Utah gets GAY PRIDE.

[SLCPUNK]

Now, don't this just beat all. I leave, and all the gayness begins. Oh...times are a changin. Where are all the Mormon GnR fans going to move to when all the sinners take over??

Anyway...it sounds like all the gays there want to stay for the same reaons I like SLC. Them cool mountains.......... and if it can piss off the MoMos...even better!

Whoda thunk?

************

SALT LAKE CITY - David Johnson stopped believing in the Mormon church about three years ago, when he came out of the closet after returning home from a proselytizing mission in Thailand.

At 24, he is ignoring strict principles of a church that teaches that homosexuality is a serious sin by living the life of a gay man.

He has moved away from his parents' home in southern Utah ? his father, a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has little to do with him ? but he hasn't moved as far as you might imagine.

He chooses to live here, in the capital of one of the nation's most conservative states, which is shadowed by the worldwide headquarters of a church that suffuses nearly every aspect of life in Utah. The Mormon church, one of the world's fastest growing faiths with about 12 million members worldwide, won't accept homosexuals until they are spiritually rehabilitated.

"It's not that I'm angry with the church. I understand that they don't understand," Johnson said. "I would rather spend my energy elsewhere on something I can actually change."

During the Pride Week Festival that runs through Sunday, plenty of people like Johnson are gathering around Salt Lake City ? a yearly reminder of just how large the gay community here has become. It culminates Sunday with a parade that organizers say is the second largest in the state, behind the annual July 24 "Days of '47" parade commemorating the Mormon settlement of the Salt Lake Valley.

A Mormon church spokeswoman declined to comment on Pride Week, instead referring a reporter to previous church statements on homosexuality in general. They read, in part: "We realize there may be great loneliness in their lives but there must also be recognition of what is right before the Lord."

Figures on Salt Lake City's gay population are hard to come by. Leaders of many of the city's advocacy groups don't even venture a guess.

The latest census did not request information about sexual orientation, but did tally 594,391 same-sex couples living together nationwide, with 3,370 of them in Utah. Gay advocates have estimated those numbers undercount the population by as much as 50 percent, because it only counts homosexuals who are in a live-in relationship and admit that to census officials.

Urban Institute demographer Gary Gates and researcher Jason Ost, authors of The Gay and Lesbian Atlas, estimate Salt Lake City to be in the top 6 percent of cities where gay and lesbian couples were likely to live.

"Clearly, Salt Lake City has a high concentration," Gates told The Associated Press.

Many gays and lesbians in Utah are former Mormons who grew up in the area and don't want to leave ? despite a political system that just passed one of the country's most restrictive amendments banning gay marriage. Others migrated from equally conservative nearby states like Idaho and Wyoming, which have no high-concentration gay areas of their own.

Many of Salt Lake's gays and lesbians don't want to abandon the style of Western living they grew up with, said Michael Mitchell, executive director of the advocacy group Equality Utah. The pace of life is generally slow, and nearby mountain ranges full of ski runs and hiking trails provide abundant opportunities for enjoying nature while still living in an urban area.

Other benefits like affordability and a relatively low crime rate are enough for some people to justify staying, he said.

Besides, Mitchell notes, "the next big city is Denver, eight hours one way, and Las Vegas, five hours the other way."

The decision for gays and lesbians to stay in Utah can be complicated, especially since the Mormon church is as much a culture as a faith, but Johnson said he's been able to negotiate his own set of beliefs.

"Some of their core values I really like," he says of the church, "but some of their extenuating guidelines and morals, they just don't work for me."

[2NaFish]

say it loud, i'm mormon and proud.

[Walk]

"Some of their core values I really like," he says of the church, "but some of their extenuating guidelines and morals, they just don't work for me."

This is the best quote to end the article because it shows how wrong this "pride" is. First they start questioning this, and then they start questioning other values, like a slippery slope. Churchs have split so many times in history because of divisions over what should be obvious indisputable dogma.

