Utah Pride Parade tries to present welcoming message
A large roar erupted from a crowd gathered along 100 South when members of an LGBTQ motorcycle club revved their engines, signaling the start of the 35th annual Utah Pride Parade.
That enthusiasm carried for blocks Sunday as tens of thousands of spectators waved Pride flags and all sorts of rainbow-colored items toward the more than 100 organizations and businesses that made their way through the downtown Salt Lake City route.
Some came with signs reading messages like 'Love First,' 'Everyone is welcome' and 'My existence is not political.' Many who came said they wanted to show their support during another complex time for the LGBTQ community.
'I think a lot of political things have happened recently, and I think more than ever it's important to support Pride,' said Autumn Krogh, who traveled from South Jordan to attend the downtown event with her 3-year-old pet pig, Cuzzie, which was wearing a rainbow-colored hat and bandana.
Sunday's parade followed a series of other events this weekend, including a march to the state Capitol and an interfaith worship service. That's on top of a two-day festival that brought together members of the LGBTQ community and allies alike.
While these types of events have taken place for decades, this year's events may have appeared to be more poignant. Some say new state and federal policies and decisions, such as this year's HB77, have left many in the community feeling targeted.
HB77 became law last month, prohibiting governments and schools from flying Pride flags and other flags deemed political. Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, the bill's sponsor, said the move was meant to maintain political neutrality in public spaces.
'What we're trying to do here is make sure that we have neutrality as it pertains to politics,' he explained as the bill was going through the legislative process earlier this year.
Lee made headlines again last week after he said he would seek 'significant legislation' against 'woke groups' after the Utah Mammoth and Utah Jazz posted messages recognizing Pride month on the social platform X.
Those comments didn't stop the Jazz and Mammoth from having a spot in Sunday's parade.
Members of the Salt Lake City Council, a majority of whom identify as queer, were also among the groups that paraded down the street along with other city employees. Many waved the city's new 'Sego Belonging' flags, a Progress Pride flag with the city's sego lily logo on top that the city adopted as a new city flag last month, along with the other designs, to bypass the new state law.
This year's parade is 'more important now than ever' because of the current political climate, said Elliott Ramirez, a member of Utah Pride Guard, which participated in the event. Natalie Wolff, who attended the parade, agrees.
'We need to be here and show, support and love, and not be scared to use our voices to make sure there are not going to be laws that are going to take away rights that they've all fought so hard for — that we've all fought so hard for,' she said.
Seeing the large outpouring of support Sunday was 'magical' and helped reinforce why Salt Lake City has taken steps to support the LGBTQ community, added Salt Lake City Council Vice Chairman Alejandro Puy, who rode down the route with a Sego Belonging flag attached to the back of his new motorcycle.
Puy added that he wished more state politicians would come to events like Sunday's parade to see what the events are like.
'There's a lot of discourse about what this means. Is it political? Is this to separate? Is this to discriminate? No. Nobody is discriminating here. Everyone is welcome,' he said. 'This is about everybody. This is about celebrating our differences.'
Contributing: Andrew Adams
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


E&E News
25 minutes ago
- E&E News
Senate Republicans eye softer stance on green credits
A top Senate negotiator signaled Wednesday he was open to saving some renewable energy tax credits in the Republican megabill. At the same time, the top Senate Democrat is pulling out the stops to salvage what he can from the landmark climate law. At a closed-door Senate meeting, Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) told senators he wanted to 'extend the runway' for certain tax credits that House Republicans all but scrapped in their budget reconciliation package — though details were sparse. Advertisement Senators said Crapo talked about amending the language for when a project must 'start construction' and preserving a provision that lets a project sponsor transfer tax credits to a third party. The House-passed bill would also drastically phase out renewable incentives and enact strict new supply chain requirements that industry deemed unworkable. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said he thought Crapo was 'very much' open to extending the lifespan of incentives for 'certain types of energy and then other types of energy are going to expire quicker, … and he talked pretty specifically of nuclear of course, to which I said, 'Amen and amen.'' The Finance Committee is expected to release more details Monday night, Cramer added. He said Wednesday's meeting 'was just more conceptual.' But others noted the ethos of the bill is not expected to change much. 'We're trying to keep the intent of the House intact, for the most part,' said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a Finance member, though he's been pushing for some specific changes to soften strict requirements. Schumer a 'perpetual motion machine' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called on clean energy advocates, tech executives and even 'friendly' Trump officials to save parts of the climate law. | Francis Chung/POLITICO As Republicans continue to inch forward on their megabill, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been working to sway them against wholesale repeals of the Inflation Reduction Act. Indeed, after President Donald Trump and Republicans swept the elections last year, Schumer said he knew he had to gear up to protect the IRA. He reached out to clean energy executives and environmental leaders months ago, he said, but no one was prepared for how aggressive the House legislation that passed just before Memorial Day would be. 'No one expected it to be as bad as it was,' he said. 