QSaltLake Magazine - 299 - May 2, 2019 by QSaltLake Magazine

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MAY 2, 2019 VOL. 16 • ISSUE 299 QSALTLAKE.COM

BYU VALEDICTORIAN MATT EASTON TO GRADUATING CLASS:

I AM PROUD TO BE A GAY SON OF GOD PHOTO: TANNER ABEL

SUMMER LGBT SPORTS • FIVE HUSBANDS VODK A • UTAH LEATHER PRIDE • MOLLY SHANNON

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Pride SPECTACULAR CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF STONEWALL Join us for an evening celebrating Utah’s past and present LGBTQ+ heroes.

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Issue 299

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publisher/editor Michael Aaron

ASSISTANT editor Tony Hobday NATIONAL NEWS editor Craig Ogan designer Christian Allred sales Ken Stowe, 801-997-9763 x1 sales@qsaltlake.com contributors Joshua Adamson Pickett, Diane Anderson-Minshall, Chris Azzopardi, Paul Berge, Jeff Berry, Paul Campbell, Laurie Bennett-Cook, Stephen Dark, Jennifer Dobner, Mikki Enoch, Jack Fertig, Greg Fox, Charles Lynn Frost, Oriol Gutierrez Jr., John Hales, Ryan Haymore, Tony Hobday, Joshua Jones, Christopher Katis, Rock Magen, Sam Mills, Craig Ogan, Mikey Rox, Terri Schlichenmeyer, Gregg Shapiro, Petunia Pap Smear, Steven Petrow, Ed Sikov, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Ben Williams, D’Anne Witkowski distribution Bradley Jay Crookston,

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QSaltLake Magazine is a trademark of Salt Lick Publishing, LLC., Q Media Group Copyright © 2019, Salt Lick Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted or reproduced without written permission from the publisher. 8–12,000 copies are distributed free of charge at over 300 locations across the state. Free copies are limited to one per person. For additional copies, call 801-997-9763. It is a crime to dispose of current issues or otherwise interfere with the distribution of this magazine. Printed in the USA on recycled paper. Please recycle this copy when done.

QSaltLake replaces the trees we use. Twice.

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The paper mill we buy our paper from plants a new tree for every tree they use. But that wasn’t enough for us. We have partnered with the National Forest Foundation to plant an additional tree for every tree used to produce QSaltLake Magazine. So, for every tree we use, TWO trees are planted. Fires, insects and disease outbreaks are jeopardizing the majestic trees that grow in our forests from Maine to California. That’s why we have joined the National Forest Foundation’s ambitious effort to plant 50 million trees across our National Forests by 2023. The National Forest Foundation is investing in healthy forests for today and for future generations. With QSaltLake’s help, they will restore tens of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat, from the longleaf pine forests of Florida to the cedar groves of Alaska.

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from the publisher

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Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

Deciding to dance the dance BY MICHAEL AARON

Looking back, on the memory of The dance we shared beneath the stars above……

I’d never

considered this before, but I think that deciding on a presidential candidate to support early in the game is similar to those first moments of dating and wondering if this is the right person for you. You have two main choices — turn tail and run because of the possibility they are not the right one for you, or “dance the dance” and see where it takes you. For a moment all the world was right… So it is, for me, with deciding whether to join Team Pete. He officially announced this week and there is much excitement about his candidacy. On the one hand, wow! An openly gay candidate with significant “legs” entering the race. He polls at third place behind powerhouse (and old-school) candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. He’s young and fresh, smart, personable, right on most of my important issues, and looks good. Kind of a gay activist’s dream candidate. How could I have known you’d ever say goodbye… On the other hand, what are his chances of actually beating Donald Trump? Yes, the t-shirt helping pronounce his last name, Buttigieg, as “Boot-A-Trump” is cute enough that I want one in every color, but can he?

Will middle America and the needed swing independents and moderate Republicans go so far as to vote for an unapologetic gay man? That they did so for a certain unapologetic black man Barack Obama gives me hope, but have we progressed that far at this point? And now I’m glad I didn’t know… Frankly, I have decided none of the latter matters. Imagine all of the good that can come out of having an openly gay candidate with such great charisma and ideas in the national spotlight for however long he can ride this wave. The way it all would end the way it all would go… And, who knows, if we start the support early and keep it strong, how far this campaign can go? Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain… Some may say I’m choosing a candidate solely because he’s gay, and I will admit that there is some truth to that. But there is also the truth that supporting an strong LGBTQ candidate can do a world of good, even if that good doesn’t end up living in the White House. So, for this guy at this moment, I’ve decided to go to the Pete Prom and “dance the dance.” But I’d have to miss the dance. Q Thanks Garth Brooks and songwriter Tony Arata for “The Dance.”

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news The top national and world news since last issue you should know Mayor Pete jumps in Pete Buttigieg is officially running for president on the Democratic Party ticket, and jumped up to third place in national polls behind Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. He also is in contention in early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. His campaign scored well in the money race, hauling in over $5 million on announcement day. The 37-year-old made the announcement from an old Studebaker factory in South Bend, Indiana, where he has served as mayor since 2012. So far his campaign is light on issues, but is benefiting from the combination of Midwest Nice and a fabulous gay man personality. He campaigns with his husband, Chasten, who has perfected the Nancy Reagan adoring gaze and Michelle Obama eye roll.

Arizona No Homo Promo As Utah goes, so goes Arizona. The Republican-dominated legislature just repealed a nearly 30-year-old law that prohibits schools from conducting education on HIV/AIDS that “promotes a homosexual lifestyle.” Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., swiftly signed the bipartisan bill after the Senate’s 19-10 vote on Thursday, calling it a “common sense solution.” The new law renders moot a lawsuit filed by Equality Arizona challenging the old law, which

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the Arizona Attorney General declined to defend.

Under the knife in Iran The world’s leading provider of gender reassignment surgery turns out to be the Islamic Republic of Iran. Attitudes towards sexuality can be rigid in Iran. Former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, once declared that the country didn’t have any gay people. The regime’s encouragement of sex-change surgery is related to its intolerance of homosexuality, which is a capital offense. Gay Iranians face pressure to surgically change their sex regardless of whether they want to, say activists and psychologists in Iran. The procedure has been permitted since the mid-1980s.

spurred reflection on 50 years of progress while acknowledging … that the journey towards full equality for Canadians of all genders, identities, and sexual orientations was hard fought and is not yet over.”

The gay cure is in Kuwait In Kuwait, a college professor claimed that she has found a cure for homosexuality. It’s a suppository that will kill what she calls a “sperm-eating anal worm that facilitates excessive sexual urges.” Dr. Mariam Al-Sohel in a TV interview said, “This is science, so there is nothing to be ashamed of. The sexual urge develops when a person is sexually attacked, and afterward it persists because there is an anal worm that feeds on semen.” Whew, can’t make this stuff up.

PrEP price gouge investigated Canada Equality loon decried Canada isn’t pleasing anyone with a new $1 ‘Equality coin’ commemorating the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality. Some LGBTQ activists are unhappy because they say equality was not achieved in 1969 and has not yet been achieved. Others are unhappy because the coin suggests credit for equality should be given to “the Canadian government — specifically … former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.” Mint president Marie Lemay tried to make lemonade out of lemons, saying the design was “inspirational” and, “I see this morning it already has and

Seven US Senators sent a letter Tuesday to HHS and the CDC, asking the agencies to investigate Gilead Sciences for sales of the HIV drug Truvada. They say the patent is owned by the federal government for the drug. It is the only drug approved for use in the HIV-prevention method known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. It is also used in HIV treatment in combination with other drugs. The research that led to Truvada’s use as PrEP was conducted and funded by the US government. Gilead sold $3 billion worth of Truvada in 2018 and argues that the government patent is invalid, and the company has turned down requests for royalty payments. The Justice Depart-

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

ment has begun reviewing the patent issue.

Michigan Christian adoption agency bends over Bethany Christian Services a faith-based foster care and adoption contractor involved in more than 13,000 foster care and adoption cases in Michigan said Monday it will place children in LGBT homes. The agency was sanctioned by the state for refusing adoption services to a same-sex couple. St. Vincent Catholic Charities in Lansing, is still under sanction and is suing the state. BCS, not happy about the requirement, but likes the state funding, released a statement, “We are disappointed with how this settlement agreement has been implemented by the state government. Nonetheless, Bethany will continue operations in Michigan, in compliance with our legal contract requirements.”

San Antonio hates Chick-fil-A Hope you are not in the San Antonio airport if you are “jonesing” for waffle fries and a chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A. The city council is banning the chain from the airport, which has long been criticized for making donations to anti-gay organizations. The city council member, in proposing the ban, said that San Antonio is a city of compassion where everyone “has a place and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.” The company has tried to downplay comments from its founder about marriage equality, but in 2017, Chick-fil-A made donations to groups not favored by LGBT activists. The Texas attorney general

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sent a letter to the city that his office would investigate whether the a ban violates any laws about religious liberty. He also asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to look into the matter.

No ‘Call Me by Your Name’ 2, yet A sequel to Call Me by Your Name, a straight-washed movie about a gay relationship, is happening — at least in book form. André Aciman’s Find Me picks up where the book and movie left off. The age-significant lovers Elio and Oliver have moved on. Elio is now a gifted classical pianist and Oliver is a professor in the U.S., with sons. A movie sequel is in the talks, but the actor who played Oliver, Armie Hammer, talks it down, saying, “I think we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.”

A tease does not please A couple of late-Victorian bachelors sit around in dressing gowns drinking tea in a fabulous London flat. Some fans of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson thought (or hoped) they were lovers. According to Martin Freeman, Dr. Watson to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes on the PBS-aired series said a “writers’ tease” ticked off some fans when the series didn’t have a “gay” ending. The updated portrayal toyed with the sexual nature of the relationship. There was tongue-in-cheek

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humor, with other characters often assuming they were a gay couple. Fans assumed the show runners would end the series, “Where we held hands off into the sunset together,” says Freeman. That scenario didn’t occur and the production company got complaints of disappointment and “betrayal.” With another season in the offering, gay hope, as it does at midnight on Grindr, can spring eternal.

Americans support any legislation with the word “equality” in the title. Congress will hear testimony from LGBT grievance-industry professionals, LGBT supporting churches, university law professionals and diversity officers, and the obligatory personal stories of discrimination.

Equality Act gets hearing The U.S. Congress is holding the first-ever hearing on the Equality Act. The legislation guarantees LGBT nondiscrimination under the 1964 landmark Civil Rights Act. The act has major support from 180 name-brand businesses through the Human Rights Campaign’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act. Polls show 70 percent of

Not invited to testify is former Log Cabin chief executive Gregory Angelo, who wrote an op-ed for a conservative newspaper, saying, “Don’t be fooled by the name: The Equality Act is legislation that would compromise American civil rights and religious liberty as we know it.”

10 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | NEWS

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Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

BYU VALEDICTORIAN TO HIS GRADUATING CLASS:

‘I AM PROUD TO BE A GAY SON OF GOD’ BY MICHAEL AARON

A few weeks

ago, Brigham Young University student Matt Easton had told but a handful of people — very close friends and immediate family — that he is gay. Today, he’s taking calls from media around the world, getting high-fives from national celebrities, and taking time to talk to me at QSaltLake Magazine. As valedictorian of BYU’s Department of Political Science, Easton spoke to a full Marriott Center for the convocation of BYU’s Family, Home and Social Sciences College. But it was the words “I am proud to be a gay son of God” during the speech that caught the world’s attention. “It has been a whirlwind,” Easton said of the phone calls and social media posts he has received since the speech. Easton began his speech congratulating those who had “tackled” challenges while attending BYU. “I’d like to begin by saying congratulations. Congratulations to each of you for making it here; for pushing through an incredibly difficult, rigorous, and impressive degree at BYU. Congratulations to those that seriously considered dropping out but stuck with it,” Easton started his speech. “Congratulations to those who at some point have felt alone, or afraid, or uncertain while here. To those of us who have struggled with our faith, and to those who have strengthen it. Congratulations to my siblings of color, my LGBTQ friends. To students who are walking with mental illness. To all those who have constantly have stood in the face of adversity to make our campus better for future generations. You are seen,

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you are loved. And today you are here to celebrate.” What Easton didn’t know was that the reaction to him saying “LGBTQ friends,” was a whoop and applause from the crowd that would stop his speech. “I wasn’t really expecting any sort of response,” Easton said. “For me it was important to say these things, for me and the other gay kids, I needed to do this.” “It was very overwhelming to me, in the best way possible,” he said. “For me, I am celebrating a few of my own personal victories,” Easton continued in his speech. He regaled a story about being knocked to the ground as he was walking to class ... by a deer, then becoming known in the school as “The Deer Boy.” “But I’d like to tell that deer that it didn’t get the best of me. I’m still here and I’m still hungry for venison.” He then talked of his mother being diagnosed with terminal cancer and the family’s victory that she was in the audience to watch his speech. “We don’t know what awaits us, or her, but we are learning to celebrate the time we have left. Easton told the Book of Mormon story of Enos and his battle before God in prayer, then shared his own battles “in prayer with my Maker.” “It was in these quiet moments of pain and confusion that I have felt another triumph, that of coming to terms, not with who I thought I should be, but who the Lord has made me to be. “As such, I stand before my family, friends, and graduating class today to say that I am proud to be a gay son of God.” The audience once again erupted in screams and applause and some who stood. “I am not broken. I am loved and important in the plan of our great Creator. Each of us are,” he said. “Four years ago, it would have been impossible for me to imagine that I would come out to my entire college,” Matt said. “It is a phenomenal feeling, and is a victory for me in and of itself.” He then turned his attention to others in the audience who may be traveling the same path. “Perhaps there are those of you here today who are afraid or uncertain about how to deal with unique challenges. I hope that my stories can serve as a reminder the BYU has given us the foundation to face difficult problems, both

secular and spiritual, and that in the Lord, all things are possible.”

Celebrate Your Pride!

