1978 The Murder of Gay Activist Tony Adams Lambda Lore 7 November 2009 QSalt Lake

The Murder of Tony Adams

November is a dark month in which deadly deeds have been done. Murder. Homosexual homicide. Between 1969 and 1978 Gay Liberation came to Salt Lake City with the formation of Gay churches, openly Gay bars, and a Gay student club. In 1974, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a clinical mental illness. At its giddy peak in 1977, Salt Lake City’s Gay organizations protested Anita Bryant’s appearance at the Utah State Fair, forced the state not to hold church sponsored dances in the capitol’s rotunda, forced the Hotel Utah to pay a settlement for breaking a contract, and helped more and more people to come out of the closet. Despite all of this, in the following year an event occurred that nearly sent the gay community back into the closet.

In 1978 a series of murders of men in Utah’s Gay community took place. Most of the men were closet cases and murdered in compromising situations. But when a Gay activist was murdered on Nov. 3, 1978, shock waves of fear rippled throughout the community.

Anthony “Tony” Adams was a Gay African-American socialist. Rev. Bob Waldrop, then pastor of the Salt Lake Metropolitan Community Church, called him “a true freedom fighter.” Born Jul. 30, 1953 in Baltimore, Maryland, Adams was raised in Salt Lake City and graduated from Judge Memorial High School. He was attending the University of Utah at the time of his death.

As a leader in the Salt Lake Chapter of the Socialist Workers Party, Adams had helped organized the Anita Bryant Protest in 1977. His membership in the SWP kept the leadership of Dignity/Integrity, Catholic and Episcopalian gay support groups, from joining the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights of which he was a member. They claimed that their Christian values made them not want to associate with a Marxist.

At the time of his murder, Tony Adams was the campaign manager for the Socialist Workers Party's Congressional candidate Bill Hoyle who ran in the Nov. 7 general election. Hoyle had worked on the 1976 campaign to stop the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah which reinstated the death penalty in the state. Adams was murdered just days before this election, which led the National Socialist Workers Party to believe that Tony’s death was politically motivated.

At about 8:45 p.m. on Nov. 6, 1978, Bill Woodbury, Adams’ boyfriend, Rev. Bob Waldrop, and another friend went to Adams’ apartment at 125 E 1st Avenue located across the street from Brigham Young's graveyard. They were concerned because no one had seen or heard from him for several days. After climbing in through a window, Woodbury found his boyfriend in the bedroom, naked and covered with blood. Adams had been stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife and his throat slit. An autopsy showed that he had been dead for several days and murdered on Nov. 3.

Coincidentally, police detectives were still investigating the death of 16-year-old Sharon Schollmeyer who was found strangled to death in the same apartment building in December 1977. Her naked and bound body was discovered in a partially filled bathtub, according to the state's cold case website. A Utah medical examiner determined the manner of death was homicide.

During that November, Gay leaders patiently waited for the police to catch Tony Adams’ killer(s). When news of the assassination of Harvey Milk on Nov. 27, 1978 reached Salt Lake City, Gay activists in Utah feared the worst — that vocal Gays were being targeted.

On Dec. 13, 1978, Rev. Bob Waldrop along with members of the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights and Sid Stapleton, a Socialist Workers Party official from New York, met with Public Safety Commissioner Glen Greener and Salt Lake City Police Chief Bud Willoughby. They demanded that police “provide more vigorous protection” in a “general atmosphere of violence in the community against Gay people.” The group accused the police of being insensitive to the needs of the Gay community and suggested they were involved in a “calculated program of harassment.”

Bob Waldrop 

Rev. Waldrop told the city officials that he himself had been the recipient of 22 death threats in the past two years, and added he had heard rumors that police were looking the other way when violent acts against homosexuals happened. Stapleton accused the police of dragging their feet investigating the recent murders of homosexuals and stated the investigation in the death of Adams should be considered an “assassination of an out spoken political leader.” Both Greener and Willoughby denied the charges, claiming that murders were being “rigorously” investigated and that a suspect in the murder of Doug Coleman, another Gay man, was in the state mental hospital for observation.

Doug Coleman was murdered on Nov. 30, 1978  the day before his 26th birthday after leaving the old Sun Tavern, a Gay club located at 4th West and South Temple in Salt Lake City.

The original Sun Tavern 400 West So Temple [Jazz Center today]

He was later found in an empty box car behind the Union Pacific station, located across the street from the Sun. He was shot in the head. Police determined that robbery did not appear to be motive since Coleman’s wallet was found untouched. The Salt Lake Tribune reported on Dec. 1, 1978 that a "28 year old man was found shot to death about 5 p.m. Thursday in a box car behind the Union Pacific Station 500 West South Temple. Victim was Douglas Ray Coleman, of 177 West 300 North. He had been shot in the head. Robbery did not appear to be motive. Two suspects one about 30 years blond, six foot, wearing a long white coat. Another adult male was wearing a long coat."

