SALT LAKE CITY After an investigation into allegations that Matthias Cicotte, former Alaska assistant attorney general, ran a prominent #DezNat Twitter account, the Alaska Department of Law stated Tuesday that Cicotte is no longer employed by the agency, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Last Wednesday, the Guardian released an investigative piece that identified Cicotte as the person behind Twitter handle @JReubenClark, an anonymous account that has been accused of repeatedly tweeting violent, offensive material targeting and harassing marginalized groups, often using the hashtag #DezNat.
DezNat, short for Deseret Nation or Nationalism, refers to a group of online, self-appointed defenders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes to the point of extremism, harassment and even advocating violence. The hashtag was first used in 2018, advocating for the idea of creating an exclusive Latter-day Saint country in the western United States.
Pride flag flies in front of the Historic Mormon Temple in protest to a change in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints policy towards married LGBT+ couples and their children in November 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
A professor at Brigham Young University’s religion department is under fire for labelling a gay student with a Mormon term associated with an anti-Christ.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Hank Smith, an assistant teaching professor, had been tweeting his thoughts on former parishioners being excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
BYU professor calls gay student a Book of Mormon term associated with anti-Christ
The school has not reacted publicly, leaving some LGBTQ students fearful and spurring others to ask for action.
(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) A Brigham Young University student sports various rainbow-colored items on his backpack in support of Rainbow Day as he walks with his friends on the campus of BYU in Provo on Thursday, March 4, 2021. A student at the school was recently called a Mormon term associated with an anti-Christ by a professor. The school has remained silent.
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The Daily Universe
Organization for a New Utah Flag has proposed a new design for the Utah state flag. This flag, designed by Jonathan Martin, is part of a Utah Senate bill that was just passed to make the design a commemorative flag for Utah’s 125th anniversary of statehood. (Organization for a New Utah Flag)
The Utah House of Representatives passed a bill to create a Utah state flag task force and designate a flag commemorating the 125th anniversary of Utah’s statehood in the final days of the legislative session.
The task force will undertake a potential redesigning of the Utah state flag and make Jonathan Martin’s flag design from the Organization for a New Utah Flag the commemorative flag for Utah’s 125th anniversary.
‘Mormon Land’: A deeper look at #DezNat tweeters who they are, what they want, and why people should, or should not, fear them
Researcher notes that they don’t all share the same views, save for their zeal in defending the LDS Church, but she worries some of violent words could turn into actions.
A screenshot of a Twitter post under the hashtag #DezNat, dated Feb. 5, 2020.
| Feb. 3, 2021, 9:03 p.m.
In 2018, John Paul Bellum came up with a Twitter hashtag, #DezNat, which stands for Deseret Nation, to help like-minded conservatives within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find one another on social media.