The coming out process As a young man, Easton thought he knew he was gay, but “pushed it to the back of [his] mind.” “I said to myself that I’ve got to get through high school and my mission, so I’m not going to think about it,” he said in an interview. “But when I got to college, people started asking me, ‘who are you dating?’ ‘when are you going to get married?’ ‘how many kids are you going to have?’” he said. “These were questions I couldn’t dodge any more. As I laid in bed thinking about these things, I just decided I couldn’t hide anymore.” “But I was in an environment where thinking about those things and vocalizing them, there’s not really space to do that,” he said. “It was only two years ago that I came out to my parents. Their first concern was, ‘are you in jeopardy at BYU?’ They were very supportive and advised me to be very careful.” He found a group of friends at the college who would listen and not “pressure me in one way or anther. Then slowly, in just the past year, I began to come out to my closest family members and friends. I had written about it in class, so I guess some of my professors knew.” Then, a few weeks ago hundreds of students protested on campus about how BYU enforces its honor code. “Almost on a whim, I think I channeled Henry David Thoreau or something and I made a poster that said, ‘I’m here, I’m queer and I deserve to feel safe.’” The Salt Lake Tribune snapped a shot of Easton waving the banner and put it on its website. “That was my first taste of what it would be like to be open. It was equal parts terrifying, and incredible. It was this juxtaposition of being so totally vulnerable and afraid, and feeling so totally liberated.” “So I kind of came to this thought where I’m graduating in three weeks, I’m starting this new chapter in my life, and I’m so, so afraid I’m going to keep hiding in this closet,” he said. “So I think that’s where the idea first sparked in my head. I wanted to take any opportunity I can to be really true to myself and put myself out there.”

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;So when I got offered the chance to speak at graduation, I thought this might be a good chance to come out in a way I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take back,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I saw my own struggle and those of my fellow classmates and I thought it would be great to take this platform and tell people that we are here, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not pariahs, that we can have value and do meaningful work and be gay.â&#x20AC;?

School approval It may surprise many to know that Eastonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speech, in its entirety, was approved by the deans of the Political Science department. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I put my name in as one of the eight or so valedictorians in the department who wanted to speak and was chosen,â&#x20AC;? Easton explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So they sent me an email with the guidelines of the speech, like the theme of celebration for all, like remember to write your speech as if a general authority was present, and your speech needs to be approved two weeks before.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wrote the speech being very inspired by Ellen [Degeneres]â&#x20AC;&#x2122; commencement speech, by Pete Buttigiegâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speech, Charlie Bird the Cosmo Cougar mascot who just came out. I went through a lot of role models,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I kind of had it in the back of my mind that it might be flagged as too controversial or maybe not appropriate for the graduation ceremony. So I thought Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d just throw it to them and see what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d think.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;To my surprise, they emailed me back saying, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;This is great. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right in line with

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what we are wanting to say, so go for it,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Easton said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At that point I was so in shock that the deanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office would be okay with giving this speech. I thought, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh my gosh, now I have to give it.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

The reaction â&#x20AC;&#x153;So, when I came out on the stand and people started cheering and applauding and some people stood up, I was just taken aback,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This community that I had so long been afraid of rejecting me, hating me, were now sending me this audible form of love and support.â&#x20AC;? He wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite ready to go to his home ward the following Sunday, so he met up with a number of high school and other friends and went to a singles ward. His extended family, though, has been incredibly supportive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had our normal Sunday dinner with the family, and some of my aunts showed up. We pulled up some of the stories written about me and laughed about them, so it was real nice.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everything Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been so afraid of ... I was afraid my family would look down on me, and they havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t,â&#x20AC;? he said.â&#x20AC;? The public comments through social media have varied from he went too far to he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go far enough. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ultimately, though, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m at peace with what I did and I think it was a very important step.â&#x20AC;? The list of celebrities who have congratulated Easton for his speech continues to grow as nearly 200,000 people have viewed it on Youtube.

Issue 299â&#x20AC;&#x192; |â&#x20AC;&#x192; MAY 2, 2019

Kristin Chenoweth tweeted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m very proud of you. As a straight Christian woman, I stand beside you!! I say to you: YOU ARE LOVED!â&#x20AC;? Both Pete and Chasten Buttigieg tweeted their approval, with Chasten saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;I am not broken.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Bravo, Matthew! đ&#x;&#x2019;Şâ&#x20AC;? Jamie Lee Curtis wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A valedictorian. A hero of faith and family. A â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;deerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; boy. (watch the clip) a DEAR boy. A good man. Everything we would want in a son, sister, father, mother. Just WOW! #freemomhugsâ&#x20AC;? Billie Jean King tweeted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Living an authentic life takes strength and courage. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t accomplish now, Matthew Easton! đ&#x;&#x2018;?đ&#x;?łď¸?â&#x20AC;?đ&#x;&#x152;&#x2C6; #LoveAllâ&#x20AC;? Daniel Tosh of Tosh2.0 wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;if that out & proud byu valedictorian wants a job at #tosh, i will hire him, sight unseen. heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll fit right in â&#x20AC;&#x201D; weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re probably the only show in hollywood that already has a mormon on staff!â&#x20AC;? to which Easton replied, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tell me when I start @danieltosh and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be sure to bring you some @BYU fudge.â&#x20AC;? And yes, Ellen DeGeneres with â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m proud of you, Matty. â?¤â&#x20AC;? Pete Buttigieg told BuzzFeed News he looked forward to calling Easton. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know that kid is going to make it easier for somebody else,â&#x20AC;? Buttigieg, told BuzzFeed News. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Imagine if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a terrified closeted kid in that audience at BYU and what it does for you to have that student lead that way.â&#x20AC;?

The Future Asked about his future plans on relationships, his church, and his career, Easton says he is taking it one day at a time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right now Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m focusing on my relationship with my God and my family and what the next steps are, like will I go for a graduate degree.â&#x20AC;? He hopes that, like him looking for examples of mentors and people who inspire him through the way they run their lives, others might hear or read his words and â&#x20AC;&#x153;feel a little less alone.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I hope my speech can inspire other students,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know there were so many people waiting in the wings to love and support me. When I decided it was time to do that for myself, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when I found out they have been here all along.â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Q See the video at youtube.com/watch?v=rLeMVykzvKY

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Summer Sports Flag Football

Utah Gay Football League The Utah Gay Football League offers co-ed flag footbal for players 18 years of age or older. Their Spring season started in April and goes through June 12th. Registration is closed for this season. They will, however, be holding a Fall season with pre-season events starting in late July and the first game being the last Sunday in August and going through mid-November. Spring season games are Wednesday Evenings at 6:30 p.m. at Sugarhouse Park through July 12. Fall season games will be on Sundays. Everyone is welcome to come watch the games. The league is trying to build up their FanZone. “Our league is really going through a renaissance right now. We grew the league by over 50 percent from last season,” said Kyle Hess, the league commissioner. “This season we changed our name from Mountain West Flag Football League to Utah Gay Football League to really focus on who we are.” “We are an LGBT+ organization,” Hess continued. “Our organization is doing some great things with local leadership and people who really know and understand Utah.” “We host socials and fundraisers throughout the year. Attending these events is a great way to help support the

league,” said Kyle Hess, the league commissioner. “This year, we will be holding several fundraisers to send a team to GayBowl in New York City.” The group is an official member of the National Gay Flag Football League, a nonprofit LGBT flag football league of 200 teams in 24 leagues in the United States and Canada. Those looking for more information on the league or wishing to donate can do so on at UtahGayFootballLeague.com. They have a Facebook page at fb.me/ UtahGayFootballLeague You can contact the league at Info@ UtahGayFootballLeague.com or messaging them on Facebook.

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QUAC

QUAC is Utah’s largest US Masters swimming club with workouts three days a week — Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. and Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. They have coach-led workouts for begin-

ning to advanced swimmers. “Everyone is welcome to come as a guest to see if our club matches their needs and interests,” said QUAC President of the Board Kevin McDaniel. “We ask, however, that people who choose to continue working out with us join QUAC as a US Masters swimmer.” They also offer free adult swimming lessons. The six-week program teaches the basic strokes and water safety to adults who have never learned how to swim. This program is offered through a grant from the US Masters’ Swimming Saves Lives Foundation. QUAC Water Polo also has practices twice a week through Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation. Practices are at the Northwest Recreation Center and Steiner Aquatic Center. Days and times can be found on their website at quacquac.org. “QUAC members are participating in the annual International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics Championships in New York City June 23–30,” McDaniel said. “We are excited to represent Utah at the international event.” The group has also participated in previous Gay Games events, including in Paris last year. QUAC is a 100 percent volunteer-run organization. If people are interested in financially supporting the club through swimmer or team sponsorships, they can donate to the Val Mansfield Memorial Fund at shop.quacquac.org. Visitors and new members are welcome throughout the year. For more information, go to quacquac.org or on Facebook at fb.me/quacquac/. They are on Instagram at quac_aquatics and Twitter at @ QUACAquaticClub. Q

MORE SPORTS GROUPS ARE LISTED IN THE QMMUNITY SECTION ON PAGE 40.

14 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | QMMUNITY

Utah Leather Pride May 19 The second annual Utah Leather Pride will be held May 19 once again at the Sun Trapp and Metro Music Hall at Sixth West and First South. “I believe this segment of LGBTQ population is misunderstood and misrepresented, though a lot of our traditions have intersected with the gay community,” said organizer Michael Sanders. “Our community does have its problems but the openness of our sexuality is kind of a

Nick Cendese and Leftenant Fox

Qmmunity Bears, Beers, Burgers The Utah Bears will hold their annual Membership Drive BBQ at Club Try-Angles Sunday, May 12 from 3 to 6 p.m. 251 W. 900 South. The group has weekly coffee and dinners, monthyl Bear Nights at Club Try-Angles and several annual events through the year. More at UtahBears.com and fb.me/utahbears.

Qsaltlake.com |

big deal here in Utah.” The first indoor/outdoor festival celebrates the diverse LGBTQ and pansexual leather/kink/BDSM community in Utah, say organizaers. The one-day celebration features leather/kink/BDSM and LGBTQ groups, local/ national vendors, full bar, entertainment, a sandbox, Bootblacks, giveaways/prizes, and more. Following the festival, the annual Mr. and Ms. SL♥UT competitions commence at 8:30 p.m. “The mission of the Mr. and Ms. Leather SL♥UT contests is to promote leather culture among the Salt Lake City community. We are looking for leather men and women that will act as ambassadors to work with various segments of both LGBTQ community and multiple layers of the radical sex communities,” said Sanders. “Titleholders are passionate about activism, charity, and community building. They can articulately express their platform and excite those around them to get involved.” To enter the competitions, apply at mrleatherslut.com or msleatherslut.com The current Mr. Leather SL♥UT, installed last year, is Nick Cendese and Ms. Leather SL♥UT is Leftenant Fox. Each were involved in many events over the past year and will hand over the “crown” at this year’s festival. The mission of Utah Leather Pride is Third Friday Bingo has been calling out ball numbers to standing-room-only crowds the past several months, so they suggest coming early. Doors open at 6 p.m. All seating is general admission. $6 for one card or two for $10. Kitchen concessions available for purchase: These events are family friendly and alcohol-free. Kids are welcome and encouraged. First Baptist Church, 777 S 1300 East.

Bingo Against Bullying

Suicide Awareness & Prevention Car Show

The Matrons of Mayhem are teaming up with YEEHAAA May 17 to fight LGBTQ Bullying. This year, YEEHAAA is working with Salt Lake Center for Science Education in the Salt Lake City School District to stop LGBTQ bullying and discrimination in our schools. See fb.me/YH.Bully.Prevention/

Enter your car to win a trophy at the Suicide Awareness & Prevention Car Show for only $25. Proceeds from the $5 car wash and Pin-Up contest will be donated to Continue Mission to help veterans. There will be music, food trucks and prizes from the raffle.

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

“to honor and celebrate our culture and history. To promote activism within the LGBTQ and pansexual leather/kink/ BDSM community and unity through cooperative endeavors that offer entertainment, education, charity, social interaction, and community service.”

Utah Leather Pride Festival Sun., May 19, noon–8 p.m., free admission Sun Trapp, 100 S. 600 West Title competitions follow at approximately 8:30 p.m.at the Metro Music Hall. May 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sunset Coffee, 7978 S 1300 E, Sandy, Utah. Tickets at LakeTownStreetCrew.com. QTalks with Dustin Lance Black

QTalks | Dustin Lance Black Join Equality Utah to hear Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer Dustin Lance Black speak about his new memoir, Mama’s Boy. Books will be available for purchase by King’s English, at the event. Thursday, May 9 at 7–9 p.m. at Church & State, 370 S. 300 East, Tickets via Eventbrite

SL County Health asking about PrEP services The Salt Lake County Health Dept. is asking people their interest about them offering PrEP services. A survey is available at bit.ly/slprepsurvey.

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Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

A Sneak Peek at Utah Pride This year’s Utah Pride Days will begin May 17 with the Utah Pride Spectacular. Once the Wednesday or Thursday of Pride, it will be held two weeks before the big festival weekend and parade. The Utah Pride Festival is a community event which features a broad spectrum of activities and entertainment. The 44th Utah Pride Festival will be held June 1–2 at Washington Square in downtown Salt Lake City. Pride 2019 is excited to offer additional celebratory events, diverse food and booth vendors, venue upgrades and excellent entertainment options. The overall theme this year is “Exist. Resist. Persist. Celebrating 50 years of Stonewall.” The beginnings of Pride worldwide are generally attributed to an uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village in June, 1969. From its humble beginnings in 1974 as an informal gathering in the park, the Utah Pride Festival has come a long way. It is now a major Salt Lake City event that grows bolder and brighter every year. The Festival empowers the LGBTQ+ community of Salt Lake, as well as the state of Utah as a whole, to come together and celebrate. The Festival is now attended by more than 50,000 people and continues to grow each year. In 2018, the Pride Parade attracted 50,000 spectators. A broad spectrum of people can be found at all these events, including members of the LGBTQ+ community, their family members and allies.

Booths and Parade Applications are now being taken on the Utah Pride Center website for booth rentals and parade entries. Standard registration for exhibitors ends April 20, with late registration extending through May 10 depending on availability. Rates vary depending on profit/nonprofit status and the size of the organization. Small grassroots organizations and arts and crafts organizations can participate in a tent with other similar groups. An interactive zone will be set up and a new kink zone is still in

the works. Parade applications are being taken through April 1. Because of the continued growth of the parade, new this year is a series of questions on the application which will help a selection committee determine which groups will be allowed to participate. Parade organizers typically receive over 200 applications to participate, but only 150 can be accommodated. Consideration of the size and number of participants of the parade entry, its focus on the LGBTQ+ community, and the “intersectionality of oppressions” of the applying group.

