In a previou post, RfM poster “slskipper” notes that the famous composer of LDS hymns was a gay man:
“ . . . Evan Stephens--who wrote many LDS hymns--was gay as well, eventually running off to New York (I think) with a 'blond Viking,' I heard that at a Sunstone conference many years ago. Does anyone have references.”
("Re: LDS Drag Queens, LDS Gay Patriarchs & Early LDS Gay Practices,” posted by “slskipper,” on “Recovery from Mormonism” discussion board, 54 November 2014)
Indeed, the Mormon Cult is the last trash-talking dumpster on the planet to be belching out condemnation of gays. Below are revealing details on the life and LDS-denounced sins of Evan Stephens (who, by the way, despite the evidence of his same-sex relationships, was never condemned or punished by the LDS Church but, its official magazines).
As Connell O'Donovan notes in his article, "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature: A Revised History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980":
"Interestingly, Evan Stephens (director of the Tabernacle Choir) also used the word 'chum' and 'boy-chum' in 1919 to describe his many intimate same-sex relationships with other Mormon youths, from John J. Ward onward (see below). The Oxford English Dictionary notes that from the 1600s to the mid-1800s, the word 'chum' (etymologically from 'chamber-mate') referred specifically to both prisoners and students who share sleeping chambers. Only after the mid-1800s did the word begin to refer generally to a 'friend.' Since prisoners and British students are notoriously transgressive in their sexual behavior, 'chum' certainly could have had an 'underground' sexualized meaning. Dr. John Egan of the University of New South Wales recently wrote . . . that 'the word 'chum' in Canadian French is used to connotate both a [homosexual] boyfriend or a good mate/pal' among '[gay]men in Montréal and Québec City.' . . .
"Evan Stephens (1854-1930), Utah's most prominent musical composer as well as the conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1890 to 1916, came 'across the plains' while a child and is consistently rumored to have been 'Gay.' Beyond oral tradition amongs the Mormon Gay community, there is a large amount of contemporary, circumstantial evidence to support this claim. Stephens, born in Pencader, Wales, and migrating with his family to Utah in 1867, never married, which in polygamous Utah was a difficult status to maintain, especially for someone as prominent as Stephens. Instead of marrying, he filled his life with his two great passions: 'love of friendship and music.' Stephens's friendships always centered on passionate love and desire for other, usually much younger, men.
"Stephens went so far as to publish his autobiography (which amounts to little more than an explicit account of the development of his desire to bond passionately with other men) in a periodical for Mormon children--without any apparent reprisal from the Church. In this lengthy autobiography written in the third person and published in the 1919 'Children's Friend,' “Stephens told Mormon children about his youth while in Willard, Utah, where he discovered music through a local all male ward choir--another instance of homosociality fostering same-sex desire. Stephens recounts that he became 'the pet of the choir. The men among whom he sat seemed to take a delight in loving him. Timidly and blushingly, he would be squeezed in between them, and kindly arms generally enfolded him much as if he had been a fair sweetheart of the big brawny young men. Oh, how he loved these men[;] too timid to be demonstrative in return, he nevertheless enshrined in his inmost heart the forms and names of Tovey, Jardine, Williams, Jones and Ward.' . . . 'The Children's Friend' [was] a very q**** place for Evan Stephens's 'coming out,'
"John J. Ward . . . was the same age as Stephens, and the two young men became friends. However, their friendship soon developed into something much more profound, as Stephens' autobiography attests. For example, when the entire Mormon community in Willard (except for the Ward family) moved to Malad, Idaho, 20-year-old Evan refused to go with his family and instead chose to remain with his 'chum,' John. They eventually built a small cabin and moved into it together. In this same autobiography, Stephens calls Ward the first of his 'life companions' with whom he shared his 'home life.' . . . The phrase, 'The Last Flower,' comes from a poem which Evan wrote in honor of his mother, in which he calls himself the last flower in her garden, being the youngest of her 11 children.