Coleman's obituary without picture was printed Dec. 2, 1978 in both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News  Obituary- Douglas Ray Coleman died Nov. 30, 1978 in Salt Lake City. He was born Dec. 1, 1951 in Ogden Utah to Robert C. and Merle Williams Coleman. He graduated from Box Elder High School in Brigham City and attended Utah State University. He received rewards on Peach Days for his Oil Paintings. Former employee at Safeway Stores as produce manager. He was buried in Brigham City Cemetery. 

A 1973 article in the Ogden Standard Examiner listed Doug Coleman  as among 27 adults and juveniles arrested in Ogden by a drug task force for using and selling marijuana, LSD, and amphetamines. [Drug Raid Article] Later in 1975 Coleman found himself in the news again when he was involved in a car pedestrian accident in which he hit and killed a man in Ogden.  [Car accident article]

Gay community leaders were not satisfied with the police officials’ responses and claimed that they had inside knowledge from a “closeted police officer” that some officers in the police department joked about Adams’ death, saying, “Nigger, Queer, Communist — Three Strikes You’re Out.”

The meeting ended unsatisfactorily with Rev. Waldrop stating that fear was sweeping the Gay community; that there might be “an L.A. Slasher type out there” who was systematically murdering persons thought to be homosexual. Waldrop noted that four persons with ties to the gay community had recently been murdered in the Salt Lake area.

The SWP charged that the police had been “lax and ineffectual” in pursuing the investigation. They also charged that the police had harassed Adams prior to his death by entrapping him in a sex charge. It was uncovered that shortly before his murder, the city vice squad had arrested Adams for soliciting sex acts for hire. The police claimed that Adam’s phone number had been

Police Chief Willoughby

scrawled in a telephone booth and in restrooms throughout the Salt Lake area. The vice squad officers then called the number and arranged to meet him for a “sex act.” Upon meeting with Adams they arrested him. Shirley Pedler, director of the Utah ACLU, upon learning about this situation questioned Chief Willoughby about this method of locating “sex offenders.” The chief promised that he would “look into the situation,” but nothing was ever done.

On  Dec. 30, 1978, the SWP went to the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division requesting that the FBI investigate the death of Tony Adams. They maintained, “we believe the murderer violated his civil rights and also committed the crime of interfering in a political campaign for federal office.” Then the Socialist Workers Party outlined why they felt that the motive for the murder was political. First, there was no evidence that anything was taken from his apartment, thus burglary did not seem likely. Second, the murder was particularly vicious — Adams was stabbed three times in the chest and then after death his throat was cut. The SWP charged that the Salt Lake Police Department was “not pursuing this case with the attention a political crime of this type would warrant. Conflicting and confusing reports from the police as to physical evidence and the progress of the investigation raise questions in our mind about the competence of the police to investigate the murder of a man to whom they were actively hostile.”

The murders of homosexual men in 1978 cast a long shadow over the city’s Gay community. Rumors abounded and the trust level between the police department and the community became virtually nonexistent. When rumors surfaced that the knife used to murder Adams was one taken from the Salt Lake Police Department’s evidence room, many feared that someone in the department was the killer of both Adams and Coleman. These same people felt that the police were covering it up to avoid a scandal.

For whatever reason Tony Adams was murdered his death sent a pall over the newly emerging Gay community, imparting to many activists a sense of melancholy and fear. Gay Liberation activism virtually came to an end in Salt Lake City for the next four years until a new generation of Gay leaders unfamiliar with the events of 1978 came forward to take their place.

Tony Adams’ murder remains unsolved to this day [2009] and is listed as cold case #1978-86442. The police’s synopsis of the crime is simple: “The victim was found inside his apartment. He had been stabbed. The initial investigation showed that the victim was a member of a local radical element.”

Socialist Workers Party leaves Utah in 1997 after 20 years

20 Aug 2011 Case reopened

cold case reopened

1856 The Literary and Musical Society of Salt Lake City Issue 2 Volume 2 Salt Lake Metro

The Literary and Musical Society of 1856

Thomas Brown Holmes Stenhouse (1824-1882) was a successful journalist who assisted in editing  "The Mormon" in New York, was an editor for the Deseret News, post master of Salt Lake City in 1862, and founded the Salt Lake Telegraph in 1864, a daily newspaper which was establish to counter Colonel Patrick Connor's Union Vedette.  After a falling out with Brigham Young and due to an association with the Godbeite movement, Stenhouse requested and was granted excommunication. Before that however he was a member of the inner circle of church authorities.  During the 1870's, Stenhouse wrote a history of the Latter Day Saints called “The Rocky Mountain Saints”.

