was like in the early 90s.

“Back then, there was no AIDS support group at the Center every Wednesday night.

These people died lonely, quick deaths, often spending their last moments with strangers, outside the embrace of family,” he notes. Rapier hopes that spending some time in such an environment will inspire empathy and action in audience members.

In a three-handed show, good casting is essential, and Rapier has enlisted some of Salt Lake’s best talent for Patient A. He secured special permission from Blessing to allow Anita Booher (Plan-B’s The Laramie Project, Tooth and Nail’s Crave) to play Lee. She’s joined by Colleen Lewis (Egyptian Theatre Company’s Ruthless!) as Kim and Logan Miller, who recently appeared in Plan-B’s Slam, as Matthew.

Plan-B hopes to use the show as a springboard for reopening public discourse about AIDS in Utah. In conjunction with the play, the company has joined with Julie Brizzee/Your Lender For Life and the Utah AIDS Foundation to present an art show called Patient S. Curated by the Art Access Gallery, the show features the work of eight local visual artists and will hang in the corridor leading to the theatre. In addition, the company is setting aside two performances to benefit local AIDS organizations: the September 11 show for the People With AIDS Coalition of Utah and the September 18 show for the Utah AIDS Foundation.

Tickets for these special performances are available through those organizations.

Rapier notes that one of the major themes addressed in Patient A is the idea that the HIV/AIDS plague is not a matter of the virus alone, but also of the plague of fear, intimidation and discrimination that the virus engenders. As Utah’s most socially-conscious theatre and one of its most honored—the company recently picked up SLAMMY Awards for Best Acting Company and Best Local Production, bringing its grand total to 21 since 2000— Plan-B is in a unique position to further the discussion that will one day end both. And that, regardless of the political and social controversies of her case, is a fitting legacy for Kimberly Bergalis.

EarPiece

WRITERS WANTED Send a writing sample to editor@slmetro.com

Fall Movie Season

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 23

by Eric J. Tierney eric@slmetro.com Summer is nice and all, what with shirtless boys, margaritas, and three months of According to Jim reruns, but eventually a guy grows tired of the endless hum of the air conditioner and breaking into a sweat every time he opens the front door. Thankfully, what gets me though the dog days is the blissful thought that soon it will be Fall Movie Season—the time of year when the studios finally release the movies with, you know, all the stories and characters. No one enjoyed the on-screen debut of Jessica Simpson or the masterful emoting of Hayden Christensen as much as I, but there are only so many explosions and car chases I can take. Where are the biopics? The Pulitzer Prize-winning novels adapted into movies that get nominated for big awards but that no one sees? Where is Kate Winslet? Where is Philip Seymour Hoffman?

Well, friends, they’re on their way. Here are some to look forward to: Brokeback Mountain (Dec. 9) If the fact that it’s based on a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winner (see!) Annie Proulx isn’t enough to get you in the seats, then surely the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play lovers will. (This, by the way, has led my friend Frank to refer to the movie as “Bareback Mountain.” Frank is a man of very poor taste, but that is the subject of another column.) They play cowboys!

Oliver Twist (Sep. 23) Adaptations of classic literature are usually a sure-fire way to cinematic success, but I have serious doubts this will capture the Dickensian world of vice and exploitation as well as Oliver!. On the other hand, Roman Polanski directed it and he knows the exploitation of children.

Elizabethtown (Oct. 14) Over the years, Cameron Crowe has perfected a style of filmmaking—from Say Anything to Jerry Maguire to Almost Famous—that effortlessly combines the comic and the poignant in a way that comes awfully close to a representation of everyday life. The latest stars Or-

lando Bloom playing a regular, twenty-first century human being. For the first time in memory, Bloom can’t get away with letting his costume do all the acting. Zing!

Jarhead (Nov. 4) Considering that the first movie he ever made was American Beauty, Sam Mendes is pretty talented. Critics are already buzzing about Jarhead, his adaptation of a Marine’s memoir of the first Gulf War that was a phenomenon when it was published right before we started the current Gulf War. Also, more Jake Gyllenhaal without his shirt on.

