Deceased. Poet, reporter, and Sunstone friend PAUL SWENSON, 76, of causes related to diabetes. After working at the Desert News, Paul became the editor of the now-defunct Utah Holiday, which published important stories about the LDS Church’s finances and the relation between the Church and the Utah state legislature. Paul will be remembered for writing in support of the September Six, a group of six Mormon scholars who were disciplined in 1993, and the countless sessions of poetry that he organized for Sunstone symposiums. A tribute to Paul appears on page four.
Appointed. LARRY ECHO HAWK, 63, to the First Quorum of the Seventy. A Pawnee from Cody, Wyoming, Echo Hawk entered politics in 1992 as a Democrat serving as an Idaho state legislator. After teaching law at BYU, he was appointed by President Obama to be head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Echo Hawk is the second American Indian to be appointed a general authority after GEORGE P. LEE who was excommunicated in 1989.
Serving. In Chile, American Idol finalist DAVID ARCHULETA, 21, after 10 weeks of training at the MTC. Fellow trainees reported that after one too many autograph requests, talks at the MTC began to include the lines, “Please leave famous missionaries alone,” and, “It is not appropriate to ask other missionaries for autographs.”
Deceased. Psychotherapist A. DEAN BYRD, 64, of leukemia. Byrd published extensively in support of the claim that people can change their sexual orientation through therapy. In 2005, Byrd criticized the authors of Deseret Book’s In Quiet Desperation for “fostering the innate, immutable theory of homosexuality.”
Back. On the air, fundamentalist Mormon KODY BROWN, 43, along with wives MERI, JANELLE, CHRISTINE, and ROBYN, and their 17 children, for the third season of TLC’s reality show Sister Wives. After being investigated in Lehi, Utah, for cohabitation and bigamy, the Browns moved to Nevada and filed a federal suit to challenge Utah’s anti-polygamy law.
Challenged. U.S. Senator ORRIN HATCH, 78, who is running in the Utah primaries against a fellow Republican for the first time since 1976. After failing to garner the 60% of votes necessary to cinch his nomination, Hatch will face Tea Party favorite and fellow Mormon DAN LILJENQUIST in late June. While campaigning in St. George last February, Hatch said, “I would be letting down my Father in Heaven if I didn’t run again.”
Featured. TY AND DANIELLE MANSFIELD, along with son GABRIEL, on the cover of LDS Living. Ty, 34, came out as a gay man in 2004 when he co-authored In Quiet Desperation, but in 2010 he decided to marry heterosexually. LDS Living called its publication of Ty & Danielle’s story “a first step in opening the discussion about same-sex attraction in the LDS community.”
Marching. ERIKA MUNSON, 52. A devout Mormon and mother of five, Munson led 350 Latter-day Saints who marched in Salt Lake City’s Gay Pride parade to “build bridges” with the LGBT community. Hers is one of twelve independent groups of straight Mormons who, together with gay Mormons, are marching this summer in Gay Pride parades across the country.