Schedule PRIDE SPECTACULAR kicks of Utah Pride Days on Friday May 17, from 6 to 9.30 p.m. at the Union Events Center 235 N. 500 West. The REAL SALT LAKE PRIDE NIGHT will be held at their stadium, 9256 State St, Sandy. Details are still forthcoming. The PRIDE INTERFAITH SERVICE will be Thursday May 30 from 7 to 8 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church, 2375 E. 3300 South. The guest speaker will be Bishop Karen Oliveto, he first openly lesbian bishop of the United Methodist Church and the Bishop of Utah, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming United Methodist Churches.

The YOUTH PRIDE DANCE will be from 8 to 11 p.m. on Friday May 31 on the Festival Grounds. Entrance at 500 S. State Street. OUTDOORS and PROUD 5K will be the morning of Saturday June 1 from 8 to 11 a.m. at Jordan Park & Peace Gardens, 1060 S. 900 West The annual PRIDE MARCH AND

RALLY will be Saturday June 1 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Utah State Capitol south stairs, 350 N. State Street. The FESTIVAL itself will be Saturday June from 1 to 11 p.m. and Sunday June 2 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Washington Square, the park around the Salt Lake City and County Building. The UTAH PRIDE PARADE will again take place Sunday June 2 beginning at 10 a.m. at West Temple, running along Second South to Fourth East. Other events are in the planning stages as well and will be in the next issue of QSaltLake Magazine, along with some of the entertainment highlights. Q More information at utahpridecenter.org

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Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

The makers of Five Wives Vodka announced a special Utah Pride Festival label — Five Husbands Vodka. Ogden’s Own Distillery is releasing a Five Husbands Pride Festival version of their vodka. The rainbow-stripped label features obviously Photoshopped members of their staff in cut-off shorts and mimics the notorious Five Wives Vodka label’s kitschiness. The label was inspired by QSaltLake Magazine publisher Michael Aaron, who made a version of the label and printed it in the magazine when Five Wives Vodka was banned in Idaho in 2012. The meme that spawned the idea for a limited release of “Five Husbands Vodka” was created by QSaltLake Magazine publisher Michael Aaron in 2012 when the state of Idaho refused to allow Five Wives to be sold in stores. “I’ve always had it in the back of my head that we’d like to use the concept for a Pride Festival branded product,” Ogden’s Own CEO Steve Conlin said. The distillery loves to “poke fun” at Utah culture and Conlin told Ben Winslow of Fox 13 News that they wanted to “have a little fun with it.” Ogden’s Own also sells Madam Pattirini Gin, named after the drag personae of Brigham Morris Young, son of Brigham Young. It also produces the Porter’s line of flavored liqueurs and Underground Herbal Spirit. Ogden’s Own also announced they will be the official spirits sponsor of The Utah Pride Festival, held June 1–2, 2019, in Salt Lake City. It is the first time in the

festival’s 44 years that a local spirits company will be the primary liquor sponsor. “Having a local company willing to support our event is really meaningful,” Liz Pitts, Utah Pride Center, Director of Community Engagement, explained. “We are a festival that celebrates our local community, and we are excited when homegrown companies want to be part of it in such a fun way.” “We have long been an active supporter of Utah’s diverse LGBTQ+ community, and it’s exciting to step up to support this weekend,” Conlin said. “We’ve taken part in the pride parade, sponsored smaller events during the week of pride, and even had a small presence in the local’s bar at the festival in the past, but developing something memorable as part of the festival has been a lot of fun.” “We encourage everyone — all the husbands and wives — to join the 50,000+ who already celebrate the LGBTQ+ community this June weekend,” Conlin said. The company shipped 2,880 bottles to the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Department on Tuesday, and expects to see distribution to limit Salt Lake City area DABC stores in the coming weeks. It will also be available at the DABC Club Store and Ogden’s Own Distillery’s package store in Ogden. It is expected to be available at Hitimewine.net the second week of May as well for shipping around the country. Q

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Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

“Be a Star” and Shop Quality Flowers and Plants

1046 East 3300 South Salt Lake City • 801-485-2921

PROUD SPONSOR FOR 15 YEARS

18 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | SNEAK PEEK AT PRIDE

Prides across the state A newly formed coalition of Pride organizations in Utah met last weekend and the Utah Pride Center and announced the dates for this year’s festivals. Save the dates! May 19: UTAH LEATHER PRIDE — Salt Lake City May 31–June 2: UTAH PRIDE — Salt Lake City Aug. 3: OGDEN PRIDE – Ogden, Utah Sept. 14: LOGAN PRIDE — Logan, Utah Sept. 14: PROVO PRIDE — Provo, Utah Sept. 16–22: PRIDE OF SOUTHERN UTAH — St. George, Utah Sept. 28: MOAB PRIDE, Moab, Utah

Prides around the globe APRIL Apr. 6–7: Phoenix Pride Parade Phoenix, Ariz. Apr. 25–28: Jasper Pride Jasper, Alberta, Canada Apr. 25–28: Philadelphia Black Pride Philadelphia, Pa. Apr. 28–29: Tokyo Rainbow Pride Tokyo, Japan

MAY May 2–12: Maspalomas Gay Pride, Gran Canaria May 4: Raleigh Pride Raleigh, N.C. May 18: Belgian Pride Brussels May 18: Springfield Pride, Ill. May 18: New Hope / Lambertville Pride Parade, Pa. May 18–19: Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride, Calif. May 24–28: DC Black Pride Washington, DC May 25–26: Birmingham Pride, UK

May 25–June 2 Torremolinos Gay Pride, Torremolinos, Spain May 27–June 3: El Paso Pride Texas, El Paso, Texas May 31: Guelph Pride 2018, Ontario, Canada May 31–June 2: Tusla Pride, Okla. May 31–June 2: Provincetown Pride, Provincetown, Mass. May 31–June 3 Laguna Beach Pride 365, Calif. May 31–June 9: Boston Pride —Boston, Mass. May 31–June 9: Capital Pride, Washington DC May 31–June 9: Central Alabama Pride — Birmingham, Ala. May 31–June 2: Sonoma County Pride, Calif.

JUNE June 1: Magical Pride at Disneyland Paris, Paris, France June 1: Sun City Pride, El Paso

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June 1: Guadalajara Pride, Mexico June 1: Pride in the CLE, Cleveland, Ohio June 1–2: Dallas Pride, Texas June 1–3: Venice Pride, Calif. June 2: Pride Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico June 1–8 Pride Niagra, St. Catharines, Ontario June 1-9: LA Pride, Calif. June 1–10: Pride Sitges, Spain June 14–15: Zurich Pride Festival, Zurich, Switzerland June 15: Pride Edinburgh, UK June 1–30: NYC Pride, New York June 7–9: Albuquerque Pride, N.M. June 7–9: New Orleans Pride, La. June 8: Gay Pride Rome, Italy June 9: Athens Pride, Greece June 9–15: Varese Pride, Italy June 12–15 Ibiza Gay Pride, Spain June 13–16: Shanghai Pride, Shanghai, China June 14: Tel Aviv Pride, Israel June 14–16: Baltimore Pride, Md. June 14–16: Stonewall Columbus Pride, Ohio June 14–23: Oslo Pride, Norway June 15: Rhode Island Pride, R.I. June 15–16: Denver Pridefest, Colo. June 20–29: Dublin LGBTQ Pride, Ireland June 21–23: Kenora Pride, Canada June 22: Cincinnati Pride, Ohio June 22: Pride Houston, Texas June 22–23: Chicago Pride Fest

June 22–23: Nashville Pride, Tenn. June 22–23: Twin Cities Pride, Minneapolis, Minn. June 22-29: Anchorage Pridefest, Alaska June 23: Sao Paulo Pride, Brazil June 25-30: Helsinki Gay Pride, Finland June 27–30: Mexico City Gay Pride 2019, Mexico June 27–July 7: Madrid Orgullo, Madrid, Spain June 28–29: Heartland Pride, Omaha, Neb. June 28–30: Big Paris Pride 2019, June 29: Pride San Antonio, Texas June 29-30: Pride St. Louis, Mo. June 29-30: San Francisco Pride June 30: Alegria World Pride New York 2019, New York,

JULY July 1-14: Bristol Pride, UK July 5-7: Cologne Pride, Germany July 6: Pride in Londo, UK July 12-14: San Diego Pride, Calif. July 20–21: Lesbisch Schwules Stadtfest Berlin, Germany July 22–28: Happy Valley Pride, Hebden Bridge UK July 26-August 4: Belfast Gay Pride, Belfast, UK July 27: CSD — Berlin, Germany July 27–Aug 1: Pride Amsterdam

AUGUST Aug. 2–4: Brighton and Hove Pride, UK Aug. 4: Leeds Pride — Leeds, UK Aug. 4: Vancouver Gay Pride, Canada

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

Aug. 5-11: Prague Pride, Czech Rep Aug. 8-17: Reykjavík Pride, Iceland Aug. 8-18: Montreal Pride, Canada Aug. 10: Eugene Pride, Ore. Aug. 10: Pride in Surrey, Woking, UK Aug. 13-18: Copenhagen Pride — Copenhagen Denmark Aug. 17-18: Charlotte Pride — Charlotte, N.C. Aug. 23–26: Manchester Pride Festival — Manchester, UK Aug. 23–September 2: Pride Calgary — Calgary, Canada Aug. 24: Cornwall Gay Pride — Cornwall, UK Aug. 24-25: Silicon Valley Pride — San Jose, Calif.

SEPTEMBER Sept. 2–8 Benidorm Pride — Benidorm, Spain Sept. 6–15: Malta Pride — Valletta, Malta Sept. 8: Oakland Pride — Oakland, Calif. Sept. 14: Logan Pride — Logan, Utah Sept. 14: Provo Pride — Provo, Utah Sept. 16–22: Pride of Southern Utah — St. George, Utah Sept. 28: Midsouth Pride Memphis — Memphis, Tenn. Sept. 28: Moab Pride — Moab, Utah

OCTOBER Oct. 1–15: Hispanic LGBT Pride — Miami Oct. 11–13: Atlanta Pride — Ga. Oct. 24–26: Savannah Pride — Ga.

NOVEMBER Nov. 1–3: Palm Springs Pride — Calif. See the full list at QSaltLake.com

MAY 2, 2019 |

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SNEAK PEEK AT PRIDE | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 19

Save the date to help us celebrate ISSUES 15 Years

as we bring our annual Utah Pride Guide issue and 2019-20 QPages Directory Friday, May 24 at the Utah Pride Center. Watch our Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and qsaltlake.com. Advertise to Utah’s LGBTQ community at 801-997-9763 or sales@qsaltlake.com

20 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | VIEWS

views

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

quotes “No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.” — Thomas Jefferson

“What is a weed? A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gardening is how I relax. It’s another form of creating and playing with colors.” — Oscar de la Renta

“Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.” — Helen Keller

“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” — Oscar Wilde

“On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there’s no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden.” — Maya Angelou

“If I’m in the country, my big idea is to do nothing. It means talking, it means cooking with the leftovers in the fridge — l’art d’accommoder les restes — it means gardening.” — Christian Louboutin

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Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

who’s your daddy

Cupcake Warrior BY CHRISTOPHER KATIS

When I

was a kid, my best friend’s sister had an Easy-Bake Oven. We thought it was the coolest item ever. Although she did get the little cake mix packages for Christmas and on her birthday, mostly she made us apples sprinkled with cinnamon. A few years ago, 13-year old McKenna Pope started an online petition demanding that Hasbro, the makers of the light bulb-powered appliance, offer the ovens in more “boy friendly” colors. It happened that her 4-year old brother, Gavyn, wanted one of the ovens, but refused to play with anything pink – a color he associated with being for girls. Well, 40,000 signatures later, Hasbro hit public relations pay dirt, and introduced new colors and packaging featuring both genders. Suddenly, a seemingly dated toy became popular again overnight. Niko has always loved helping in the kitchen, so we shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that he was one of those boys who asked for an oven. Now, Kelly and I don’t have any hang ups about the “gender” of our kids’ toys, so naturally for Christmas that year he became the

ecstatic owner of an Easy-Bake. Being the loving fathers we are, we’ve suffered through some pretty atrocious culinary experiments baked by a light bulb. And in fairness, we’ve also nibbled on some pretty darn good treats, too. While other kids his age are watching cartoons or sports on TV, Niko is viewing cooking shows. The other night he was watching Cupcake Wars: Kids. I wasn’t paying much attention to the program, until I heard him advise the girl on the screen, “Who the hell wants a curry cupcake?” I agreed with him but told him to watch his mouth. I should have known he was learning a thing or two about the culinary arts when we explained to me what fondant is. (For those of you not lucky enough to have a 10-year-old kitchen whiz kid – it’s that weird rubbery icing that people use to make confections pretty.) Let’s be clear: cooking isn’t exactly a love for musical theater or an obsession with Barbra Streisand, but it’s also not living and breathing football either. When I was a kid, cooking wasn’t something most guys admitted to enjoying.

