A national gay and lesbian group says the Utah Legislature can be considered "anti-gay" for its 1997 work.

Actually, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force rated as "anti-gay" the action on only one bill in Utah's 1997 session. More than 700 bills and resolutions were introduced in the session. But action on that one bill was enough to put Utah in the anti-gay category of the 50 state legislatures reviewed, the group said.The group found no bills or actions in the Utah session that it characterized as "pro-gay."

The task force says it is the leading group monitoring various legislatures on "gay-related" laws. The group, based in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1973.

While the Utah bill is not listed by name in the NGLTF report, it is likely Rep. David Ure's HB134. During the session, Ure, R-Kamas, said he introduced the bill at the request of the Utah Statewide Association of Prosecutors.

The bill's main purpose was to increase the penalty for forcible sodomy against a victim younger than 16 years.

But it also would have removed the criminal penalty, a Class B misdemeanor, for the act of sodomy between consenting married adults. Homosexual acts are defined in other state statutes as acts of sodomy.

Ure's bill failed, thus keeping sodomy a crime between unmarried, as well as married, consenting adults regardless of their gender. The bill never had a hearing; it was never sent to a House standing committee.

Having only one "anti-gay" action in the Utah Legislature, and it being the rather mild HB134, could be seen by some as a good year for gay-rights advocates in Utah.

In the 1996 Legislature, the Senate held an illegal meeting to discuss a perceived "pro-gay" agenda in public schools. And the Legislature as a whole passed a bill aimed at banning support clubs for gay and lesbian students in public junior and senior high schools.

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By comparison, the NGLTF said the Mississippi Legislature had 12 "anti-gay" bills or actions with no "pro-gay" bills or actions. The Rhode Island Legislature had 11 "pro-gay" pieces of legislation with only two "anti-gay" actions.

Utah Senate President Lane Beattie, R-West Bountiful, says the Utah Legislature is "pro-heterosexual," not anti-gay, and that is an appropriate posture "based on the makeup of the state's population."

"I don't believe we discriminate against anyone," said Beattie. "But I can say that (the Legislature as a whole) will do everything in its power to make sure that the homo-sexual/lesbian lifestyle is not taught or condoned in any way in our public education system. I'd say that the majority of the state believes that the homosexual lifestyle is not a lifestyle that can be recommended.

"But I add that we also believe that their (homosexuals') civil rights shouldn't be violated, either," Beattie said.

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