Where it all began.

From an article by Robert Gehrkes in the SLTrib:

"It’s perhaps fitting, since it was BYU President Ernest Wilkinson who implemented an Honor Code where women were banned from wearing pants, men were banned from wearing beards and homosexuals were banned altogether.

“If any of you have this tendency and have not completely abandoned it, may I suggest that you leave the university immediately,” Wilkinson reportedly told an assembly in 1965. “We do not want others on this campus to be contaminated by your presence.”

I know people who were there in 65 and he did say it.


Shortly after that the electro-shock came into play and the undercover entrapment program.

And then Oaks became president and theN here we are today with Oaks still the MVP for the Mormon team like a junk yard dog with a bone because,

OAKS CAN'T BE WRONG OR IT MEANS HE WAS WRONG ALL THOSE YEARS AGO AND WE JUST CAN'T HAVE A THAT!!!!!!

OMG, I remember Ernie W. well.

"Keep your bod off the sod" was one of the rules. No jeans.
My gay BIL was irreparably damaged at BYU at that time.

At the time, I was annoyed by all the ridiculous rules but now I am embarrassed I went along with it.

Just when you think it was all in the past, BYU and the church continue to be a source of embarrassment for anyone with a degree that has Brigham Young on it. I'm tired of joking about it when co-workers see stuff like this in the news.

In my day, BYU found itself in the news with the revelation that BYU police officers were casing The Sun’s (a SLC gay bar) parking lot for cars with BYU parking decals.

The Sun! Some of the best times of my life. Taking my garments off while driving from Provo to SLC.

Luckily I was so poor I couldn't afford to park on campus and thus had no sticker on my car.

Just for you---A memory of my first time there while still at BYU and just after realizing the church was false. It's an excerpt from my book.


"Heading toward the door, my nerves were seismic, the war in heaven apparently being reenacted in my stomach. What was I doing? What the hell did I think I was doing? The sun Tavern down by the railroad station in Salt Lake City—the seedy part of town in those days. Everything, so far, matched my expectations. The roads were not maintained, the sidewalk was filthy, and the buildings were on the verge of being tagged for teardown. The few streetlamps were far away and dim from grimy glass. The sliver of a moon did little to make up the difference and barely allowed enough glow for us to be sure we had the right building. It was a location scout’s dream if the script called for a stabbing scene or abduction.

"And then we walked through the well-worn doors, and the world turned on a dime, like surfacing the water after a cliff dive. The beat of the music was deafening, just as it should be, and everyone was dancing and talking and laughing. The men were all beautiful even before I could see their faces. The teeth and sparkly eyes and heads thrown back or leaning in formed a collage that rearranged my senses. I took this vision in panoramically, and as the raw honesty of this moment washed over me, I saw not one person sitting around hating himself, feeling ashamed. You can keep your God and Jesus flashing Joseph in the woods, because the Sun Tavern that night was more of a revelation than any holy personages glowing and hovering in the air would ever be.

I think now of my life in the terms of exquisitely aged wine and these words by the Lee brothers capture it all for me and let me reel back in that first moment at the sun Tavern whenever I need to:

"In the glass the wine (an ancient Madeira) had a fudgy color with an olive green glint around the edge. It smelled slightly dusty and foreboding. With trepidation, we sipped: it slipped thinly between the lips and then— snap!—a big, full, brash wine raced for each corner of our palates, gushing oranges, golden raisins, brandied cherries, licorice, mint and maple sugar. An equally vibrant astringency set in, a curried oak and lemon sensation that lingered pleasantly for a full five minutes. We literally reeled at the surprise.
—Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Thanks D&D! I remember that 2nd South was the hotbed of vice back in the day. It’s been pretty gentrified and was re-branded as the Warehouse District a while back.

You’d know if you saw me at the Y. I was the dead-serious, judgmental kid who kept his eyes down in shame at my transgression. Oops, I guess that applies to most of the student body :) Seriously, I need to get the shirt on Amazon that says, “Sorry for the things I said when I was a Mormon.” Stay strong!

I heard some things, but I was never interested AT ALL in going to BYU. I went to a youth conference there in mutual and I was not impressed. I guess I wasn't as devoted as I should have been. My sister went to USU first and it was a PARTY school and it bugged her, so she went to BYU. I'd have to ask her now what she thought.

Believe it or not, she dated 2 gays. We didn't recognize what was going on, but our neighbor started dating her before they went back to BYU one summer. He was about 5 years older than she is. She really did like him. His long-time roommate and "best friend" butted in and started asking my sister out. He made her crazy. She dated him 1-1/2 years and finally moved home mid year to get away from him. Four months later, she was engaged to her husband and they actually have a good marriage even if she drives me nuts.

But after I found out my boyfriend was gay, it clicked. They are still together in Provo. They were school teachers. I assume they are retired by now.