"Gay Mormon historian, Michael Quinn, has thoroughly covered the relationships Stephens had with many of the young men in the Tabernacle Choir. Recently however, I discovered yet another possible 'boy-chum' of Stephens, Appollos B. Taylor (1854-1936). An online history of the Larsen family recounts that after Benjamin Taylor (father of Appollos) homesteaded in Willard, Utah, 'Evan Stephens, who afterward was famous as a musician and choir leader in the Tabernacle for years, was one of the young men who lived with him [Benjamin]. He [Evan] and Appollos herded sheep on the hills for several years. He was so impressed with the grandeur of the high mountains and rugged peaks just east of the farm. One of his beautiful anthems, "Let The Mountains Shout For Joy" had the Taylor farm for its setting.'
"Stephens also avidly transgressed Mormon gender boundaries wtih frequent vocal performances in drag as a woman (usually an "old maid"), singing convincingly in a high falsetto. At least two of his drag performances took place in the Tabernacle on Temple Square."
"Evan Stephens' Temple Apron
"Around 1987, I [Connell O'Donovan] was living with Leila Rawlinson Trumbo Ethington (granddaughter of Col. Isaac Trumbo, an ex-Mormon greatly responsible for Utah gaining statehood) in her home on 2nd Avenue (between N and O Streets) in Salt Lake City. She was 84 at the time and all of her life Leila had always had close friends who were Gay men. In the early 1970s she opened up her home as a boarding house for several young , Mormons, including several Gay men and one Lesbian (mainly members of one family). I was the last youth to pass through her inviting home which we lovingly dubbed 'The Leila T. Ethington Home for Wayward Boys and Cats.' She had a very warm spot in her heart for strays of all kinds.
"Leila had become a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir around 1925, after Evan Stephens had retired as its director. (She is listed on the official choir website as Leila T. Senior since she was married to Clement Senior at that time.) However during her years in the Choir, she met and befriended Stephens, who eventually told her that he himself was 'that way' (her words), meaning he was homosexual. She told me she often visited his beautiful estate on State Street, with its boating pond and beautiful grounds, where he held many social events especially for the young people of the Church and Choir.
"When Stephens died October 27, 1930, Leila knew that his non-Mormon housekeeper (Sarah Daniels) would have no idea how to dispose of his temple garments and robes properly, so Leila went to his home to take care of those items of ritual apparel. Leila disposed of all his temple clothing except for his temple apron. She kept this because there was a note stuck to it that indicated he had worn that very apron during the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1893. (Note that Stephens had also composed the music to The Hosanna Anthem, with words by C.L. Walker, specifically for the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, and I believe it has been sung at the dedication of every LDS temple worldwide since)."
(Connell O'Donovan, "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature: A Revised History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980,"
http://www.connellodonovan.com/abom.html: and Connell O'Donovan, "Evan Stephens' Temple Apron,"
http://people.ucsc.edu/~odonovan/evan.html)
_____
Personally insecure Mormon apologists, of course, beg to differ with the above intepretation of Stephens' sexual orientation, as obediently laid out in the article, "[Evan Stephens'] Alleged Homosexuality":
"In his book, 'Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth Century Americans,' published in 1996, gay historian D. Michael Quinn expresses his view that Stephens had homosexual relationships and that these were tolerated by the LDS Church hierarchy. Elsewhere, Quinn has theorised that the unmarried Stephens had intimate relationships and shared the same bed with a series of male domestic partners and travelling companions.[He claims that some of these relationships were described under a pseudonym in The Children's Friend, a church magazine for children. However, Quinn has admitted that it is possible Stephens never engaged in homosexual conduct.
"Several other Latter-day Saint scholars, including George L. Mitton and Rhett S. James, have called Quinn's research on Stephens into question. They argue that Quinn has engaged in an opportunistic distortion of LDS Church history; they deny any acceptance from previous leaders of homosexual behaviour; and state the teachings of the current leadership of the Church 'is entirely consistent with the teachings of past leaders and with the scriptures.' Specifically, they disagree with Quinn's theory that Stephens was involved in intimate relationships with other men, or that the article in 'The Children's Friend' was about these relationships. They point to it instead as reflecting normal youthful respect for older males.
“They also point out that Stephens's relationship with his great niece, Sarah Daniels, undermines Quinn's claims. Specifically, Stephens maintained a large number of students as residents in his household to prevent the image of impropriety with Daniels, since if he had lived alone with her without other witnesses around, it would have opened him up to accusations of a scandalous relationship. They state that Stephens 'is known only as a strictly moral Christian gentleman.' Mitton and James also point out that the death of Stephens's fiancee led him to remember her through his music, and that this was a very real and deep-seated emotional connection for him.[3] Ray Bergman—who was in one of Stephens's youth choirs and personally knew him—also disputes any claims that Stephens was a homosexual."