Of course, with polygamy so popular, it isn't surprising many men have to resort to other options. (jk!)

[jgfnsr]

"Some of their core values I really like," he says of the church, "but some of their extenuating guidelines and morals, they just don't work for me."

This is the best quote to end the article because it shows how wrong this "pride" is. First they start questioning this, and then they start questioning other values, like a slippery slope. Churchs have split so many times in history because of divisions over what should be obvious indisputable dogma.

Of course, with polygamy so popular, it isn't surprising many men have to resort to other options. (jk!)

As I live in Utah, am Mormon (hence my dislike for SLCPUNK), and have two gay brothers, I think I can comment on this.

Don't mistake individuals choosing to leave the Church because the doctrine doesn't "jive" with their lifestyle as anything resembling a "split" in the Church itself.

The Church has always gone out of it's way to help and work with any of it's members who want it.? But that has never met it will change its doctrine, for as you said, it is indisputable.

For those who have attempted to "buck the system" and change doctrine in the past, let's just say the hammer drops pretty quickly.

(And while I can laugh at a good polygamy joke as much as the next guy, plural marriage was officially disbanded by the Church over 115 years ago.? Just for the record....? ? )

[Lisa]

bah...whatever...you love who you love regardless of religion...go gay mormons

[jgfnsr]

bah...whatever...you love who you love regardless of religion...go gay mormons

See if you can figure out the message here.....



9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.

10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.

11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

13 Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.

14 This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
(John 21:9-15)

[journey]

bah...whatever...you love who you love regardless of religion...go gay mormons

See if you can figure out the message here.....



9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.

10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.

11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

13 Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.

14 This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
(John 21:9-15)

Is that from the Book Of Mormon?

[Lisa]

^^ hope they had lube

[jgfnsr]

Is that from the Book Of Mormon?

No, it's from the Bible.  John 21:9-15

[jgfnsr]

^^ hope they had lube

Ya know, that's something I'd expect from a lot of people here, including the originator of this thread.

I mean, there's funny and than there's just plain sacrilege.

Congradulations.

 

[Lisa]

just trying to lighten the situation dude, no harm intended..although I am totally pro-choice in everyway.....do you have an AOV there? ...personally I think sexual preferance has no relationship to spirituality, relax

[Lisa]

p.s.... *congratulations

[journey]

Ya know, that's something I'd expect from a lot of people here, including the originator of this thread.

I mean, there's funny and than there's just plain sacrilege.

Congradulations.

 

You don't have to love the sin, but you should always love the sinner. If you judge people, you'll keep them at a distance from your heart.

I don't knock any religions or lifestyles. When it comes down to it, we're all people, and we all need love.

[Lisa]

Journey...I applaud you...well said 

[jgfnsr]

You don't have to love the sin, but you should always love the sinner. If you judge people, you'll keep them at a distance from your heart.

I don't knock any religions or lifestyles. When it comes down to it, we're all people, and we all need love.

Agreed.....for the most part.

Ironically, I find it much easier to "tolerate" my two gay brothers than a certain guy who has enjoyed the benefits of living in a beautiful and safe state in the past - thanks in no small part to the local religious majority he loves to "piss off." ?

[Eazy E]

Pfffffffft, beat this:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/06/14/militarygaywedding0614.html

[SLCPUNK]

You don't have to love the sin, but you should always love the sinner. If you judge people, you'll keep them at a distance from your heart.

I don't knock any religions or lifestyles. When it comes down to it, we're all people, and we all need love.

Agreed.....for the most part.

Ironically, I find it much easier to "tolerate" my two gay brothers than a certain guy who has enjoyed the benefits of living in a beautiful and safe state in the past - thanks in no small part to the local religious majority he loves to "piss off." 

LV Nevada actually has less crime and less pollution then SLC. The locals also keep the RE values from getting to high, which I like. If the MoMo's didn't run that state, it would be 3 times as expensive to live there. I can assure you of that.

