A story making the rounds over the years is that Gordon H. Hinckley was gay and involved in same-sex and bi-sexual affairs in a romp house that was said to have been GBH's. The big problem with this story is that it lacks backup. It's based on whopper coming from a group of weirdo characters in Salt Lake City. Who knows if any of them are even still alive or if the can be tracked down? Now there's an explanation out there that says its setting the record straight----

"There was a gay/bi man named Charles Van Dam (perhaps spelled Van Damme), no relation to Jean Claude Van Damme (whose real last name is NOT Van Damme), who was a married "active" Mormon in the 1960s, who owned a used car lot. Charles Van Damme later appeared in two videos, both produced by Jeremiah Films (the ones who did "The God Makers' and 'The God Makers II") in which he claimed that Gordon B. Hinckley bought a "party house" for bi-sexual orgies, and Gordon and other Apostles frequented it, as did Van Damme. In 1970, Van Damme was called in by Gordon B. Hinckley and said he would be excommunicated, and Van Damme said, "You're a bigger [bleep] than I am!" Van Damme later founded the Homosexual Church of Jesus Christ, which included only gay men between the ages of 18 and 30 (and himself of course). Didn't fly. His gay bar in Denver came under FBI surveillance because it was somehow associated with the mob.

"Doug Wallace, an ex-Mormon who was exed in 1976 for ordaining a black man to the Priesthood in Vancouver, Washington, found Charles Van Damme, who was dying of AIDS in 1984, and video taped him in a three hour interview; excerpts were edited
into THE GOD MAKERS II and THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMON CHURCH PRESIDENT GORDON B. HINCKLEY. Jeremiah Films sold both for years, but then Gordon B. Hinckley got a LAWYER who threatened Jeremiah Films with a lawsuit, so Jeremiah Films stopped selling it, but rather found some obscure "Christian" organization to keep selling it, but " . . . [when GBH was] informed . . . of this, . . . THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMON CHURCH GORDON B. HINCKLEY
disappeared from the Internet.

"Jerald and Sandra Tanner published a sheet called THE TRUTH ABOUT ELDER ACCUSED and claimed that Gordon B. Hinckley was NOT "Elder Accused" (i.e. Van Damme's lover), but a close male relative of Gordon B. Hinckley was. [although] in THE GOD MAKERS II and the other video, a Black pimp and a "former prostitute" said it was 'Gordon B. Hinckley' who came to the bi-sexual house parties in question. The Tanners do
not name "Elder Accused" but . . . "[it's] a FACT "Elder Accused" was Richard Gordon Hinckley, son of Gordon B. Hinckley.

"In 1970, as an Apostle, Gordon B. Hinckley somehow was tipped off about his son and Van Damme being lovers. He called in his son, who confessed, and was "forgiven" (no Church court, although Richard was married and an RM). However, Van Damme was excommunicated. At the time (1970) people who were excommunicated had their names printed in THE IMPROVEMENT ERA magazine, with the "reason" why they were exed! Needless to say, Mormons stopped buying cars from Charles Van Damme. He lost his wife, his family, and moved to Denver and opened a gay bar. The reason why GBH sent millions of dollars and millions of man hours in Mormon "volunteers" to Proposition 8 in California, and others states, is because he believed that his son was "seduced" by a gay man as a teen, which is why he became bisexual. During this time, Richard G. Hinckley was a student at Stanford
University in Palo Alto, California (later served there as a
missionary). But, during the Summers, he and his wife would return to Salt Lake City, and he would work as a used car salesman, at Van Damme's lot. Richard G. Hinckley later became a bishop, a stake president and a member of the First Quorum of Seventy. He was also a Mission President, twice. One time over the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission. . . . [He may now be] a Temple President.

