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Show 113 other hand, excommunicating or expelling gay men set them adrift, free to adopt a gay identity and explore the gay subculture beyond the church's grasp." Gay men expelled from BYU shared the plight of gays drummed out of the armed services as "undesirable discharges" during WorId War II. Alan Berube describes how men discharged for homosexuality had to report back to local draft boards in their home towns; with no provision for confidentiality, their homosexuality often became known to family members and neighbors. Gay men forced to come out under such circumstances often had no option but to leave their home towns for the safety and anonymity of larger cities." In a similar fashion, Salt Lake City absorbed homosexual men expelled from BYU or excommunicated from the LDS Church, with BYU inadvertently serving as a magnet for gay Mormons from abroad. Unable to return to their former homes after being outed and expelled, they found refuge among other gays in Salt Lake. Lee Paulsen described his BYU expulsion as "a terrible experience ... they put all this crap on my transcript, so I couldn't go back to school for a number of years. It was really awful, I had no one to turn to, I couldn't really turn to my family.l'" He eventually found work in Salt Lake and settled into the gay community there, but for men like Rick Pace who lacked awareness of the gay subculture, expulsion meant the loss of a community. Ironically, the culture at BYU, especially the BYU Folk Dancers, provided 51Theories of "seduction" were a basis for the federal government's purges of homosexuals from the military and civil service, as well as Cleon Skousen's philosophy regarding gays. See Johnson, 116; Skousen, So You Want to Raise a Boy, 285-6. 52Berube, 228-9. 53Paulsen interview. |
