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Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons—Serving Gay & Lesbian Mormons and Their Family and Friends Since 1977
The Affirmation Conference Is Almost Here!
Registration, Hotel Deadlines Approaching
by Hugo Salinas, Affirmation webmaster
The Affirmation Conference is almost here, with deadlines approaching fast. If you have not yet registered, August 22 is the deadline to register at the discounted rate of $159, with a $20 discount for first timers and the possibility of a 50% scholarship discount for students and others with limited income. The full registration of $179 applies for registrations received after August 22 and before September 5. After September 5, mail-in registrations will not be accepted; electronic registrations after September 5 and walk-in registrations will be accepted only on a “space available” basis and only at the walk-in rate of $199. The deadline to reserve a hotel room, starting at $89, is August 16.
If you’re flying to Salt Lake, purchase your plane ticket as soon as possible. On the weekend of September 18-20, you can fly from either San Francisco or Los Angeles for approximately $200. Flying from Portland is even cheaper. For those coming from Phoenix, Delta Airlines and U.S. Airways offer direct flights for as little as $232. For those coming from Washington DC, Delta offers direct flights from both Dulles and National for about $300. These prices are for round trips and include taxes.
Please visit the confernece website to learn more about the outstanding program
the conference organizers are putting together. From gay and lesbian to straight and transgender, from people who are active in the LDS Church to those have moved on or have never been members, from writers and scholars to artists, entertainers, and community leaders, the program promises a conference that will be rich, diverse, thought-provoking, and fun.
If you are a chapter leader, a national leader, or are thinking about getting more involved in Affirmation, please arrive by 2:00 PM on Friday and attend our annual council of chapter representatives. The meeting is open to all Affirmation members. If this is your first conference, please join us by 5:00 PM for a First Timers orientation.
If you’re coming by plane, you will have to decide whether to fly back on Sunday afternoon or on Monday. The last plenary session of the conference is a lunch scheduled to end by 2:15 PM, but the conference organizers have put together additional events which will run until 6:30 PM—including a Family Fellowship Forum which is highly recommended.
If you have discovered Affirmation recently and are not sure whether you want to get involved, simply come and see for yourself what we’re all about. Whatever your circumstances and whatever your budget, join us September 18-20 in Salt Lake City to see what “The View from Here” is all about.
Affirmation Calendar 2009
August 12-15
Sunstone Symposium held in Salt Lake City
August 15
Nationwide Kissing Demonstration held in cities accross the country
August 16
Deadline to reserve a room at the Conference Hotel
August 21
Deadline to register for the annual conference at reduced rate of $159
September 5
Deadline to register for the annual conference at reduced rate of $179
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September 18-20
Affirmation's Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, UT
October 10-11
2009 March for Equality in Washington, DC
October 11
National Coming Out Day
December 1
World AIDS Day
December 8-9
Anniversary. Affirmation was organized nationally in Los Angeles (1979).
December 25
Christmas
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Carol Lynn Pearson |
Emily Pearson |
Affirmation Conference to Feature Carol Lynn and Emily Pearson
Carol Lynn Pearson will lead the hymn “I’ll Walk with You”
Carol Lynn Pearson and her daughter Emily will lead one of the Saturday workshops during the 2009 Affirmation Conference, to be held September 18-20 in Salt Lake City.
Carol Lynn and Emily are well known to Mormon audiences, and both share the experience of having once been married to gay men. Each has spoken and written eloquently in the past about GLBT issues and LDS family dynamics in forums such the Sunstone magazine and Sunstone symposium, Affirmation conferences, and others. Carol Lynn is the author of the 2007 book No More Goodbyes and a recent play, Facing East, which is now slated to become a film.
During the Sunday devotional, Carol Lynn Pearson will lead the hymn “I’ll Walk with You,” the lyrics for which she wrote in 1987 for the LDS Children’s Songbook (page 140). As Carol Lynn explained in her recent book No More Goodbyes, she was commissioned to write a song that would encourage children in the Church to be kind and loving towards children with special needs or who are handicapped.
“It pleases me so much to know [this song] is sung in LDS congregations all over the word, by children and often by adults,” Carol Lynn wrote. “...But as I wrote it, I also had in mind the little children who, as they grow up, will find themselves of a sexual orientation sure to present a challenge for them in our church and our society” (No More Goodbyes, 113).
The song reads, in part:
If you don’t walk as most people do,
Some people walk away from you,
But I won’t! I won’t!
If you don’t talk as most people do,
Some people talk and laugh at you,
But I won’t! I won’t!