In this book, Stenhouse mentions a "Literary and Musical Society" formed by a few young Mormon men in about 1855. While there is no suggestion by Stenhouse that these men formed among themselves what is known as "romantic friendships" of the 19th Century, or that they had any other interest other than improving their intellectual lives in frontier Utah, traditionally many Gay men have been attracted to the literary arts as a form of expression of their "forbidden passions" in the 19th Century. For example the "Transcendentalist Movement" in literature from New England was almost entirely made up of homosexuals in the 1840's.

Stenhouse stated that the Literary and Musical Society was created by young "men of superior talent," as would be the homosexual Bohemian Club, when formed in Salt Lake City in the late 19th century. No doubt, any young man of a "sensitive nature", would have been attracted to such a society. 

In 1856, Utah was at its theocratic height, and the first Presidency of the Latter Day Saints Church made up of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah M Grant set in motion a "Reformation" of Mormon society from its perceived evils and calling the people to repentance.  

Jedediah M. Grant pushed this reformation forward speaking in Provo, Utah, on July 13, 1855, saying, "“The Church needs trimming up, and if you will search, you will find your wards contain branches which had better be cut off. The kingdom would progress much faster, and so will you individually, than it will with those branches on....I would like to see the works of reformation commence, and continue until every man had to walk to the line, then we would have something like union, . . . Purify yourselves, your houses, lots, farms, and everything around you on the right and on the left, then the Spirit of the Lord can dwell with you” 

Jeddy M Grant

By September 21, 1856, Brigham Young warned, “We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need a thorough reform, for I know that very many are in a dozy condition with regard to their religion...You are losing the spirit of the Gospel, is there any cause for it? No, only that which there is in the world. You have the weakness of human nature to contend with, and you suffer that weakness to decoy you away from the truth, to the side of the adversary; but now is the time to awake, before the time of burning. . . . notwithstanding all that has been taught, still the people are full of idolatry, the spirit of contention and the spirit of the world...Well, I just say, my brethren and sisters, it cannot be suffered any longer, a separation must take place; you must part with your sins, or the righteous must be separated from the ungodly”

Brigham Young

Brigham Young felt that this "literary society" was one of the threats to his theocratic control over the lives of Latter Days Saints. Stenhouse attributed this attitude as simply Brigham Young's need to subjugate every aspect of early Mormon society to his will. No doubt this is probably the main reason for the church to squelch the literary organization but perhaps "the prophet" saw something else going on there reported by his spies and may have been alarmed by the caliber of the Mormon young men who attended these literary meetings. So much for speculation. Here is what Stenhouse actually wrote in Chapter Thirty-Six of "The Rocky Mountain Saints" and you can draw your own conclusions.:

"Everything that was not ordered and presided over by the priesthood, was denounced as leading to apostasy, and all who did not take an active part in self-accusation of the meanest kind were suspected of deep sin and treated accordingly. For an example, a number of young elders of literary tastes and acquirements, some whom were acknowledged to be men of superior talent organized a `Literary and Musical Society', a few months before the `Reformation' began. They gave public entertainments to their friends, which consisted of original essays and poems, recitations, declarations, orations and music. They had ample talent among their own committee to occupy the evenings fully and to make them highly interesting; but as they designed to diffuse a love of literature and music throughout Zion, they called in all the talent that surrounded them. Any new arrival from the States or Europe possessed of talent was at once waited upon and requested to add to the interest of the entertainment. The society became very popular, was conducted in an interesting manner, and was governed as a thoroughly democratic institution, each member of the committee occupying the chair and keeping door in turn. This society would have done credit to any city in the world, and would have reflected honor on its originators."

The meetings, which were held weekly, were opened and closed by singing and prayer. But they became too popular, and flourished without the president's direction, and consequently drew forth the denunciations of Brigham, Heber, and 'Jeddy.' In the public meetings at the Tabernacle the committee and society became the objects of ridicule, contempt and abuse, charging them with pride, ambition, big-headedness, conceit, and sins. A meeting was afterwards called by the society, its object being, after the exercises were concluded, to dissolve itself. Brigham, Heber, and 'Jeddy' were present, and, on being invited to speak, belittled and berated the institution, and on being informed that the society would dissolve that evening, the leaders recommended—which was equal to a command—that the members become associated with the 'Theological Institution,' a pet association that had died about three years before, but had that evening very conveniently revived. Its first death was caused by the short-sighted course characterizing many of Brigham's policies, by appointing favorites to occupy positions and hold offices who had neither ability, taste, nor education to fill them. This institution swallowed the Literary and Musical Society in one night; but it was too great a gulp, and it died again in two weeks, never to be revived.

