The New York Times - October 28, 1986
Robert Lindsey

Now, at the suggestion of the state's small community of homosexuals, Gov. Norman H. Bangerter has proclaimed this "AIDS Awareness Week," and Mayor Palmer DePaulis of Salt Lake City has taken a lead in warning residents about the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The fatal disease is transmitted by a virus through sexual contacts or exchanges of blood that, in the United States, has principally affected homosexual males and intravenous drug abusers.

More than 65 percent of Utah's 1.6 million residents are Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a fast-growing religious organization whose doctrines rank homosexuality, adultery and fornication next to murder in grievousness among major sins.

Warnings Since 1981

Some physicians here have been warning since 1981 that Utah, like any other state, was susceptible to the spread of AIDS. But because the conservative Mormon influence is so strong here, many Utahans predicted that their state would be little affected by the disease. Some church leaders had said it emergence proved that God shared the Mormons' condemnation of homosexuality.

Now some residents say that it is time to acknowledge how difficult it can be to suppress human sexual conduct and that Utah has been affected by many of the same currents of change that have affected American society elsewhere.

Church members who become identified as homosexuals are directed by the church to marry, and they face excommunication if they do not cease homosexual contacts. In a state so dominated by one religion, this can lead to social ostracism and difficulty in obtaining or keeping a job, former members of the church say.

As a result, these former members say there is great pressure not to acknowledge a homosexual orientation.

Despite the vigorous moral climate, however, Utah has not been spared a problem with AIDS. #47 Cases Since '83 Since August 1983, according to Craig Nichols, the state epidemiologist, 47 Utahans have been diagnosed as having AIDS, and 24 of the victims have died. Although the rate of infection is a tiny fraction of that in coastal cities such as New York or San Francisco, state health officials expect the number of cases to grow, especially among bisexual males.

Health officials say the strong religious and social pressure on Utahans to marry and the strong taboo against homosexuality have led an unknown number of Mormon men to lead double lives; after yielding to pressure to enter a heterosexual marriage they continue to have sexual relations with men, and if they become infected with AIDS there is a high risk that they will transmit the disease to their wives and unborn children.

"Because of the cultural differences here," said Jessalyn Pittman, director of the AIDS Control Program in the Utah Department of Health, "we're very concerned about the problem of bisexual men." 'You Can't Believe the Guilt'

"A lot of men are forced to marry, and then they play around on the side," said Davyd Daniels, a former Mormon who said that when he was 12 years old he tried to commit suicide because he could not deal with the conflicts between his homosexual urges and the guilt he said the church imposed on him because of its renunciation of homosexuality. "You can't believe the guilt," he said.

"We have people committing suicide all the time because they can't handle it," said Ben Barr, assistant director of a group largely composed of homosexuals that organized "AIDS Awareness Week."

Mr. Barr, who is 26 years old and Jewish, said that although he wa not a Mormon he still felt pressure as a fourth-generation Utahan to marry young and did so when he was 16, even though he realized he was a homosexual. Now divorced, Mr. Barr has a 10-year-son.

William Blevins, 40, a former librarian at the Mormon Church's genealogical center, said the church put pressure on him to marry at 24 in the belief "it would cure me" of homosexual leanings. Homosexual Organizations

It did not, he said, adding that "I still had my feelings" and that after he fathered four children the church discharged him, then excommunicated him and forced him to disclose the identities of several other employees at the church's headquarters with whom he had had sexual relations. He said his wife left him and remarried and he no longer has custody of the children.

Despite the strong taboos against homosexuality, a half-dozen bars cater to homosexuals here and homosexuals have their own monthly magazine, several social organizations and their own church, Affirmation, that follows many Mormon teachings.

Mr. Nichols, the state epidemiologist, estimates there are 30,000 homosexual men in the state. Homosexual leaders assert the number is much larger because many Mormon husbands, in Mr. Daniels's words, "are afraid to come out of the closet."

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