I’ll walk with you. I’ll talk with you.
That’s how I’ll show my love for you.
The song is available, lyrics only or lyrics and music, at the official LDS website.
Two Utahns Raise Awareness about GLBT Homelessness
Forty-two Percent of Salt Lake’s Homeless Youth Are LGBT
From a story in the Salt Lake Tribune
July 2009
Two Utah residents of Mormon background, Chloe Noble and Jill Hardman, are walking across the nation, living on the street, to raise awareness of an alarmingly large segment of the homeless population: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths.
“We want people to really understand what kind of suffering they endure,” Noble said. “We want to leave a lasting impression so people will look at this epidemic and want to do something.”
Although a relatively small portion of juveniles and young adults identify as LGBT -- 5 percent to 8 percent -- they comprise 20 percent to 40 percent of the homeless youth population, according to the National Coalition for Youth.
Noble and Hardman, both Salt Lake City residents, are in their hometown this week on their 6,000-mile, circuitous trek (3,000 miles on foot, the rest by car). They started in May in Seattle and expect the journey to take six to nine months. The pair has walked through parts of Washington, Oregon and Northern California, carrying 50-pound packs.
In Salt Lake City, Volunteers of America found that 42 percent of the youths (ages 15 to 22) served at its Homeless Youth Resource Center, from October 2008 to February 2009, were LGBT. The center works with more than 700 homeless young people a year.
“Nationally, as well [as in Utah], there probably are fewer resources to help parents with youth who come out,” said Zachary Bale, director of homeless services for Volunteers of America in Utah. “What we see is an overall lack of support for those youth, including to the point that they're kicked out of their homes because of their sexual identification.”
Some LGBT kids get booted. Others run away.
Noble, who identifies as “gender queer,” left home when she was 20 years old and struggled with chronic homelessness for the next decade. Her LDS parents were “very loving,” Noble said, but they considered being gay or transgender a mental disorder.
The walk, she said, has been grueling but rewarding. She has spent time with homeless kids as young as 12. She is impressed with the remarkable services that many organizations provide to homeless youths. But more than a Band-Aid, more than drop-in centers or free meals, she said, solving LGBT homelessness requires education.
“That can be resolved by changing the perspective of how queer youth are seen,” Noble said. “The homeless gay and transgender youth of Utah deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.”
To learn more, visit their blog at http://www.pridewalk2009.org, check out their route map, and follow their tweets at twitter.com/chloenoble.
Estelle Harris (left) and Clair Jones, both from Provo, kiss in front of the LDS Temple
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The Arrest of Gay Couple at Temple Square Triggers Kiss-ins, Protests
LDS Church declines to comment on what is considered “inappropriate behavior” or to clarify rules governing the plaza
The recent arrest of a gay couple who kissed at Temple Square has triggered kiss-ins and massive protests against the LDS Church which is being accused of homophobic attitudes and the takeover of a public space.
A gay male couple were detained on July 9 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after one of the men kissed the other on the cheek on Main Street Plaza. “They targeted us,” said Matt Aune, 28. “We weren't doing anything inappropriate or illegal, or anything most people would consider inappropriate for any other couple.”
Aune and his partner, Derek Jones, 25, were cited by Salt Lake City police for trespassing on the plaza, located at 50 East North Temple, according to Sgt. Robin Snyder.
Though Salt Lake City sold the property to the church in the late 1990s, it remains a popular pedestrian thoroughfare and a site where couples often pose affectionately for photos.
Aune said the incident started when he and Jones were walking back to their Salt Lake City home from a concert at the nearby Gallivan Center. The couple live just blocks away from the plaza in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
The pair crossed the plaza holding hands, Aune said. About 20 feet from the edge of the plaza, Aune said he stopped, put his arm on Jones’ back, and kissed him on the cheek.
Several security guards then arrived and asked the pair to leave, saying that public displays of affection are not allowed on the church's property, Aune and Jones said. The couple protested, saying they often see other couples holding hands and kissing there, said Jones.
“We were kind of standing up for ourselves,” Jones said. “It [being confronted by security] was obviously because we were gay.” The guards put Jones on the ground and handcuffed him, he said. Aune said he was also cuffed roughly, suffering bruises and a swollen wrist. The injuries did not require medical treatment, Snyder said.
The kiss happened on a former public easement given up by city in 2003 in a controversial land-swap deal. The easement became private property, allowing the church to ban protesting, smoking, sunbathing and other “offensive, indecent, obscene, lewd or disorderly speech, dress or conduct,” church officials said at the time. In exchange, the city received church property for a community center.