("Evan Stephens,"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Stephens)
On the evidence for the homosexuality of Evan Stephens, excommunicated gay Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn sets the record straight, so to speak, in his impressively documented article, "Male-Male Intimacy among 19th-century Mormons: A Case Study":
“Like American culture of the time, 19th-century Mormonism encouraged various levels of same-gender intimacy which most Mor-mons experienced without erotic response. In the 19th century it was acceptable for Mormon girls, boys, women, and men to walk arm-in-arm in public with those of the same gender. It was acceptable for same- sex couples to dance together at LDS church socials. School yearbooks pictured Mormon boys on high school athletic teams holding hands or resting one's hand on a teammate's bare thigh. It was also acceptable for Mormons to publicly or privately kiss those of the same sex 'full on the lips,' and it was okay to acknowledge that they dreamed of doing so. And as taught by their martyred prophet himself, it was acceptable for LDS ‘friends to lie down together, locked in the arms of love, to sleep and wake in each other's embrace.’ These various same-sex dynamics made life somewhat easier and more secure for 19th-century Mormons who also felt the romantic and erotic side of same-sex relations. There was much that did not have to be hidden by Mormons who felt sexual interest for those of their same gender.
“While 19th-century Americans rarely recorded explicit references to their erotic desires and behaviors, they did write of intense same-sex friendships in diaries and letters. Mormonism's own record- keeping impulse offers supportive evidence of such same-sex dynamics.
“The life of Evan Stephens, director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the turn of the 20th century, provides a case study in the use of social history sources, as well as being a prime example of the early Mormon celebration of male-male intimacy.
“For example, First Presidency counselor George Q. Cannon praised male-male love during a sermon on Utah's Pioneer Day in 1881: ‘Men may never have beheld each other's faces and yet they will love one another, and it is a love that is greater than the love of woman.’ Cannon, like other 19th-century Americans, then emphasized the platonic dimension of this male-male love: ‘It exceeds any sexual love that can be conceived of, and it is this love that has bound the [Mormon people together.’
“Evan Stephens (born 1854) directed the Tabernacle Choir from 1890 until he retired in 1916. ‘The Contributor,’ the LDS periodical for young men, once praised Stephens as a man who in falsetto ‘could sing soprano like a lady, and baritone in his natural voice.’ A tireless composer, Stephens wrote the words and music for nineteen hymns that remain in the official LDS hymn book today, more than by any other composer.
“The small, tightly-knit Mormon community at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City knew that Stephens never married. A family who had been acquainted with him for decades commented: ‘Concerning the rea- son he never married nothing could be drawn from him.’ His . . . biographer also admitted: ‘Stephens' relations with women were paradoxical’ and ‘he avoided relationships with women.’
“Imagine such a situation today when Mormons begin to whisper about a young man's sexual orientation if he isn't married by age 26. Imagine the reaction of such whisperers to the following description of the Tabernacle Choir director's same-sex relationships as published in the LDS Church's ‘The Children's Friend.’
“In January 1919 the ‘Friend’ began monthly installments about the childhood of ‘Evan Bach,’ a play on the name of German composer J. S. Bach. 65-year-old Evan Stephens himself authored these third- person biographical articles that lacked a byline. Starting with the October issue, the ‘Friend’ devoted the three remaining issues of the year to Stephens's own account of the same-sex dynamics of his teenage life. During the next year seven issues . . . , this Church magazine emphasized different aspects of Stephens's adult life, including his same-sex relationships.
“Of 13-year-old Evan's arrival in Willard, Utah, the autobiography began: ‘The two great passions of his life seemed now to be growing very rapidly--love of friendship and music. His day dreams . . . were all centered around imaginary scenes he would conjure up of these things, now taking possession of his young heart.’ The article continued: ‘The good [ward] choir leader was a lovable man who might have already been drawn to the blue-eyed, affectionate boy.’ It was this local choir leader ‘I most loved,’ Evan had earlier written in the Church's ‘Improvement Era,’ and the teenager ‘cr[ied] his heart out at the loss’ when the 23-year-old chorister moved away. ‘I wanted to go with him,’ Evan confessed.