Now, I’m not saying that having two dads is an advantage for a kid that loves to watch reruns of The Great British Bake Off but I think it probably helps. I think gay dads are probably a bit more liberal when it comes to these kinds of activities. I have to admit; when I was his age I loved to cook too. I spent a lot of time with my immigrant grandmother and she was always in the kitchen. Mostly my job was to stir and taste. However, when I was about Niko’s age, my yia yia taught me how to make traditional Greek Easter cookies. Making koulourakia isn’t like whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies or some snickerdoodles. It’s an art. Over the next couple of years, I became an expert on how to tell if the dough was ready by feeling and smelling it. I learned just how thin to roll the dough with my palms so the braids wouldn’t be too thick. This morning after church, my mom asked Niko if he’d like to come over to help her make those cookies. He was ecstatic, jumping at the opportunity to learn a new cooking skill. And I love the fact that he’s carrying on a great family tradition. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll see him on Cupcake Wars suggesting Greek Easter cookies as a legitimate flavor! Q

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creep of the week

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Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman BY D’ANNE WITKOWSKI

Well hello,

and welcome to another episode of “A Gay is Running for President,” a minute-by-minute freakout by the conservative right and sponsored by Homophobia and The Dumb. The gay in question is Pete Buttigieg, the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and his last name is pronounced “boot-edge-edge.” And right-wingers are losing their minds over him. First, he’s gay so they’re against him existing, let alone running for the country’ highest office. But he’s also a white male, which polls well in this country, and he’s getting a lot of buzz in what is a very crowded Democratic field. Would Buttigieg be a good president? Probably. Would he be a better president than Trump? For sure. Though that’s an awfully low bar. My 10 lb.-dog, who freaks out whenever he sees any living creatures not in his immediate family, is scared of his metal food bowl because his tags once clanged against the side of it, and who sometimes eats his own poop would be a better president than Trump. Because at least he isn’t racist and has never stolen anyone’s children. But apparently, Buttigieg has some folks on the right nervous enough that they’re trying to sabotage him by drumming up false accusations of sexual assault. According to The Daily Beast, right-wing smear team Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were caught on tape trying to get a guy to accuse Buttigieg “of engaging him sexually while he was too drunk to consent.” If you’re not familiar with Wohl then I congratulate you because you don’t need that kind of negativity in your life. Wikipedia calls him “an American far-right conspiracy theorist, fraudster and internet troll,” a description that would be right at home on the page for Donald Trump. As for Burkman, he’s a Republican lobbyist and professional homophobe. He

thinks that Trump is too nice to immigrants, so that says a lot. Wohl and Burkman also tried to drum of false accusations of sexual misconduct against Robert Mueller in retaliation for investigating their Lord and Savior Donald Trump. And now they’re doing it again! Only to Buttigieg this time because, according to an April 22 Tweet by Burkman, “2020 is shaping up to be more exciting than 2016. Looking like it will be Trump vs. Mayor Pete! Get the popcorn ready!” Now, will 2020 yield a Trump v. Buttigieg race? I don’t know. But the fact that Wohl and Burkman seem to have gone to an awful lot of trouble to try to damage Buttigieg is pretty telling. Although it might be more telling about Wohl and Burkman than it is about Mayor Pete. It’s interesting to me that Wohl and Burkman want to get people to accuse Buttigieg of sexual assault, something their Dear Leader Trump has not only been accused of but has admitted to. It’s almost as if one party, the Democrats, believes that sexual assault is wrong and that we need to reverse the trend of thinking everyone who comes forward with charges of sexual assault is lying, and the other party, the Republicans, does not give a fuck about sexual assault at all unless they can use it as a weapon against their political foes. It’s especially clear that sexual assault against women

not only doesn’t interest them, but it’s something they are totally fine with so long as their political agenda is being carried out. Ah, but if a GAY does the sexual assaulting then that’s super badly terrible and must be punished right away. In reality, ALL sexual assault is wrong and should be punished. But the Republicans can’t possibly expect anyone to take their concerns about assault seriously while they do everything they can to prop up Trump, the Sexual Assaulter in Chief. As for Buttigieg, he told The Daily Beast about the foiled Wohl/Burkman plot, “It’s not going to throw us. Politics can be ugly sometimes but you have to face that when you’re in presidential politics.” No matter what you think of Buttigieg, the man has class. Seriously, he’s so patriotically wholesome I suspect he bleeds gay apple pie, which is just regular apple pie with rainbow sprinkles added for fabulousness. Oh, also, while I was looking for info about this story online I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to spell Buttigieg off the top of my head so I just Googled “Wohl Butt” and have learned that said search turns up a LOT of links to porn. And so I’m putting it in writing in case my wife has questions about my search history. Q D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and comedian living with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBT politics for over a decade. Follow her on Twitter @ MamaDWitkowski.

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Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

sex and salt lake city

Thank you for 50 years of Happy Pride BY DR. LAURIE BENNETT-COOK

Fifty years

ago, Pride Season certainly didn’t start out as a time for celebration. A brick thrown, countless arrests, fights in the streets that lasted for several days; a march; a daring proclamation of equality as a human right; and now — events and celebrations around the globe. I don’t know that our predecessors could have foreseen the impact they’ve had. June 28 will mark 50 years since the Stonewall riots broke out. The riots lasted several days and still stand out as one of the most historic events our nation has seen. With many things in life, once we step forward into something that allows us to breath our authenticity it is nearly impossible to step back. As the riots cooled, it was apparent that things would never go back as they were. From that single event a momentum was created that led to the founding of official organizations and activist groups meant to create safety for those who identify outside the heteronormative status quo. The organized march that followed a year later was nothing like the glitzy parade and park full of vendors we see today. It was everyday people, hurt and angry, fighting for their civil rights. While thousands turned out to march, an equal amount of people turned out to protest. Now, today, the way so many people zealously express themselves is tangible. Flags fly generously in representation of Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual, Gay, BDSM, Polyamorous, Races, Ages, Asexual, and the list goes on and on. Regardless of anyone’s gender, sexual orientation, race, relationship configuration, dress, any of it. Everyone celebrates everyone and everyone celebrates themselves. “Happy Pride!” is the greeting of the day and it is easy to feel a bit Utopian. But somewhere in all that blissful Utopia it is easy to forget just how hard of a fight it was to get to this point — or how much we still have to fight for. So this

Pride season, let us give thanks to those who have paved, and who are paving, the way. Without whom, we wouldn’t be able to gear up in bold, blatant celebration. Thank you to our predecessors. Thank you to those who were too angry to tolerate another day of inequality. Thank you for those who threw rocks and rioted in the streets because they knew they had value. Thank you to those who have gone to jail, serving time for acts which are consensual expressions of love. Thank you to allies willing to leave the safety of blending in to fight for the rights of those who are unable fight for themselves. Thank you to those who give shelter and food to the gay and transgender youth — many who find themselves on the street because their families of origin are too concerned with their sexual or gender identities to give them the love and support they need. Thank you to those who brave publicly holding hands with the person they love, knowing the very harmless act could have them arrested, beaten up, or both. Thank you to those who dance with someone of the same sex. Thank you to those who follow their hearts and risk being discovered their roommate is really their partner. Thank you to those who serve(d) in the armed forces, living day in and day out in a body that is not aligned with their gender, or hiding a same sex attraction — serving a country that creates laws set to destroy them. Thank you to those who raise children that heteronormative families won’t adopt. Thank you to those who create organizations and advocacy groups to protect the rights and safety of marginalized communities. Thank you to those who push for legislation that acknowledges who we choose to be sexual with, how we choose to express our gender or sexuality, and who we choose to love, are human rights. Thank you to those who by their very existence flip off the world around them

VIEWS | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 23

by choosing to express themselves in a manner that serves their own authenticity and not the comfort of those around them. For every act that leads to more equality, more understanding, more acceptance, more knowledge — Thank You. To our youth, you have some incredible examples to follow and look to. More than likely I won’t be around to see what the next 50 years brings on our Pride front, but I am confident there will be more strides of pride. To all those making a mark and moving us forward — Thank You. Happy Pride! Q Dr. Laurie Bennett-Cook is a Clinical Sexologist and maintains private therapy practices in both LA and SLC. She can be reached at DrLaurieBennettCook@gmail.com

IF YOU’RE OUT IN PUBLIC AND YOU CAN’T FIGURE OUT A STRANGER’S GENDER, FOLLOW THESE STEPS: 1. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT.

THE TRANSCENDING GENDER PROJECT T R A N S C E N D I N G G E N D E R .O R G CREDIT: @EMOPRETEEN

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Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

lambda lore

The 1993 March on Washington, and ... Logan BY BEN WILLIAMS

On April

25, 1993, there was another March on Washington. This time for “Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.” The Utah planning committee and contingency was orchestrated by gay activist Val Mansfield. However, I wrote in my journal at the time that “Dale Sorenson and David Nelson are certainly Channel 2’s media queens when it comes to news coverage of the March on Washington. Cameramen had pictures of them packing up and leaving for Washington and pictures of them arriving. It was actually good coverage but kind of funny also, as I know those two.” A Deseret News account reported that about 100 activists from Utah went to the march. The article also mentioned gay activists Dale Sorenson, who was a Utah delegate to the Democratic National Convention last year, Kathy Worthington, and Sara Hamblin, who “married” each other in the mass “wedding” in front of Internal Revenue Service headquarters, and Val Mansfield who was on the National March Committee, and who also “married” his partner in front of the IRS at the mass wedding of over a thousand couples. The article reported that some of the group of gay Utahns were “pleasantly surprised” after meeting with Republican Sen. Bob Bennett that he said he would support gay rights bills, depending on the wording, because “he feels no one should suffer discrimination.” Here in Utah, there was a rally on the day before the Sunday march, at the Salt Lake Federal Building. It was planned by union supporter and gay activist, Calvin Noyes to support the goals of the March on Washington and to show support for lifting the ban on gays in the military. I wrote in my journal, “Nearly 150 people showed up to hear speeches from Ed Mayne, president of Utah’s AFL-CIO, Lenoris Bush, who is the vice-director of the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People, Calvin Noyes, Chris Brown director of the Anti Violence Project, and Melisa Sillitoe, director of the Utah Stonewall Center, all who gave pep talks for gay civil rights. “The crowd was a good size but not very energetic. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it. It had rained buckets last night and had barely let up just before the rally began. Still, you would hardly know it was a Gay and Lesbian Rally as there wasn’t even a rainbow

were protesting that the Logan Herald Journal had dumped the “For Better or Worse” comic strip from their paper because of its homosexual theme when one of its characters came out as gay. “Anyhow, the rally was at 2 in the afternoon so we left at noon to be there on time and my, was it festive. I was impressed. Perhaps 200 or more gays and lesbians along with their supporters showed up on the county courthouse lawn carrying balloons, rainbow flags,

flag present.” I could not attend the March on Washington as I did in 1987 because I could not get the time off, being a school teacher. However, I did attend a protest rally in Logan that day. The following account is of the protest of the Logan Herald Journal for its refusal to run Lynn Johnston’s comic strip “For Better or Worse.” The strip featured a character named Lawrence Poirier who came out as gay. The strip generated controversy with readers who were opposed to homosexuality and threatening to cancel newspaper subscriptions as they believed that a homosexual character was highly inappropriate for a family-oriented newspaper comic strip. This is what I wrote: “I made an arrangement with Melissa Sillitoe and Michelle Davies to go with them to Logan for the Cache Valley Gay and Lesbian Alliance’s first ever march and rally. They

and multi-colored signs and posters. It really put Salt Lake’s rally to shame. The media was out in droves and I had to ask cameramen not to put my face on camera, although I spoke to reporters. “The speakers were excellent, especially Rebecca Wheeler from the National Organization for Women and Darryl Ferman representing the American Civil Liberties Union. Ken Johnson, this gorgeous blond man, was the protest rally’s organizer. Ken said he was only expecting 50 or so people so he was grateful for the turnout. A lot of folks from Salt Lake City came up to lend support. “After the speeches, we all marched the half mile to the Herald Journal’s office building. Along the way, this very sweet little old lady came up to me and said she was the mother of a gay son who died horribly last year of AIDS. She said she knew that the Lord loved him and the Lord loves us. That was a very compas-

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sionate thing for this woman to say. She also warned us that there were a lot of hateful people gathered over at the Herald Journal. She said that they professed to be Christians but she couldn’t stand to be over there because they were so full of venom and hate. She said that she could sense that our group was full of love. I thanked her and said that her true Christianity is what will keep many gay people in the faith. “Anyway, over at the Herald Journal, there were nearly 300 people as far as I could tell, acting as a counter-demonstration. They were spewing hate jargon at us and carrying signs trying to show where in the Bible it says ‘God hates Gays’. The crowd was made up of mostly skinheads and cowboy trash who tried to block the marchers, but the police were out in full force to make the bigots let us pass. “As the hateful catcalls were hurled at us, I took notes, copied down the vile slogans, and looked into the faces of the folks who hated us. They wore red armbands, which are what the Nazis and Hitler’s youth wore as one of our speakers had pointed out. If we are so different from them why do they have to wear armbands to tell themselves apart from us? “As I walked through the jeers and taunts, I thought to myself, ‘Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil’ to bolster my nervousness. We all had our anxious moments fearing that the police might not be able to keep some nut from shooting at us. “I said to this older woman who was marching with us that this really does draw a line in the sand between good and evil and I know which side I want to be on. “Needless to say it was an anxious and yet exhilarating day. It was a truly historic occasion and I’m so glad I was here to stand with these courageous Loganites, especially since I couldn’t be in Washington, D.C. It’s one thing to be marching far from home and another to be marching in Logan.” Q The full set of strips of For Better or Worse‘s gay coming out series is here. Q

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ART EXHIBITIONS

DRAG SHOWS

RED BUTTE GARDEN presents artist Tatiana Varela who was born in Colombia and immigrated to the United States 20 years ago. Before immigrating to America, she took up Batik art, an Indonesian discipline involving the production of dyeing colored patterns using beeswax onto a canvass. Her patterns depict the flora and fauna of her native South America, with beautiful images of plants, flowers, and especially tropical birds.

JRC Events presents JINKX MONSOON, and blowing on stage with her (umm, that sounds wrong and yet pleasing) are Gia Bianca Stephens, Rose, Aphrodeity, Linnox Green, Mandy Morphone, Georgia DeMoan, with DJ Shutter and DJ Justin Hollister. Sounds like everyone on stage will get a little winded, just sayin’!

Tony’s 19 Gay Agenda CONCERTS

FRIDAY — TATIANA VARELA BATIK ART EXHIBIT

SATURDAY — JINKX MONSOON

Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South, 9 p.m., age 21+. Tickets $20-100, jrcslc.com

Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, UofU, times vary through May 26. Admission prices vary, redbuttegarden.org

BY TONY HOBDAY

The indie pop trio, LOVELYTHEBAND takes to the stage in Salt Lake City and most likely (and hopefully) perform their hit “Broken”, as well as other great songs like “These Are My Friends” and “Finding It Hard to Smile”. Included are guest performances by Flora Cash and Jagwar Twin. The SALT LAKE MEN’S CHOIR Spring Concert wishes it to be a great Disney ride. And while it will succeed in that, I’m worried that Michael Aaron will come out as Cinderella (because that’s how gay his ego is) when he should be clad as Cruella De Vil (still a big gay ego, but more fitting).

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TUESDAY — LOVELYTHEBAND

The Depot, 13 N. 400 West, 8 p.m. Tickets $20 Adv/$25 Day of, smithstix.com

FRIDAY — SLMC’S WHEN YOU WISH: A DISNEY CONCERT

Highland High School, 2166 South 1700 East, 7:30 p.m., through Saturday. Tickets $20, brownpapertickets.com

DANCE RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE presents Bloom, a program that includes two world premieres: one by acclaimed choreographer Stephen Koester and one by Artistsic Director Daniel Charon. It also marks the return of The Opposite of Killing (2011) by Tzveta Kassabova.

