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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Friday, November 2, 2012 3 Conference unites LGBT and LDS DJ Summers "` t...t. 7.::11i47..43.: _ . , ::: ..::._. \ STAFF WRITER In a place with as much cultural and religious hegemony as Utah, it can be difficult for members of the LGBT community to establish inroads and develop a rapport with the dominant cultural force of Mormonism. A group of religious leaders, bloggers and therapists are holding the second annual Circling the Wagons Conference at Wasatch Presbyterian Church this weekend to unite the two groups. "The conference had been organized with the conscious intent of providing a safe place for a conversation about LGBT/SSA issues within the Mormon community," co-founder Joseph Broom said. "The theme of this year's conference is 'Seeking Authenticity and Understanding,' and this represents the twin goals of speaking authentically with the goal of creating greater understanding of the very complex issues within the Mormon community that involve issues of sexuality and faith." The event will have a large presence from several organizations that deal specifically with the issue of homosexuality in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community. Broom had been a dedicated churchgoer of the LDS Church and married to a woman for several years before he openly declared his samesex attraction and removed himself from church membership. His fellow keynote speakers come from similar backgrounds. Blogger Allen Miller went through the same transformation as Broom with similar results, whereas openly ASUU continued from Page 1 interesting ones." The proposed ASUU constitutional amendment creating a new election for attorney general election requires the candidates to run independent of a party. Mooers-Putzer said she expects complaints challenging the independence of the candidates. Williams said during his term he filed the only cases that came before the committee. Some candidates did not attend a required information meeting and the board fined each candidate $15. "Between the two parties that ran last year, they had SCIENCE continued from Page 1 experiences and later worked together on a science communication project for the Brain Institute. During the course of their partnership, they became interested in the idea of sharing science news with a different approach than most media outlets. "In general journalism, some newspapers are afraid or not able to talk about some of the technical aspects of the science behind the story," Kiefer said. "Something we would like to do is illustrate the scientific principles behind these different topics and teach them ... without using too much jargon." Their idea became a reality when the National Association of Science Writers — of which FILIPINOS continued from Page 1 still very concentrated. This is the first time that I [knew] there were so many Filipinos [at the U]." Because of earlier construction on the plaza, some students did not stop to watch the event. Davit Sargsian, a freshman in marketing, said he noticed the performance, but was confused by the caution tape. He said he was impressed by their courage to sing in public, even when no one was watching. He was surprised by the presentation and said he respects when people follow their country's traditions. Julia Darling, a freshman in pharmacy, said she didn't expect others to come to the event because the performance is only a preview of the bigger performance happening in the spring. . . . t. ... """" : : :;.... V. tr m. ..r.. .. S gra.V: VII:: unii2:::: :66SM =ice r4 ..... .7.41..".... . ..3. ft . 14. •••..,4•40 ...........4., rr... •••••• ■74: toi o „..111111111n rrrrr TINA PARSONS/The Daily Utah Chronicle The second-annual Circling the Wagons Conference will be held at the Wasatch Presbyterian Church this weekend. The purpose of the conference is to create a place of comfort for Mormons in the LGBT/SSA community. gay blogger Josh Weed maintains his LDS faith and ties. This has created an amount of tension among groups and individuals who feel Weed's presence would be counter-productive. But both Broom and Miller acknowledge Weed will bring in more people who otherwise might not come to the conference, which is the overall goal. "We will each be speaking about our own experiences and will be coming from the perspective that each of us have repeatedly expressed on our respective blogs, i.e., that mixed-orientation marriages are a bad thing," Broom said. "Josh has come out very publicly as gay, but is happy in his mixed-orientation marriage." very civil campaigns with each other and so more or less they decided to not file grievances against each other," Williams said. He said there are not many frivolous complaints because the filing process is lengthy and requires a lot of paperwork. "It is not something you want to waste your time on," he said. Williams said last election's voting turnout was around 8percent and down from 14percent the year before. Last year's election turnout was low because the disqualification of the Fresh Party turned students off from the election, Mooers-Putzer said. The Fresh Party was dis- qualified from the election because they used student groups to campaign. The case went directly to the ASUU Supreme Court and was upheld by the Student Affairs Cornmittee. ASUU is planning campaigns to increase voter involvement such as voter education so people better know about ASUU and the parties running, Mooers-Putzer said. "These are the ASUU elections this is what ASUU does," Mooers-Putzer said. "This is why [students] need to care because these are your student fees and those are $20 but maybe you want your $20 spent in a specific way." Kiefer and Shuske were both members — offered grants for unique science news projects. They applied