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 in Salt Lake City, 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 gays 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 ran through
Sunday, plenty of people like Johnson gathered around
Salt Lake City--a yearly reminder of just how large
the gay population there has grown. 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, 3,370 of
them in Utah. Gay rights advocates have estimated those
numbers undercount the population by as much as 50%,
because the census counts only gay men and
lesbians 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% 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
same-sex marriage. Others migrated from equally
conservative nearby states such as 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 such as 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." (Travis Reed,
AP)