Three kiss-ins have been held so far in response to the incident--two at Temple Square and one near the San Diego Temple. The second Salt lake kiss-in, held on July 19, drew over 200 people, gay and straight, who gathered at Temple Square to exchange kisses, hold hands, and hug.
After the second kiss-in, the group left the public sidewalk and walked onto church property for three rounds of kissing between the plaza's fountain pool and the Salt Lake City Temple.
Several gay couples moved on to the plaza for kissing and hand-holding, along with straight couples such as Peter Saunders, a Salt Lake City software designer, and his wife of 37 years, Gerda. “There's no need for controversy and hatred, especially in a beautiful environment like this,” said Saunders, raising his arm toward the temple.
A 25-year-old Brigham Young University graduate, Kate Savage, attended with her boyfriend, Tristan Call. “It's as if the doctrine of the importance of families we're taught is used to destroy other people's families, and we don't understand that,” Savage said.
A third kiss-in was held in San Diego on July 22, and a nationwide kiss-in is now being planned for August 15.
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Former
BYU student Tristan Call (left), reads Alma 32:3 to Wes Osburn, who sits shackled to the chain at the entry to Temple Square. |
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MHA Conference to Discuss Families in Diverse Mormon Traditions
The event will be held May 27-30, 2010, in Kansas City, Missouri
Jim Cartwright
I received my Mormon History Association Newsletter today in which it announces a call for papers for the 2010 conference in Independence, MO. As MHA includes all groups growing out of the Restoration movement begun by Joseph Smith, Jr., it includes Affirmation, GALA, and possibly other LGBT groups.
The theme for 2010 is "The Home and the Homeland: Families in Diverse Mormon Traditions." The conference will be held May 27-30, 2010, in Kansas City, Missouri.
I’m writing this to inspire lesbian, gay, transgendered scholars from these two groups and others from Restoration tradition churches to get together immediately via email to discuss creating a session of papers for this conference. The deadline for submission of a finished proposal is 1 October 2009, so we need to start now.
I will function as a facilitator, passing on responses to all others in order that anyone interested can start collaborating asap. I think gay or lesbian couples raising children; lesbian or gay couples with a relatively long time together discussing survival tactics; lesbian and gay couples facing divorce or breakup; couples facing terminal illness; couples with accounts of extended family reconciliation; and probably others–all would have worthwhile experiences to present. Others may have scholarly studies on LGBT couples–families and homes.
Please feel welcome to forward this to anyone else you think would be able to make a contribution to this effort.
Sunstone Sessions to Discuss GLBT, Gender Issues
August 12-15 at the Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel
Several sessions of the 2009 Sunstone Symposium will discuss GLBT and gender issues. The theme of the symposium is “The Contribution of Women to LDS Church and Culture.”
You may register for the entire symposium or for a single day, and students with a valid ID may attend the whole symposium for only $30. Additional information is available on the Sunstone website. You may call the Sunstone office and request a printed program that will be mailed to you. The Symposium will take place at the Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel; special room rates are available for conference attendees.
For a copy of the program, visit https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/images//slc09finalprogram723web.pdf
Sessions of GLBT interest include the following:
Wednesday (Wednesday workshops require separate registration)
W5. Family Life and Gay Youth: The Impact
of Acceptance and Rejection on
Their Health & Well-Being,
with Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW
Saturday
323. Why Gay Mormons Are So Often
Tempted To Blow Their Stinkin’ Heads
Off (In No Particular Order)
333. The Gay Mormon Literature Project
355. “It’s Either True or False . . . ”
Dichotomous Thinking in Mormon
Culture and Its Impact on the
Individual. Presenters: Peter and Mary Danzig.
356. The Constant Process (film)
366. Voicings, A Short Film By Stephen
Williams
375. It Begins with a Family: A
Conversation with Dr. Caitlin Ryan
about Families and Homosexuality
Dan Marcum: A Tribute by Larry Mann
Daniel Woodrow Marcum, JD, passed away unexpectedly of natural causes in his sleep at the home of his youngest sister Shawn in West Virginia on Sunday, July 26, 2009.
Dan was born near Mt. Gay, WV, and spent his childhood in a place he fondly referred to as Dempsey Branch Holler in the coal mining country. He joined the LDS church as a teenager, as did one other sibling in his large family, partly under the tutelage of a maternal aunt who had been an early convert to Mormonism in that area.