Rent (Nov. 23) The original Broadway cast is almost entirely reunited for what looks to be the film that Rent-heads have been waiting ten years for. I suggest watching the trailer at www.sonypictures.com/movies/rent/. It’s just enough to get you a little misty. All your reservations about Chris “Adventures in Babysitting” Columbus directing will be allayed.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Nov 18) As everyone in the free world knows, things get a loooot more serious in Book 4—so much so that the MPAA has given Harry and company a PG-13. The return of He Who Must Not Be Named is sure to be intense, but for my money it’s all about watching Ireland trounce Bulgaria in the Quidditch World Cup. By the way, I’m not such a dork in real life. Honestly.

A History of Violence (Sep. 23) Won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, which means you’ll like it whether you like it or not.

The Producers (Dec. 21) Personally, I find Nathan Lane to be absolutely insufferable.

Millions of dollars of box office receipts say that I’m pretty much alone there, though, so you’ll probably enjoy the movie version of the Broadway smash, in which Uma Thurman will sing. Plus, $100 for a theatre tickets versus $7.50 for a movie ticket. You do the math. (100-7.5=92.50, in case you don’t have a calculator handy.)

And that’s just a sampling! So as you swelter through the 90 degree nights and soul-sucking reruns of shows that had no place being on television in the first place, comfort yourself with the thought that soon, at a theatre near you, will appear these words: Directed by George Clooney. Bring on the sweaters!

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Urban Bistro

by Vanessa Chang vanessa@slmetro.com 216 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City (801) 322-4101 Monday-Thursday 11:00 am-3:00 pm; 5:00 pm-9:30pm Friday–Saturday 11:00 am-3:00 pm; 5:00 pm10:00 pm There are those in the dining world whose approach to food is so austere that anything but the food and the immediate necessities (i.e. über-chic flatware, one of a kind Riedel stemware) are superfluous additions.

Charlie Trotter and devotees wax poetic about dining in pared down décor. Devoid of distractions such as background music, artwork, etc., the food can truly be the center of attention. Or, so goes the theory.

Dealing with such a demanding plate is fine and dandy for once-a-year dining.

But when it comes to an everyday affair, a holistic approach seems more realistic.

Places like Urban Bistro prove that it’s okay to stimulate the other senses. And lo and behold, you can still enjoy the food.

Of course, there are the glaring examples of interior decorating gone wrong—whether it’s the cookie-cutter oh-so-in-the-box thinking of chain décor or the mish-mash of accessories and furniture set to prove that “we are cool.” Fortunately, this simply isn’t the case at Urban; the overall vibe is hip. And there’s a great balancing act between that “hip” factor and good food.

If you can’t live in a loft, you can at least enjoy a meal in one. Works from local artists accessorize cement walls, exposed brick, and high ceilings. Enough color and visual interest to strike up a conversation or give you an excuse to drift off on a thought when conversation gets too boring for actual participation.

The usual suspects range as widely as the menu. You get the urbane masses with the latest haircut and threads. There are also the suits that forget about the office for an hour. Not to mention the average suburbanites who commute in their oversized SUVs for a weekend dinner out. This eclectic feel and downtown locale makes the name of this place apt: urban. And within

these refurbished walls one can dine well on a variety of cuisines.

A menu with such sheer scope (Italian, Mexican, American) could be disastrous with schizophrenic result. But the food is so refreshingly straightforward and unpretentious that this coexistence of cuisine succeeds. The house burger features a roasted green chile atop a beef, turkey, or vegetarian patty. The nutty whole-grain bun adds some nice texture and flavor to an old favorite. Every salad I’ve encountered featured some astonishingly fresh greens. Combined with slices of flank steak, feta cheese, and sliced strawberries, it even made a low-carb fiend happy. A hard task, I assure you.

Lunch is an easy undertaking. You step up to the counter, order, pay, grab a seat and the food is brought to you. Pretty simple. Dinner enjoys the same casual affair.

This time, the counter is closed. Wait for a table and a server (remarkably friendly for being the only one on the whole floor) takes care of you the rest of the way. If it’s a group outing, it’s particularly fun to try the Family Tasting. The chef chooses the courses and you get three flights of some house stalwarts and specials.

Of the appetizers, the chile relleno was the runaway winner. Blue cheese and walnuts made an appearance in fried green chile—an unexpectedly wonderful blend of swarthy dairy product and sweet capsicum. Usually, I’m wary of pork on a menu.

Not because of hygienic concerns (please).

Rather, it tends to be overcooked horrendously in the name of our clean society.

Not so in the pork tenderloin swathed with a brandy-peppercorn cream sauce. The sauce was flavorful and still light with just enough richness from the cream.