So now once again, I'm going to go find the book (is it yours), "Free Electricity." I'm so bad at reading anymore. I used to win all the awards for the most pages/books read in elementary school and I always read voraciously until I had to force myself to not read so I would get my 2 jobs done when I was a single mother. I'm going to go get it out NOW.

Free Electricity is a very important book.

Yes. It's my book. First time I've gone public here.

I used to worry about how my mother would take it but she has made it clear lately that she will be ashamed to have a gay son until the day she dies, so why worry about it anymore.

I salute you.

The book, “Free Electricity” is brilliant.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P81YTJO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1#customerReviews


And I knew him before I knew he was somebody!


(He must be an old fart!)

Done & Done Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes. It's my book. First time I've gone public
> here.
>
> I used to worry about how my mother would take it
> but she has made it clear lately that she will be
> ashamed to have a gay son until the day she dies,
> so why worry about it anymore.


Your mother doesn't deserve you. If you even need a mother I'd

be happy to adopt you into my family. Seriously.

Love you saucie.

Just from your posts, I can tell that you are a great guy. More reason than ever to read your book!! Promote it!

I'm sorry that your mother would ever see fit to hurt her child in that way.

I was at that 1965 assembly as a freshman at the Zoo. Ernie also knocked out 20 or so pushups (the crowd called out the numbers, but the big WTF in my mind blocked out memory of the final count).

He was such a pompous twit. I thought Dallin Oaks was a monumental breath of fresh air after Ernie. Actually, I still think he was. Oaks didn't put his integrity in a blind trust until he became a GA.

Ernie Wilkinson always struck me as the Mormon J. Edgar Hoover.

Well it's important to remember the time and what was going on in the nation. There were fundamental changes taking place, there were race riots in the South, Abortion was becoming legal, femiNAZIs were gaining power. There was the hippie culture and of course the protests against Vietnam and the draft. The Mormon Hierarchy was fully in favor of Vietnam and stopping communism. Wilkinson's job was to keep the hunkydory wholesomeness going, keep the traditions alive.

So what?

Do you find those reasons adequate to justify what Wilkinson did at BYU?

You're off by about 3 years. The buildup in Vietnam was just building up a head of steam in 1965. The Beatles had come to America just the year before, and still wore coats and ties when they performed. Their hair was considered quite the scandal, though today it would meet BYU standards of not being over the collar, though the ears still might be a problem, and the look is pretty dated.

No. Ernie was a fascist martinet before there was much excuse for it. It was just who he was. That's why he got trounced by Frank Moss when he ran for Senate in 1964. That sort of thing used to happen once upon a time in Utah. :)

LW's characterization as the Mormon J Edgar Hoover is spot on, though Cleon Skousen has fair claim to that characterization as well.

BTW, femiNAZIs is an insulting, sexist term. I assume you know that and that's what you were going for. Just letting you know it was noticed.

BTW-2, 1965 was the year of Griswold v Connecticut, when SCOTUS ruled states could not make it illegal for single women to purchase contraceptives. So yes, feminists were gaining power. It would seem that it was about time.

In Macaromney's sad twisted little world,

Neo-Nazi = good

Feminazi = bad

Skousen had no power. Wilkinson, like Hoover, had actual power.

Your timetable is correct. I don't expect macaRomney to get any of this right. Roe v Wade and constitutional abortion came in 1973.

I can testify first hand that they were spending money to try to keep RMs from having to serve. I don’t call that being supportive.

Also, big shocker, mormon doctors were happy to lie to the people conducting the draft physicals, to forestall the drafting of members.

"Well it's important to remember the time and what was going on in the nation."

Classic lead in for justifying atrocious behavior. This translates to, "Well, all the other kids were doing it."

1965 at BYU beards were not a problem at all.
Homecoming royalty wore strapless gowns that showed shoulders and cleavage.
Ernie The Attorney batted out pushups in the registration line, not just at assembly.
Campus Spy Group was going big time and reporting to certain of The Bretheren in SLC as well as Ernie.
Tommy Hudspeth recruited the All Marine football team backfield and with Virgil Carter at Quarterback the team actually looked good - but still got stomped by Arizona State, coached by Frank Kush.
There actually were some black athletes on campus, courtesy of full ride scholarships and some ignoring rules.

Ah, you were obviously there too!

Other things I remember: the Freshman class government felt there wasn't much of a sense of belonging to a particular "Class of <year>" at BYU, so they came up with a plan to foster a sense of belonging to a particular year's class.

It didn't occur to them that, especially back then, a fair number of the women didn't actually graduate, having gotten married and pregnant during their first couple years at the Zoo, and a majority of the men did not graduate in 4 years because of missions, and by the late 1960s, also because of the military draft. Anyhow, few people actually graduated 4 years after they started school at BYU, hence not much attachment to being part of the "Class of <whatever>"

The other thing they didn't think through very well was that the plan they came up with was to sell sweatshirts to freshmen in 1965 with the logo "Class of '69"

They did not sell well. I wonder if someone had to explain to the people in charge of this fiasco what the problem was..... By the spring semester, they still had a bunch of unsold sweatshirts, so they turned them inside out, and tried to sell them that way. I doubt if that was any more successful.