for the grant and received $35,000 in March 2012 to cover the creation and launch of the Explore Utah Science. They hope the new website will attract readers who would normally not be interested in science. Even if readers aren't interested in science, it impacts them, Kiefer said. "There's a huge amount of startup companies in science and technology that are contributing to the growing economy of our state," Kiefer said. She said they include science stories about issues such as water conservation, which will become increasingly more important to Utahns during the coming years. "We wanted to bring attention to these stories that really impact our every day lives, and all of it comes back to science," Keifer said. Shuske reaffirmed science is constantly influencing everyone — in Utah and the United States. She said the public's understanding of scientific advances will have an increasingly important role in public policy. "Our whole society and our economy are based upon advances that we've made in technology, in science and in health," Shuske said. "It's just [becoming] more and more the case. If people don't understand what the basis is for those advances ... they won't want to invest in these things ... because they won't understand the value of them," she said. "The truth of the matter is that our economy is going to depend them even more than it already has." She performed in a red, blue and yellow kimona — colors of the Filipino flag — with sparkling sequins. The traditional kimonas are made of pineapple fibers. Other women dressed in long, bright-colored kimonas. The men wore Barong Tagalogs, traditional see-through shirts worn only during special occasions, such as weddings, church activities and Christmas. The tradition began when the Spanish arrived in the Philippines. They did not trust the native Filipinos and forced them to wear transparent shirts in order to see if they hid any weapons under their clothing, Camu said. "Hispanics and Filipinos are very similar in their culture," said Victor Santizo, a sophomore in modern dance. "They love their colors. They are very vibrant." The association is not just a cultural group but also an advo- cacy group. Students take part in a service project each month — November's service topic is civic engagement. Because Asian Americans are the smallest population in the United States to vote, the association handed out fliers at the Union that said, "Don't forget to vote!" Students also passed out fliers with a "Did You Know?" title on them, detailing how Philippines passed an anti-cybercrime law, which allows their government to monitor Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Camu said this is an infringement on freedom of speech and freedom of expression. "Once I started going to the meetings, I just became more aware of social injustices that are going on," said Tina Xu, a freshman in biology, and member of the association. The Circling the Wagons Conference made its inaugural performance in creating a forum for LDS members and their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns last year. For Broom, it couldn't have been a bigger success, and he said he hopes to duplicate that success this year. "The conference — independent of any existing LDS LGBT/SSA COMMUNITY continued from Page 1 paycheck, and donors may choose to donate for a select number of pay periods or to have continuos payroll deductions. The campaign also accepts donations by credit group and the LDS Church — was, by any measure, a huge success," Broom said. "It was the first time that a gayaffirmative message was conveyed to an audience comprised of members of the LGBT Mormon community." The existence of such a conference, largely inconceivable in another time, could possibly indicate growth in friendly LGBT attitudes in the LDS Church. Although the official stance is still less than cordial, Broom said even the unofficial speakers and supporters from the church go a long way in helping the two communities reach an understanding. "A former LDS area authority and SLC mission president, Blake Sonne, will be speaking at this year's interfaith service," he said. "We see it as a positive step forward that a Mormon of his stature has agreed to speak." Many LDS students see the forthcoming event as a good way for the church and the LGBT community to build bridges. "I think it's a challenge for the church," said Ben Jones, a continuing education U student and an LDS ally. "This is kind of the way the wind is blowing in the world. [The LDS Church] can't avoid the fact that the world is gay-friendly. [The Circling the Wagons Conference] is exactly the kind of thing that needs to happen to get people on each other's team and find out that they don't have to be mutually exclusive." Among the dozen of speakers slotted for the event are Steven Frei from North Star, Randall Thacker from Affirmation, Erika Munson from Mormons Building Bridges, and the Understanding Same-Gender Attraction group from BYU. dj.summers@chronicle.utah.edu card or check. Bone said the campaign has existed in its current format for about io years. Bone said last year there were 925 donors who together committed just over $351,000. Many of these are perpetual donors, which means they have enrolled for paycheck deductions year after year. Thus far this year, the campaign has received $251,000 in pledges and donations, with $237,000 from perpetual donors. The goal is to reach $400,000. a.burton@ chronicle.utah.edu t.webb@ chronicle.utah.edu a.wrigley@chronicle.utah.edu a.plummer@chronicle.utah.edu Graduate students team with biofuel from agricultural waste. WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Their research could yield clean, GRADUATE SCHOOL Dr. Manuel Garcia-Perez to create renewable sources of energy. At Washington State University, you can build a better world. |