“Concerning the young male singers in the choir, the ‘Children's Friend’ continued: ‘Evan became the pet of the choir. The [young] men among whom he sat seemed to take a delight in loving him. Timidly and blushingly he would be squeezed in between them, and kindly arms generally enfolded him much as if he had been a fair sweetheart of the big brawny young men. Oh, how he loved these men, too . . . .' ‘The “men” he referred to were in their teens and early 20s.
“The ‘Friend’ also acknowledged a physical dimension in Evan's attraction to young men. Its author (Stephens) marveled at ‘the picturesque manliness with those coatless and braceless [suspender-less] costumes worn by the men. What freedom and grace they gave, what full manly outlines to the body and chest, what a form to admire they gave to the creature Man . . . . Those who saw the young men in their coatless costumes of early day, with their fine, free careless airs to correspond, [now] think of them as truly superior race of beings.’
“A continuation of this third-person autobiography in the ‘Friend' related that from ages 14 to 16, Evan lived with a stonemason, Shadrach Jones, as his ‘loved young friend.’ The article gave no other reason for the teenager's decision to leave the home of his devoted parents in the same town. Evan's employment as Shadrach's helper did not require co-residence. At the time, Jones was in his late 30s, and had never fathered a child by his wife. After briefly returning to his family's residence in 1870, Evan left them permanently. At age 16, Stephens moved in with John Ward who was his same age and ‘Evan's dearest friend.’
“Evan explained, ‘Without 'John' nothing was worthwhile. With him, everything; even the hardest toil was heaven.’ He added, ‘What a treasure a chum is to an affectionate boy! ’The two friends were accustomed to sleeping in the same bed, since there were eight other children in the Ward family's house at the time.
“After three years in the cramped family's house, the two young men moved out together. ‘In my 20th year [age 19],’ Evan bought a two-room house (sitting room and a bedroom), and John moved in. ‘The Children's Friend’ said that while these 19-year-olds were ‘batching it . . . , [this] was a happy time for Evan and John.’ A photograph of Evan standing with his hand on John's shoulder is captioned: ‘WITH HIS BOY CHUM, JOHN [J.] WARD, WHEN ABOUT 21 YEARS OLD.’
“After six years of living with Evan, John married in 1876, but Evan remained close. The census four years later showed him as a ‘boarder’ just a few houses from John, his wife, and infant. After the June 1880 census, Stephens left their town of Willard to expand his music career. John fathered 10 children before Evan's biography appeared in ‘The Children's Friend.’ He named one of his sons Evan.
“That article did not mention several of Evan's other significant ‘boy chums.’ Shortly after 26-year-old Stephens moved to Logan in 1880, he met 17-year-old Samuel B. Mitton, organist of the nearby Wellsville Ward. Mitton's family later wrote: ‘From that occasion on[,] their friendship grew and blossomed into one of the sweetest relation- ships that could exist between two sensitive, poetic musicians.’ In 1882, Evan moved to Salt Lake City to study with the Tabernacle organist, but ‘their visits were frequent, and over the years their correspondence was regular and candid, each bringing pure delight to the other with these contacts.’ Then in the spring of 1887, Samuel began seriously courting a young woman.
"According to Stephens, that same year ‘Horace S. Ensign became a regular companion [of mine] for many years.’ Horace was not quite 16 years old, and Evan was 33 former teenage com-. Evans’ former teenage companion, Samuel Mitton, married the next year at age 25 and later fathered seven children., Evan and Samuel wrote letters to each other, signed ‘Love, during the next decades.
“As for Evan and his new teenage companion, after a camping trip together at Yellowstone Park in 1889, Horace lived next door to Evan for several years. When Horace turned 20 in 1891, he began living with 37-year-old Evan. In 1893 he accompanied the conductor alone for a two-week trip to Chicago. A few months later, they traveled to Chicago again when the Tabernacle Choir performed its award-winning concert at the 1893 World's Fair. They were ‘regular companion[s]’ until Horace married in 1894 at age 23. The two men remained close, however. Evan gave Horace a house as a wedding present and appointed him assistant conductor of the Tabernacle Choir. Eventually, Horace Ensign fathered four children and became LDS mission president.