 In order to add insult to injury and to crush the committee completely, the next Sunday, in the Tabernacle, eight of the most prominent and efficient members of the Literary and Musical Society were called to be door-keepers at the Tabernacle! On the motion being announced to that effect a titter passed through the vast congregation, most of whom understood the matter to be a punishment. The gentlemen, 'obedient to the heavenly call,' entered at once upon their newly appointed duties, and honored the office, if the office did not honor them. They did their duty, and were afterwards complimented for their efficiency and punctuality by those who sought to crush them. The 'Reformation wrought more evil than good, and it is now regarded by the best men in the Church as the height of folly and fanaticism."

The Old Tabernacle 1852-1867

1984 The Pam Parson Scandal 21 March 2005 Volume 2 Issue 7 Salt Lake Metro

The Pam Parson Scandal of 1984

Cover of Sports Illustrated Issue 8 Feb 1982

In February 1982, Sports Illustrated published an article entitled "Stormy Weather at South Carolina," in which the women's basketball coach at the University of South Carolina was accused of having a Lesbian relationship with one of her players.  This article rocked the national women sport’s realm as well as the Salt Lake’s Lesbian’s community, dividing a fragile populace into opposing camps for years.

Pam Parsons, a native Utahn, was the basketball coach of the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks. Her 1980 team finished third in the nation and the following year, her team was ranked No. 2 and was undefeated, when suddenly “it all came crashing down after Parsons was caught in an affair with one of her players.” 

 In 1979 Tina Buck averaged 28.2 points per game as a Senior in High School and was among DeKalb Georgia's all-time scoring leaders. Parson first met 17 year old Tina at an Atlanta bar. Their relationship according to critics, “made the stereotypes seem true -- that untrustworthy Lesbians pervade women's basketball and entice impressionable young people.”

In November 1980, a private detective revealed that the 30-point high school average Buck spent a night at Parsons' house -- violating recruiting rules because Buck was considered a visiting high school recruit.  Later that December, a player told her mother she'd seen Parsons and Buck embrace and kiss.

The relationship between the women seemed to be so obvious that in 1982, Sports Illustrated outed Parsons as a Lesbian, after which she was fired as a basketball coach. Parsons then accused Time, Inc., which owned Sports Illustrated, of libel and sued the company for $75 million.  Two years later the case was brought to the United States Federal District Court in South Carolina with Time defending the story as true and, therefore, not libelous.  During the course of the trial, Parsons and Buck denied, under oath, that they had been lovers and swore that they had not had sex with each other.

In May 1984, during Utah’s KUTV Channel  2 sports segment of the 10 p.m. news, Babette (better known as Babs) De Lay watched incredibly as Pam Parson and Tina Buck stated under oath in a Federal Court that they were not Lesbians and denied any type of relationship. This infuriated Babs De Lay who had a secret that she could not wait to tell.

Babs De Lay had been involved in community building, by 1984, for nearly a decade and had made herself a reliable reputation as editor of fledgling Gay and Lesbian newspapers, as well as being the host of a weekly women’s music program on KRCL FM 91.  However more importantly for this story, she also worked at the popular Lesbian bar “Puss N Boots” as a bartender. There she had witnessed Parsons and Buck, “dancing intimately and openly proclaiming that they were lovers.”

During much of the 1980’s, bar patrons were required by law to sign a membership registry before entering and they had to show drivers license also. The Puss N Boots’ registry contained the signatures of Parson and Bucks who had visited Salt Lake City the year before. Babs De Lay knew this.

Location of the former Puss N Boots

After the KUTV’s broadcast, Times Inc. received several phone calls from Salt Lake, including Babs De Lay, offering information concerning Parson and Buck’s stay in Salt Lake the summer of 1983.  Babs De Lay was then contacted by the Times’ Attorneys, whom she told that she had a “smoking gun”, access to Puss N Boots’ membership book. De Lay claims that she was given permission by bar owner Hattie Raddon to use the  registry after blacking out all names except Parsons and Buck.  Others claim she didn’t and that publicity was her motive since she was more than willing to testify against the lying women.

De Lay was flown out for the trial and became the Times’ star witness. She testified that Parsons and Buck frequently visited Puss 'n' Boots and her testimony was deciding factor in the suit in favor of Sports Illustrated.  

When the civil case ended, the presiding federal judge, Clyde Hamilton, asked the FBI to investigate criminal perjury by Parsons and Buck both of whom denied ever frequenting "Puss n' Boots." Perjury charges against the pair were filed and in November 1984, both women pleaded guilty to one count of perjury each.  In February 1985, the Lesbians were sentenced to three years in prison – 109 days of which they actually served in a Lexington, Kentucky penitentiary.

