Timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1950s

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This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 1950s, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. [1] : 375, 377  [2] : v, 3  [3] : 170  Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.

Contents

Timeline

1952

In the 1950s Apostle J. Reuben Clark gave several of the first public speeches by a high-ranking LDS leader to use the term "homosexual." J. Reuben Clark3.jpg
In the 1950s Apostle J. Reuben Clark gave several of the first public speeches by a high-ranking LDS leader to use the term "homosexual."

1954

1955

1957

1958

This highly influential publication was the first publicly available book by a general authority to explicitly outline church stances on homosexuality. MormonDoctrineCover2ndEdition1966.jpg
This highly influential publication was the first publicly available book by a general authority to explicitly outline church stances on homosexuality.

1959

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Quinn, D. Michael (1996). Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example. University of Illinois Press. ISBN   978-0252022050.
  2. 1 2 Winkler, Douglas A. (May 2008). Lavender Sons of Zion: A History of Gay Men in Salt Lake City, 1950–1979. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Department of History. ISBN   9780549493075.
  3. ↑ Young, Neil J. (July 1, 2016). Out of Obscurity: Mormonism Since 1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0199358229 . Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ Clark, J. Reuben (October 2, 1952). "Home and the Building of Home Life". Relief Society Magazine: 793–794. Retrieved November 3, 2016. ... [T]he crimes for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed–we have coined a softer name for them than came from old; we now speak of homosexuality, which, it is tragic to say, is found among both sexes. ...Not without foundation is the contention of some that the homosexuals are today exercising great influence in shaping our art, literature, music, and drama.
  5. 1 2 O'Donovan, Rocky Connell (1994). "'The Abominable and Detestable Crime against Nature': A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980". Multiply and Replenish: Mormon Essays on Sex and Family. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN   1-56085-050-7 . Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  6. ↑ Williams, Clarence D. (October 3, 1952). "Save Chastity of Youth, Clark Warns". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. 10A.
  7. ↑ Kimball, Spencer (1970). "Be Ye Clean: Steps to Repentance and Forgiveness". Deseret Book. pp. 11–13. Retrieved April 3, 2023– via LDS Church History Catalog.
  8. ↑ Kimball, Spencer (1977). Faith Precedes the Miracle (PDF). Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book. pp. 174–175. ISBN   978-0877474906 . Retrieved April 3, 2023– via Archive.org.
  9. ↑ McDannell, Colleen (October 2, 2018). Sister Saints: Mormon Women since the End of Polygamy . Oxford University Press. p. 82. ISBN   978-0-19-022133-1 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ Williams, Clyde J. (1996). The Teachings of Harold B. Lee. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft Inc. ISBN   1570084831.
  11. ↑ Lee, Harold (July 1, 1954). The Flood (Speech). BYU Summer School Lecture. Provo, Utah: LDS Church.
  12. ↑ Clark, J. Reuben (October 2, 1954). 125th Semi-Annual General Conference (PDF). LDS Church. p. 79. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Timeline of Mormon Thinking About Homosexuality". RationalFaiths.com. Rational Faiths. November 3, 2013. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. ↑ Marcus, Eric. "Morris Foote". makinggayhistory.com. Pineapple Street Media. According to the late journalist John Gersassi—whose 1966 book, 'The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City,' chronicles the scandal—the police questioned nearly fifteen hundred Boise citizens and gathered the names of hundreds of suspected homosexuals by the time the investigation ran its course the following year. All told, sixteen men were arrested on charges ranging from 'lewd and lascivious conduct with minor children under the age of sixteen' to 'infamous crimes against nature.' Of the sixteen, ten went to jail, including several whose only crime had been to engage in sex with another consenting adult male.
  15. ↑ Barclay, Donald (April 22, 1981). "Coming Out in Boise". University News. Boise State University. p. 9.
  16. ↑ Gerassi, John G. (November 1, 2001). "The Boys". The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City (Reprint ed.). Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 30, 31. ISBN   0295981679. 'Of course, in Boise there's the extra element of the power of the Mormons ... The atmosphere is stifling, and the pressure to conform enormous. The city fathers or bigwigs take it upon themselves to impose standards for everyone else.' ... 'Of the sixty-five kids, thirty-five were Mormons ....' Butler did interview thirty-two of the sixty-five kids who were thought to have been involved in some way with the homosexuals. ... 'Most of the kids who had participated had done for a combination of kicks and rebellion against parental authority.'
  17. ↑ Clark, J. Reuben (April 1957). Sexual Sin (PDF). Scriptures.BYU.EDU: LDS Church. p. 87. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 1, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  18. ↑ "3rd District Judge Marcellus K. Snow Dies". The Salt Lake Tribune. August 14, 1978. p. C1 – via Newspapers.com. [Marcellus Snow] was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was the grandson of Erastus Snow, Mormon pioneer leader.
  19. 1 2 "Stiffer Sentences in Prospect for S.L. Morals Offenders". The Salt Lake Tribune. October 14, 1957. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ McConkie, Bruce R. (1958). Mormon Doctrine. Deseret Book.
  21. 1 2 3 Prince, Gregory A. (2019). Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press. ISBN   9781607816638.
  22. ↑ "T. Southworth Succumbs, 73". The Salt Lake Tribune. October 1, 1977. p. A14 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. 1 2 "Police Nab 23 in 27-Day Morals Drive". The Salt Lake Tribune. May 29, 1958. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "May Reveals Policy in Morals Cases". The Salt Lake Tribune. September 27, 1958. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ "A Wise Court Policy". The Salt Lake Tribune. September 30, 1958. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ Zaitchik, Alexander (September 16, 2009). "Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life". Salon.
