Tag Archives: gay issues

The saga continues in Kanab and its “natural family resolution” issue.

Some Kanab citizens have banded together to issue arecall of the mayor and council of Kanab.

“We are reaching out to a broad spectrum of individuals and political groups to make sure they know about the resolution and the way it was handled down here in Kanab,” said Scott Clemans, a member of a grassroots organization in Kanab that is calling for state legislators to create a method for recalling elected officials who fall from favor.
“I don’t know what kind of a response we’ll get, but I do know there are many folks who recognize the need for a recall law.”

The group has been in contact with the ACLU and is awaiting a response. Utah has no current provision for such a recall. The group is hoping through their pursuits to change that.

“The mayor and City Council members are autocrats rather than public servants,” McCrystal said. “This is not a partisan issue. When elected officials are more interested in suppressing public opinion than listening to it, they’ve violated their sacred trust and need to be removed from office.”

Group members believe that their rights have been violated and are preparing for possible court action.

“I believe the disgruntled folks of Kanab may indeed have a legitimate claim against Kanab officials for a violation of the First Amendment under the First Amendment’s anti-establishment clause,” Victor Sipos said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News. “The religious nature of Kanab’s resolution is virtually beyond question. Regardless of the actual text of the resolution, most people understand it to be religious in nature.”

Larry Miller, the entrepeneur who pulled the film Brokeback Mountain from his megaplex movie theater, met civil protest at an event at the University of Utah at which Miller was a speaker.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune article, about 75% of the attendees wore cowboy hats as they sat in silence during Miller’s speech.

“We’re wearing the hats to show how individuals were hurt when he didn’t show ‘Brokeback Mountain,'” said Charles Milne, coordinator for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center at the U. But “we’re going to be here listening to his speech in celebration of his right to speak.”

A smaller group of the protesting students, participants of the LGBT Center at the U, met with Miller before the speech in an attempt to promote some common dialogue and to educate Miller on issues associated with the GLBT community. Miller’s reaction:

Before moving into his planned speech, Miller took a few minutes to describe that meeting. “Something remarkable happened in this building the other day,” he said, tears welling in his eyes. “For two hours, we had a remarkably open dialogue, and I learned a lot.’
Miller said people on all sides of the issue went into the meeting “with one thing in common: fear and trepidation,” but the group quickly established a feeling of respect, if not agreement. Miller said people in the meeting told him stories of being ostracized by family members and the community in general because of their sexual orientation.
“One of the great lessons learned by me, and maybe others in that room, is that we have a lot more in common than we previously thought.”

It appears that some ice may have been broken. Kudos to these students for addressing this issue in a civil, non-violent way.

Today’s Salt Lake Tribune has as its top headline in the Utah section: Kanab kid takes on mayor – in person–Radio broadcast: Teen blasts him for skipping town after writing letters.

Matt Livingston, the 17-year-old columnist who took on Mayor Kim Lawson over Kanab’s passage of the headline-grabbing natural-family resolution, did so again Wednesday – this time not in the weekly newspaper but face to face during a live radio broadcast.
“People look at Kanab and think it’s a crazy place,” said Livingston, who was applauded by about 200 residents and students attending the KUER-FM broadcast at Kanab High.

The mayor said he supports free speech but that journalists should stick with basic facts (who, what, where, when) and not editorialize issues.

The “natural family resolution” is hurting business, according to business owners in Kanab.

(Read my previous posts on this and other related issues HERE.)

24 Gay Advocate Activists were arrested at BYU in Provo yesterday. The activists staged a march and demonstration and a die-in to protest the LDS church’s stance against gay LDS church members, a stance which is dubbed by some as “anti-Christ-like”.

The protestors carried lilies as they marched in rememberance of gay and lesbian LDS church members who have committed suicide.

from the Deseret News:
The marchers proceeded somberly and silently on a 42-minute walk past the LDS Missionary Training Center, the Marriott Center, Larry H. Miller Field and LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The procession ended at the campus entrance on the corner of Bulldog Boulevard and Canyon Road, where Soulforce conducted a rally to memorialize the deaths of 22 members of the LDS Church who committed suicide between 1965 and 2004.
Soulforce leaders read biographies of each of the gay men — 11 served LDS church missions and six were former BYU students or graduates. The rally included memorials for two other gay men who had ties to Utah or the LDS Church.
Each marcher represented one of the dead men and carried a lily. The rally lasted more than an hour, with each marcher waiting until a biography was read before walking from the street corner up onto campus and collapsing on the grass as if dead.
“People are dying, and we can’t ignore that any longer,” said Haven Herrin, a Soulforce organizer. “We offer the lilies to the university in honor of those who have killed themselves. They couldn’t reconcile their LDS faith and their sexual identity. We hope for a safer future.”
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There are two more articles in the news today about the “Natural Family” Resolutions:

‘Natural family’ resolution is called ‘exclusionary’: S.L. County official takes issue with Sutherland Institute
Jenny Wilson, a Democrat and the lone woman on the nine-member council, penned a letter to Sutherland Institute president Paul Mero Wednesday, calling his resolution on the family “dangerous to a government founded ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’ “

‘Family resolution’ is defended: Conservative group fears Kanab is unfairly singled out
Paul Mero, president of the conservative Sutherland Institute, believes that Kanab is being unfairly singled out for a boycott after its City Council adopted a “Natural Family Resolution.”