I’d have to say the best perk of the family style option is that you get as many desserts as you have people in your group.

So in our case, a trio of ladies, the server pretty much handed us triple happiness on a plate. A chocolate decadence cake, a rich caramel draped flan, and a tangy lemon tart (the latter two, in particular) made us happy girls, indeed.

And we didn’t even mind the art on the walls.

Red,White Bubbly Pretty Young Thing

by Beau Jarvis beau@slmetro.com I Want To Love You (P.Y.T.) Pretty Young Thing You Need Some Lovin’ (T.L.C.) Tender Lovin’ Care And I’ll Take You There I Want To Love You (P.Y.T.) Pretty Young Thing You Need Some Lovin’ (T.L.C.) Tender Lovin’ Care I’ll Shake You There Remember this tune? Hint: It’s pre-creepy/ trying-to-look-like-Diana Ross-throughplastic surgery Michael Jackson. Granted, in light of recent Jackson-revelations, the lyrics seem somewhat troubling. Let’s put all that aside and apply the sentiment of this song to pretty young wine.

When looking for a nice bottle of vino, how do you react upon seeing wine from a very recent vintage (i.e. 2004 or 2003)?

Perhaps you have no age bias and you freely grab young bottles. Or maybe you’re like me — a subconscious wine snob. Sure, I talk a great game, “Wine is for drinking ... it’s no big deal … blah blah blah.” But underneath all this, I often avoid wines less than one or two years of age. Why? Somewhere in the blackness of my soul lives a wine snob who thinks there is no such thing as a “serious” young wine.

That’s simply baloney. Much of the wine sold in shops across the land is under three years old. And the vast majority of wine purchased is consumed within 48 hours.

Most of us don’t have wine cellars. Heck, we don’t even have the space to store more than a few bottles of wine. And who has the patience to hold onto multiple bottles for years? So in all reality, nearly all wine drinkers aren’t aging their wine “until its time.”

We buy wine and drink it, end of story.

Now the question becomes: is young wine somehow inherently inferior? The answer is a resounding no. In fact, there is much to be said for fresh wine. Contrary to

popular belief, the average wine does not improve with age. That ten-dollar bottle of Chardonnay on your kitchen counter was made to drink today (so get cracking).

Young white wine can be a thing of beauty.

One of my recent pretty young discoveries is Elk Cove Pinot Gris, 2004 ($16) from Oregon. Take a sniff. This wine is full of fresh pear, blossom, and nectar-like scents. A sip of this youngun’ is terrific: tangy citrus and apricot flavors followed by a pleasant, honeyed finish. I believe aging this wine might take away from its refreshing, zesty character. It is indeed a pretty young wine that works wonders with roast chicken, goat cheese smeared on a slice of baguette, or a simple BLT sandwich.

Perhaps you’d like to give a pretty young Aussie a try? (Editor’s Note: Who wouldn’t?) Primo Estate La Biondina, ‘04 ($14) is a blend of grapes that normally have no business being in the same bottle together. But hey, that’s what the Aussies do. And I like it. La Biondina contains Colombard (from somewhere in Australia, I presume), Riesling (from the Eden Valley), and Sauvignon Blanc (from the Adelaide Hills). This wine is replete with scents of lemongrass, grapefruit and pineapple. It’s also got a surprising amount of zing. This young thing makes a great companion to sashimi & seaweed salad.

In my embarrassingly limited experience with young wine, I’ve discovered that I’m partial to young white wine. So far the red wine I’ve sampled from recent vintages has tasted more like Hawaiian Punch than wine. However, some reds from the ’03 vintage have been delightful. Many 2003 French Beaujolais wines (made of the Gamay grape) smell like strawberry fields in a glass. These wines taste very fresh and lively. They’re definitely fruity, but not syrupy. Try one of these pretty young red things: DuBoeuf Fleurie, ’03 ($13), Duboeuf Regine, ’03 ($11), or DuBoeuf St. Amour ’03 ($12).

Now that you have PYT (PYT!) playing on a loop in your head, search the sock drawer for your sequined glove (admit it, you’ve got one). Slide it on, pop open one of these pretty young wines, play a little Michael, and moonwalk around the kitchen. Cheers (na na na na).

Restaurant Owners Get your restaurant listed in our Dining Guide at the lowest prices we’ve ever offered.

Call 323-9500 today.

