 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
September 2004 Excerpted from the June 24, 2004 cover story of the Salt Lake City Weekly. By Kristine Griggs It’s something out of a dream—or a nightmare. Two brightly dressed clowns with giant red noses bobble through a crowd of people. Giant signs tell of death and false prophecy. Men scream out Bible quotes. And thousands of Mormons march into a large fortress-type building, apparently unaware of the madness they’ve just passed. This isn’t a scene from a Stephen King movie; it’s real life during the most recent LDS General Conference weekend. Attendees must be accustomed to the circuslike atmosphere during the biannual event by now—Bible-thumpers have been crashing their party for years, but this April a new activist group decided to make its presence felt. Dressed in black capes and donning androgynous masks, a collection of young women stand unassumingly against the North Temple wall. They don’t shout, but grimly hold a life-size cardboard casket adorned with the statistics: “Utah is 6th in the nation for suicide rates” and “22 percent of LDS gay teens attempt suicide.” Conference-goer James W. Johnson—-who appears to be in his mid-50s and holds a Slurpee—-approaches one of them. “I assume you’re a lesbian,” Johnson says, not waiting for a response. “Let me ask you a question. Do you think you were born this way?” Obviously unmoved but earnest, the woman answers, “I was just born as myself. Do you think you were born a Mormon?” Johnson takes a gulp of his Slurpee, apparently in thought, and begins to rant about his divine understandings. That is exactly what these women want. As a group, they seek out anything that falls into the category of a reaction. As long as people are paying attention, they’re content. Mr. Johnson has just been introduced to the Lesbian Avengers of Utah: fire-eating, provocative women stirring things up along the Wasatch Front, and having a great time while they’re at it. |
www.affirmation.org