 |
Gayle Ruzicka | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Spouse | Don Ruzicka |
| Website | Utah Eagle Forum |
Gayle Ruzicka (born c. 1943) is a conservative political activist, talk radio host, and leader in the Utah Eagle Forum.
|
Gayle Ruzicka | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Spouse | Don Ruzicka |
| Website | Utah Eagle Forum |
Gayle Ruzicka (born c. 1943) is a conservative political activist, talk radio host, and leader in the Utah Eagle Forum.
Ruzicka was born in California to a father who was a labor union president active in the Democratic Party. Ruzicka has stated that her family, particularly her mother, were all active in politics at a grass-roots level. She is the mother of 12 children, grandmother of 20, and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mrs. Ruzicka and her husband, Don Ruzicka, live in Highland, Utah. [1]
Ruzicka was involved in politics in a minor way while raising her children, opposing the Equal Rights Amendment while living in Idaho, and later worked to oppose the 1988 impeachment of Arizona governor Evan Mecham. Ruzicka moved to Utah with her husband and children in 1989. In 1991, she was designated president of the Utah Eagle Forum, the Utah Chapter of the Eagle Forum.
Ruzicka is claimed to be one of the most influential individuals in Utah's political scene [2] and is famous for her phone tree, [3] used to promote her political agenda. In 2004, she was part of the Utah delegation to the Republican National Convention. [4] Additionally, Ruzicka hosts "The Gayle Ruzicka Show" [5] a weekly radio show on KTKK "K-TALK" 630 AM [6] addressing conservative political issues in Utah.
Ruzicka's power and her positions on a variety of conservative and social issues including homosexuality have caused controversy. [7]
In 2000, Ruzicka was involved with her daughter Kendra's attempt to form a chapter of the Eagle Forum Collegians on the campus of Utah Valley State College (now known as Utah Valley University). Matthew Hilton, the Utah Eagle Forum's attorney, argued that by following the college's non-discrimination policy, the Eagle Forum Collegians would have their First Amendment rights subverted. [8]
In 2001, she criticized the Salt Lake City Weekly for publishing "same-sex" personal ads and other material that she deemed "distasteful." She unsuccessfully campaigned to have the publication removed from public buildings.
During the 2007 Utah legislative session, Ruzicka led the Utah Eagle Forum in the fight to oppose House Bill 358, which appropriated $1 million for the Utah Department of Health to promote the availability of a cervical cancer vaccine. [9]
In 2012, Gayle Ruzicka acted as a prominent proponent of HB 363, a Utah State house bill that would prohibit public schools from teaching students about sex. This bill would give schools the option to either teach abstinence only or not provide sex education at all. [10] This bill was met with opposition by some Utahns. [11] Opponents of the bill organized an online petition which received more than 40,000 signatures. [12] The bill was vetoed by Gov. Herbert.
Phyllis Stewart Schlafly was an American attorney, conservative activist, and anti-feminist, who was nationally prominent in conservatism. She held paleoconservative social and political views, opposed feminism, gay rights, and abortion, and campaigned against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Utah Constitutional Amendment 3 was an amendment to the Utah state constitution that sought to define marriage as a union exclusively between a man and woman. It passed in the November 2, 2004, election, as did similar amendments in ten other states.
Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions of several different types passed, banning legal recognition of same-sex unions in U.S. state constitutions, referred to by proponents as "defense of marriage amendments" or "marriage protection amendments." These state amendments are different from the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage in every U.S. state, and Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, more commonly known as DOMA, which allowed the states not to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The amendments define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and prevent civil unions or same-sex marriages from being legalized, though some of the amendments bar only the latter. The Obergefell decision in June 2015 invalidated these state constitutional amendments insofar as they prevented same-sex couples from marrying, even though the actual text of these amendments remain written into the state constitutions.
Sheri Linn Dew is an American author, publisher, the executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation, and chief executive officer of the Deseret Book Company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dew has also been a religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an inspirational speaker. In 2003, she was described as “the most prominent single [unmarried] LDS woman right now.”
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Utah have significantly evolved in the 21st century. Protective laws have become increasingly enacted since 2014, despite the state's reputation as socially conservative and highly religious. Utah's anti-sodomy law was invalidated in 2003 by Lawrence v. Texas, and fully repealed by the state legislature in 2019. Same-sex marriage has been legal since the state's ban was ruled unconstitutional by federal courts in 2014. In addition, statewide anti-discrimination laws now cover sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing, and the use of conversion therapy on minors is prohibited. In spite of this, there are still a few differences between the treatment of LGBTQ people and the rest of the population, and the rights of transgender youth are restricted.
Eagle Forum is a conservative advocacy group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972. Focused on social issues, it is socially conservative and describes itself as pro-family. Critics have described it as anti-feminist, anti-LGBT, ultraconservative, and far-right. A 501(c)(4) organization, it is affiliated with the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and the Eagle Forum Political Action Committee (PAC). It organizes the Eagle Council, an annual training for conservative speakers.