Di ing Guide Dining de Fiddler’s Elbow

Nick-N-Willy’s Pizza

Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta

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

1063 E. 2100 S. / 463-9393

4538 S, HIGHLAND DR./ 273-8282

1063 E. 2100 S. / 484-1804

fiddlerselbowslc.com

nicknwillyspizza.com

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

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

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

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

SLC’s buzzing java shop with a diverse crowd.

HOURS:

saltlakepizzaandpasta.com HOURS:

HOURS:

CUISINE: PRICE:

M-SA 11AM-11PM 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.

32 beers, including Utah’s best selection of microbrews.

Dine in or take-out. Call ahead and we’ll have it ready. The Original 1751 S 1100 EAST / 483-2971 Albertsons Shopping Ctr. HOURS: M-SA 11AM–7PM

Michelangelo Ristorante

Orbit Cafe

2156 S, HIGHLAND DR./ 466-0961 TU-SA 11:30AM-1:30PM 5:45-9PM CUISINE: ITALIAN PRICE: $$ CARDS: AE D MC V

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

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

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

michelangeloristorante.com HOURS:

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.

Restaurant Owners: Get Your Ad in the Dining Guide. Call 323-9500.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 25

Bangkok Thai

Classifieds DON’T RENT—BUY All credit accepted. Connie APPLE ONE Employ801-347-2956. ment Services is seekAVENUES ELEGANT ing qualified call center experienced in sales. restoration. 165 A Street. Main floor of hisCan earn $12+/hr plus toric home. 1600 sq commission. Apply toft. Formal dining, panday. Employers, let us try, fireplace in kitchen, fill your staffing needs.

Call Steven Whittaker at dishwasher, lg laundry with w/d, bathtub/ 463-4828 for an appt. shower stall, patio, offREGENCY TROLLEY street parking. Ideal for Squares Cinema now couple. Can accomohiring Asst. Mgr. Flexidate 3 adults. No Dogs! ble schedule required.

Theatre experience pre- $1250/mth. All utls pd. ferred. Free movies and 359-7814. fun environment.ConFREE RENT. Pay no tact Stephen or apply in rent, deposit or utiliperson. ties in Phoenix, AZ if you watch the house when FOR SALE I’m away and help part POOL TABLES. Still in time with some easy crate. 1 inch slate, solhousehold tasks. Chance id mahogany, handto earn extra moncarved legs, accessory ey working extra hours. kit included. $1400, call Plus, if you are eager to 801-232-6494 or 801learn, I’ll help you start 597-0795. www.mouna new life as a well-paid tainbilliards.com computer professionFOR RENT al. Friendly, congenial, trustworthy, single male 994 S DENVER ST. seeking similar per1,500 sq ft 3 bdrm, 2 bath, garage, basement, son compatible with my fplc, central air, lg closets, LDS values; no smoking, drinking, drugs. Will w/d incl., fenced yard. $900/mth, discount avail. help you relocate. Email azhomedog@yahoo.com No pets/smokers. Duff or call 602-348-1379.

674-8091.

HELP WANTED

SUGARHOUSE $550/ MONTH. 2 bedroom apt. w/d hookups, storage, and carport. No smoking! Sm adult pet OK! Call Valene @ 2620113. CDA Properties.

SUGARHOUSE DUPLEX. Quiet long term neighbor, 2 bdr, remodeled, hookups, covered parking. $690/month.

11th East area. Call Jim 718-1170. Two other rentals coming available soon.

SUGARHOUSE 400 Sq ft room w/Pvt Ent, Bath Hspd-Int-TV-cable. All Utils Inc. New Paint, fixtures. Tile floors pets nego. $475/Mo picojardin@elitenail.org

ROOMMATES WANTED ROOMMATE AD SPECIAL— Advertise in the “Roommates Wated” section for just $5 per issue. See slmetro.com/ classifieds or call 323-9500 today.

LAYTON HOUSE to share. Close to Hwy 89.

Two bedrooms available. Outside pet area, ideal for sm to med size dog. $385 & $285 per month + utilities. Call 267-1388 or 725-4613.

AIRPORT/DOWNTOWN. Male to share large furnished home. No smoking, no pets. $350/month Call 631-8110.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES PERFECT ALTERNATIVE Office Building!

Affordable Space Available!(100 to 1200 sq. ft.) 801-466-5285, ask for Belinda. 1800 S West Temple Ste. 216

MISC. ARE YOU HIV+?