“Whenever Stephens took a long trip, he traveled with a young male companion, usually unmarried. When the Tabernacle Choir made a 10-day concert tour to San Francisco in April 1896, Stephens traveled in the same railway car with Willard A. Christopherson, his brother, and father. The Christophersons had lived next to Stephens since 1894, the year Horace, the year Horace Ensign married. In August 1897, 43-year-old Stephens took 19-year-old ‘Willie’ Christopherson on a two-week camping trip to Yellowstone Park, but Evan reassured the now-married Horace Ensign in a letter from there that ‘you are constantly in my mind . . . . ‘ Like Horace, Willard was a member of the Tabernacle Choir where he was a soloist. During a visit to the east coast in 1898 Evan simply referred to ‘my accompanying friend,’ probably Christopherson.
“Stephens's primary residence in Salt Lake City had an address listed as ‘State Street 1 north of Twelfth South’ until a revision of the street-numbering system changed the address to 1996 South State Street. A large boating lake nearly surrounded this house which stood on four acres of land. In addition to his house, Evan also stayed in a downtown apartment. Willard Christopherson had lived next to Evan's State Street house from 1894 until mid-1899, when (at age 22), he began sharing the same downtown apartment with 46-year-old Evan.
“In early February 1900, Evan left for Europe with ‘my partner, Mr. Willard Christopherson.’ After staying in Chicago and New York City for a month, Evan and ‘his companion’ Willard boarded a ship and arrived in London on 22 March. They apparently shared a cabin-room. In April, Evan wrote the Tabernacle Choir that he and ‘Willie’ had ‘a nice room’ in London.
“Evan left Willie in London while he visited relatives in Wales, and upon his return ‘we decided on a 14 days' visit to Paris.’ Stephens concluded: ‘My friend Willard stayed with me for about two months after we landed in England, and he is now in the Norwegian mission field, laboring in Christiania.’ Evan returned to Salt Lake City in September 1900, too late to be included in the federal census. City directories indicate that Evan did not live with another male while Christopherson was on his full-time LDS mission.
“In March 1902 Evan returned to Europe to ‘spend a large portion of his time visiting Norway, where his old friend and pupil, Willard Christopherson, was on a mission. During his ocean trip from Boston to Liverpool, Evan wrote that ‘I and Charlie Pike have a little room’ aboard ship. Although he roomed with Stephens on the trip to Europe, 20-year-old Charles R. Pike was on route to an LDS mission in Germany. Like Evan's other traveling companions, Charles was a singer in the Tabernacle Choir—since the age of 10 in Pike’s case.
“While visiting Norway, Evan also ‘had the pleasure of reuniting for a little while with my old—or young companion, Willard, sharing his labors, cares and pleasures while letting my own rest.’
“Willard remained on this mission until after Evan returned to the United States. After Willard's return, he rented an apartment seven blocks from Evan, where he remained until his 1904 marriage.
“That year, 17-year-old Noel S. Pratt began living with 50-year-old Stephens at his State Street house. Like Ensign and Christopherson before him, Pratt was a singer in Evan's Tabernacle Choir. He was also an officer of his high school's junior and senior class at the LDS University in Salt Lake City, where Stephens was Professor of Vocal Music. The LDS ‘Juvenile Instructor’ remarked that Pratt was one of Evan's ‘numerous boys,’ and that the Stephens residence ‘was always the scene of youth and youthful activities.’
“In 1907, Evan traveled to Europe with his loyal niece-housekeeper and Pratt. Evan and the 20-year-old apparently shared a cabin-room aboard ship during the two crossings of the Atlantic. Before their trip together, Pratt lived several miles south of Evan's house. After their return in 1907, he moved to an apartment a few blocks from Evan. When the choir went by train to the west coast for a several-week concert tour in 1909, Noel shared a Pullman stateroom with Evan. With them was Evan’s next companion, Tom S. Thomas. Pratt became Salt Lake City's municipal judge, did not marry until age 36, divorced shortly afterward, and died shortly after.