Pam Parson 1997

Back in Salt Lake City, Utah, Babs De Lay returned to a very divided Lesbian community, many who were ready to lynch her. She was accused of betraying her Lesbian sisters by the radical feminists and for endangering the security of those women whose names were also on the membership registry by the conservative Lesbians.  De Lay was ostracized, had death threats made against her, and her home vandalized by outraged Salt Lake Lesbians.  In a September 1986 article by Mark Taylor for the defunct Utah Holiday Magazine, Babs De Lay told her side of the story and recounted the fear she lived in, for several years, because of Lesbians with a vendetta against her.  

It took almost a whole generation of Lesbians, who grew up not knowing the Parson Incident, before this matter was put to rest; but among older Lesbians there is still resentment and deep hurt over the affair.

Today Babs De Lay is still a host of a women’s radio program on KRCL called,” Women, the Third Decade” and is a successful Broker and Realtor. Her continuing Involvement in the Lesbian community has Babs de Lay helping the owners of Modiggity, a Lesbian Sports Bar, become a success. She served as chair of Mayor Rocky Anderson's Capitol Improvements Program in 2003, and received her Doctor of Metaphysics in 2002. She performs non-denominational marriages in Utah, and has twin daughters and grandchildren.

Parson and Buck are still together living in Atlanta, Georgia getting by on $15,000 a year.  After being fired as a successful basketball coach and player they have worked as house painters, waitresses and yard keepers.

Parson’s latest claim to fame was during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.  She was called before Congress to testify about her imprisonment for lying under oath. 

When asked by Congressman McCollum to state the nature of her perjury she answered:  “Well, it's really kind of funny. There is a gay bar called "Puss and Boots" in Salt Lake City, Utah. It wasn't easy to say I'd been there. That occurrence was two years after the things that I was suing "Sports Illustrated" for. It wasn't a pretty picture for me. I thought I had many reasons for why I couldn't -- could say no, but it was an out-and-out lie. I had been there... "I finally found what I was looking for -- peace," she said. "I'm not afraid of being found out. I don't have to lie or concoct an image. It's an amazing space to be in. It is something I've wanted more than a national championship."
Sunday, April 14, 1996 Seattle Times
ESPN Women's Basketball March 29, 2007 Associated Press
ESPN Women Basketball January 26, 2011

