Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 17:48:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Christopher Rizo <csrizo@pol.net>
Subject: Suicide Protesting Prop 22

Prop 22 Leads to Suicide 

Chris Rizo
The California Triangle

LOS ALTOS--The suicide last Friday of Henry Matis in a Los Altos 
Mormon church has devastated his family and friends.  According to 
the gay man's father, his son's suicide has not altered his support 
of Proposition 22, the so-called Defense of Marriage Initiative.

`I hold the Church's definition of marriage,' said Fred Matis and 
called the rhetoric by opponents of Proposition 22 `irrelevant.' 

`I am against what is happening here,' he replied when asked about 
the March ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage in 
California. `I hold the Church's values of family,' he said.

In an 11 page letter written shortly before his suicide, the late 
Matis called the Mormon position on Prop 22 `anti-family.'

`The Church's out-spoken frankness on this issue has nurtured a 
climate that is hostile for young, gay Mormons,' he wrote. `Kids have 
been thrown out of homes under the guise of Christian love.'

Matis said, in his letter addressed to a fellow Mormon, promotion of 
the Knight Initiative will `only worsen an already polluted 
environment.'   `Homophobia,' he said,  `is a disease that destroys 
families and unfortunately the Church's rhetoric and actions will 
only continue to nurture this disease.'

According to Jeanie Besamo, who described herself as a close friend 
of Matis, said, `I am absolutely devastated. Henry wanted nothing 
more than to be a good Mormon.'  

`He was trapped,' she said, `trapped in a position where he could 
never, not even celibate, hold a position within the Church.' 

Friends claim in his suicide note Matis called upon the Mormon Church 
to rethink its treatment of homosexuals.  `Henry wanted his death to 
be the catalyst for change in the Mormon Church,' said Stuart 
Bechman, friend of the late Matis.

In his final document, Matis wrote, `There is far too much hate and 
division in our society.'  He went on, `Our society is becoming 
Balkanized as we segregate people into groups.  The parallels between 
our society now and that of the Nephites-Lamanites at the end of the 
Book of Mormon are frightening.'

According to Matis' father, his son struggled for the last 25 years 
with being gay.  `It caused him enormous consternation,' he said.  
Matis agreeing it was that anxiety that caused his own son to shoot 
himself. 

`We must,' said Besamo, `defeat Proposition 22 for all the lives we 
couldn't save as well as for all the lives yet to be saved.'