THURSDAY — BLOOM

Black Box Theatre, Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, 7:30 p.m., through Saturday. Tickets $15-35, artsaltlake.org

SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS Fusing together elements of cirque acrobatics and classical dance, TROUPE VERTIGO brings audiences on a jaw-dropping journey through the world of artistic movement — all backed by the thrilling sounds of the Utah Symphony. Brace yourself for a a surprising and delightful night of entertainment.

FRIDAY — CIRQUE DANCES WITH TROUPE VERTIGO AND THE UTAH SYMPHONY

Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, 7:30 p.m., through Saturday. Tickets $15-90, artsaltlake.org

THEATRE UTAH REPERTORY THEATER presents Love and Sex in the Digital Age, an exploration of how instant connection has changed the way we communicate, and how much things have remained the same. First seen at the 2016, and 2017 GSL Fringe festivals respectively, Love and Sex combines two different plays, edited and rewritten to fit together into one night of tantalizing theater.

THURSDAY — LOVE AND SEX IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Studio Theatre, Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, times vary, through Sunday. Tickets $10, artsaltlake.org

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‘Aladdin’ grants the wish for thrilling theater BY TONY HOBDAY

millions (a rounded number) of people, I’ve seen the 1992 animated Aladdin movie — and while I found the story engaging and kind of sweet, I’m honestly just not a big fan of animation; give me actual pixelated humans or actual 3-D humans on a stage. So, when Broadway at the Eccles opened a musical adaptation of Aladdin last week, I was gung ho to see it. A condensed version of the story line of Aladdin goes like this: Aladdin is a poor yet care-free street rat in an Arabian city. One day he meets Princess Jasmine, the daughter of the Sultan of the land, and falls madly in love. However, the evil Jafar, the Sultan’s sorcerer, imprisons Aladdin and manipulates him into working for him. Unknown to Aladdin, he is the only one

who can enter and unlock the treasures of a secret cave, including a magical lamp. Aladdin finds the lamp and releases the genie trapped within. The genie offers to grant him three wishes. Meanwhile, Jafar wants the lamp and the Princess has to be married within three days. Yes, it’s a standard Disney fantasy love story. But director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw stages a Las Vegas-esque treat, complete with over-the-top costume designs by Gregg Barnes, overthe-top (as in animated) performances, particularly the part of a (genderqueer) Genie, performed by Major Attaway, and colorful stage and lighting designs by Tony Award-winning Bob Crowley and Natasha Katz. And if you’re asking yourself, “I wonder how they’re going to make a believable flying carpet?”, well

that means you definitely should go see it because it’ll knock your genie shoes off. Yes, Aladdin is a little schmaltzy and a little disproportionate with the story but the audience will forgive that because everything is so colorful and we are swept away with its beauty. Q Aladdin is currently running through May 12, tickets at arttix.artsaltlake.org.

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Scottish Ballet joins Ballet West’s Choreographic Festival Ballet West will welcome the renowned Scottish Ballet to the line-up of the third annual Choreographic Festival at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, May 9–11. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, Scottish Ballet, under the leadership of artistic director Christopher Hampson, presents Artist-in-Residence, Sophie Laplane’s new work, Sibilo. “I am excited that Chris chose this unique and dynamic work from Sophie Laplane,” said Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute. “Sibilo’s quirky humor and interesting groupings make the work perfect for the Choreographic Festival as it explores movement, sound, and theatrics through the prism of ballet.” Laplane’s inventive piece for eight dancers features whistling (Sibilo is ‘whistle’ in Latin) along with additional music from Glasgow’s Alex Menzies that modulates from electronica to mid-century pop music. The result is hilarious, moving, and eccentric. “We are delighted to be presenting Sibilo by Sophie, during a celebratory year for the company,” said Hampson. “It is great to see Sophie’s work recognized on an international level, and fitting for it to be programmed in a festival that celebrates the future of ballet.” Laplane said, “I am delighted to present Sibilo at the Ballet West Choreographic Festival, and to see Scottish Ballet per-

form the work in a celebratory year for the company. “As a choreographer, it is exciting to see my work being presented on an international stage, and for Sibilo to get

its American premiere in a festival that ‘programmes’ and celebrates new choreography.” Also, during the Choreographic Festival, is a world premiere from celebrated choreographer and BalletMet Artistic Director Edwaard Liang, along with premieres by Ballet West artists Emily Adams, Katlyn Addison, and Trevor Naumann. This year, the festival offers ancillary events, adding educational and entertaining experiences. On Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m., at the Rose, Ballet West will screen Danseur, a recently released First Wednesdays at 7pm at the independent film Utah Pride Center from Scott Gormley 1380 S Main St that explores gender Info at bit.ly/UGHS_Lecture inequality in ballet, Read ‘This Day in Gay Utah History’ at benwilliamsblogger.blogspot.com

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and shines a light on bullying, homophobia, and other barriers for young men in the industry. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students. Afterward, dance teacher and journalist Kate Mattingly leads a panel discussion with Adam Sklute and Ballet West dancers. Ticket holders are also encouraged

to attend Warm-Ups in the Rose Room. These free educational lectures, one hour before evening performances will be hosted by Artistic Directors, choreographers, and dancers. Finally, local artists will makeover the balcony of the Rose Wagner with an exhibit, “Art of Ballet” displaying the oil, photography, and contemporary works showing the athleticism and beauty of the art form. “Every year I look forward to this Festival,” said Sklute. “The terrific camaraderie that is built between all the companies is so inspiring. It is about taking chances. It is about seeing what other companies are doing. And it’s about learning from one another. “This year’s program will certainly take those same risks and I’m thrilled that we are welcoming our first international company. I know our audiences will be fulfilled by the exploration.” Q The Choreographic Festival will be held at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. Broadway, Salt Lake City. Tickets start at $50, and available by calling 801-8696900, or online at balletwest.org.

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the bookworm sez “Sissy: A Coming-ofGender Story” BY JACOB TOBIA C.2019, PUTNAM, $26.00 / $35.00 CANADA, 336 PAGES

Nobody can tell you what to do. To think otherwise is tantamount to telling you what not to do. No, you have your own mind, and you’ll make it up just fine by yourself. Nobody tells you what to do and, as in the new memoir Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia, they can’t tell you who you are, either. Many people who are non-binary, says Tobia, equate coming to terms with gender as “a journey.” Tobias considers theirs “more like an onion,” with layers of discovery “veiled beneath a thin skin.” It started with Tobia’s parents, both role models: their mother, who was a tomboy at heart; and their father, who ignored stereotypical women’s work and instead, pitched in around the house. The next layer consists of Tobia’s brother and kids in the neighborhood who didn’t think twice about a child who play-fought in the mud one minute, and loved pink tutus and Barbies the next. But then Tobia started school, and the teasing began. They “went from being a person to being a sissy” and shame accompanied the label. When it became apparent that the taunts would be flung at them no matter what, Tobia considered suicide. Church was the only place they “felt unequivocally and unconditionally loved.” Things changed for the better when puberty hit Tobia and

their peers. Cis boys wanted desperately to be with cis girls, which was something Tobia did effortlessly and it made them “cool” even as it highlighted their differences from other adolescents. By the end of high school, Tobia had chosen the word “gay” to describe themselves, even though it wasn’t quite right. They came out to a church counselor. They came out to their gay best friend. Years later, they came out to their parents as “gay.” It wasn’t until college, the acquisition of several pairs of high heels, lipstick, and a sheltered sense of security that Tobia realized that their work toward understanding had only started. Maybe they were boy and girl and neither and both, and not having to question that would be a battle they’d “have to do… all over again.” Sissy is a one-hundred-percent solid, smack-in-the-middle, okay kind of book. It’s not the best thing you’ll ever read; it’s far, far from the worst. After a considerable, two-chapter throat-clearing, author Jacob Tobia promises hilarity then gets down to business, about their life, their experiences as a gender nonconforming person making their way through, and the gender-acceptance work to be done. Yes, that may seem like a familiar story but there is uniqueness to be had here: Tobia’s memories of their later adolescence and attendance at a prestigious Eastern college offer something different in this genre, in freshness of voice. Also uncommon: their willingness to admit regret for advice not taken. Finally, yes, this book is amusing but outright hilarity? Not so much: you’ll enjoy Sissy, but your gut is in no danger of busting. Still, if memoirs are your thing and your TBR pile is short, you know what to do. Q

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Molly Shannon

Queering a Literary Icon SNL alum talks LGBTQ following and reclaiming Emily Dickinson’s sexuality BY CHRIS AZZOPARDI

Consider this:

Emily Dickinson was not all grandma curtains and sad, sad, sad. But she was fun! She was funny! And she was — says at least one very convinced filmmaker — a lesbian with a sizzling sex life. Of course, many have noted the likelihood of the 19th-century poet’s queer bent, but based on research and the reexamination of Emily’s letters that uncovered erasures using spectrographic technology, writer-director Madeleine Olnek is taking a hard, gay stance on the popular poet’s sexuality in her comedic drama, Wild Nights with Emily, which seeks to rectify the totality — she wasn’t some spinster, either — of Dickinson’s identity. “Homoeroticism for the whole family,” Olnek emphasizes, noting the film’s PG-13 rating so that parents can take their kids to the film to experience the Dickinson she says, according to all scholarly evidence, was the lover of her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson (played by Susan Ziegler). On her side of lesbian history is Saturday Night Live alum Molly Shannon, whose Dickinson is fresh, feminist and heroically queer. Though the 54-year-old

PHOTO: MARY MA PHOTOGRAPHY

actress catapulted to Hollywood fame by taking a good two-handed whiff of her armpit stench as zealous Catholic schoolgirl and “superstar” Mary Katherine Gallagher on SNL, Shannon’s career after 2001, when she left the late-night sketch show after six years, has since drawn upon her NYU education for more serious dramatic fare. Shannon and Olnek, who met while studying drama at NYU, recently spoke about Dickinson as an LGBTQ hero, gay censorship and being met with resistance. And the Molly-obsessed gay guys doing their best Mary Katherine impression? You bet she has stories about catching them in the act. If only I could’ve learned about gay Emily Dickinson in high school. Why is it important to reexamine who she was in terms of her sexuality? Molly Shannon: That’s such a great question. And this idea that I grew up with, like you — that Emily Dickinson was a victim, a frightened woman who spoke to people through walls, had no desire to have her voice heard, wanted her poems burned upon her death — it really sabotages people today, women and men. People who are struggling to get their

voices heard, who are looking for role models. So I think that it’s really important that we tell the truth about her: that she was a trailblazer, she’s an LGBTQ hero. In the mid-1800s, how she was able to eventually rise out of obscurity and become recognized as part of the literary canon is just incredible. And I think it’s important because it examines sexism through the lens of comedy, making the film more approachable. I just feel like the “reclusive spinster” thing just doesn’t really work anymore. It’s now time to tell the truth. And our movie, instead, reveals a woman whose efforts to get published were repeatedly rejected by this sexist, oppressive establishment. It’s important to realize she was a very gifted writer who was experiencing rejection so she can serve as a role model to modern female writers with similar struggles currently. Madeleine Olnek: Yeah, I think that’s a good point because probably what you remember from school is this idea of, “She hid her poems away.” But the truth is that her work wouldn’t have even been published if after her death her sister hadn’t paid for it to be a vanity publication. Because the story always told was, “She PHOTO COURTESY OF GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT

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was a good girl and she didn’t want to be published, she didn’t want attention. She just lived simply and modestly, and then after her death the world worked the way it should and recognized her.” But that wasn’t true. She actually put all these efforts into getting published. Madeleine, before doing this film, were you surprised to find out that Emily Dickinson’s sexuality hadn’t been explored to this extent? Olnek: It’s depressing that it’s the first time that people have heard about it, because an article (in The New York Times Magazine) did come out in 1998. And I wrote a play, but it was in downtown New York. I got good reviews for the play but the reviews were “Madeleine Olnek decides to imagine, ‘What if Emily Dickinson were a lesbian?’” like it was my imagination. It was treated like something I made up. And the resistance to it is interesting: It’s as much of a resistance to what a rebel she was. The scholar Martha Nell Smith, who put together EmilyDickinson.org, which is the reason you can see all of Emily Dickinson’s letters online, said that she found, when she was working and writing about this, there was as much resistance to the idea that Emily Dickinson had an intellectual collaboration/ partnership with a woman as a romantic one. Like, people were like, “No, no, no, a woman couldn’t have been Emily’s main influence.” So the story, in terms of its censorship, is really about it being about two women together as much as it is about gay censorship. Do you think people now are more open to Emily Dickinson being lesbian? Olnek: There was an exhibit at The Morgan Library (in New York) a couple of years ago and it had a daguerreotype in it that we reference in our movie that was the picture of Emily Dickinson with her arm around Kate (Scott Turner, a fellow poet), and Kate is the other woman. Emily is involved with two women in the movie, and so this woman Kate, after her affair with Emily, ended up living openly gay in Europe. So that story is a little story to find, and I think as the years go on a little harder to hide. With the Emily/ Susan thing, people are often like, “Oh, women were friends like that back then!” But I think we are the first people telling this story, so of course we’re gonna be

met with resistance because people don’t want to feel like they’ve been lied to. Molly, what kind of considerations did you have to make when it came to portraying Emily and her sexuality in this film? Shannon: I really just looked to Madeleine to guide me because Madeleine is a scholar, and then we worked closely with Martha Smith, who is also an Emily Dickinson scholar. So I really just looked to them. I was asking Madeleine questions because I really wanted to get it right. And I just felt passionate about telling this story because I can’t believe this whole woman’s true history was kind of erased and not represented the way she was. I feel like this story still sells on the cover of magazines. The heartbroken spinster story still sells! It sells magazines! Cover of Us and Star, and people love this shit. They buy it. What is it that we’re so attached to this brokenhearted woman thing? It’s horrible, I hate it. I don’t like to contribute to that. It’s just ridiculous. Why is this still going on? How much consideration did you give the ethics of outing someone posthumously before making this film? Olnek: She herself wrote lesbian poems, so she outed herself on the page. Now, granted, at one point when she sent in some poems for publication, she changed the gender of some poems herself just in hopes to get them printed, but she left so many poems that were love poems to women. And because her work is so complicated, of course, some people couldn’t understand what they were about and would come up with all kinds of funny things. But let me tell you something that’s very important: Very close to her death she wrote a letter to Sue which said, “Remember what Hamlet whispered to Horatio?” And what she was talking about is Hamlet, as he was dying, had said to Horatio, “Tell my story.” And that really was important to her. Martha Smith believes that the book of poems that [Emily’s niece] Mattie brought together — The Single Hound, that came out right after Susan’s death — that Susan probably actually worked on it with Mattie and said, “If I die, you can put this out,” so there’s no doubt we have in our minds that they wanted people to know. Also, I mean, Emily Dickinson was a poet. Poets are lovers. They have big

emotions. And that becomes poets. It’s not like we’re “outing” someone who was an accountant. Emily also never married, although she had offers; it’s like she clearly wanted to live life on her own terms. She couldn’t, of course, at that time have come out. It was a big deal that her father recused her from coming downstairs for morning prayers; she was allowed to use that as writing time. So she couldn’t have rocked the boat at home. She needed to choose her battles carefully, but she loved two women that we know about. But Susan, she was in love with. And when you write a poem that ends with “Sue forever more,” I mean, can we say we’re outing her? (Laughs) That’s an actual ending line to her poem that’s published! So, she wrote her letter and called her the only woman in the world. Just incredibly romantic letters. The Poets light but Lamps — Themselves — go out — The Wicks they stimulate If vital Light Inhere as do the Suns — Each Age a Lens Disseminating their Circumference — We’re in a different age now. And the lens of this age is freer to understand the circumference of her poems and what they were about. Molly, you’ve been committed to making more LGBTQ-themed films. What qualities do you look for in a story that is LGBTQthemed? Shannon: Let me think here. I guess passion with the writers/directors. I really identify with that. Like this is so special. Madeleine is so passionate about this movie and it comes from her heart, so to me, it’s like, what an opportunity for me. I remember when Madeleine pitched me the movie she wrote pages and pages about all this information that she had from her scholarly research and working closely with Martha that I was like, “How could I not do this? I’ve never been offered anything like this in my life! This is so cool!” So I really do just kind of see how I feel in my heart: Do I feel passionate? Or eh, this doesn’t seem fun. It’s a meter as simple as that. Because I’m a mother and I have children and I’m married and I have a

