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It was with a great deal of sadness and shock that I learned Gyll Huff was found dead in his home July 10. Gyll was a dear friend and sometime co-conspirator of mine.
According to Brad Dacus—yes, the Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, if you please—today's glorious decision by SCOTUS is nothing less than an outrage: “Today’s decision is an unmitigated disaster for democracy and constitutional interpretation. Justice Kennedy did not even attempt to explain what level of scrutiny he was relying upon to invalidate state laws that reflect the millennia-old marriage tradition.” [Emphasis added for ridicule.]
Republicans in several states are dumping a voter-registration firm after discovering that the company submitted bogus forms in Florida. According to Reuters correspondent David Adams, "Election officials in Florida were scouring their records for fraudulent voter-registration forms on Friday."
Since our home is within spitting distance of Rice-Eccles Stadium, we've grown used to the silliness surrounding the U vs. BYU grudge match. On even-numbered years*, our neighborhood traditionally plays host to the most rabid
assortment of random football zealots imaginable.
Coverage of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., inspires many things: rage, nausea, and in some cases, the hurling of objects at TV screens. But, I never expected it to inspire brilliant, impassioned prose from a top Utah lawyer.
As a gay man who survived the political Culture Wars of the 1990s -- not to mention public school over the better part of the previous two decades -- I've learned it's best not to get too sensitive over other people's poorly chosen terminology. Sure, I'll vocally object to being called "faggot" by anybody who isn't a fellow faggot.
It was the courage of some quick-witted gay men -- along with a measure of sheer luck -- that thwarted a potential tragedy early Thursday morning at club JAM (751 N. 300 West) when, according to Salt Lake City blogger Fernando Noriega, several lighted incendiary flares were launched onto a fenced-in patio during a popular Wednesday-night karaoke event. Noriega's blog TheGayHotSpot.com reports that 30-40 individuals were on the patio when they were "pelted with what are believed to be at least 6 lit high-temperature flares." Miraculously, nobody was seriously burned -- the flames were soon doused by alert homosexual karaoke aficionados.
Even though the whole Chick-fil-A kerfuffle is so last week, and everybody's moved on to something else now, at least one good thing came of it. In response to my Aug. 4 blog entry lamenting the failure of the local chicken-chain protest, activist and PRIDEinUtah blog author Eric Ethington was inspired to write a thoughtful and well-worded essay, "Seizing the Future for the LGBT Community."