  27. 1 2 "Vice in Prison Described by Former Inmate". Deseret News. October 20, 1958. p. 1B – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ↑ "Death: Jay E. Banks". Deseret News. August 30, 1998.
  29. ↑ "Graham Quits as Warden; Prison Tightens Operation: Laxity Curb Sought by Officers". Deseret News. September 24, 1958. p. 1B. Archived from the original on March 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ Kimball, Edward L.; Kimball, Andrew E. (1977). Spencer W. Kimball: Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft. ISBN   0884943305. Also available at archive.org
  31. ↑ Quinn, D. Michael (January 15, 1997). The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (1 ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN   1560850604 . Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  32. ↑ Phillips, Rick (2005). Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons (PDF). Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN   0820474800. Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  33. ↑ Tapper, Jake (October 6, 2006). "A Brief History Of Gays In Government". ABC News. 1959 – Political thriller 'Advise and Consent' features fictional Utah Sen. Brigham Anderson driven to suicide when political enemies threaten to expose a gay affair from his youth.
  34. ↑ Simon, Scott (September 2, 2009). "At 50, a D.C. Novel With Legs". The Wall Street Journal. The man who turns out to almost unwillingly stand in the way of confirmation is an unflinchingly honest young senator from Utah who has concealed a wartime homosexual tryst. ... Drury's most appealing character is Brigham Anderson, the young senator from Utah. When Otto Preminger brought 'Advise and Consent' to the screen in 1962, the senator's homosexuality is called a "tired old sin.' But in Drury's book, Brigham Anderson is candid and unapologetic to those closest to him. 'It didn't seem horrible at the time,' he says, 'and I am not going to say now that it did, even to you.'
  35. ↑ Rich, Frank (May 15, 2005). "Just How Gay Is the Right?". The New York Times. In 'Advise and Consent,' the handsome young senator with a gay secret (Don Murray) is from Utah—a striking antecedent of the closeted conservative Mormon lawyer in Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America.' For a public official to be identified as gay in the Washington of the 1950s and 1960s meant not only career suicide but also potentially actual suicide. Yet Drury, a staunchly anti-Communist conservative of his time, regarded the character as sympathetic, not a villain. The senator's gay affair, he wrote, was 'purely personal and harmed no one else.'
  36. ↑ Sears, Brad; Hunter, Nan D.; Mallory, Christy (September 2009). Documenting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in State Employment (PDF). Los Angeles: The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA School of Law. pp. 5–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 6, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2022. From 1947 to 1961, more than 5,000 allegedly homosexual federal civil servants lost their jobs in the purges for no reason other than sexual orientation, and thousands of applicants were also rejected for federal employment for the same reason. During this period, more than 1,000 men and women were fired for suspected homosexuality from the State Department alone—a far greater number than were dismissed for their membership in the Communist party. The Cold War and anti-communist efforts provided the setting in which a sustained attack upon gay men and lesbians took place. The history of this 'Lavender Scare' by the federal government has been extensively documented by historian David Johnson. Johnson has demonstrated that during this era government officials intentionally engaged in campaigns to associate homosexuality with Communism: 'homosexual' and 'pervert' became synonyms for 'Communist' and 'traitor.' LGBT people were treated as a national security threat, demanding the attention of Congress, the courts, statehouses, and the media.
  37. ↑ "An interview with David K. Johnson author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government". press.uchicago.edu. The University of Chicago. 2004. The Lavender Scare helped fan the flames of the Red Scare. In popular discourse, communists and homosexuals were often conflated. Both groups were perceived as hidden subcultures with their own meeting places, literature, cultural codes, and bonds of loyalty. Both groups were thought to recruit to their ranks the psychologically weak or disturbed. And both groups were considered immoral and godless. Many people believed that the two groups were working together to undermine the government.
  38. ↑ Roberts, Paul (August 1983). A History of the Development and Objectives of the LDS Church News Section of the Deseret News (Masters of Arts). BYU. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Elder Petersen wrote the first editorial [in 1943] and nearly every one into the 1980s.
  39. ↑ "Devoted Publishers, Editors Have Upheld Vision of News". Deseret News. June 15, 1990.
  40. ↑ Petersen, Mark (January 3, 1959). "Mankind–Men or Beasts?". Deseret News. p. 8A. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ↑ Landward, John (January 19, 1959). "Punishment Not Best Answer". Deseret News. p. 14A – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ↑ "Obituary: Grace Kirkham Burbidge". Deseret News. September 27, 2001.
  43. ↑ "'Misquoted' on Perversion, Burbidge Says". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. January 19, 1959. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  44. ↑ "Claud Harmon Pratt". The Salt Lake Tribune. November 24, 2001. p. D10 – via Newspapers.com.
  45. ↑ "Perversion Charge 'Ill Advised,' Pratt Claims". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. January 18, 1959. p. 16A – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ↑ "Dr Jay Standring Broadbent Obituary". Daily Herald. A4. February 8, 2010.
  47. ↑ "Anti-Pornography Forces Ask New City Ordinance". Daily Herald. November 20, 1959. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.


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