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family and a house, I’m very busy with my children, so my considerations are also my family and wanting to be at home and driving the kids to school, but Madeleine is like, “Look, I’ll make it work.” She was like, “What do you want? OK, you wanna be home by dinner? Fine. You don’t wanna start till then? Fine. You wanna shoot in L.A? Fine. I’ll fly out, you can keep close to your neighborhood. Great.” Like, she would not take no for an answer. Olnek: (Laughs) As someone whose LGBTQ following has seemingly grown over the years with your work in queer-inclusive films like Other People and Miles, when were you first aware you had an LGBTQ following? Shannon: I was in the West Village when I first started Saturday Night Live and I remember it was the first really warm day. It was suddenly in the 70s and people were wearing sandals and everybody was so excited and I hadn’t been on SNL that long. I remember walking by an outside cafe and I heard a man — the man didn’t see me, but I just heard a guy, a stranger, go [affects SNL “Joyologist” Helen Madden’s voice], “I love it, I love it, I looooove it!” Olnek: (Laughs) Shannon: And I was like, “Oh my god,” then he saw me and he was like, “Oh my god!” He got so embarrassed and turned

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red and I was just like, “What?! Maybe I’m influencing people!” There was another time I was in a cafe in the West Village where I lived, eating breakfast with my then-boyfriend. We were sitting at the glass window and a man just came right up while we were eating right in the window and did “SUUUPERSTAR!” My boyfriend just looked away and ignored him and continued eating, and then that relationship ended soon after. (Both laugh.) How do you feel about the progress we’ve made in terms of how LGBTQ people are portrayed in modern films and also the kind of LGBTQ films being made? Olnek: It’s interesting. As an older person who has seen a lot of queer films and has talked to young people, what I think is that every generation thinks they are the first people to complain. (Laughs) “Oh, we’re so mainstream!” But people were saying that in the ’80s! Which is ridiculous, in the late ’80s, ’90s, considering, “Oh, it’s mainstream, it’s sell-out.” People were accusing… like now it’s homogenized. So I’ve heard that story over and over, and I actually think that there’s always been people making experimental queer work and there’s always been people making mainstream queer work and they have always existed side by side. It’s just that it’s new to the younger people watching them.

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Wild Nights with Emily made me consider the ways in which we recognize someone posthumously. When that time comes, how do you think the way people will describe you will differ from the way you’d describe yourself? Shannon: Well, I hope that nobody will say, “She was zany.” I don’t like that. I hope that people know that I can be deadly serious. My friend John C. Reilly talked about me and he was like, “Molly can be deadly serious!” I joke around but I really am more serious in real life than people would think. Serious and thoughtful. And I love asking questions and learning. So I don’t think I’m just some zany comic. But people are gonna remember you for SNLand Mary Katherine Gallagher, right? Olnek: I want them to remember her for Emily Dickinson. Shannon: Awww! Olnek: And for her birthday I want to give her a cake that has her as Emily Dickinson on it, because this is a huge moment that we’re reclaiming a story and it’s so important. And the fact that Molly is playing this part literally means that people are going to understand who Emily Dickinson really was. Q As editor of Q Syndicate, Chris Azzopardi has interviewed a multitude of superstars, including Cher, Meryl Streep, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé. His work has also appeared in GQ, Vanity Fair and Billboard. Twitter @chrisazzopardi. PHOTO COURTESY OF GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT

MAY 2, 2019 |

A&E | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 33

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

deep inside hollywood BY ROMEO SAN VICENTE

Britney’s back One More Time We are always rooting for Britney Spears. We know that right now, as of this column, her personal life has hit a bit of a rough patch, and the messages coming through to the public are mixed, so it’s tough to know what’s really happening. But we live in hope that all will be well. In the meantime, her professional life keeps looking up. There’s the upcoming stage musical built around her hits, called Once Upon a One More Time to be directed by Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages, which seems appropriate) with a book by Jon Hartmere, coming to Broadway in 2020. And news just broke that Sony just bid up the film rights, a movie that Spears will produce with her manager, Larry Rudolph, as well as John Davis. And the plot is fascinating, too, concerning four fairy-tale princesses who read Betty Friedan’s pioneering second-wave feminist book, The Feminine Mystique. And no, we’re not making that up, and yes, it does sound more radical than Mamma Mia’s which-one-of-you-old-guys-is-my-father nonsense. So go Britney! We’re ready for anything and everything.

Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga are Passing

Lee Daniels is making a superhero movie called Superbitch

In 1929, a Harlem Renaissance writer named Nella Larsen published a novel titled Passing, about a very provocative topic: the practice of light skinned black people living their lives as white in order to get more opportunities and avoid Jim Crow laws that codified white supremacy. Unlike other more celebrated and well known books by black authors of that era, Passing is notable for its contribution to literary history yet still hadn’t made the leap to a film version, at least until now. The book is in production from actor-director Rebecca Hall and will star Tessa Thompson (Avengers: Endgame) and Ruth Negga (Loving). The women will play school friends who are reunited several years later as adults, their relationship fraught with difficulty as one of the women lives as white for the sake of her husband. The project, currently in pre-production, should go before the cameras soon, so there’s no scheduled release date just yet, but Thompson’s star is on the rise, so expect this to make some noise when it finally makes it to screen.

You have to hand it to Lee Daniels, he knows how to keep the conversation going and how to steer it in his own direction. Recently, at the Time 100 Summit, he breezed right past Van Jones’ questions about Empire and Jussie Smollett in order to dish about his own past using money from drug sales to take his career to the next level, and then to hype up the project called Superbitch. Based on a real-life Instagram personality of the same name, a cape-wearing queen who does backflips (meanwhile every Drag Race contestant is thinking, “Oh yeah?”), Daniels will produce the film but not direct. And the star? Will it be Superbitch bitchself? Or an actor with superbitchy qualities? It’s unknown at this time, and Daniels isn’t ready with more details, but you know it’ll be wild when it hits. Casting tip to drive the media wild: put Jussie in it.Q Romeo San Vicente only plans for makeouts, never murders.

Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadanino plans To Be Murdered Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino leapt from the swooning, romantic Call Me By Your Name to the death-obsessed Suspiria. And he seems to like it in the dark corners of human experience, because his next project (OK, after the Call Me sequel) is called Born to Be Murdered. Starring John David Washington (BlacKKKlansman) and Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), BTBM is set in Athens, Greece, where a couple on vacation inadvertently becomes involved in a conspiracy plot that leads to violence and tragedy. That’s all the plot we know right now, and no, we cannot be sure that Guadagnino muse Tilda Swinton won’t pop up unannounced, playing three different characters in wacky prosthetic make-up, but if she does we won’t be angry about it. Bring on the freaky murders and all the Swinton the project requires, that’s our official position.

Know who WANTS your business and will treat you with the DIGNITY and RESPECT you deserve

34 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | FOOD & DRINK

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

restaurant review

Lasciviousness to lasagna: Caffé Molise BY JOSHUA JONES AND STEVE FINAU

It was at

least 30 pounds and 15 years ago at Club Splash when Steve and I had our first tripartite. (I’m using that word because I know Michael Aaron would hate to publish the word threeway.) It was exhilarating, fun, risky, and sexy. We both enjoyed it, talked about it, and moved on. There were other adventurous explorations, but none as audacious — or fulfilling — as that first time. Club Splash closed, along with a dozen other gay bars and clubs, and we moved on too. We bought a house together, cars, and started to cook… it is amazing how quickly you can move from being the kitty at the club to the cougar who cares for barn cats in the back yard. We are adulting now. Or, we are trying. Late last year, in that place that

launched a thousand orgies — home to audacious stories of drug-fueled parties, a renaissance occurred. A million dollars later, what had been Club Bay, Club Splash, the Vortex, and a Fraternal Order of the Eagles, became Caffé Molise and in the basement, BTG Wine Bar. Fred Moesinger and Aimee Sterling moved their Salt Lake institution just two blocks south. Maturing take many forms. Some boys stay in that halcyon of club and youth euphoria, others grow and mature. Where do we land? Not sure. But, we know that Moesinger and Sterling have designed a storied building that exudes maturity,

elegance, and familiarity. It feels grownup, and we are ready for it. From Easter Sunday Family brunches, to Pride Day Tea Parties, everyone will feel welcome. Oh the food? From the duck meatballs with orange glaze to a traditional lasagna, the cuisine on our three visits perfect. The longtime favorite — spicedrubbed, oven-roasted pork tenderloin with fig compote was somehow elevated. Also, the vegetarian eggplant meatballs with shallot and tomato cream was a vegetarian’s tongue orgasm. Yes, the pool was bulldozed. The aquarium is gone. The Speedo-clad boy under a waterfall is washed away. We all grow up, and this elegantly tiled, white table-clothed restaurant is a thoughtful and wonderful renovation for a new generation — perhaps the same generation that was here 15 years ago. Q

MAY 2, 2019 |

FOOD & DRINK | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 35

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

DINING GUIDE Fabby Award Winner

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36 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | COMICS

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

MAY 2, 2019 |

PUZZLES | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 37

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

Auto Eroticism Each Sudoku puzzle has a unique solution which can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits 1 through 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit, as must each column and each 3x3 square. Qdoku

Q doku Medium

8 9 6 7

3 9

4 7 9

9 8 4 5 6

9 4 2 3

4 9 8

9 2 4

2 8

3 1 9 7 6 8

9 1

2 3

8 9 3

7 9 1 6

3 5 4 1 5

1 6 7 4 1 8

6 3 2 4

6 9 8 8 1 3 2

4 1 7

2 9 8 7

8 6 4 1

4 5 9 6 9 7 5 8 6

4 9 8 4

1 6 9 6

2 4

2 4 3 9

2 8

5 8

3 9 6

8 6 4 7

9 1 8 8

7 6 3

40 ‘70s org. of kidnappers ACROSS 41 Like Trump’s ego 1 Start of a quote by 43 k. d. lang’s “Big Amanita on Sens8 Boned ___” 4 Kate McKinnon 44 More of the quote bits on SNL 47 Hub-to-rim lines 9 More of the quote 48 Author Crowley and others 12 “___ your pardon!” 49 End of the quote 14 Like sex with a 53 Moby Dick chaser historian? 15 Like the Indy 500? 56 Ballet rail 16 Zami: A New Spell- 57 Added stipulations 61 Time that drags ing of My ___ 62 Rampagers go on it 17 Former hotelier 63 Big top barker Helmsley 64 Cheese for Ms. van 18 Nabor’s branch, de Kamp? on TV 65 Goes public 19 More of the quote 66 Hair_’s “___ to Be 22 Went lickety-split Hard” 23 Consenting votes DOWN 24 International 1 Brief amount of agreement secs? 2 Israeli statesman 27 Pool parties? 3 DeGeneres voice role 31 Fagged out 4 Like one’s nuts, 32 Come together perhaps 5 Rub the right way 35 Sound of three 6 Party to men in a tub 7 Jessica of Fried Green 36 Besides that Tomatoes 8 Log Cabin lists 37 Hotties 9 Job for Burr’s Mason 39 Activist Clare 10 Zenith 11 B’way locale Boothe ___

13 Forget to use the KY? 15 Lyricist Bill of Side Show fame 20 Still getting around 21 Mouthful for a stallion 24 Blows away 25 Where to find Norma Bates 26 One of a nice pair of melons 28 Chewy candy 29 Wilde with a statuette? 30 “A Boy Named Sue” writer Silverstein 32 Whipping boy 33 Vet, of a sort, for short 34 Son of Eric the Red 37 Gay nocturnal flyer? 38 Enjoys the bedroom, perhaps 41 Gladly, old-style 42 Airline to Ben Gurion 45 Safe to swallow 46 Line of Todd Oldham clothing? 50 Part of APR 51 Pitcher Hershiser 52 Russian river 53 Vestment for Mychal Judge 54 Heston’s Ben ___ 55 Disney prince 58 Three R’s supporter 59 Article of Marlene Dietrich 60 Like a cunning linguist

38 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | A&E

9 4 2 6 1 8 7 3 5

8 5 1 7 3 2 6 9 4

6 7 3 9 5 4 1 8 2

3 9 5 8 4 7 2 1 6

2 1 7 3 6 9 5 4 8

4 6 8 1 2 5 9 7 3

7 3 6 2 8 1 4 5 9 6 8 1 3 7 2 8 4 5 6 9 1

1 8 4 5 9 6 3 2 7 9 5 4 1 6 8 3 9 2 5 4 7

5 7 2 4 3 8 6 9 1

9 4 3 1 7 6 2 8 5

6 1 8 5 9 2 7 4 3

3 4 2 5 9 1 7 8 6 3 1 5 4 2 9 8 3 1 7 6 5

5 9 1 7 6 8 2 3 4 8 6 9 5 1 7 6 4 9 3 8 2

6 7 8 2 4 3 1 9 5 2 4 7 8 3 6 5 7 2 1 4 9

6 4 3 1 5 7 2 9 8

4 5 3 6 1 2 8 7 9

7 9 8 4 2 6 5 3 1

9 8 7 4 3 5 6 2 1

2 5 1 3 9 8 6 7 4

1 2 6 8 7 9 5 4 3

3 6 4 9 1 5 8 2 7

2 3 9 1 8 6 4 5 7

9 7 5 2 8 3 4 1 6

7 1 5 3 2 4 9 6 8

1 8 2 7 6 4 9 5 3

8 6 4 9 5 7 3 1 2

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Celebrate Your Pride!

