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By Hugo Salinas September 2006 During the year 2006, Affirmation prepared a CD-Rom containing all the known issues of Affinity from March 1980 (charter issue) to April 2002. The following history was included in the CD-Rom as an introduction. Affinity, the official newsletter of Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons, saw the light of day in March 1980. "With the issue of Affirmation's first National Newsletter we have begun a new era of communication and sharing with our brothers and sisters around the word," wrote editor T. Robert Axelson in the charter issue. "We have begun an organizational movement which will unite and solidify all of us who have been in some form or another forgotten or ignored by the Church." It took a few months for Affinity to find its name. The first few issues, March - August 1980, did not have a name other than Affirmation Newsletter or Affirmation National Newsletter. The September and October 1980 issues were entitled The New Times and Seasons and New Times and Seasons, respectively. Starting in December 1980, the newsletter was known as The National Affinity. In December 1981, it started to run as Affinity. From the very beginning, Affinity helped inform, raise awareness, and inspire Affirmation members. Before the days of the Internet, the newsletter played a crucial role in promoting GLBT LDS-related events. Affinity provided the only forum where gay and lesbian Mormons could express thoughts, share ideas, and get to know each other. Past editors include: T. Robert Axelson (1980), Gary Booher (1981-1982), Gordon Miller (1983), Mel Barber (1984-1986), Dic Dudley (1987-1989), Mark Cochran (1989), Alan David Lach (1990), Marty Beaudet (1991; 1993- 1994), Kevin Payton (1992), Debbie Dexter (1995-1996), James Kent (1997, 2002), Ricky Hans Gilbert (1998-1999), David Johnson (2000- 2001), and Hugo Salinas (2002-2006). The heroic efforts made by these editors over the years have been complemented by writers, contributing editors, typists, artists, photographers, and many anonymous volunteers who spent 26 years making copies, preparing labels, and stuffing envelopes. Affinity—This Is the Place Affinity has been the place where important issues affecting the gay LDS community were first discussed. The charter issue, for instance, included a note on the serious problem of suicide. The role of women in Affirmation has been explored since August 1980, when Ina Mae Murri first tried to investigate why so many women choose not to join Affirmation. AIDS was first mentioned in October 1983. By October 1986, when the scientific community better understood how the HIV virus is transmitted, Affinity had its first article on safer sex. Affinity has also been the place where ambitious projects were launched, calls to activism issued, actions and speeches by LDS leaders analyzed, and differences of opinion debated. Should the focus of Affirmation be religious, support-oriented, or social? What can we do to advance a gay-friendly Mormon theology? What is the best way to respond to homophobic attitudes in society and in the LDS Church? These are just a few of the many issues debated in Affinity over its 26-year history. Last but not least, Affinity has been the place where many single GLBT Mormons first connected with their peers, made friendships, and sometimes found their life partners. The Pen Pal program was started in January 1983 under the coordination of Ina Mae Murri. In December 1984, Hoyt Hilton Grant took over as Pen Pal coordinator. He held that position for nine years, from December 1984 to January 1994—the longest any Affirmation member has served, perhaps with the exception of Paul Mortensen, in a national position. During the 1993 national conference, Grant was deservedly honored for his many years of service to the organization. Transformations Affinity's production tools, length, and format have changed dramatically over the years. The first few issues were rustically composed with a typewriter—sometimes with more than one, as the sequence of nonmatching fonts often suggests. Newspaper clippings, ads, and graphics were first pasted onto the newsletter in a primitive fashion. In the mid 1980s the newsletter acquired a more consistent look and increased in size, filling eight pages with announcements, inspirational articles, and debates—all composed in a tiny font. In the years 1989-1994, Affinity dramatically improved its presentation. Editors experimented with bond paper, incorporated pictures, and eventually added some color. Dedicated editors such as Alan David Lach, Marty Beaudet, and Kevin Payton played an important role in making Affinity not only informative and inspiring, but also visually attractive. In the mid 1980s, GLBT Mormons discovered the Internet. From humble beginnings —Affirmation postings on CompuServe and Gladys in 1985— to the launching of a national website in 1996, the web became a favorite place for Affirmation members to obtain information, exchange opinions, and debate ideas. For years Affinity and the national website lived separate but symbiotic lives: the website posted articles taken from the newsletter, while the newsletter promoted the website, posted members' email addresses, and reproduced entries from the website's guestbook. Finally in May 2002, the entire newsletter began to be posted on the national website, available free of charge, under the name E-Affinity. In 2003, Affinity began to be created primarily as a web-based document reproduced for print format, rather than as a print document adapted for publication on the web. Today three versions of Affirmation's newsletter are produced every month--all three under the name Affinity. An small email version, with headlines, opening paragraphs, and links to the full stories, is sent monthly to over 400 electronic subscribers. The newsletter contents are posted in full on the national website, with abundant pictures, graphics, and links. A printed version of the web version is photocopied and sent by regular mail to a handful of Affirmation members and libraries who still favor the printed form. In one sense, Affinity has today returned to its humble origins: The newsletter is much smaller than what it used to be in the late 1980s, and it focuses almost exclusively on Affirmation events, people, and announcements. But through the miracle of the Internet, Affinity has also grown tremendously larger. As hypertext, today's stories link to countless articles on the Affirmation website and point to a universe of topics, debates, and ideas. Like the newsletters of so many clubs and small non-profit organizations, Affinity started as a shoestring operation, yet over the years it managed to transcend many of its limitations. From a single typed page plagued with typos, it became first a professional publication and finally an electronic hypertext resource. Affinity articles are a crucial primary source for understanding the history of Affirmation and of Mormonism's gays and lesbians; articles from the newsletter have been reprinted and quoted in books and master's theses. That is, in a nutshell, the history of Affinity. The new collection in CD-Rom format ensures that all past issues of the newsletter, along with the history of Affirmation, will be preserved for many generations to come. |
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