You "tolerate" your brothers...who sweet of you.

All the gay people I knew in Utah were banished from their family for who they were.

I knew plenty of Mormons in Utah. Most were suspicious, judgemental and would turn their back on a family member in a minute if they didn't fall in line. How strange it is to be so right, that you can even treat family with a heavy hand.

I never understood why Mormons turned their wine glasses upside down at restaurants. I figured, if you don't drink, just don't drink. The reason was that they were afraid somebody else would see those glasses sitting upright and it would get reported back to their ward (church). They all look over each others fences keeping check on one another. 

In the end, people are people. People are gay in the Mormon culture too. I thought the article was interesting, since I understand the "us against them" culture that exists out there.

[Prometheus]

Pfffffffft, beat this:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/06/14/militarygaywedding0614.html

hahaha ya welcome to canada..... gay and proud.. lol

[jgfnsr]

LV Nevada actually has less crime and less pollution then SLC. The locals also keep the RE values from getting to high, which I like. If the MoMo's didn't run that state, it would be 3 times as expensive to live there. I can assure you of that.

While Mormons are aware that Salt Lake will become among the most wicked of cities in times to come, I think it's a stretch to say Las Vegas has less crime and pollution.? Besides, there is a huge Mormon presence in Nevada.? And for the record, the fact that Utah is dominated by Mormons hasn't stopped people from moving here.? You should know that.

You "tolerate" your brothers...who sweet of you.

I say "tolerate" because that's the word that gets thrown around so often.? Truth be told, I love my brothers but I tolerate your sorry butt.

All the gay people I knew in Utah were banished from their family for who they were.

I knew some people that happened to.? Their families were wrong for what they did and the day will come when they'll answer for it.? However, while they are too far one way, you're too far the other.? While "hating the sin" they forgot to "love the sinner."? You'd have them embrace it.? Both extremes are wrong and, in the end, you are no more justified than they.

I knew plenty of Mormons in Utah. Most were suspicious, judgemental and would turn their back on a family member in a minute if they didn't fall in line. How strange it is to be so right, that you can even treat family with a heavy hand.

Please.? I honestly doubt you, of all people, really knew "plenty" of Mormons, what with your outspoken opinions and irreverent attitude towards anyone religious.?

I never understood why Mormons turned their wine glasses upside down at restaurants. I figured, if you don't drink, just don't drink. The reason was that they were afraid somebody else would see those glasses sitting upright and it would get reported back to their ward (church). They all look over each others fences keeping check on one another.

LOL!? You know, everytime I think I've heard all the stories about us there's a new one that pops up.? You may have also heard that we have horns too.? You believe that as well?? Personally, in my entire life as a Mormon, I have never known anyone turn their wine glasses over at a resturaunt for fear of being told on.? My guess, if and when it's ever happened, is so the waiter/waitress will know they don't want any or any other servers won't come along again and again and fill the glasses up like they do.? I think you're a little off-base abut the whole backyard fence thing too.? I will say that Mormon communities are more close and tightknit than most.? But few, if anybody, is on some mission to rat on their neighbors.?

In the end, people are people. People are gay in the Mormon culture too. I thought the article was interesting, since I understand the "us against them" culture that exists out there.

Let's just remember the Mormons came to Utah (escaping persecution) and built the state out of nothing.? Nowdays, people like yourself come to Utah and say "Wow, what a beautiful state.? Too bad about all these damn Mormons."?

Last but not least - not to steal your thunder SLCPUNK - but the gay pride parade has been here for a few years now.? It's officially called the "human rights" parade though.? And for a guy who supposedly is married with a kid, you sure seemed to get excited about stuff like gay parades, bars, etc.?

[N.I.B]

anit-gay and proud. i support the church and thier teachings. seriously, since when was gayness such a big issue, why bring it up now?