“The intensity of Evan's relationship with Thomas is suggested by a photograph accompanying the 1919 article of ‘Children's Friend.’ The caption read: ‘Tom S. Thomas, a grand-nephew and one of Professor Evan Stephens' dear boy chums.’ This 1919 photograph had skipped from Evan's live-in companion of the 1870s to his most recent, or as ‘The Friend’ put it, ‘the first and last of his several life companions, who have shared his home life.’
“Born in 1891, Tom S. Thomas, Jr., was an 18-year-old inactive Mormon when he began living with 55-year-old Evan. Tom moved in with Stephens near the time he traveled to Seattle with the choir director in 1909. They shared a house with the matronly housekeeper who was both Tom's second cousin and Evan's grand-niece. The housekeeper remained a non-Mormon as long as Evan lived. Thomas had apparently stopped attending school while he lived in Idaho with his parents and also during his first year living with Stephens. At age 19, with Evan's encouragement, he began his freshman year of high school at the LDS University in Salt Lake City. Another of Evan's boy-chums described Tom as ‘a blond Viking who captured the eye of everyone as a superb specimen of manhood.’ The impressive and mature-looking Thomas became president of his sophomore class in 1911, and his final yearbook described him thus” ‘Aye, every inch a king,’ then added, ‘Also a 'Queener.’
"During the last years Evan and Thomas lived together in Utah, the city directory no longer listed an address for Tom but simply stated that he ‘r[oo]ms [with] Evan Stephens.’ He accompanied Evan on the choir's month-long trip to the eastern states in 1911, the same year he was class president at the LDS high school. However, the choir's business manager George D. Pyper deleted Tom's name from the passenger list of the choir and ‘tourists’ as published by the Church's official magazine, ‘Improvement Era’ may have been uncomfortable about same-sex relationships since 1887, when he served as the judge in the first trial of a sensational sodomy case involving teenage boys.
“After they had lived together for seven years, 25-year-old Tom prepared to move to New York City to begin medical school in 1916. Evan had put Tom through the LDS high school and the University of Utah's pre-medical program and was going to pay for his medical training, as well, but Stephens wanted to continue living with the younger man. He consequently resigned as director of the Tabernacle Choir in July. He later explained that he did this so that he could ‘reside, if I wished, at New York City, where I was taking a nephew I was educating as a physician, to enter Columbia University.’ Stephens gave up his career for the ‘blond Viking’ who had become the love of his life.
“In October 1916, the ‘Deseret Evening New’ s reported the two men's living arrangements in New York City: ‘Prof. Evan Stephens and his nephew, Mr. Thomas, are living at The Roland/ east Fifty-ninth street.’ Columbia University's medical school was located on the same street. Then the newspaper referred to one of Evan's former boy-chums: ‘the same hostelry he [Stephens] used to patronize years ago when he was here for a winter with Mr. Willard Christopherson.’ The report added that Tom intended to move into an apartment with eight other students near the medical school. Stephens later indicated that Tom's intended student-living arrangement did not alter his ‘desire’ to be near the young man. A few weeks after the ‘Deseret News’ article, the police conducted a well-publicized raid on a homosexual bathhouse in New York City.
“In November Stephens wrote about his activities in ‘Gay New York.’ He referred to Central Park and ‘its flotsam of lonely souls—like myself—who wander into its retreats for some sort of companionship . . . .’ For New Yorkers who defined themselves by the sexual slang of the time as ‘gay,’ Evan's words described the common practice of seeking same-sex intimacy with strangers in Central Park. Just days after the commemorative celebration in April 1917 which brought him back to Utah, Stephens said he had ‘a desire to return ere long to my nephew, Mr. Thomas, in New York . . . .’
“Evan apparently returned to New York later that spring and took up residence in the East Village of lower Manhattan. At least that is where the census showed Tom living within two years then there were so many open homosexuals and male couples living in Greenwich Village that a local song proclaimed: ‘Fairyland's not far from Washington Square.’ Long before Evan and Tom arrived, New Yorkers used ‘fairy’ and ‘fairies’ as derogatory nouns for male homosexuals. In fact, just before Stephens said he intended to return to Tom in New York in 1917, one of the East Village's cross-dressing dances (‘drag balls’) was at- tended by 2,000 people—‘the usual crowd of homosexualists,’ according to one hostile investigator.