The other major event was that traditional ballroom style dancing was being replaced by the Twist, Frug, etc, and that "jungle music" (yes, I heard that exact phrase being used by the old farts) was far too sensual for the BYU Administration, and no doubt also troubled the BYU Board of Directors (aka the Q15) in SLC.

So, rock dances were banned on campus. They still held some dances, but they were "heels, hose and tie" affairs. I remember all this because I was in the dorms, and the head resident on my floor was also head of the BYU Central Dance Committee. He was tasked with stage managing this fiasco. Ernie was heavily involved, as was, I believe, Mark E Peterson of the Q12.

The net result of no rock dances on campus was that downtown dance venues sprang up. The only name I still remember was The Blue Terrace, but there were one or two others as I recall.

I think the rock dance ban lasted for two years, then the Administration decided it was better to keep the dancers on campus where BYU would have total control of what went on at the dance venue.

Yes, the reign of Herr Ernie was a sight to behold.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2020 02:17PM by Brother Of Jerry.

"Central Dance Committee."

That is too funny! In the Soviet Union the Central Committee was run by the Politbureau. So we have the Mormon J. Edgar Hoover running the BYU Politbureau.

You can't make this stuff up!

Thank you BoJ. Reading all those tidbits of history from just before I was there is fascinating. What a different world even BYU was then.

I had read an article when I was researching that made it quite clear that just before Ernie the place was actually much looser and more like a normal campus. Makes me curious about what it was like all those years since it was founded in 1875 up until Ernie's reign.

The Mormons in my old pioneer town were nothing like what I encountered at BYU where being Mormon seemed like a competitive sport, and for us gay guys--a duel to the death.

In Connoll O’Donovan’s dissertation on the subject of Gaiety in the mormon church, he details just how loose and even convivial the gay v. straight situation was up until the arrival of Earnie Wilkerson.

http://www.connellodonovan.com/abom.html

And he does a very thorough job of detailing the abuses visited upon the Gay community during Ernie’s reign.

Wow. Thanks, EOD. Gonna take a while to through that, but as I skimmed I found Wilkinson titled "Arch-Homophobe" which made me laugh and then a photo of an old friend I knew in SLC, Robert I. McQueen who left to go run the Advocate.

  The thing about 'The Gay' is that left to their own devices, people pretty much only think about, as in 'worry', regarding issues that impact their lives.

  Remember when you first learned about sex, as in Tab A goes into Slot A, and you went, "Huh! Well all right then!"

  And then at a later point in the game of life, you heard that Tab A could also go into Slot B! Whoa! And logically, or rather, logistically, there was a bit of sense to it.

  But at some point Morality was revealed. And morality, it turns out, has nothing to do with what's possible, but rather has to do with restricting what's possible, on so-called Moral Grounds. So Tab A going into Slot B was declared to be 'Un-Natural', when in fact, it totally is a real thing that happens in real life!

  The Gay is as natural as left-handedness and is distributed amongst the human population in about the same ratio. No right-handed kid ever met a left-handed kid and thought to himself, "The order of Heaven is disturbed!" It took an adult with an agenda to come up with that notion.

  The real powers that be (commerce, as in making money) simply said, for every 10 right-handed baseball gloves, let us make 2 left-handed baseball gloves. Golf club manufacturers did the same thing!

  It's only dumb-ass morality that instructs humans to look beyond normalcy in order to find a reason to lord it over some minority. Isn't it weird that only minorities have to drink at separate water fountains, figuratively speaking?

  98.8% of the male population between 14 & 50 years of age masturbates, but does the mormon church have separate 'water fountains' for masturbators?

  What percentage of the church-going membership partakes of a sacrament that was prepared and blessed by unrepentant masturbators?


  As for the women... it is currently your disgusting, depraved shoulders that have the old men up in arms! It wasn't always so.

  Here's the famous/infamous photo of the "whore" who in 1964 was crowned the homecoming queen:   https://www.facebook.com/byumagazine/photos/a.10153316841575634/10153316846330634/?type=3&theater

  If you click on the photo, it will add the comments section, and that's a fun read. One of the ladies quotes that years edition of the FTSOY (for the strength of youth?). Sleeves and shoulders were fine. But then along came the old men who saw perversion everywhere!

Either mormon ghawd exists but he's flighty and prone to hysterics, or the mormon church is run by old men with extra tight sphincters. It's one or the other. Okay, maybe it's both?

My mother never spoke ill of the church. She didn't even like to complain about hymns she didn't like, but she made an exception for Wilkensen. She despised him and especially his politics.