The saga on the Natural Family Resolution of Kanab continues.

The headline in the Utah section (online) of today’s Salt Lake Tribune reads ‘Natural family’ resolution reworked–Clarification: Sutherland think tank adds 26 pages of information

The Sutherland Institutes revision includes 27 pages of FAQ’s along with bulleted points and charts.
“It’s not a moral crusade,” Sutherland President Paul Mero said Tuesday. “Our interest is to clarify our intent.”
And the conservative Salt Lake City think tank still intends for every city and county to pass the resolution – just as Kanab did in January. That’s why the briefing paper has been sent to every legislator, mayor, and city and county council member in the state.

And the angle this think tank is taking is that it is cost effective to taxpayers.

Mero maintains the social costs associated with the breakdown of the “natural family” make nontraditional households a public-policy issue.
“Ultimately, everything becomes monetary,” he said.

The resolution calls for marriage to be between a man and a woman. Here are some sample Q & A in the Tribune today:

Q: “Does the resolution call on women to stay home, have babies, serve their families and forgo a career?
A: “No. But it does say that . . . if babies are to be born, a man and a woman should first be married; and if children are to be reared properly, the task is best done by a mother who is home a significant amount of time.”
Q: “So the resolution would not consider a gay relationship to be a natural family?
A: “That is correct. . . . It is not a legal marriage nor is it a male-female relationship.”

While such resolutions are “non-binding”, they are unconstitutional, in my opinion. I know that in my campaign platform for Salt Lake County Council, I will take a firm stand to oppose such resolutions.

The saga surrounding Kanab’s city council decision in favor of “natural family” continues.

Today’s Salt Lake Tribune reports that Kanab residents and business owners are calling for an end to the boycott called by writer Arthur Frommer. Frommer has
urged tourists to shun the scenic southern Utah town after the City Council adopted a nonbinding “natural-family” resolution. The resolution was the brainchild of the conservative Sutherland Institute.

Business owners and many residents did not support the city council’s resolution and in fact designed this logo to promote tourism:

Kanab Boosters hope to counter the ”natural family” flap with Everyone Welcome Here! stickers. (Mark Havnes/The Salt Lake Tribune)

“No business in Kanab had any input regarding this proclamation,” wrote [Vicky]Cooper in a letter sent earlier this month to Frommer. “A boycott will only hurt the residents of Kanab, not our City Council.” (Cooper owns Kanab’s Rocking V Cafe).

Frommer has not yet received the letter and has not stated whether or not he will end his boycott call.
“They [council members] seem hellbent on gay bashing,” he said, adding he is not a part of the gay community, but a grandfather with three grandchildren. “I guess I fit the resolution,” Frommer joked.

Yesterday I wrote a post on the Kanab City Council’s “Natural Family” resolution and its effect on the city’s tourism business.

The Salt Lake Tribune has published an article today on how the businesses in Kanabe have joined together with a sticker that has the slogan: “Everyone welcome here!”

Many of Kanab’s business-owners are unhappy with the city’s resolution and want people to know it.

The welcome stickers, which will be popping up in store windows in coming weeks, are part of a new campaign from the Kanab Boosters. The new group wants to spread the word that not everyone in town agrees with the council’s resolution and reassure shoppers and visitors that Kanab embraces all.
“It’s not just about tolerance, but acceptance of those different from you,” says JoAnne Rando-Moon, who owns The Critter Corner, a pet-supply store.

The Tribune article also includes links to past stories related to this issue.

The AP article below appeared in today’s Provo Daily Herald. The southern Utah town of Kanab has a city council that passed a resolution to unanimously passed a resolution in favor of the “natural family” consisting of a working husband, a stay-at-home wife and a “full quiver of children.”

Here’s the article:

Kanab threatened with tourist boycott
JENNIFER DOBNER – The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — The little Utah tourist town of Kanab is a gateway to some of the biggest views in Red Rock country. Nearby are Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks as well as other stunning landscapes that formed the backdrop for TV’s “Gunsmoke” and “The Lone Ranger.”

“Our slogan has been ‘Come and play in our backyard,’ ” Kane County’s tourism director Ted Hallisey says.

But some tourists may be passing up Kanab this year.

In January, the City Council in the overwhelmingly Latter-day Saint community of 3,600 unanimously passed a resolution in favor of the “natural family” consisting of a working husband, a stay-at-home wife and a “full quiver of children.”

The resolution struck some as homophobic and sexist, and stirred talk of a Kanab tourism boycott, which won the endorsement of syndicated travel columnist Arthur Frommer.

“I think they know perfectly well this is a smokescreen for discriminating against gays,” the New York City travel guru and guidebook author said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
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