Inside This Issue Editorial: Inverted Triangles Upcoming Events & Event Reminders Affirmation Conference Leadership Meeting Paul Mortensen Award Report from Baghdad "Latter Days" Is a Hit Movie

Editorial: Inverted Triangles

By Hugo Salinas, Associate Director

With an inverted triangle as part of their logo, more than 5,000 Saints gathered in the Tabernacle on June 8 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a momentous event. It was June 1978 when Spencer W. Kimball and the Quorum of the Twelve received a revelation that lifted the ban on black males holding the priesthood. On the same miraculous day, Church leaders also lifted the ban on Black men and women receiving and enjoying all temple blessings.

It is very fitting that Church leaders chose an inverted triangle to mark the anniversary. That triangle symbolizes the progress the Church has made against racial discrimination, but it also highlights all the discriminatory actions Church leaders are still carrying out against women, gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities.

The revelation on the priesthood came to President Kimball only after he spent years praying on the matter. Sometimes I wonder if President Gordon B. Hinckley is praying with the same fervor on the matter of gays and lesbians.

Twenty-five years ago, Black Mormons hailed their long-promised day. Will the time ever come when we gays and lesbians will be able to hail ours?

Upcoming Events, 2003 August 3 Affirmation Chat August 13-16 Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City August 15 Deadline to submit an entry to the Writing Awards Contest September 15 Deadline to register forthe Annual Conference at the best rate October 10-12 2003 Affirmation Annual Conference in Salt Lake City

Event Reminders

Information and registration forms for the 2003 Affirmation Conference are available at our website or by requesting them at Affirmation's P.O. Box. Join us in Salt Lake City on October 10-12 for our annual family gathering.

The Affirmation Writing Awards Contest is now accepting entries! The deadline for submissions is August 15. Awards of $1000, $500, and $250 will be given. Contest rules are available at the Affirmation website.

Affirmation Chat will be back on Sunday, August 3, at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (9:00 PM EST). The event will be held at the Q-Saints chatroom. You must first join Q-Saints in order to be able to chat.

Scott MacKay

Affirmation Conference Will Kick Off with Leadership Meeting

Dear Friends:

The leadership meeting for the 2003 Affirmation Conference will take place on Friday, October 10, from 2:00-5:00 pm at the University Guest House in Salt Lake City. We encourage chapter and group representatives to schedule their flights so that they can attend this important event. Even though the meeting is open to all Affirmation members, we are asking every chapter to make sure they are represented in the meeting. For more information about the conference, please visit us at www.affirmation.org.

Sincerely,

Scott MacKay, Olin Thomas & Darren Holman
Affirmation's Executive Committee

Affirmation co-founder Paul Mortensen

Paul Mortensen Award
Send Your Nomination Today!

It is time once again to call for nominations for Affirmation's highest honor, the Mortensen Award.

The award is presented each year at our annual conference to an individual who has served Affirmation in an outstanding manner during the past year.

The criteria for selecting a nominee should be:

(1) Someone who is dedicated to the goals of Affirmation and has worked toward achieving them.

(2) Someone who has shown outstanding leadership and service.

(3) Someone who is a self-starter and a motivator of others. And, (4) Someone who is making a difference in the lives of others.

We ask that you look all around in Affirmation to find that one outstanding individual and then submit a nomination to the selection committee. The nomination should be in the form of a letter describing the individual and listing all the reasons this individual is qualified and should be selected. All members of Affirmation are eligible for the Mortensen Award, including past recipients of the award.

Do not submit just a name. We need to know something about the individual since the committee may not know him/her well.

The nominations must be received by September 1, 2003--no exceptions! E-mail them to the Mortensen Awards Committee; do not send copies to anyone else. Or mail them to the National Post Office Box:

Affirmation
Attention: Mortensen Awards Committee
Post Office Box 46022
Los Angeles, California 90046

The winner will be announced at the Affirmation international conference in Salt Lake City on October 11, 2003.

The selection committee is made up of past recipients of the award. They are Paul M., Ina Mae M., Irwin P., Ron K., Larry G., Rick F., Jacki R., Tere L., James K., Duane J., Ricky G., David J., Henry M., Alan B., Scott M., and Olin T.

Be sure to show this letter to everyone in your area. You may be the one who should be nominated and you may not want to nominate yourself.

