Almost a month after signing a domestic partners benefits plan for city employees, Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson on Thursday told an audience gathered for the National Gay Men's Health Summit to focus their efforts on local government.

Having health benefits expanded to cover gay couples "is absolutely crucial," Anderson said. "This is a matter of life and death, it's a matter of quality of life for so many that are impacted by these issues."

The biennial conference is the group's fourth and addresses health and health care issues facing gay, bisexual and transgender men: threats of anti-gay marriage initiatives, rising trends in STD and HIV infections among young gay men and gay men of color, anti-gay violence and the effects of crystal methamphetamine and other drugs on the community.

Although some attendants wondered why the meeting is being held in conservative Utah, Stan Penford, executive director for Utah AIDS Foundation, responded, "Why not Salt Lake City? My dream is that our ability to live safe, happy and healthy lifestyles is not limited by the community you reside in. It has to be Salt Lake City and it has to be all those other small towns because we are already here and we are in every small town across the country."

Penford said Anderson, named recently by gay advocates as one of America's top 10 influential leaders and who was given two standing ovations Thursday, an "amazing ally and advocate."

Anderson detailed his 1996 congressional campaign in which he openly stated he supported same sex marriage.

"But just consider the mass progress made in the last decade," he said, noting mainstream support for marriage equality. "We're seeing now whole nations adopt the principle as a matter of fundamental fairness and we will get there."

David Ferguson, one of nine men on the national organizing committee and program director for the Utah AIDS Foundation, said the summit is primarily designed for public health workers and medical service providers dealing with gay clients but has a wide aspect of health topics, including physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and social well-being.

"The gay men's health movement is rooted in HIV organization and HIV work," he said, noting a broad change took place in the mid-90s. "We had to start thinking about other issues. It's a hard thing to sort of turn the corner on because gay men have only been conditioned to consider their health in terms of their HIV status."

Several hundred people are expected to attend the summit — an estimated 100 from the local area.

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