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