Gary Richard Herbert is an American politician who served as the 17th governor of Utah from 2009 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the National Governors Association during the 2015–2016 cycle.
D. Chris Buttars was an American politician who served in the Utah State Senate representing the 10th Utah Senate District. He began his service as a state senator in 2001 and resigned in 2011 citing health problems.
The Satanic panic in Utah is part of a broader moral panic that began in the 1980s as children in the United States, subjected to coercive interviewing techniques at the hands of zealous social workers, made unsubstantiated allegations of bizarre Satanic rituals and horrific sexual and physical abuse at the hands of day care workers. As the decade unfolded, clients of believing therapists began to make similar allegations, which are now generally seen as confabulations caused by iatrogenic therapeutic techniques such as hypnosis and automatic writing rather than the discovery of repressed memories. Despite the similarities between the allegations of adults and children, investigations produced only circumstantial, and in many cases contradictory evidence of the patients' disclosures. The court cases surrounding satanic ritual abuse (SRA) allegations were among the most expensive and lengthy in history and produced no convictions or convictions based solely on the testimony of children that were frequently overturned or dismissed upon appeal.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Utah since October 6, 2014. On December 20, 2013, the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as a result of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah's ruling in the case of Kitchen v. Herbert, which found that barring same-sex couples from marrying violates the U.S. Constitution. The issuance of those licenses was halted during the period of January 6, 2014 until October 6, 2014, following the resolution of a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On that day, following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal in a case that found Utah's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriage.
Ludmya "Mia" Love is an American political commentator and former politician who served as the U.S. representative for Utah's 4th congressional district from 2015 to 2019. A Haitian American, she was the first black person elected to Congress from Utah, the first Haitian-American elected to Congress, and the first black woman elected to Congress as a Republican.
Benjamin Michael McAdams is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative from Utah's 4th congressional district from 2019 to 2021. He was the only Democratic member of Utah's congressional delegation, and a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. From 2013 to 2019, he served as mayor of Salt Lake County, and from 2009 to 2012, he was the Utah state senator from the 2nd district, which includes Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake, and a portion of West Valley. McAdams was elected to Congress in 2018, narrowly defeating two-term Republican incumbent Mia Love. In 2020, McAdams ran for reelection, but he lost to Republican challenger Burgess Owens. He is the most recent Democrat to represent Utah in Congress.
David Keith Nelson was an American LGBT and gun rights activist. He founded or helped found several LGBT-related nonprofit organizations in Utah and helped direct others. His work with the Democratic Party encouraged many LGBT Utahns to serve as party leaders. His work as a legislative and executive lobbyist accomplished the adoption of several LGBT- and weapon-friendly state and local laws, rules, ordinances and policies, and the rejection of other legislation.
Women in conservatism in the United States have advocated for social, political, economic, and cultural conservative policies since anti-suffragism. Leading conservative women such as Phyllis Schlafly have expressed that women should embrace their privileged essential nature. This thread of belief can be traced through the anti-suffrage movement, the Red Scare, and the Reagan Era, and is still present in the 21st century, especially in several conservative women's organizations such as Concerned Women for America and the Independent Women's Forum.
Spencer James Cox is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 18th governor of Utah since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the eighth lieutenant governor of Utah from 2013 to 2021. In Fairview, Utah, where Cox lives and was raised, he was elected to the city council in 2004 and then as mayor in 2005. In 2008, he was elected as a Sanpete County commissioner.
The First Amendment Defense Act was a bill introduced into the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate on June 17, 2015. The Senate sponsor of the bill was Mike Lee (R-Utah), and the House sponsor was Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho). The bill aimed to prevent the federal government from taking action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.
On July 26, 2017, Jeff Payne, a then detective with the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD), arrested nurse Alex Wubbels at the University of Utah Hospital after she refused to illegally venipuncture an unconscious patient. Footage of the incident released on August 31, 2017, went viral online. The SLCPD announced policy changes which would affect how police should handle situations involving drawing blood, and the hospital announced it would also change its police protocol to avoid repeating the incident. Utah lawmakers made a bill to amend the blood draw policy of Utah law enforcement, which Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed into law on March 15, 2018.
Christine Watkins is an American politician serving in the Utah House of Representatives, representing District 67.
Melissa Garff Ballard is an American politician and music educator who has been serving as a member of the Utah House of Representatives for the 20th district since January 1, 2019.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been involved with many pieces of legislation relating to LGBT people and their rights. These include playing an important role in defeating same-sex marriage legalization in Hawaii, Alaska, Nebraska, Nevada, California, and Utah. The topic of same-sex marriage has been one of the church's foremost public concerns since 1993. Leaders have stated that it will become involved in political matters if it perceives that there is a moral issue at stake and wields considerable influence on a national level. Over a dozen members of the US congress had membership in the church in the early 2000s. About 80% of Utah state lawmakers identied as Mormon at that time as well. The church's political involvement around LGBT rights has long been a source of controversy both within and outside the church. It's also been a significant cause of disagreement and disaffection by members.