If you have any questions, e-mail us. We look forward to seeing you at the Salt Lake City conference, which is certainly going to be a great event. Please start thinking about this award today and get your nomination in tomorrow.

Report from Baghdad
Robert, an Affirmation Member, Sends This Report from the Iraqi Capital

My greatest fear in Iraq is that we could frustrate the chance of real progress. We, as the military, are good about coming in and blowing things up, but not very good about trying to put things together again.

I visit palace after bombed-out palace and see in the rubble buildings that were incredibly beautiful. Albeit they were built with the blood of the Iraqi people, so were many of the wonders of the world, e.g. the pyramids in Egypt. But we're here and we have no voice in what we do here.

My Brit friends here say that Tony Blair will probably not run again but will retire and raise his young family. There are some incredibly attractive British troops here. There are some very good-looking US troops here as well, but alas they all appear to be very straight. I guess I'm still in the don't-ask-don't-tell mode as well.

I attended an LDS servicemen's church group which was held in the palace built to celebrate the Iraqi "victory" over the US in 91. It's still under construction, but we had a sacrament meeting in one of the rooms. I call it the Baghdad Gadianton Robbers 1st Ward. You would have to attend a meeting to get the joke. The passageways to get to the second floor require flashlights and guides, like some secret meeting with secret combinations.

We live in the adjacent palace, which celebrates another Iraqi victory. If Saddam had a war and if he was still in power after it was over, then he would build another palace to celebrate the victory.

I must go now, thanks for all your prayers. It is not as hot here as it is in Kuwait. The area is quite beautiful. The ancient city of Babylon is only an hour or two from here. History here goes back to the cradle of history.

Love,

Robert

"Latter Days" Is the Hit Movie at L.A. OutFest

By Gary Booher

"Latter Days" was the clear favorite at this year's OUTFEST - L.A. Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The day of the screening (July 17) the Los Angeles Times featured the film with the headline "Love and Faith in Conflict", and said: "Screenwriter C. Jay Cox ('Sweet Home Alabama') makes a heart-wrenching directorial debut with 'Latter Days', which will surely rank among OUTFEST's strongest offerings. It's an all-stops-out heart-tugger for sure, but its emotional wallop is earned honestly and uncompromisingly... Cox opens up the contradiction between faith and doctrine that seems to many gay people the near-universal affliction of organized religion. What develops is enough for a Douglas Sirk movie, but like Sirk, Cox knows how to make these elements work in telling a sweepingly romantic story."

Despite the hype, I went that night expecting to be its worst critic. After all, how plausible is a story where a West Hollywood guy seduces a Mormon missionary who lives next door in WeHo? Would the story be credible when we all know that missionary companions are inseparable? Also, I feared that it would be a light fluff joke with little that matched our lives as Gay Mormons.

The 1,200 seat theater was sold out and filled beyond capacity as THE movie that everyone wanted to see. Yes, the plot situation was initially implausible, but once I got beyond that question mark I realized that I was experiencing something miraculous. One of the reasons I go to 30+ films at OUTFEST each year is to see our lives on the big screen. But never did I expect to see it so poignantly shown with such depth about so much that was my life as a Gay Mormon.

For most people it was the great gay romance of the year, and that it was, but for some of us we cheered and sobbed as we watched with both wonder and pain. Although not absolutely pure in every detail, the film achieved the essence of our lives, as well as incredible detail about church and family dynamics and right on down to the look-alike garments and the number present for an excommunication court. It was so realistic that it was scary. I felt exposed as the particulars of my experience and of others I know was brazenly spread across the big screen for all to behold. I could tell you more about the story, but that would ruin the journey you should experience for yourself.

Afterwards, during closing credits, the film received a prolonged standing ovation from absolutely EVERYONE, no easy feat considering that the L.A. gay and lesbian audience is a tough crowd, many of whom work in the film and television industry. And on Awards night it received the highest audience voted honor as the "HBO Outstanding First Narrative Feature" (yes, that HBO, who kicked in the only cash prize of the evening).

This is a movie that absolutely EVERY Church member should see, although not all of us would take our mothers due to brief scenes with nudity and sex. But for those you can bring, you will be rewarded for the journey about our lives of faith versus who we love.

P.S.: Watch for "Angels in America" on HBO this December, starring Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary Louise Parker, and others.