“Tom apparently wanted to avoid the stigma of being called a New York "fairy," which had none of the light-hearted ambiguity of the ‘Queener’ nickname from his high school days in Utah. Unlike the openness of his co-residence with Stephens in Utah, Tom never listed his Village address in New York City's directories. However, Evan's and Tom's May-December relationship did not last long in Manhattan. ‘After some months,’ Evan returned to Utah permanently, while Tom remained in the Village. Thomas married within two years and fathered two children.
“Shortly after Evan's final return to Salt Lake from New York in 1917, he befriended 30-year-old Ortho Fairbanks. Like most of Evan's other Salt Lake City boy-chums, Ortho had been a member of the Tabernacle Choir since his mid-teens. Stephens once told him: ‘I believe I love you, Ortho, as much as your father does.’ In 1917 Evan set up the younger man in one of the houses Stephens owned in the Highland Park sub- division of Salt Lake City. Fairbanks remained there until he married at nearly 35 years-of-age. He eventually fathered five children.
"However, during the five-year period after Evan returned from New York City, he did not live with Fairbanks or any other male. No one had taken Tom's place in Evan's heart or home. Two years after Fairbanks began living in the Highland Park house, ‘The Children's Friend’ publicly identified Evan's former boy-chum Tom S. Thomas as the ‘last of his several life companions, who have shared his home life/ There is no record of the letters Stephens might have written during this period to his now-married ‘blond Viking’ in the east.
“However, Thomas was not Evan's last boy-chum. Three months after Fairbanks married in August 1922, Stephens (now 68) took a trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco with 17-year-old John Wallace Packham as ‘his young companion.’ Packham was a member of the ‘Male Glee Club’ and in student government of the LDS University (high school).82 The Salt Lake City directory showed him living a few houses from Evan as a student in 1924-25. At that time Stephens privately described Wallace as the ‘besht boy I ish gott.’ It is unclear why Stephens imitated a drunkard's speech. This was the only example in his available letters.
“After Wallace moved to California in 1926, Evan lived with no other male. From then until his death, he rented the front portion of his State Street house to a succession of married couples in their thirties, while he lived in the rear of the house.
“When Evan prepared his last will and testament in 1927, 22- year-old Wallace was still in California, where Evan was supporting his education. Evan's will divided the bulk of his possessions among the LDS Church, his brother, his housekeeper-niece, and ‘J. Wallace Packham, a friend.’ Packham eventually married twice and fathered two children.
“When Stephens died in 1930, one of his former boy-chums confided to his diary: ‘No one will know what a loss his passing is to me. The world will never seem the same to me again.’ Wallace received more of the composer's estate than Evan's former (and now much older) boy-chums, Stephens also gave small bequests to John J. Ward, Horace S. Ensign, Willard A. Christopherson, to the wife of deceased Noel S. Pratt, to Thomas S. Thomas, and Ortho Fairbanks.
“As a teenager, Stephens had doubted the marriage prediction of his psychic aunt: ‘I see you married three times, two of the ladies are blondes, and one a brunette.’ She added, ‘I see no children; but you will be very happy.’ Stephens fulfilled his aunt's predictions about having no children and being happy. However, beginning with 16-year-old John Ward a year later, he inverted his aunt's prophecy about the gender and hair color of those described by the LDS magazine as ‘his several life companions.’ Instead of having more ‘blondes’ as wives, Stephens had more ‘brunettes’ as boy-chums.
“’The Children's Friend even printed Evan's 1920 poem titled ‘Friends,’ which showed that these young men had shared his bed:
“’We have lived and loved together, Slept together, dined and supped,
“’Felt the pain of little quarrels, Then the joy of waking up;
“’Held each other's hands in sorrows, Shook them hearty in delight,
“’Held sweet converse through the day time, Kept it up through half the night.’
“Whether or not Stephens intended it, well-established word usage al lowed a sexual meaning in that last line of his poem about male bed- mates. Since the 1780s ‘keep it up’ was slang for ‘to prolong a debauch.’