He attended John Marshall University, and later BYU, graduating there in 1971. He served as a missionary in the West German Mission (Frankfurt) from 1967 to 1969. He attended law school at the University of Utah, graduating in the class of 1974. He practiced law in Salt Lake City for a number of years before moving to southern California and then later to Ypsilanti, Michigan where he has resided for the last decade or so with his sister Donna. He was visiting in West Virginia for family and school reunions at the time of his death.
According to his wishes, Dan's body will be cremated. The family has arranged a small memorial service to be held in Dempsey Branch Holler on Thursday, July 30, 2009.
Dan began coming out to friends and family in 1983 and found the going not always easy in those early years. The trauma took a considerable toll on him before he left Utah in 1991. In recent years he has been an avid supporter of Affirmation and a very frequent contributor to q-saints. His rants on political topics are legion, but those who knew him personally will probably remember him most for his wonderful story-telling ability and the acuity of memory he could bring to bear on incidents and events of long ago.
On the occasions Dan and I have met for dinner when he was in DC on business, he was a steady spring of good humor and ready wit. Dinner with Dan was an event that never ceased to leave me aching with laughter; his humor was rich and unceasing.
As we know from our acquaintance with him here on Q-Saints, Dan took a keen delight in exposing the hypocrisy and foibles of the religious right. But his views were always conveyed with wit and wisdom - and with his irresistible smile of enlightenment.
I'll miss Dan profoundly,
Larry Mann
PS: For those of you who knew Dan and who will be attending the Affirmation Conference in Salt Lake City, we'd like to host a little get together to recall his friendship and celebrate his life.
A gay Mormon man asks himself: If there were a pill that could make me straight, would I take it?
Jeff Williamson shares his experience going to see a Christian counselor.
Daniel Gonzales, who underwent so-called “reparative therapy,” tells his story. |
Psychologists Repudiate So-Called “Reparative Therapy”
Some research suggested that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies
From an AP story
The American Psychological Association declared that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.
In a resolution adopted by the association’s governing council, and in an accompanying report, the association issued its most comprehensive repudiation of so-called reparative therapy, a concept espoused by a small but persistent group of therapists, often allied with religious conservatives, who maintain that gay men and lesbians can change.
No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the resolution, adopted by a 125-to-4 vote. The association said some research suggested that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies.
Instead of seeking such change, the association urged therapists to consider multiple options, which could include celibacy and switching churches, for helping clients live spiritually rewarding lives in instances where their sexual orientation and religious faith conflict.
The association has criticized reparative therapy in the past, but a six-member panel added weight to that position by examining 83 studies on sexual orientation change conducted since 1960. Its report was endorsed by the association’s governing council in Toronto, where the association’s annual meeting is being held this weekend.
The report breaks ground in its detailed and nuanced assessment of how therapists should deal with gay clients struggling to remain loyal to a religious faith that disapproves of homosexuality.
Judith Glassgold, a psychologist in Highland Park, N.J., who led the panel, said she hoped the document could help calm the polarized debate between religious conservatives who believe in the possibility of changing sexual orientation and the many mental health professionals who reject that option.
“Both sides have to educate themselves better," Ms. Glassgold said. “The religious psychotherapists have to open up their eyes to the potential positive aspects of being gay or lesbian. Secular therapists have to recognize that some people will choose their faith over their sexuality.”
Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons
P.O. Box 1435
Palm Springs, CA 92263-1435
National Phone Line: (661) 367-2421
To see a directory of current Affirmation chapters, visit www.affirmation.org/chapters
Executive Director: Dave Melson
Senior Assistant Director: Micah Bisson
Assistant Director: George Cole
Associate Director & Affinity Editor: Hugo Salinas www.affirmation.org/contact/affinity
Send Us Your Submission!
AFFIRMATION GAY & LESBIAN MORMONS is a non-profit support group serving
Gay and Lesbian Mormons, their families and friends since 1977. AFFINITY
is the official publication of the Affirmation National Executive Committee.
Submissions are welcome and should be limited to 250 words. To contact us, visit www.affirmation.org/contact/affinity. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, national committee or publisher, but rather
the individual writers. The Editor reserves the right to edit any material
deemed offensive, libelous, grammatically incorrect or lengthy.
About AFFINITY
AFFINITY is available both as an email text and as a web-based document.
Although both versions are free of charge, we encourage you to become
a dues-paying member and thus help us advance Affirmation's important
mission.
If you wish to receive a text version of AFFINITY by email, simply send a request to Hugo Salinas by visiting www.affirmation.org/contact/affinity. If you are a dues-paying member and do not have Internet
access, you may request a printed version that will be sent to you by
mail.
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