Salt Lake Cy Is Electg Its First Openly Gay Mayor. Here's Why That's A Big Deal. | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• JACKIE BISKUPSKI BE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR OF SALT LAKE CY
• UTAH PAL ELECTS FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR
• TROY WILLIAMS: THE 'GAY MAYOR OF SALT LAKE CY'
• STTO’S LATT: TUCKER, GAY, SUMNER, NOEL
• UTAH'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR-ELECT HOP TO BUILD BRIDG WH LDS CHURCH
• SALT LAKE CY ELECTS GAY MAYOR, WHILE UTAH EXPORTS ANTI-GAY HATE
• UTAH ELECTED ITS FIRST GAY MAYOR? DON'T BE SO SURPRISED
• SALT LAKE CY IS ELECTG ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR. HERE'S WHY THAT'S A BIG DEAL.
• JACKIE BISKUPSKI ELECTED AS SALT LAKE CY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR
• STTO’S LATT: TUCKER, GAY, SUMNER, NOEL
• NBA RUMOR: MAVS LKED TO RUDY GAY AFTER THUNR CUT
• NEVADA’S FIRST GAY MAYORS HAVE EP ROOTS SILVER STATE

JACKIE BISKUPSKI BE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR OF SALT LAKE CY

SALT LAKE CITY — Former Utah lawmaker Jackie Biskupski on Tuday beme the first openly gay mayor of Salt Lake Cy, the pal of the nservative state where the Mormon church and a small town judge livered setbacks last week to the LGBT victory by Biskupski marked another tone for LGBT people Utah who have ma major stris recent Utah lawmaker Jackie Biskupski pos for photograph after beg mayor of Salt Lake Bowmer / AP"Today is not jt about makg history, " Biskupski said.

UTAH PAL ELECTS FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR

"Servg as mayor of Salt Lake Cy has been the richt workg experience of my life, " Becker told Lake Cy voters also elected Derek Kchen, who beme the send gay member of the Cy and his hband, Moudi Sbey, were one of three upl who sued to overturn the state's same-sex marriage ban. Biskupski tak over after progrs on gay rights was temporarily marred recent weeks when a judge orred a foster child to be removed om a lbian uple and placed wh a heterosexual uple.

The judge quickly reversed his cisn and took himself off the earlier, the Salt Lake Cy-based Mormon church issued new l targetg gay members and their children, promptg wispread backlash.

TROY WILLIAMS: THE 'GAY MAYOR OF SALT LAKE CY'

The new policy bans baptisms for children of gay parents until the kids turn 18 and disavow same-sex relatnships. Jim Dabakis after she was elected Salt Lake Cy's first openly gay Bowmer / APBiskupski cled to discs the church policy further Tuday, sayg she wanted to meet wh Mormon officials first.

STTO’S LATT: TUCKER, GAY, SUMNER, NOEL

Earlier this year, the church endorsed a statewi anti-discrimatn law that protected gay and transgenr people om discrimatn hog and the 's a ntrast om 1998, when Biskupski beme Utah's first openly gay lawmaker and some of her lleagu the heavily Mormon and nservative Legislature wouldn't shake her about her w light of the recent ntroversi, Biskupski said, "It's 2015, and we've e a long way om, gosh, when I first got elected. Gay rights group Equaly Utah endorsed both Becker and, 63, has been lled an ally of the LGBT muny, helpg pass a 2009 cy anti-discrimatn ordance.

UTAH'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR-ELECT HOP TO BUILD BRIDG WH LDS CHURCH

He also officiated dozens of the first gay marriag 2013 the hours after a surprisg lg overturned Utah's same sex marriage ban. A fal vote unt approved Tuday means the former legislator, as expected, will bee the first openly gay mayor of a major Utah cy January.

Biskupski, who 1999 beme the state's first openly gay lawmaker, now will mark another first as mayor of Salt Lake Cy. The first openly gay mayor the state was Willy Marshall, who was elected 2001 to lead the ty southern Utah town of Big Water.

Williams, raised Eugene, Ore., moved to Utah and soon beme an tern for the Eagle Fom, led by Gayle Ruzicka, possibly the most powerful force for nservative valu the state.

SALT LAKE CY ELECTS GAY MAYOR, WHILE UTAH EXPORTS ANTI-GAY HATE

Williams, who had baptized 10 nverts to the LDS fah, fally had begun to acknowledge that he is gay.

UTAH ELECTED ITS FIRST GAY MAYOR? DON'T BE SO SURPRISED

"I had sublimated my sexualy to relign, as Mormon gays ually do. " In the past year, Williams, the young man whom Ruzicka traed as a polil activist, has bee famo natnally for his gay-rights work — as an anizer of the "kiss-" ralli that embarrassed the LDS Church, the cheeky "Buttarspalooza" at the Capol that protted by celebratg the homophobia of state Sen. Chris Buttars, and as -creator of Sister Dottie, the voice of Mormon motherhood as portrayed drag by actor/gay activist Charl Lynn Frost.

Out, a natnal gay magaze, and lol lears have labeled Williams, 40, the "gay mayor of Salt Lake Cy" and the "Harvey Milk of Utah gay polics.

" Williams, who began his gay activism as a producer on KRCL muny rad, reached the acme of exposure for a young activist when he appeared last year a Stephen Colbert send up of the LDS Church's kissg ban on Ma Street Plaza. " By the turn of the new lennium, Williams felt he was a new person, "saved" by his gayns.

SALT LAKE CY IS ELECTG ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR. HERE'S WHY THAT'S A BIG DEAL.

"Beg gay rcued me om the Mormon church, om nservatism, om the Eagle Fom, " he says, lghg. Ruzicka learned of her protégé's new life through a 2008 gut opn article he wrote The Salt Lake Tribune which Williams "praised" her and Buttars for energizg Utah's gay-rights movement. "Utah's lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr populatn has never been better-anized, fund and effectively traed polil actn.

JACKIE BISKUPSKI ELECTED AS SALT LAKE CY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAYOR

"Gayle is brilliant at what she do.

She is a refg element for femism and gay-rights activists — she's actually dog the Good Work.

STTO’S LATT: TUCKER, GAY, SUMNER, NOEL

" Another tone me when Ruzicka scribed Williams an Eagle Fom alert as a "ant homosexual. Williams' ongog velopment as an activist has also led to clash wh olr and more nservative lears Utah's gay muny. Williams fears that marriage equaly, repealg the ary's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays and negotiatns wh the LDS Church are really about gay men tryg to rega the tradnal male privilege they lost when they me out publicly as homosexuals.

NBA RUMOR: MAVS LKED TO RUDY GAY AFTER THUNR CUT

"[Mormon gays] give up even more, " Williams says. " Activist Michael Wtley, a former Salt Lake Tribune reporter raised as a Catholic Utah, knows this gay Mormon nflict well. And many of s gay members, when they fd they are not si that circle anymore, yearn for .

NEVADA’S FIRST GAY MAYORS HAVE EP ROOTS SILVER STATE

That yearng is a very big piece of beg a gay Mormon. " Takg up the torch, to burn the bridg down Longtime gay activist Jim Dabakis, who is volved ongog meetgs wh reprentativ of the church, unts Williams at the foreont of Utah's "young turks. That's why they ll him the gay mayor of Salt Lake Cy.

In the '70s, we would take fliers for early Mormon gay groups and put them on wdshields at [LDS Church] Conference, then n away.