could really make a difference in your life and those around you? Think about it. There are dozens of reasons why getting involved in your community is important but I will sum it up to this: it’s good for you and it’s really good for those around you. And since most people agree but have no idea where to start, here’s a jump start and some ideas on how to get involved in your local community. While the idea of attending a community meeting might sound about as entertaining as a dentist appointment, they can actually be extremely beneficial. You meet people who live around you, which comes in handy if you’re one of the many people who complain that your friends live too far away to hang out on a regular basis. Moreover, you really become familiar with what’s happening in your neighborhood and more than likely, you’ll gain a real sense of ownership of where you live. The more this happens, the better! Picking up trash might not sound too appealing, but there are hundreds of parks and playgrounds around that could use some attention. Often times starting or joining a clean-up project can really transform a neighborhood, especially if you’re creating a place for people to gather. If you have a place in mind, 7 9 5 6 8 3 2 1 4

fun. But while most of us are vacationing or relaxing at the pool, let me give you a little something to think about. What if you took just a few hours of those summer vacation hours to volunteer in your local community? What if a few hours of your time

6 3 7 1 2 4 9 8 5

With the

cold of winter, a thing of the past, everyone seems a little more relaxed as we look forward to the summer months. For most people, it’s the start of a little less work and a little more

2 4 9 5 3 8 1 7 6

BY BROCK KANNAN

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

ask mr. manners

5 8 1 9 6 7 4 2 3

Get active

Qsaltlake.com |

make sure you reach out to the administrator before you make any changes. If you want some ideas, call the local Utah parks department for locations that could use your help. If you’re complaining that there’s “not a (insert your favorite thing) in my area,” take the initiative and start one yourself. There are probably at least a few others thinking the same thing. Whether it’s a sports team or interest group (like a book club or crafting night), your neighbors will appreciate someone stepping up and taking leadership of the group. Spend some time perusing various social media outlets to see if there are any local pages/groups and see if anything similar exists. If not, go for it! And even if you do find an existing group, that just means you get to join a broader organization and expand your network — it’s a win either way! Getting involved in your community isn’t hard and with a little time, you can make a big difference. And the best part? Volunteering is addicting and contagious, so once you start, you will probably want to keep doing it…and so will those around you! So, this summer go forth spreading some cheer, we can all use some happiness. Q

MAY 2, 2019 |

A&E | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 39

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

q scopes MAY BY SAM KELLEY-MILLS

ARIES March 20–April 19

Knowledge is a power but incomplete knowledge is corruption. Learn the facts and act appropriately. A subjective viewpoint will cause commotion. Create some distance from others and work on yourself. While it isn’t easy to avoid a conflict, it is possible that a fabricated crisis will go away on its own.

TAURUS Apr 20–May 20

When remaining calm doesn’t solve a personal matter, get angry. A little passionate yelling isn’t always the answer, but could raise questions that are being avoided so get mad. Put trust in no one right now. The longer you wait to take action on a pressing matter, the more likely it is to create a problem.

GEMINI May 21–June 20

Work hasn’t been amazing, but a good opportunity is in the near future. Take a look and see if it is something you’d like. Change is not always the answer, but there are times

when it is simply good to change the beat a little. Figuring out what you really want is a good move at this time of the year so go for it.

CANCER June 21–July 22

What you feel about another person is likely to get back to them. This could lead to a very explosive moment for better or worse. Whatever the case, act accordingly and see if you can find good in the situation. You may end up having a better time than expected, especially if romance becomes involved.

LEO July 23–August 22

Your mind is like a pool of ideas swimming rapidly. Nothing seems to come together, so it might be time for a break. Stop everything and prioritize. Don’t forget to add a little fun to the mix. Working on a project is driving you crazy so be sure to address what is bothering you the most. Don’t lose sight of joy.

VIRGO August 23–Sep. 22

The higher the structure, the more likely it is to fall. Keep grounded when dealing with a personal matter. Much of what troubles you has nothing to do with others, but something you are insecure about. Hold tight to something that provides

comfort and find value by accomplishing something.

LIBRA Sept 23–October 22

Others are trying to distract you but it’s not working. You are feeling good right now to be held back. A steep climb seems to be ahead, but you are getting over it fine. Someone close to you needs help, so be there to support. Learn all the facts first. Bad advice can come even from the best of intentions.

SCORPIO Oct. 23–Nov. 21

What is tearing you apart is actually a good thing. Something will help you reconstruct life in a good way. There are sometimes no good solutions, but in this case, a hidden blessing is bound to come to fruition. Don’t fear the warnings of others, but take them into account. You do know best.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov. 22–December 20.

Mind your own business and keep clear of a situation that doesn’t concern you. There is love in the air and that should be on your mind. Someone you are involved with is expecting a surprise, so make it a good one. The more you try to catch this person off guard, the more likely you are to succeed.

CAPRICORN Dec 21–Jan 19

A problem shows itself in the form of a financial crisis. While it might not seem prudent to address, a sense of urgency should not be ignored. Don’t worry though, because everything is bound to turn out well in the end. Invest in something you really believe in and good things are to come soon.

AQUARIUS Jan. 20–Feb. 18

Find a partner and do some dancing because you are getting restless. Now is the time to get out there and show off your stuff. The most fun is to be had in a social situation or club. Friend will need some cheer and fun, and you provide that without even trying too hard. It is your time Aquarius.

PISCES Feb 19–Mar 19

Something long desired has arrived, and not quite what was expected. Even so, taking a step back will reveal the gains are better than you could have hoped. Enjoy the success but do not take it for granted. While there is no standard in which to judge it, satisfaction is guaranteed. Be happy! Q

40 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | MARKETPLACE

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42 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | QMMUNITY

Qmmunity Groups BUSINESS

LGBTQ-Affirmative Psycho-therapists Guild of Utah  lgbtqtherapists.com * jim@lgbtqtherapists.com Utah Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce  utahgaychamber.com * info@utahgaychamber.com LGBT & Allied Lawyers of Utah  lgbtutahlawyers.com * lgbtutahlawyers@gmail.com Utah Independent Business Coalition  utahindependentbusiness.org 801-879-4928 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 YWCA of Salt Lake  ywca.org/ saltlakecity 322 E 300 S 801-537-8600 HEALTH & HIV

Peer Support for Mental Illness — PSMI Thurs 7pm, Utah Pride Ctr Planned Parenthood 654 S 900 E 800-230-PLAN Salt Lake County Health Dept HIV/STD Clinic 660 S 200 E, 4th Floor Walk-ins M–F 10a–4p Appts 385-468-4242

Utah AIDS Foundation  utahaids.org * mail@utahaids.org 1408 S 1100 E 801-487-2323 Weber-Morgan Health Mon., Weds 1-4:30p 477 23rd St, Ogden Appt 801-399-7250 HOMELESS SVCS

VOA Homeless Youth Resource Ctr, ages 15–21 880 S 400 W 801-364-0744 Transition Homes: Young Men’s 801-433-1713 Young Women’s 801-359-5545 LEGAL

Rainbow Law Free Clinic 2nd Thurs 6:30–7:30pm UofU Law School, 383 S University St POLITICAL

Equality Utah  equalityutah.org * info@equalityutah.org 175 W 200 S, Ste 1004 801-355-3479

Qsaltlake.com |

RELIGIOUS

First Baptist Church  firstbaptist-slc.org * office@firstbaptistslc.org 11a Sundays 777 S 1300 E 801-582-4921 Sacred Light of Christ  slcchurch.org 823 S 600 E 801-595-0052 11a Sundays Wasatch Metropolitan Community Church  wasatchmcc.org 801-889-8764 Sundays except the 2nd Sunday, 11:15a at Crone’s Hollow, 3834 S. Main SOCIAL

1 to 5 Club (bisexual)  fb.me/1to5ClubUtah  1to5club@

utahpridecenter.org Alternative Garden Club  bit.ly/altgarden * altgardenclub@gmail.com blackBOARD Men’s Kink/Sex/BDSM education, 1st, 3rd Mons.  blackbootsslc.org

Utah Libertarian Party 6885 S State St #200 888-957-8824

blackBOOTS Kink/BDSM Men’s leather/kink/ fetish/BDSM 4th Sats.  blackbootsslc.org

Utah Log Cabin Republicans  bit.ly/logcabinutah 801-657-9611

Gay Writes writing group, DiverseCity 6:30 pm Mondays Community Writing Ctr, 210 E 400 S Ste 8

Utah Stonewall Democrats  utahstonewalldemocrats.org  fb.me/ utahstonewalldems

Men Who Move  menwhomove.org OUTreach Utah Ogden  outreachutah.org

OWLS of Utah (Older, Wiser, Lesbian. Sisters)  bit.ly/owlsutah Queer Friends  queerfriends.org qVinum Wine Tasting  qvinum.com  fb.me /QVinum/ Sage Utah, Seniors  fb.me/sageutah  sageutah@ utahpridecenter.org 801-557-9203 Temple Squares Square Dance Club  templesquares.org 801-449-1293 Utah Bears  utahbears.com  fb.me/utahbears  info@utahbears.com Weds 6pm Raw Bean Coffee, 611 W Temple Utah Male Naturists  umen.org  info@umen.org Utah Pride Center  utahpridecenter.org  info@utahpridecenter.org 1380 S Main St 801-539-8800 Venture OUT Utah  bit.ly/GetOutsideUtah SPORTS

QUAC — Queer Utah Aquatic Club  quacquac.org  questions@ quacquac.org Salt Lake Goodtime Bowling League  bit.ly/slgoodtime Stonewall Sports SLC  fb.me/SLCStonewall  stonewallsaltlakecity. leagueapps.com 385-243-1828 Utah Gay Football League  UtahGayFootballLeague.com  fb.me/UtahGayFootballLeague Venture Out Utah  facebook.com/groups/ Venture.OUT.Utah SUPPORT

umen.org

Alcoholics Anonymous 801-484-7871  utahaa.org LGBT meetings:

Sun. 3p Acceptance Group, UPC,1380 S Main Tues. 8:15p Live & Let Live, Mt Tabor Lutheran, 175 S 700 E Wed. 7p Sober Today, 375 Harrison Blvd, Ogden Fri. 8p Stonewall Group, Mt Tabor Lutheran, 175 S 700 E Crystal Meth Anon  crystalmeth.org Sun. 1:30pm Clean, Sober & Proud LGBTQIA+Straight USARA, 180 E 2100 S LifeRing Secular Recovery 801-608-8146  liferingutah.org Sun. 10am Univ. Neuropsychiatric Institute, 501 Chipeta Way #1566 Wed. noon, 2319 Foothill Dr, #120 Weds. 6:30 pm, Univ Neuropsych Institute, 501 Chipeta Way #2705 Thurs. 7pm, USARA, 180 E 2100 S, #100 Sat. 11am, First Baptist Church, 777 S 1300 E Men’s Support Group  utahpridecenter. org/programs/lgbtqadults/  joshuabravo@ utahpridecenter.org Survivors of Suicide Attempt  utahpridecenter.org/ programs/lgbtq-adults/  sosa@ utahpridecenter.org

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

Youth Support Gro ages 10-14, 14-20  utahpridecenter. org/programs/youthfamily-programs/

Youth Survivors of Suicide Attempt  utahpridecenter.org/ programs/youth-familyprograms/  youthsosa@ utahpridecenter.org YOUTH/COLLEGE

Encircle LGBTQ Family and Youth Resource Ctr  encircletogether.org fb.me/encircletogether 91 W 200 S, Provo, Gay-Straight Alliance Network  gsanetwork.org Kids Like Me (ages 2-10)  utahpridecenter.org/ programs/youth-familyprograms/ Salt Lake Community College LGBTQ+ 8 slcc.edu/lgbtq/ University of Utah LGBT Resource Center 8 lgbt.utah.edu 200 S Central Campus Dr Rm 409 801-587-7973 USGA at BYU  usgabyu.com  fb.me/UsgaAtByu Utah State Univ. Access & Diversity Ctr  usu.edu/ accesscenter/lgbtqa Utah Valley Univ Spectrum  facebook.com/ groups/uvuspectrum

Trans Adult Support  utahpridecenter.org/ programs/lgbtq-adults/  lanegardinier@ utahpridecenter.org

Weber State University LGBT Resource Center  weber.edu/ lgbtresourcecenter 801-626-7271

Women’s Support Group  utahpridecenter.org/ programs/lgbtq-adults/  mariananibley@ utahpridecenter.org

Youth Activity Night ages 10-14, 14-20  utahpridecenter.org/ programs/youth-familyprograms/

MAY 2, 2019 |

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

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MARKETPLACE | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 43

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44 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | HEALTH

positive thoughts

Treatment is prevention Prevention Access Campaign builds a movement as Undetectable Equals Untransmittable goes global.

Bruce

BY ORIOL R. GUTIERREZ JR.