1 April 2005  Subject: BabsDe Lay Response to My Article in SLMetro 

I have just read "The Pam Parson Scandal" under "Lambda Lore". "Lore" is correct, the facts are not. There is a difference in publishing as to editorial columns and historical information. I'm afraid was presented as historical, but had it's own editorial bent. I am amazed that a) I was not called to check on facts (especially those regarding me) and that b) the facts would not be checked prior to publication, to wit: 1) The Parsons/Buck story was actually made public first at the University of South Carolina. Sports Illustrated (then Time, Inc.) picked up the story because Parsons was such a famous coach in the U.S. I was told they made further allegations that she traded favors to advance her students and paid to have her star athletes tests done by other to keep those athletes in good academic standings. What unraveled was that-male or female-she was practicing unethical academic and coaching standards as well as denying she was a lesbian. 2) I did see the story break on KUTV and was infuriated that Parsons got on the stand, in Federal Court and testified that she was not a lesbian and "that lesbians made her sick". I did not … `have a secret that she could not wait to tell' about Parsons or Buck. This is an editorial comment and not factual. As Mr. Williams was not present at that moment, it would seem to me that he had the choice to write his opinion or the facts. Indeed, I never knew they had a secret. I didn't follow basketball or sports. They were two women who came to Puss N Boots all summer to dance, and ended up being invited to spend the night at friends homes, to BBQ's and parties. I did however, after seeing the news, call the bar manager and met with her and 6 other women the next day. To my knowledge, all of those 6 women called KUTV after seeing the story and were just as infuriated that Parsons was testifying in Federal Court that she was not a lesbian and most important, saying `that lesbians made her sick'. 3) When the 6 of us got together, we knew that the law was being broken by Parsons via her testimony. She wasn't just saying these statements to the press, this was testimony in FEDERAL court and she and her partner were suing for $75,000,000. All of us had been working, in our own ways for gay rights in Utah. We wanted the laws to respect us, and we wanted hate crimes and hate legislation to disappear in our State. As an example, all of us went to the State Fair Grounds to boycott Anita Bryant, by standing up during her performance, facing backwards, and then leaving in mass. We marched together and protested many times to get the ERA passed. That Bryant boycott may not seem much today when compared with the efforts of the HRC, Amendment 3/Equality Utah, and the NCLR, but it was big enough then to bring 100 troopers/police to circle the fairgrounds to protect her from `fags and dykes'. None of the other 6 women were out, but all of us knew someone had to come forth for Utah gays and our queer nation to say that these women were lying. We did not wish to gain our equality, our freedoms via people who lied in court about their gayness-let alone potentially winning $75million on the backs of those lies. I was the only one out publicly of the 6 and I agreed to go. The bar manager (who was a manager at a local utilities company and deeply in the closet at work) reviewed the  membership log and pointed out Parsons and Buck's signatures. That log, by the way, was only a signature book and had no information about addresses or phones on any person who had walked into the door. 4) I never told the Time attorneys I had a `smoking gun' (i.e. the membership log/signature book). They interviewed several of us on the phone and also agreed that I would be the best person to travel to No. Carolina-because I was OUT and didn't have a job/ that would fire me for being gay. The owner of the bar, Hattie [Radon], did not give me the membership log. The attorneys requested the signature log, and the 6 of us agreed I should bring it. The bar manager provided it. It didn't leave my sight in the 24 hours I was gone to testify and back. What was also important is that ALL the signatures were blacked out EXCEPT for Parsons and Buck's on the page (I still have a copy of it) and again, there was no information on the page with address or phone of the signators. It was a signature log and not a membership list or membership data. As a matter of fact, the attorneys I met with representing Time, Inc. told me on the way to court that IF no one had come forward from Utah to testify of Parsons and Bucks lies in Federal Court, they would have "turned Salt Lake upside down and subpoenaed the full membership records of not only Puss N Boots but the Sun Tavern and Radio City as well". Membership records, with addresses, phones, etc. are far more revealing than a signature log. For me, hearing them threaten that potential witch hunt was chilling. Time, Inc. was one of the biggest corporations in the U.S. at that time and they had the money and resources to turn the Utah gay scene upside down and expose hundreds of gays. I don't like to re-live the hell I went through from those many gays in this community when I returned after the trial. I was banned from all gay bars for years here in Utah. Joe Redburn was the first owner to allow me to come back in any club about three years after the trial. The Royal Court threw me out as a member of the Royalty and officer of the court. It was my testimony, and mine alone, that caused Parsons and Buck to not only lose their suit against Time, Inc and Sports Illustrated, but caused the Federal Judge to find them guilty of Federal perjury. On the other side of the coin, I received dozens of letters from judges, attorneys and community leaders from around the country and Utah applauding my honesty in stepping forward and risking so much to stand up for the truth. And, as the Williams article stated, I received numerous and constant death threats for over two years. My phone was tapped because of the extreme threats I was receiving from local lesbians. I lived to tell about it, yet there are still gays in this community who will not speak to me or even be pleasant to me in social situations because of their judgment and bad information they conjured up about my actions. My 6 other friends who helped make the decision to testify are all great people who, 20 years later are all out at work and to their families. Some of them even have jobs where their insurance benefits cover their same sex partners and kids. We've come a long way in 20 years individually and as a community, and it's my belief we've only come this far by telling the truth. One particular letter I received from a California gay activist months after the trial said, "without the truth, gays will never gain the respect and rights they deserve in this country." Many have always wondered what would have happened had Parsons and Buck won their $75,000,000 libel suit against Time, Inc. Given that they denied being lesbians and `that lesbians made them sick', I doubt they would have ever filtered their libel `winnings' down to the gay community. I didn't receive any money for what I did and never expected to from the get-go. My motive was the truth. I have always worked quietly (usually) in Utah to better the lives of both gays and straights here through volunteerism and donations each and every day of my life and will continue to do so until the day I die. Most important, I always tell the truth and am proud to be a lesbian. I would hope that Ben Williams, president of a historical society for gays here in Utah will correct his facts for future generations of gays, lesbians and transgendered people. All the testimonies and magazine, newspaper articles are in public domain. Babs De Lay 

1978-1980 THE GAY HEPATITIS B VACCINE EXPERIMENT Volume 2 Issue 1 28 December 2004 Salt Lake Metro

The Gay Hepatitis-B Vaccine Experiment”.

An Hepatitis-B vaccine experiment involving thousands of healthy young Gay men occurred in major metropolitan areas in the United States from 1978 to 1980. The Gay Hepatitis-B Vaccine Experiment was the project of Dr. Wolf Szmuness, who became an authority on hepatitis after he defected to America from Poland. Within a few years he appointed Professor of Public Health at Columbia University and in 1978 Dr. Szmuness was awarded millions of dollars to undertake the “most important mission of his life: the Hepatitis-B vaccine experiment. “

When these hepatitis B experiments began, Gay men were arguably the most hated minority in America, more despised than Blacks and Jews. Numerous straight conservative Americans under the leadership of Anita Bryant were attempting to roll back gains made by the Gay Civil Rights Movement. The religious right infuriated with Gay demands for social reform even claimed that the Bible condemned homosexuals to death.

For most of the 20th century, homosexuality had been diagnosed as a mental illness. Under pressure from Gay activists, the American Psychiatric Association removed this stigma in 1974. However soon afterwards the physical health of homosexual men came to the attention of the medical authorities. According to public health statistics provided by epidemiologists across the nation, the Gay community was infested with venereal diseases. The most shocking rates of infection according to the government were for hepatitis B.

