Heather and I had the opportunity to attend the Plan-B theatre company’s ‘And the Banned Played On’ tonight, which is the annual fundraiser for Plan B. This was the second year we had attended, and it will definitely be something we’ll attend every year.

If you couldn’t guess, the theme is banned music – and this year they incorporated many banned books as well. The first half featured Utah legislators, all of which have been out to Drinking Liberally at one point or another – David Litvack, Christine Johnson, Ralph Becker, Jackie Biskupski, and Catalyst editor Greta DeJong; as well as co-host Scott McCoy (co-host Doug Fabrizio, Nancy Tessman, and Peter Corroon, sadly, have not been out).

The theme this year seemed to be issues of sexuality for the most part. The fact that three of our legislators are gay seemed to hit me all of a sudden as they were reading the exerpts from the books. Of course I’ve known; but to see all three of them in one place talking about sexuality issues – in Utah – was amazing to me. This is Utah! One of the most conservative states in the union! Another one of our legistators beat all odds with sheer tenacity and got a hate crimes bill passed. Rocky is the flag bearer for many liberals in the state, but there are many more people in the government that really make Utah a pretty great state.

If you haven’t been to ‘And the Banned Played On’, you should make it a yearly ritual right next to Salt Lake Acting Company’s ‘Saturday’s Voyeur’. Even though they’re two totally different things, they each have their own thing to offer, and they help those of us of the liberal persuasion to remember that we’re not alone in this red sea.