Pride Counseling has restarted a Therapy/Support Group for men who are HIV infected and seeking support from others in similar situations. For information please call Jerry Buie LCSW at 801-595-0666

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SALT LAKE METRO ■ SEPTEMBER 1, 2005

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TIRED OF THE BAR LIFE? Pride Counseling is offering a Gay Men’s Therapy/Support Group. Gay men often find that their options to socialize limited to

clubs and bars. Most insurance companies billed, sliding fee scale.

For information please call Jerry Buie LCSW at 801-595-0666.

Service Guide ATTORNEYS

RESOURCES

A COUPLE OF GUYS by Dave Brousseau

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. groups.yahoo. com/group/ utahmalenaurists ROYAL COURT of the Golden Spike Empire. rcgse.org Membership meetings held twice monthly. Help support your community!

BITTER GIRL by Joan Hilty

GAY MENS HEALTH SUMMIT. Gay men’s health is more than just HIV. visit us at utahgaymenshealth.com CODE PINK. A women-initiated 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!)

ADAM AND ANDY by James Asal

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 ■ SALT LAKE METRO ■ 27

DO YOU Work at CONVERGYS? Would you like to meet with some of your GLBT co-workers? Join the GLBT Convergys Yahoo Group! Go to: http:// groups.yahoo.com/ group/cvg-glbt/ and sign up. If you have questions,you may EMPLOYMENT any email the group owner APPLE ONE Employat: cvg-glbt-owner@ ment is seeking qualyahoogroups.com ified people in many CAMP PINECLIFF skills. Apply and begin Weekend, Annual reyour qualification totreat for people with day. Employers, let us HIV/AIDS and their care fill your staffing needs. providers c/o Dick DotCall Steven Whittaker at son, Coordinator P. O. 801-463-4828.

Box 608, Magna, Utah 84044-0608 or call ESTATE (801) 518-8733 PLANNING JANE MARQUARDT & ARE YOU a single lesbiDOUG FADEL Attorneys an? Wondering how to at Law, providing com- meet other single lesprehensive estate plan- bians for friendship and social events? If so, you ning services, custom designed to your unique are invited to sign up family situation. Trusts, for the Lesbian Singles wills, partnership agree- Social Group at groups. yahoo.com/group/lesbiments, estate admin. an_singles/ 294-7777 UTAH GAY Rodeo AssoJEWELERS ciation ugra.net PO Box CUSTOM DESIGN Jew- 511255 SLC, UT 841511255 A social & Rodeo elry. Relaxed atmoSport Organization sphere. All types of stone settings. ComWANT A HOT summitment rings, wedmer body? Queer Utah ding rings, earrings, Aquatic Club (QUAC) inpendants. Repairs wel- vites swimmers and come. Charley Hafen water polo players of Jewelers. 1411 S. 900 ANY skill level, including E. 521-7711 beginners, to join the team. Visit QuacQuac.

MASSAGE org for more info.

UNBELIEVABLE MASTHE SALT Lake County SAGE Athletic Male Division of Youth ServicTherapists, 440-5851 es provides youth and Contact 641-4009 families in crisis with BEST THERAPISTS, immediate and safe inbest price, best place, tervention, including best hours, call 48624-hour 7-day a week 5500 Pride Massage crisis counseling. Most 1800 S. West Temple services are provided # A224 free of charge. Please call 269-7500.

DENNIS MASSAGE Dennis is Utah’s only GAY WINE group. qViphysique print model & num.com is a fabulous massage therapist...see group of wine lovers why he is so well liked who hold winetastings at www.dennismassage. at members’ homes, com, www.dennismotravel to wineries and deling.com. (801) 598hold special fund rais8344 LMT#98212332470 ers for the community. qVinum.com STIMULATE YOUR SENSES or feel deep ENGENDERED SPEpeace with a relaxing CIES 801.320.0551. A full body massage. Call social/support group reTherron at 879-3583 sources for transgender for $5 off mention this people. www.engenad. LMT #5608006 deredspecies.com MARLIN G. CRIDDLE, P.C. Serving Utah’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender communities. Estate Planning, Probate, Criminal Law, Bankruptcy, Corporations/Business.

474-2299. marlincriddle.com

AMERICAN CIVIL Liberties Union. Fighting for individual freedoms since 1958. www. acluutah.org

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