AP PHOTO/RICK BOWMER
BIG LOVE
church. She and Brenda have
raised a pair of straight, cleancut, all-American kids — a highschool baseball star, Ben, 18, and
a biochemistry major, Maddie, 21.
And until this January night, neither Sally nor most of her friends
in Salt Lake City’s small community of Mormon and formerly
Mormon gays and lesbians had
ever been to a gay pride event, or
a gay party of any kind.
Now, at 48, she found herself
at a precarious juncture, staring
ahead at the unknown territory
of the gay-rights movement while
trying to stay close to the familiar
guideposts of her Mormon past.
“I’m so uncomfortable,” Sally
repeated to her friends, eyeing a
portly man with strings of tiny
white Christmas lights encircling
the pair of pointy cones protrud-
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
ing from the chest of his gown.
“Oh come on,” said Deb Wells, a
50-year-old former Mormon and
lesbian who works as a massage
therapist. “Big fucking deal.”
“You don’t feel uncomfortable at
all?” Sally asked, pressing the point.
“Hell no!” Deb said, shaking
her hips to the rhythms of Michael Bublé.
The drag queen’s electric boobs
sparkled back into view. “See
there?” said Sally. “Right there?
That’s weird.”
Outsiders often say the same
abou Ё5