“I think that's what people are nervous about. “At some point, it goes beyond the rhetoric,” said Paighten Harkins, a reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. Kera Birkeland sent to schools with so-called guidance on transgender issues authored by an out-of-state group. During the most recent state legislative session, lawmakers reintroduced a bill to ban gender-affirming health care for minors and passed a law to prohibit transgender girls from participating on school sports teams that match their gender identity. Mike Lee, R-Utah, sent a letter to Disney asking them to label shows and movies featuring LGBTQ issues and characters as disturbing content. And across the state, multi-colored flags flicker in the wind.īut the festivities took place as legislators wage a political battle to curb the rights of the very community Pride Month aims to celebrate. As Pride Month opened, tens of thousands of Utahns took to the streets of Salt Lake City over the weekend to partake in the Pride festival and parade.