"Robert and Rosemary Brown, the Mesa Arizona researchers behind THEY LIE IN WAIT TO DECEIVE series, did some research in the Salt Lake Country Clerk's Office, and discovered the house in question was NOT owned by Gordon B. Hinckley, but by Charles Van Damme, at the time in question, and was never owned by any Hinckley. Had YOU or your son or grandson done what Richard G. Hinckley did, they would have been excommunicated. Richard was an RM, and married, when all this took place. But, when you're an Apostle's son, you get "special handling." Charles Van Damme died of AIDS in 1984."

Is this any way believable? It's shown up once and a while here on RfM but that doesn't necessarily make it true.

And Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!

Several times... It's some old recycled Ed Decker horse @#!!$, period.

Personally my view is Ed Decker is possible a deep cover mole for the COB. There are a number here who stayed in the church because he was their first encounter with an "anti-Mormon."

I haven't talked to Sandra in a few weeks, but I'm doubtful she gives the story any credibility. I don't.

I thought the story was that it was Spencer W. Kimball who was gay.

Kimball's commentary on sexuality in his book "The Miracle of Forgiveness" is a window on his OWN struggles. He very obviously was deeply closeted.

Keep in mind he grew up in an culture in which SSA was absolutely unacceptable.

But if a story comes out saying that Elder Holland is actually a large wooden ventroloquist dummy, then you may have something.

Or perhaps had carnal relations with a Dodo.

your comments about the ventriloquist dummy and dodo sex. I wish I had the time and skill to create a YouTube video combining your two concepts of Holland. LOL!

Van Damme told me Hinckley was bisexual. It was definitely GBH he was talking about and not his son. He struck me as being naive to think his story would be believed or even considered over the word of a (future) prophet.

This aspect of Mormon culture is the reason powerful men are able to continue to be sexual predators with their underlings. No one believes you.

I don't have any information or research about Van Damme's story and just happen to be introduced to him at the exmo fruitstand in Provo Canyon back in 1983. He looked sick then and said he was leaving the state because he was sick of the whole thing (Mormons and exmormons)

I suppose that's when he went to Denver.

Kathleen Waters

I never thought he was gay, but rather cynical and unhappy.

Cynical, unhappy, and openly contemptuous of the members and journalists who let him get away with his obvious deception and flagrant bullying for 25 years...

Hmmmmmmmm......

Got to brew on this for awhile

Seems like a good story. The only player that could clear up this matter is GBH's son. I'm not holding my breath for him to add to the conversation.

He wasn't gay, but he was false.

George P. Lee claimed to multiple people that Gordon B. Hinckley was homosexual. I just met another person the other day who claims he heard it directly from Lee himself.

I also have a letter from a former Murray Police Department detective to the FBI quoting from an audio-recored interview with George P. Lee in which Lee states that Hinckley was "a known homosexual," and that the apostles travel around the world having sex with people.

I heard from this same detective that Hinckley was caught on camera having sex with someone at a park bathroom. I do have a notorized statement of a retired Salt Lake City Policeman who processed the film from that hidden camera, and acknowledges that someone prominent was on camera having sex.

I personally interviewed twice a former Church-security guard who told me an interesting story about a prostitute he interviewed who claimed to have sex with Hinckley in the penthouse of the Joseph Smith memorial building. He told me about how he corroberated her story.

I've heard from a friend of a Sandy police officer that Hinckley was caught having sex with a prostitute in a phone booth.

The husband of a former employee of the Million Dollar Saloon in SLC told my friend and I that the General Authorities were known to have private parties at the Saloon, with strippers, and that this was going on for decades.

I've read dozens of pages of testimony from multiple people about their being sexually abused by Hinckley and other general authorities.

I also spoke to a sexual abuse recovery therapist who has been working in Utah for decades. She specializes in cases of ecclesiastical sexual abuse. She told me Hinckley and other apostles were perpetrators.

I don't have any evidence except this large amount of testimony coming from multiple sources. Because I've heard similar stories from so many unrelated sources, I'm inclined to believe it.

With a corporation as corrupted and fraudulent as the LDS Church, why is this kind of stuff so unbelievable? Powerful people always do stuff like this. It comes with the territory. I'd be surprised if they weren't doing this kind of stuff.

