LGBT rights defenders reasonably compromising on gay rights legislation with conservative church leaders. A church ban on baptism of children of same-sex couples. A judge removing an infant from her same-sex foster parents — until child services objected and a Republican governor frowned, leading to a quick reversal.
These are scenes from Utah, a state that can’t seem to make up its mind about gay rights. And on Tuesday, the picture just got more complicated: Salt Lake City, the state’s capital, just elected its first openly gay mayor. Though the election was held Nov. 3, the vote count was just made official.
“Today is not just about making history,” mayor-elect Jackie Biskupski (D) said, as the Associated Press noted. “It is about people. It is about affecting change.”
Biskupski, a former private investigator whose campaign biography said she “visited Utah on a ski trip” more 25 years ago and “never left,” took down two-term incumbent Ralph Becker with 51.5 percent of the vote. In Salt Lake City, Utah’s liberal bastion, both are Democrats; though the state is 60 percent Mormon, neither is.
Though the election turned on some banner municipal issues — economic growth, affordable housing, bike-patrol police, parking meters — Biskupski’s sexual orientation grabbed the headlines. After all, she’s broken glass ceilings before. In 1998, she became the state’s first openly gay legislator.
“When I first came in, there were legislators who couldn’t even look me in the eye or didn’t want to shake my hand,” she said in 2011. “There were people asking the [House] speaker not to seat me and fight my election.”
Though there’s no official list of openly gay mayors in the United States, Biskupski, 49, joins Democrat Annise Parker — the mayor of Houston dealt a blow earlier this month when an LGBT rights bill she championed was killed in a referendum.
The executive director of a Salt-Lake-based gay advocacy group congratulated Biskupski on her “historic win.”
“Her victory sends a powerful message to all LGBTQ Utahans that their sexual orientation will never be a limitation to public service,” Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We look forward to working alongside mayor-elect Biskupski to advance policies that will benefit all Utahans.”
In a year that marked the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, Biskupski’s win seemed to offer more questions than answers as Utah ping-pongs between extending and limiting gay rights. First, in March — ahead of the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision — the deeply red state surprised the nation by passing a bill banning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“In a society which has starkly diverse views on what rights should be protected, the most sensible way to move forward is for all parties to recognize the legitimate concerns of others,” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) said in a statement at the time. “After a considerable amount of hard work, we believe that the Utah legislature has wisely struck that balance.”
[Utah — yes, Utah — passes landmark LGBT rights bill]
But, just last week, the Mormon Church announced a ban on baptizing children of same-sex couples. After an outcry, which eventually included the mass resignation of a reported 1,500 church members, the church tried to clarify its position.
“All children are to be treated with utmost respect and love,” a letter from President Thomas Monson and his two counselors, Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, as The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein reported. “They are welcome to attend Church meetings and participate in Church activities. All children may receive priesthood blessings of healing and spiritual guidance.” However: “We are obligated to act with that perspective for the welfare of both adults and children. The newly added Handbook provisions affirm that adults who choose to enter into a same-gender marriage or similar relationship commit sin that warrants a Church disciplinary council.”
[1,500 Mormons quit church over new anti-gay-marriage policy, organizer says]
Into these murky waters plunged Judge Scott Johansen, a juvenile court judge in Utah’s Seventh District with a reputation for dealing out harsh sentences and, on one occasion that earned him an official reprimand, slapping an alleged teenage thief. After Johansen ordered the infant foster child of a lesbian couple removed last week, he reportedly said that “through his research he had found out that kids in homosexual homes don’t do as well as they do in heterosexual homes.”
“I was kind of caught off guard because I didn’t think anything like that would happen anymore,” foster mother April Hoagland said. “… It’s not fair, and it’s not right, and it hurts me really badly because I haven’t done anything wrong.”
The heartbreaking tale sparked outrage across the country. As Utah’s child and family services objected to the order and the state’s Republican governor wondered whether it was legal, Johansen stayed it, then recused himself from the case.
[Utah judge removes lesbian couple’s foster child, says she’ll be better off with heterosexuals]
As the drama unfolded, Biskupski presented herself as an agent of compromise.
“The LDS church is no different than the LGBT community,” Biskupski, a single mother with an adopted child, said, as the Los Angeles Times reported. “There is a lot to overcome with the myths about who they are and who we are. They have walked the path of discrimination in this country, and we have walked that path.”