Nazi doctors were the first to prove that hepatitis was infectious. In their medical experiments, physicians forced concentration camp prisoners to eat material scraped out of the stomachs of people who had turned yellow from liver disease. When the prisoners subsequently sickened with yellow jaundice, the Nazi doctors determined that hepatitis was most likely caused by an infectious agent, and was probably a virus. Later when hepatitis B was also proven to be a sexually transmitted disease, it was considered a serious health threat.

The groundwork for the Gay hepatitis experiment began in 1973 when the Gay Men's Health Project in Manhattan provided blood samples for hepatitis B testing at the New York City Blood Center. The results were that one out of every two Gay blood samples was positive for hepatitis B. By contrast, only 5% of the blood samples from straights were positive. Half the Gay population was infected with the hepatitis B virus according to New York health clinics. Epidemiologists then determined that homosexual men were a potential public health menace not only to themselves, but to the larger public as well.

In the 1970’s the burgeoning Gay communities wanted to show that they were good citizens, deserving all the right and privileges of American citizenship. Gays volunteered for blood drives, and were willing to help test this new experimental vaccine, which offered the hope of eradicating hepatitis B. Even in Salt Lake City, Gay blood drives were regularly promoted as a civic duty.

After much debate, Dr. Wolf Smuness decided that young promiscuous Gay men would be the best group to test the vaccine. He gained the confidence of Gay professionals by adding homosexual physicians and activists to his staff.

In November 1978 a bloodmobile began canvassing Greenwich Village, in NYC, looking for homosexual volunteers. They flocked to him. Dr. Szmuness’ experiment continued until October 1979. Over ten thousand men signed up and donated blood samples for his upcoming experiment with one thousand men from Manhattan being injected with the vaccine, some with a suspected contaminated batch.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were all involved in the study, as well as big pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, Sharp & Dohme Inc., and Abbott Laboratories. Merck Laboratories was given the governmental contract to primarily manufacture the experimental Hepatitis-B vaccine. During the course of experiment, Dr. Szmuness voiced his concern about possible vaccine contamination. He even suspected that one vaccine batch made by the National Institutes of Health was contaminated.

In January 1979, only two months after Dr. Wolf Szmuness began his hepatitis experiment, purple skin lesions began to appear on the bodies of healthy young white Gay men in NYC. Doctors were not sure exactly what was wrong with these men. During the next thirty months, Manhattan physicians encountered dozens of cases of a new disease characterized by immunodeficiency, Kaposi's sarcoma, and a rapidly fatal lung disease, known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. All the men were young and Gay and promiscuous. Almost all were white. All died horribly.

Dr. Szmuness, however unconcerned or unaware of the purple lesions on a small percentage of his volunteers, was thrilled with the tremendous success of his hepatitis B experiment. By the beginning of the 1980s, Dr. Szmuness was awarded millions of dollars for his research, and his hugely successful hepatitis B vaccine was hailed as having tremendous implications. The medical community now had a vaccine for hepatitis B.

 In March 1980 the Center of Disease Control supervised additional Gay hepatitis B experiments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, St. Louis and Chicago. By the fall of 1980 the first West Coast case of purple lesions appeared in San Francisco. Six months later, in June 1981, the Gay (HIV) epidemic became "official." One year after this disease was officially recognized as Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease (GRID), Dr. Wolf Szmuness suddenly died of lung cancer in June of 1982. 

At the time of his death, 30% of the men in the Dr. Szmuness experiment were HIV positive. This rate of 30% far exceeded the rate for any African population, where later Dr. Robert Gallo and others claimed the HIV disease has been around "for decades". Coincidently or not where ever Dr. Szmuness hepatitis tests were conducted became the epi-centers for the transmission of the HIV virus.  

Of QUEENS and FOUNDING FATHERS: Spirit of 76 14 April 2005 Vol 2 Issue 8 Salt Lake Metro

Of Queens and Founding Fathers

Prince Henry of Prussia

We don’t celebrate April 19 anymore. April 19 is Patriots Day. In New England this is a big deal, but not such a big deal in Utah where Pioneer Day is king of the holidays. Speaking of kings, it’s a little known fact that after the revolution many of the “founding fathers” wanted to create an American monarchy instead of a presidency. Along with James Monroe, Alexander Hamilton was dissatisfied with the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and contemplated installing a liberal-minded monarch for the position of executive. Hamilton supported Prince Henry of Prussia, the younger brother of King Frederick the Great, for that post and diplomatic letters were sent.  However the 1787 Constitutional Convention convened, to form a new Constitution, before Prince Henry could reply and the concept of a monarchy among the conventioneers was rejected. Had events turned out otherwise, America's first king would have been a queen! Prince Henry like his brother King Frederick, had never made much effort to hide his interest in young men and an expose’ on the prince was even published in 1789 explicitly referring to Prince Henry's "passion for pederasty". 