Sorry,I'm not buying into this one,without seeing some of these notarized statements and named witnesses or copies of police reports etc. Keep in mind GBH has been dead for almost 7 years so posting actual evidence shouldn't be considered defamation,especially if what you allege is true? His son however is still alive,and could be considered a public person, because he's a former GA-IF your information is from legitimate sources I hope you post the actual scanned documents etc.If its just rumors-you should just say so.

Caught on camera in a bathroom?

Cant be survance tape as it's illegal to have security cameras in a bathroom and during the time Hinckley was alive were such even that big of a deal?

I have multiple documents written by police officers attesting to the fact that hidden cameras were places in public bathrooms in Utah and surrounding areas in the 1970s, but were later removed because privacy concerns and them being illegal.

One officer mentions that some of the people having gay sex in these bathrooms, caught on tape, were driving vehicles with license plates registered to one of the Church's Temples.

They were blowing smoke, or you misunderstood them, because what you wrote can't be correlated. Namely:
"I have multiple documents written by police officers attesting to the fact that hidden cameras were places in public bathrooms in Utah and surrounding areas in the 1970s, but were later removed because privacy concerns and them being illegal."

So police officers incriminated themselves with regards to cameras they knew were illegal? State-of-the-art surveillance in the 70's was 1" reel-to-reel. There's simply no way multiple public bathrooms could be monitored -- the camera and recording gear was too bulky -- nor could the tapes have been reviewed, as this would have generated miles upon miles of tape on a daily basis.

"One officer mentions that some of the people having gay sex in these bathrooms, caught on tape, were driving vehicles with license plates registered to one of the Church's Temples."

So, they not only were recording the bathrooms, but the parking lots as well?

I've worked with 70's-era surveillance equipment. It's cumbersome, slow, and would require periodic attention. Moreover, it's expensive. If there was actually surveillance on a wide scale, there would be a paper trail -- if nothing more than the officers tasked with handling the equipment signing it out of inventory. No tape or paper to that effect has ever surfaced.

Additionally, a vehicle isn't -- and really cannot be --registered to a temple. The church (now, typically, the Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if you want the whole legal name) can register vehicles, but the link is made to a legal entity, not an address. So the vehicle could not have been registered to 'a temple' -- it would be registered to HQ in SLC, the same company that owns the temples themselves.

Color me skeptical.

There is no way a strip club is not going to film all of these GA's with strippers to use later on for leverage in order to extort money...for years.

Again, GBH has been dead so there leaves little reason why not to release the video. You can't offend a dead person if you have the truth.

I don't have that tape. The detective told me about a tape. I've never personally seen such a tape. The detective said the tape disappeared from the SLC police evidence locker many years ago.

I don't claim firsthand knowledge of anything. I've only heard/read testimony from others.

I'm not really willing to post copies of documents on here. I'm already nervous just mentioning I've heard and read these things. I wouldn't want retaliation from the Church or the Hinckley family.

I have shown them to some people I know, like family and friends, and they don't believe them anyway. Nobody finds these testimonies credible. I said I'm inclined to believe them, just because I think most rich and powerful people do stuff like that.

Anyone can make an anonymous email address, add fake name data and activate the Google drive. Or get a free Dropbox or one from Microsoft. Upload the files there. You can't retaliate against a person that doesn't really exist. If you are extra paranoid about church lawyers Google for a vpn proxy webpage first before making Google, outlook.com, or some other email that has a free drive service.

Redact what you need t o like phone numbers or maybe part of the notarized seal serial number so it can't be traced back to you. But even if it was I doubt a takedown order sent to nobody is going to be enforced. Embrace technology and release the documents.

Here's what the Tanners wrote (straight from UTLM):

"Ed Decker and others who have brought accusations of immorality against President Gordon B. Hinckley claim that they have hard evidence to support the charges. Our examination of that evidence, however, raises many questions with regard to its validity. While we cannot say with absolute certainty that there is no truth in the accusations, on the basis of the evidence that we have examined, we find the charges difficult to accept. In fact, we find it hard to believe that they wouId be made public without some confirming evidence from more reliable sources.