Richman is founding executive director of the Prevention Access Campaign (PAC), which launched the Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U) campaign in 2016. U=U refers to the fact that people living with HIV on effective treatment do not sexually transmit the virus. Since the launch of U=U, a groundswell of research has confirmed that having an undetectable viral load renders people incapable of transmitting HIV to their sexual partners. Before launching PAC, Richman was the founder of Inspired Philanthropy Group. He developed philanthropic initiatives with people and brands, including Donna Karan, Ellen DeGeneres, Archibishop Desmond Tutu, The Bob Marley Foundation, Banana Republic, Sephora, Cartier, professional sports stars and others. Richman received a master’s in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a doctor of law degree from Harvard Law School. He tested HIV positive in 2003. He learned in 2012 that his undetectable viral load meant he could not transmit the virus, which inspired him to share the good news worldwide. Why is U=U important? U=U sets people living with HIV free from the fear of transmission. We have been living with and dying from HIV stigma for over 35 years. U=U is a chance to end that stigma. U=U is also an incentive to getting more people on treatment. Reducing HIV stigma should lead to more people getting tested for the virus. For those who test HIV positive, U=U is an added incentive to start treatment, stay on treatment and stay in care for their health and the health of their partners. U=U also helps public health as an argument for increasing access to treatment and services for all people living with HIV. The combination of keeping

people healthy, helping them to maintain an undetectable viral load and preventing new HIV transmissions gets us closer to ending the epidemic. Why is U=U still not widely known? There are many reasons. U=U is radically at odds with the status quo. This is revolutionary information. It goes against decades of fear of the virus and of people living with HIV, so to unlearn all that is going to take some time. It will take consistent repetition of the message from influencers in the HIV field and in various communities to move people to accept this is true. Even when folks accept that it’s true, it is still a challenge to communicate it. The decisions of whom to communicate it to and how are filtered through prejudice and paternalism, where information providers are deciding which people living with HIV are supposedly responsible enough to get this information. Communities that are already marginalized are being left out of this information. It’s dangerous to keep the misperception out there that we are a risk. Not only do people living with HIV internalize that message, but people who want to love us, have sex with us and babies with us are getting that message too. Tell us about PAC’s U=U strategy. We’ve successfully advanced the U=U message through advocacy, education and communications. In early 2016, we collaborated with leading researchers on HIV sexual transmission to issue the first U=U global consensus statement as an advocacy tool. Over 800 community partners from nearly 100 countries have since endorsed the U=U message. Our advocacy work initially focused on U.S. public health departments and health ministries around the world, as well as major influencer organizations, to update their risk assessments to align with the science. That advocacy has expanded to

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

include updating their treatment guidelines accordingly. When it comes to education, it’s about helping people understand the science and how to communicate that science. It’s really not that complex. It’s about TLC. Treatment: stay on treatment as prescribed; Labs: get labs done regularly; and Connection: stay connected to care. The details are also not difficult. The threshold for U=U is under 200 copies per milliliter, synonymous with viral suppression. U=U only prevents HIV. Condoms help prevent other sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. U=U applies only to sexual transmission, not to breast feed-

ing or needle sharing. U=U may not exempt people with HIV from disclosure laws. All that said, medicine only works if you have access to it and take it, but that can be hard to do because in many communities the social determinants of health still need to be addressed. The challenge with communicating U=U is not to convey it in a way that shames people who are not undetectable. The message should be used as a public health argument to ensure all people can become undetectable. As for distributing our communications, we have a newsletter with resources that we send out to our partners on a regular basis. We curate the best U=U campaigns and research and fact sheets PHOTO COURTESY OF BRUCE RICHMAN

BOOKS | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 45

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

from around the world. Why reinvent the wheel when there are some excellent materials out there? We also do media monitoring. Every day we get clips of articles that include references to undetectable or viral load suppression. We aim to correct any inaccurate or stigmatizing language. Why has U=U succeeded globally? It’s mind-blowing how fast the U=U movement has grown. It’s a testament to the strength and conviction of people around the world who are living with HIV and those who care about us. Just in the past few months, I’ve had calls with folks in Vietnam, Cambodia and Romania. I’m constantly corresponding with people in Australia and New Zealand. I traveled to Canada, where the federal health minister signed the country on to the U=U campaign. Princess Stephanie of Monaco signed her country on to the campaign. In Osaka, Japan, they had a sexy U=U party. Every week, there’s more exciting U=U news. The message has been embraced because U=U is a concept owned by everyone. People living with HIV are tired of being treated as disease vectors. We’re tired of having this virus interfere with our relationships and threaten our lives. What are your hopes for U=U in the U.S.? We have a lot of work to do in the United States. Public health departments are leading the way rather than community-based organizations. There are some groups that have developed U=U campaigns and are training their staff, but we’re seeing a lack

of energy, especially on social media, from many groups. Up to now, it’s mostly just individuals in the United States who are tweeting and sharing U=U on social media. Strong messaging from federal agencies has helped get us this far, but despite those efforts, we’re finding that U=U still isn’t catching on as much with the community-based organizations. For example, I was at an HIV conference recently where I was glad that U=U had a plenary session, but among the exhibitors there was only one organization out of many that had any U=U materials. There was, however, a lot of information about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV testing. What we need is for these U.S. groups to be proactive in communicating about U=U. They can’t just send out a statement on U=U once and expect that to have a lasting effect. They have to keep saying it, keep sending things, keep encouraging people and updating websites, just like they’ve done for PrEP. I really hope that the end result of all our collective efforts on behalf of U=U is that we change what it means to live with HIV, so that people who test positive for the virus are seen as just having a chronic condition and not as dangerous people who should be feared. If we keep increasing our efforts, then all people living with HIV can live happy and healthy social, sexual and reproductive lives without fear. Q Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr. is the editor-in-chief of POZ magazine. Find him on Twitter @ oriolgutierrez. This column is a project of Plus, Positively Aware, POZ, The Body, Q Syndicate, and QSaltLake Magazine.

MORE THAN

MAY 2, 2019 |

EVENTS THIS MONTH

Coming up DOWNTOWN 4.18–20 RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE CO presents BLOOM @ Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center

4.19 SALT LAKE GALLERY STROLL 4.19 LAUGHING STOCK IMPROV COMEDY @ The Off Broadway Theatre 4.1 9–20 THE TABERNACLE CHOIR presents THEIR 2019 EASTER CONCERT @ Tabernacle on Temple Square

4.1 9–20 CIRQUE DANCES WITH TROUPE VERTIGO & THE UTAH SYMPHONY @ Abravanel Hall 4.20 STORY PIRATES: SYMPHONY EXTRAVAGANZA! @ Abravanel Hall

4.26–27 UTAH SYMPHONY presents VILLEGAS PLAYING CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ @ Abravanel Hall

THEBLOCKSSLC.COM

46 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | FRIVOLIST

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

the frivolist

5 problems with living in the future BY MIKEY ROX

We all

like to daydream about what the future may hold, but when those prospects consume your thoughts more than the present, there’s a real risk of living your own mental and emotional nightmare. Make a conscious effort to enjoy the here and now by recognizing these problems with overthinking life’s uncertainties.

3. The anxiety it can cause you will make you miserable If you’re worrying about the future, you’re probably not concentrating on all the wonderful possibilities it holds. Instead, human nature is honing in on everything that can go wrong, leading

doing yourself a disservice (perhaps lifelong) by allowing negativity to cloud your judgment. This isn’t to say that you should rest on your laurels and let the world dictate what happens to you, but also don’t count yourself out before the countdown is done.

1. You can’t enjoy the present How will you ever find success and happiness in the future if you can’t enjoy right now? It’s a classic catch-22. Because focusing on tomorrow today won’t end as long as you live since as long as you live there will always be today and tomorrow. Plan for the future, sure, but don’t let the what-ifs take away from your enjoyment of the present. You get one shot at today, and you’ll never get it again.

2. It can destroy your relationships I’ve been cheated on in the past by guys who’ve told me how much they love me, who were affectionate, who genuinely enjoyed spending time with me — but that didn’t stop them from lying and stepping out. The effect of that behavior makes it harder to build new, healthier relationships, because I often worry if the next guy will do the same in the future — and if I’m constantly sleuthing for problems, problems will arise. I’ve personally found that the only way for me to keep myself in check in this regard is with therapy: talking with someone regularly about my doubts, fears, and ultimately the reinforcement of my own self-worth (I’m better off being single than letting a cheater control my emotions), and I recommend seeking professional help if you’re also feeling lonely in this world.

to stress and anxiety. There have been times in my own life where my pessimism about what hasn’t even happened yet has physically debilitated me to the point that I can’t get out of bed. I do find solace in a daily routine and checklist, however, that firmly keeps me moving at today’s pace instead of tomorrow’s.

5. It’s out of your control

4. Worrying about it can affect what good may come

You are only one tiny influence on your future. The rest — all the people and events that live right outside your door — have much greater impact, and there’s no way you can control it. So don’t try to. Live your best in-the-moment life and let nature take its course with your hands on the wheel. You never know where you’ll end up — and that’s the best part. Q

There are amazing things ahead for you, but your endless apprehension about the future can and will affect what’s to come. Every decision we make sets the foundation for what’s next, and you’re

Mikey Rox is an award-winning journalist and LGBT lifestyle expert whose work has been published in more than 100 outlets across the world. He spends his time writing from the beach with his dog Jaxon. Connect with Mikey on Instagram @mikeyrox

MAY 2, 2019 |

Issue 299 | Qsaltlake.com

FRIVOLIST | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 47

“The best advertising I do” —JAY HALLSTROM

pages Get in the 2019 directory of Utah’s LGBT-friendly businesses today by calling 801-997-9763 or emailing sales@qsaltlake.com

48 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | NEWS

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

MAY 2, 2019 |

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NEWS | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 49

50 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | FINAL WORD

Qsaltlake.com |

Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019

the perils of petunia pap smear

The tale of the beauty and the beast BY PETUNIA PAP SMEAR

The road

to the pantry is fraught with danger

and excitement. It was a dark and stormy night. The wind was howling out of the north and the snow was swirling into tsunami-size drifts. I was snugly ensconced in the warm and cozy basement of Chateau Pap Smear, seated at the computer desk busily attempting to keep up on my life’s vocation — the sorting of all the porn on the internet. While “working” I was keeping half an eye on the television located on a shelf above the computer. (I can multitask!) In the middle of deciding whether a photo of a certain admirable Speedo-clad adonis should be sorted into the “Well-Packed Spandex” folder or the “Oh-My-God ABS” folder, I sensed a disturbance in the force. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I noticed some movement. As I was home alone, I thought I might be having a spiritual visitation from Judy Garland. A few minutes and 15 photos later, it happened again. I thought that the light from the TV must have been casting shadows through my mascara. The next day, I was again at the computer desk when my mascara was vindicated. I saw with my own eyes, a mouse run from the laundry room into the fruit room. Yes, Chateau Pap Smear is one of those little old

brick grandma bungalows, and like most Mormon homes, it has a food storage room, otherwise commonly called a “Fruit Room”. Timidly, I ventured into the fruit room. Using the lights from my breasticles to shine on the shelves in the dark corners, I looked around and saw to my horror that the rangy rodent had gotten into my sacred stash of Ramen noodles. I felt so violated. A sense of defilement began to well up in my breasticles. Nothing shall ever come between a queen and her noodles. I found a lot of mouse turds on the top shelf, so I moved stuff about in search of the animal. Low and behold to my shock and horror, the malevolent mammal actually leaped from the top shelf over my beehive hair to a lower shelf on the opposite wall. Who knew they could jump that far? I could have sworn it was wearing a cape and cried, “Here he comes to save the day!” It was indeed a Mighty Mouse. Thwarted by this first attempt at capture, but disgusted at the quantity of mouse poo left behind, I grabbed my Electrolux and gave the fruit room a good douching. I removed the opened and contaminated noodle packs and threw them in the garbage can beside the computer desk. The next day, I was sitting at the desk and I thought I heard rustling. I raised my maximus buttockus out of my chair and turned on the light in the fruit room in an attempt to catch the little bugger in the act. Nothing! As I sat back down, the vermin jumped out of the garbage can, not five inches from my knee and ran away. Did I scream? Hell yes! On another occasion, while descending the stairs, I saw the nasty little nutter run under the door into the closet where I keep my coats. I flung open the door endeavoring to catch it, only to find that it had escaped. I investigated the closet for clues. I discovered that the little bitch had eaten a huge hole in the lining of my full-

7pm, April 12, May 17 First Baptist Church, 777 S 1300 E fb.me/matronsofmayhem

length fur coat. THIS MEANT WAR! Livid with righteous indignation, I armed myself for battle. In one hand I held one of my breasticles from my Petunia Closet (the one and only true and everlasting “Fruit Room”) to trap the creepy critter. In the other hand I wielded a golden stiletto with which to spear and or pummel the little rat. All I found were more droppings. Time to build a better mouse trap! I devised an obstacle course for the little hamster wannabe. I took from my closet all eighteen pairs of breasticles and placed them over each of the perishable food items creating a confusing maze. The fruit room began to resemble a miniature Christmas forest display. At the far end of the forest, I placed some delicious poison. Surely, this should do the trick. After several days of this stake out, the poison was left untouched but the breasticle forest was littered with more droppings. I was in Hell! I was quickly becoming a Desperate Drag Queen. My inner detective instincts began to emerge. I noticed that there was no evidence at all of mouse infestation in the Petunia Closet. What could possibly be in there that might be repelling the nasty beast? Of course, glitter! Glitter is the never-ending, non-biodegradable infestation of another kind. So, I unwrapped a Ramen noodle and buried it as bait in a pond of blue glitter at the end of the breasticle forest. A few days later, there was no more evidence of the mouse. Success! Of course I had to do a little victory hopscotch-like dance over the breasticle forest. This story leaves us with several important questions: 1. How best should I disinfect any possible contamination of all the breasticles? 2. Should I begin teaching proper food storage techniques in the Relief Society homemaking lessons? 3. Would marking my territory by peeing in the corners be a better mouse deterrent than glitter? 4. Should I pitch the television show Desperate Drag Queens to CBS? 5. Did my glitter trap work, or was it because I called a professional exterminator? 6. Should I apply for a job with Orkin? These and other eternal questions will be answered in future chapters of The Perils of Petunia Pap Smear. Q

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QSaltLake Magazine - 299 - May 2, 2019

Articles inside

The tale of the beauty and the beast

5 problems with living in the future

Treatment is prevention

Get active

Lasciviousness to lasagna: Caff\u00E9 Molise

Deep Inside Hollywood

Molly Shannon Queering a Literary Icon

\u201CSissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story\u201D

Scottish Ballet joins Ballet West\u2019s Choreographic Festival

\u2018Aladdin\u2019 grants the wish for thrilling theater

Tony's Gay Agenda

The 1993 March on Washington, and ... Logan

Thank you for 50 years of Happy Pride

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman

Cupcake Warrior

Pride around the globe

Pride across the state

The makers of Five Wives Vodka announced a special Utah Pride Festival label \u2014 Five Husbands Vodka.

A Sneak Peek at Utah Pride

Qmmunity

Utah Leather Pride, May 19

Summer Sports

byu valedictorian to his graduating class: \u2018I am proud to be a gay son of God\u2019

News

Deciding to Dance the Dance

BYU valedictorian to his graduating class: \"I am proud to be a gay son of God\"