“17 years before his poem ‘Friends’ contained a possible reference to sexual intimacy, Stephens publicly indicated that there was a socially forbidden dimension in his same-sex friendships. In his introduction to an original composition he published in the high school student magazine of LDS University, Evan invoked the well-known examples of Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, and then referred to ‘one whom we could love if we dared to do so.’ Indicating that the problem involved society's rules, Stephens explained that ‘we feel as if there is something radically wrong in the present make up and constitution of things and we are almost ready to rebel at the established or-der.’ Then the LDS high school's student magazine printed the following lines from Evan's same-sex love song: ‘Ah, friend, could you and I con- spire/ To wreck this sorry scheme of things entire,/ We'd break it into bits, and then—/ Remold it nearer to the heart's desire.’ The object of this ‘desire’ may have been 18-year-old Louis Shaw, a member of the Male Glee Club at the LDS high school where Stephens was the music teacher. Shaw later became president of the Bohemian Club, identified as a social haven for Salt Lake City's homosexuals.
“The words of this 1903 song suggest that Stephens wanted to live in a culture where he could freely share erotic experience with the young men he openly loved in every other way. Historical evidence cannot demonstrate whether he actually created a private world of sexual intimacy with his beloved boy-chums who ‘shared his home life.’ It can only be a matter of speculation whether Evan had sexual relations with any of the young men he loved, lived with, and slept with throughout most of his life. Of his personal experiences, he confessed: ‘some of it [is] even too sacred to be told freely [only to myself.
’
“If there was unexpressed erotic desire in the life of Evan Stephens, it is possible that only Stephens felt it, since all his boy-chums eventually married. Homoerotic desire could have been absent altogether, unconsciously sublimated, or consciously suppressed. However, historian John D. Wrathall cautions:
“’Marriage, even ‘happy’ marriage (however we choose to define ‘happy’), is not proof that homoeroticism did not play an important and dynamic role in a person's relationships with members of the same sex. Nor is evidence of strong homoerotic attachments proof that a man's marriage was a sham or that a man was incapable of marriage. It is clear, however, that while strong feelings toward members of both sexes can co-exist, the way in which such feelings are embodied and acted out is strongly determined by culture.’
“Wrathall adds that lifelong bachelorhood also ‘should not be interpreted as a suggestion that these men were 'gay/ any more than marriage allows us to assume that they were 'heterosexual.' By necessity, this applies to the lifelong bachelorhood of Evan Stephens as well as to the marriages of his former boy-chums and their fathering of numerous children.
“Whether or not Evan's male friendships were explicitly homoerotic, both published and private accounts showed that the love of the Tabernacle Choir director for young men was powerful, charismatic, reciprocal, and enduring. For example, as a member of the Tabernacle Choir from age 10 until Stephens's retirement, Charles R. Pike traveled with Evan (but never resided with him) and ‘was a close friend of Elder Stephens until his death." Evan's own biographer concluded that Stephens "attached himself passionately to the male friends of his youth, and brought many young men, some distantly related, into his home for companion- ship , , , ,’
“Probably few, if any, other prominent Mormon bachelors shared the same bed with a succession of beloved teenage boys and young men for years at a time as did Stephens. ‘The Children's Friend’ articles invite the conclusion that sexual intimacy was part of the personal relationship which Stephens shared only with young males.
“For Mormons who regarded themselves as homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual, and had ‘the eyes to see it or the antennae to sense it,’ ‘The Children's Friend’ of 1919 endorsed their own romantic and erotic same-sex relationships. (About this time Mildred J. Berryman began a study of homosexually-identified men and women in Salt Lake City. However, for the majority of Mormon readers whose same-sex dynamics had no romantic or erotic dimensions, this publication passed without special no- tice. The 19th-century's ‘warm language between friends’ covered a multitude of relationships. Evan Stephens and his ‘boy chums’ were only one example. “
(“Male-Male Intimacy among 19th-century Mormons: A Case Study,” by D. Michael Quinn, in “Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought,” vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 14-127, 1995,
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQFjAAahUKEwiWodiQhIjJAhXEWj4KHUZCAfk&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dialoguejournal.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsbi%2Farticles%2FDialogue_V28N04_119.pdf&usg=AFQjCNH2Uri_XCMBO_SRPIbJzPBFYBLzmA&sig2=U5eNYiLub5VmOOLAwployw&bvm=bv.106923889,d.cWw)
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CONCLUSION: The Homophobic Heights of Unholy Mormon Cult Hypocrisy
If Evan Stephens were alive today, he would probably be an ex-Mormon apostate.
Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2015 01:18PM by steve benson.