Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

CONTACT: Duane Jennings/Brian Benington
Salt Lake Chapter of Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons
Phone: 801-486-6977; : AffirmationSLC

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Affirmation to Celebrate 30th Year Anniversary
Celebration Will Be Held May 27 in Salt Lake City

Affirmation Salt Lake City invites friends and allies in the larger community to join a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons. The event is being held at the Holladay United Church of Christ (2631 E. Murray Holladay Rd) on Sunday, 27 May 2007, 5-8 pm. The evening will start out with a potluck, followed by a program of music, dance, drama, and the spoken word.

The program will include presentations by Connell O'Donovan, Alyson Bolles, Leraine Horstmanshoff, Mark Packer, Mike Green, and Scott Mills. Renowned artist Trevor Southey will feature some of his artwork and share some thoughts.

Affirmation had its beginnings when a small, closely knit group of gay and lesbian students from Brigham Young University, exasperated at the rising number of Mormon suicides, decided to come out of the closet. They banded together into a formal organization during the days of June 10-11, 1977 , while the Salt Lake Conference on Human Rights was in session. Affirmation’s newly elected director announced:

We have said “We've had enough.” Gay people are not second-class citizens. We are children of God. We are important people and we have just as much worth as our heterosexual brothers and sisters in the church.

First called Affirmation: Gay Mormons United, the name was later changed to Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons.

Affirmation has served for many, especially in the heart of Mormondom, as their first tentative contact with the gay/lesbian community. Until very recently, Wasatch Affirmation (as the Salt Lake chapter was previously known) was the only organization offering support to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and intersexed Mormons. Indeed, for many years, it was one of the only organizations offering support to gay/lesbian Utahns, period, predating institutions the Utah gay/lesbian community now takes for granted: the Utah Stonewall Center, the Human Rights Coalition, the Utah AIDS Foundation, and others.

Alyson Bolles, Senior Assistant Director of Affirmation who works with the expansion of Affirmation internationally, will speak on the growth of Affirmation around the world.

Connell O'Donovan

Connell O’Donovan, a passionate voice for gay rights, will be our keynote speaker. He was born and raised Mormon in Utah, completed a mission to Brazil, married in the Salt Lake Temple, and came out in 1985. Connell was instrumental in founding Queer Nation Utah and the Radical Faerie Circle of Salt Lake. He is currently a free-lance writer and historian living in Santa Cruz, California. He has written and has published many essays on the Queer experience, and lectured on “A Queer History of Mormonism” in San Francisco through the Harvey Milk Institute. In an award-winning essay, “Stumbling Towards Zion” (where he refers to the angels who visited Sodom and Gomorrah) Connell writes:

I firmly believe that somehow, in an ironic twist of fate, we Queer folks are in fact angels, here to test the hospitality of the “cities of the plain.” Here to probe how the world with its governments, polities, and religions treats us...

Although it is a religion based on angelic restoration, Mormonism is unable and unwilling to see that it is “entertaining angels” in its very midst. Instead of embracing us and the wondrous gifts of spirit we bring to the Feast, Mormon leaders ... exile us to the terrible wastelands of Sodom. Yet somehow out of the ashes of our pain, I know we can till this forsaken soil with our passion; we can sow it with the seeds of our stories, water it with our tears and our very blood if need be. We can make the desert wastes of Sodom blossom into fragrant roses of every rainbow hue, dressing and keeping gardens of love, beauty, balance, and delight!

My best and most certain wisdom is that Zion can only be found within the pales of our own hearts. So keep telling your stories and singing your songs of redemption, of liberation. Love yourself fiercely, proudly, joyously. Find a circle of people who also love you fiercely, proudly, joyously and become a community of lovers in the Garden.

We hope to see you May 27 as we celebrate this important milestone in our history.

Affirmation Salt Lake seeks to meet the needs of persons experiencing frustration or alienation from family, friends, and the Church because of their sexual orientation. When the journey to reconcile our gay selves with our Mormon spiritual and cultural heritage seems almost more than we can handle, Affirmation offers the opportunity for understanding and support from friends who travel the same path. Also included among the membership of Affirmation are many friends and family, Mormon and non-Mormon, gay and straight. Associating with them, and feeling their love and support is one of the greatest blessings to be obtained by joining and actively participating in Affirmation.

We meet bi-monthly, on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of each month, usually at 5 p.m.