In Plain View: Utah, the Zion Curtain and Gays

Yesterday, I heard on the radio that a member of the Utah Legislature, Kraig Powell, proposed an alternative to Utah's so-called "Zion Curtains" - partitions that are required in restaurants that serve alcohol so that the public's view of a bartender's mixing of alcoholic drinks is restricted. Powell proposed that restaurants be able to opt out of using the partition if they post a notice on all entrances and in their menus that reads: "Notice: This establishment dispenses and serves alcoholic products in public view."

There have been several attempts in the past few years in the Utah legislature to remove the "Zion Curtain" requirement; but this year, the LDS Church made the rare move of publicly opposing (as opposed to privately through discreet lobbyists) the barriers' removal, saying that separate alcohol preparation areas are part of an effective system for protecting against underage drinking, overconsumption and DUIs.

Right.

The real purpose, as everyone knows, is to try to hide the presence of alcohol in Utah society. The LDS Church takes the position that if alcohol is hidden, then the youth of Zion will be less likely to be enticed into drinking. But even the very conservative, very Republican, very Mormon Speaker of the House, Becky Lockhart, has called the partition "weird" and has said there's no evidence that it prevents children from taking up drinking.

When I heard the phrase "public view" on the radio, something clicked in my mind over which I've been ruminating for some time, i.e., the real reason why the State of Utah is so fiercely opposing marriage equality is that the State has constructed a "Zion Curtain" between its citizens who are LGBT and those who are not. 

So long as the State can keep gays and lesbians out of the public view - whether through opposing same-sex marriage or nondiscrimination legislation or in other ways - it can - as it believes (and as the LDS Church hierarchy believes) - keep the youth of Zion from being "corrupted" by homosexuality. Marriage equality, however, will remove that curtain, exposing the reality of gays and lesbians and the love that they share to not only the youth of Zion but to all Utahns. And this is what the State of Utah - as well as many other states around the country - as well as the Mormon Church, fears.

Utah Will Never Be the Same

On Friday, the state government and the Mormon Church hierarchy lost control. 

Utah will never be the same as it was Friday morning. i.e., before (federal) Judge Robert Shelby's ruling that Utah's Amendment 3 (banning same-sex marriage) is unconstitutional. 

Totally apart from what this ruling means to gay Utahns and their families, I think this decision, in ways which cannot be fully known at this point, is probably the most momentous one involving control of the state of Utah since the last years of polygamy when federal judges came in to assert federal authority over a recalcitrant Mormon-controlled state government. 

In a sweeping ruling that I must imagine took by surprise the powers that be in this state, the complacent, smug world in which those powers operate - secure in the knowledge that they are in control - was suddenly upended. 

News reports this morning quote Governor Gary Herbert as saying that the situation (with the county clerks who issue marriage licenses) is "chaotic." In other words, he has lost control of the situation. And a perhaps titanic struggle is shaping up between the Utah state government and (via the federal judiciary) the federal government, the likes of which this state has not seen since the days of polygamy. 

The state requested an emergency stay* over the weekend of Judge Shelby's ruling. Judge Shelby declined, saying he would hear arguments tomorrow as to whether a stay is appropriate. The state also went over his head to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals,** asking it to issue a stay if Judge Shelby does not submit to the state's demands for an immediate stay. (Which, it seems to me, is hardly likely considering the same judge issued an order two days ago that "enjoins the State from enforcing Sections 30-1-2 and 30-1-4.1 of the Utah Code and Article I, § 29 of the Utah Constitution to the extent these laws prohibit a person from marrying another person of the same sex.") 

The hierarchy - both political and religious - has lost control. 

For the hundreds of thousands of Utahns who are not part of the dominant religious environment in this state (or who may be, but whose progressive views are frowned upon within their community), these events are tremendously affirming. A federal judge has provided affirmation not only to LGBT Utahns, but to ALL Utahns who feel disenfranchised and disconnected from their state government because they are a minority. 

Utah will never be the same again.

(*A stay temporarily suspends the effect of a ruling.)

(**All federal courts in the country are organized within districts. Utah is part of the 10th district, the headquarters of which are in Denver.)