Lest the reader should misunderstand our position, we do not wish to be considered apologists for President Hinckley or the Mormon Church. In fact, in the last issue of our newsletter we severely criticized Hinckley and other church authorities for suppressing the McLellin Collection from prosecutors in the Mark Hofmann case. Nevertheless, we feel that it is our duty to present our readers with well-balanced research on this issue. We are deeply concerned about such serious charges being made on evidence that seems questionable. We are very sensitive to this issue because we ourselves have been the target of very malicious stories circulated by members of the Mormon Church."

Ed Decker and his ilk can rot. Their kind of lurid imaginings make it possible for the LDS church to truthfully claim that anti-Mormons just make stuff up, and the shadow they cast over meaningful scholarship like that of the Tanners just makes things harder for those that are interested in actual facts.

Quote and other corollary information here:
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no84.htm

If the ex-mormon community were to operate like the mormon community, here is how the claims in defense of GBH would be handled. Fitst of all, no proof should be needed before we simply accept that the claims against GBH are true. Anyone who does not believe what is said about GBH on this board is just disgruntled or lacks faith or is just being negative. They can kick against the pricks all they want because we know that we are right and they are wrong. They should believe what they are told by us here on faith alone, and should just accept what we tell them about GBH. No one would question the negative things said here about GBH and if they did, they would be removed from the community and accused of some evil acts or motives for defending him. I guess they should be greatful that the exmormon community is honest and forgiving, and that we really do care about the facts.

It never crossed my mind that he was gay. I would be shocked if he could get it up at all!

Yeah...the hearsay evidence is invalid. I don't care to operate like TSCC. Decker is not a good source and these secret "law enforcement" types I would be extremely cautious of. GBH may be a lot of things, a liar and a hypocrite, I'd give you that. But with this evidence, I wouldn't go out on a limb.

I'm still thinking about Hinckley having sex in a phone booth. Quite the image.

I do seem to remember that a small committee of apostles investigated the claim, so there was enough smoke to warrant at least that. Whether there was fire, I don't know.

anonbomb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> However, Van Damme
> was excommunicated. At the time (1970) people who
> were excommunicated had their names printed in THE
> IMPROVEMENT ERA magazine, with the "reason" why
> they were exed!

(...)

> Is this any way believable? It's shown up once
> and a while here on RfM but that doesn't
> necessarily make it true.

You could start with reproducing the Improvement Era magazine in which Van Damme's excommunication is announced. A large part of research is just following the leads and checking the sources. Have you done that?

I think that a good point to make here is that people in the ex-mormon community are using their brains to assess the facts. I don't think that GBH was gay either. It would be convenient if he was gay, just to prove a point that the church is a farce. But convenient or not, evidence either supports or does not support suspicions. In this case, not so much. When the mormon church leaders omit facts that are not convenient or worse yet make things up that are not true, they act just like those who accuse Hinkley without any evidence. Even apostates who are supposedly separating themselves from god know that's wrong. Another way to look at things is that the church itself is in apostacy and that reasonable people must leave the church to maintain their own integrity. The church may have billions of dollars but they are morally bankrupt, and people are starting to find out now.

A couple thoughts:

If Gordon Hinkley WAS gay, I'm embarrassed for my fellow LGBT friends. I never liked him.

Verilyverily wrote: "It never crossed my mind that he was gay. I would be shocked if he could get it up at all!" I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but it SOUNDS like you're saying that gay people are defined by their sexual virility. And that's bunk.

Hinkley might have cheated on his wife, and lied about it. If he did, he was certainly following Joseph Smith's example.

He might also have been gay - who knows? But I'm FAR more disgusted by his lying and un-prophet-like behavior in the national media when he virtually denied that the plan of salvation was part of mormonism. I spent two years, and a ton of money in France preaching it. And he tossed it aside as if it were nothing important. What a weasel!

SWk on the other hand....