Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

Willy Marshall

Salt Lake Paper Features Affirmation Member

Excerpted from story published in the Salt Lake Tribune, 20 September 2004, p. B1.

Laid-back Big Water mixes gay mayor, polygamists
Near Lake Powell: The libertarian town of 400 residents almost liberalized its marijuana laws a few years ago; Big Water not like other Utah towns

Mark Havnes, The Salt Lake Tribune

The tiny town of Big Water is not a typical Utah community. There is no church. At least 10 percent of its more than 400 residents are unaffiliated polygamists. It does not have a main street. The Town Council once tried to pass more-lenient marijuana laws.

And Big Water has an openly gay mayor.

Situated in a small oasis of greenery well off U.S. 89 in Kane County just 8 miles from Lake Powell, the south-central Utah town sprung up in the early 1960s as a watering hole for workers building the Glen Canyon Dam.

Over the years, the town became a haven for retirees and political mavericks who were drawn to the area by its isolation, mild winters and some of the country's cleanest air.

Mayor Willie Marshall faces problems that many mayors do--bad roads, the need for economic development. The fact he is gay has never been an issue.

"If people disagree with me, it's politically--not because I'm gay," says Marshall, seated behind a desk in his window-encased office at the town's headquarters on Aaron Burr Boulevard.

On the walls are a plethora of newspaper articles documenting events in the town's colorful history, including a cover story by a gay newspaper in Salt Lake City that features Marshall.

"Whenever I go into a gay bar in Salt Lake City now, everybody goes, 'Hello, mayor,' " says Marshall, with a tinge of pride in his voice.