Baron Von Steuben

The Prussian Court of King Frederick the Great was rife with "man on man" sex.  In fact, one such Prussian aide, to Frederick the Great, came to America to help train the Continental Army, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Von Steuben. According to many sources, Von Steuben originally had been forced to leave Prussia because he had taken indecent liberties with various young men of which he was overly fond.  In American he joined the Continental Army and was later made Inspector General by George Washington. Von Steuben and shared the bitter winter at Valley Forge 1777-1778. After the war Congress voted him a pension and land in his retirement for being "Indispensable to the achievement of American Independence". 

Another Prussian, not as honored as Von Steuben, was Frederick Gotthold Enslin. In 1778 this lieutenant in George Washington's army was dishonorably discharged for attempted sodomy on the person of another soldier. This is the only known case of sodomy in the Continental Army and is found in George Washington's general orders dated March 10 1778.

"At a General Court Martial whereof Colo. Tupper was President Lieu. Ensiling of Colo. Malcolm’s Regiment tried for attempting Sodomy with John Moonwort, a soldier. Secondly for perjury in swearing to false accounts, found guilty of the charges exhibited against him being breaches of the 5th Article 18th section of the Articles of War and do sentence him to be dismissed from the service with Infamy. His Excellency the Commander and Chief approves the sentence and with abhorrence and Detestation of such infamous crimes orders Lt. Ensiling to be drummed out of Camp tomorrow morning by all the Drummers and Fifers in the army never to return; the Drummers and Fifers to attend on the Grand Parade at Guard mounting for that purpose.

Ganymede Cup bearer to Zeus

The 1789 expose’ on Prince Henry of Prussia noted that "The aristocracy of the army knows that with Prince Henry, the Ganymede’s shall always be in control." Never heard of Ganymede?  Your public school education has failed you. Or perhaps you just slept through high school.  Ganymede of course was the Greek youth who was so beautiful that Zeus fell in love with him and brought the teenager to Mount Olympus to serve the king of the god’s every pleasure. Some historians, okay the Gay ones, see Alexander Hamilton as a sort of Ganymede to George Washington- the Father of Our Country! Indeed Hamilton, who was a young handsome youth, quickly rose to power by flattering powerful older men during the Revolutionary War.

Throughout George Washington's life, he showed little interest in women. As a young single man, he even told friends that there was only one woman that he would ever consider marrying and that she was already married to his friend George William Fairfax. George eventually caved in to pressure after being persuaded that it was unseemly for a public figure to remain unmarried and thus he married a wealthy widow, Martha Cutis. And while known as the father of his country, Washington actually never fathered anyone. 

Washington's closest attachments were always young men, particularly Alexander Hamilton. Throughout the Revolution, the young Hamilton served as aide-de-camp to the middle aged Washington, serving as personal secretary and closest companion. However Hamilton had his own romantic friendship with John Laurens, a well heeled aristocrat from a prominent Charleston, South Carolina family.

Alexander Hamilton

In 1776, at the age of 19, Hamilton became a captain of the American artillery and joined General Washington's staff in 1777, where he met 24 year old Laurens. Laurens and Hamilton, both young revolutionaries and part of the close male circle surrounding General Washington, formed an intense and many say romantic attachment, which was revealed in letters written from 1779 until 1782. 

John Laurens

One, written April 1779 by Hamilton to Laurens, stated, "I wish, my Dear Laurens, it might be in my power by action rather than words to convince you that I love you. …You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.” Later in the letter, Hamilton asked Lauren to find him a wife. “To excite their emulation, it will be necessary for you to give an account of the lover- his size, make quality of mind and body, achievements, expectations, fortunes &c. In drawing my picture, you will no doubt be civil to your friend; mind you do justice to the length of my nose and don't forget (five words are crossed out). After reviewing what I have written I am ready to ask myself, what could have put it into my head to hazard this jet de follies. Do I want a wife? No- I have plagues enough without desiring to add to the number that greatest of all.. And if I were silly enough to do it, I should take care how I employ a proxy. ..I have gratified my feelings, by lengthening out the only kind of intercourse now in my power with my friend. Adieu”   

On August 27 1782 in a minor shoot-out with a British foraging party, John Laurens was killed at the age of 28 and Hamilton remained a trusted confidant of George Washington until February 1781 when they quarreled.

Hamilton and Laurens

After the war Hamilton and Washington renewed their friendship and Washington chose Hamilton to serve as first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton was a founder of the Federal Party, advocating a strong central government. He was instrumental in securing the victory of Thomas Jefferson, his political foe, over Aaron Burr in the Presidential Elections of 1800 which led to Hamilton's death in 1804 in a duel with Burr. Hamilton was 47 years old.