'At the last minute, overnight, they dramatically reduced or eliminated the clean energy provisions. Most of the Republican congressmen didn't know of it, but I called up everyone that weekend, and I said, 'DEFCON 1,'' referring to the highest alert level for nuclear war. In recent weeks, he's been enlisting finance people; clean energy advocates; tech executives; governors with major renewables investments; 'friendly' Trump administration officials; Duke Energy and Southern Co. executives; and Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trade Union, to call their senators. 'Chuck is spending so much time and energy on this,' Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said at a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. 'He's become like a perpetual motion machine.' Specifically, Schumer and his allies are targeting 16 Senate Republicans who he thinks show 'some discomfort' with undoing the IRA. 'I have a list of the one hundred biggest clean energy projects in America,' Schumer said. 'Eighty percent are in red states, it turns out. One of the companies that runs those projects is saying, 'People, call your senator,' and say, 'This will shut me down.' And they are doing it.' Energy price spike? Beside trying to woo Republicans, Schumer and other Democrats have been saying the GOP megabill threatens to raise energy prices. A new analysis from the Democratic-aligned Center for American Progress set to be released Thursday found that slashing the IRA could cut 13 gigawatts of clean power on the grid per year over the next decade. In 2024, the U.S. added 49 gigawatts of new capacity to the grid, with 95 percent from new solar, batteries, nuclear and wind power. 'As much as 72 percent of all clean energy capacity that would have been built over the next decade would disappear,' the report says. Asked if he worried Democrats might be able to run on rising electricity costs in the midterm elections, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who's running for Senate and has backed a Hyundai vehicle and battery plant in his district, shrugged off the question. 'That remains to be seen,' he said. 'I'm not sure energy costs are going to go up. In fact, I would submit that as we concentrate more on available energy such as natural gas, it might go down. And that's certainly something we're trying to do.' He added: 'So I think that's risky on their part — to say the least.' Intense lobbying Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Wednesday met with some House Republicans who sent a letter to Senate GOP leaders last week urging them to make big changes to the legislation they had nonetheless voted for. 'I think that that was important,' Murkowski said of last week's letter. 'I think they're raising the same kinds of concerns that we are raising on the Senate side. It's much of the same in terms of — how can you allow for a longer phase out for some of these credits, the issue of transferability. I don't think that there's anything new, but I think it is important that it's being reinforced on both sides.' Groups representing a host of interests have been ratcheting up lobbying. Advanced Energy United and Republican-led Built for America are among those running ads. Built for America has been trying to reach the president and his allies on Fox News and Truth Social, POLITICO reported. The Solar Energy Industries Association is planning a rally on Capitol Hill with workers next week. The trucking industry and allied trade associations sent a letter to Senate leaders asking to preserve the 30C tax credit, which applies to alternative fueling equipment installed at homes or businesses. It can include electric charging for cars and heavy-duty trucks. The House version of the bill would phase out the credits at the end of 2025. 'This short runway threatens to strand investments that have already been made in good faith based on the credit's availability, especially for projects that have begun construction but will not be completed by year-end,' the letter said. The GOP is up against a self-imposed Independence Day deadline to send legislation to Trump's desk. Many continue to say publicly that timeline is achievable, though Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said Tuesday 'a lot of us would be surprised if it passed by July Fourth.' Reporter Mike Lee contributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Jan. 6 Officers File Suit Over GOP Refusal To Install Honorary Plaque
WASHINGTON — Two police officers filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday over the refusal by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to put up a plaque honoring officers' sacrifice on Jan. 6, 2021. Congress passed a law in 2022 setting a one-year deadline to install an 'honorific plaque' naming officers who fought President Donald Trump's mob rioters. It was to be placed on the Capitol's west front where some of the worst violence of the day occurred. Johnson's office said last year they were working on it, but the plaque is still missing. According to the lawsuit, filed by former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, there is 'no indication' that Congress intends to hang the plaque even as other memorials have been installed inside the Capitol for slain officers involved in other tragedies. The plaque commemorating Jan. 6 officers has been made, but Dunn and Hodges say Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin has not received instruction from Johnson to install it. A spokesman for the speaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Dunn and Hodges highlighted that House Republicans have wasted little time introducing bills to honor Trump in the meantime, including legislation to make his birthday a federal holiday or rename Dulles International Airport after him. (Lawmakers have also proposed carving his face into Mount Rushmore, putting Trump's face on the $100 bill and even creating a new $250 bill with his likeness.) Trump and his allies have attempted a dogged 'rewriting of history,' attorney Brendan Ballou wrote in the civil claim, and this has extended well beyond the halls of Congress. 'Elon Musk, the world's richest man, now claims that January 6 was 'in no way a violent insurrection.' Joe Rogan, the country's most popular podcaster, claims that 'the intelligence agencies were involved in provoking people into the Capitol Building. That's a fact.' Greg Gutfeld, the host of the most popular show on the most popular cable channel (Fox) said that January 6 was not a 'big deal.' And Dan Bongino, once one of America's most popular online commentators, claimed that the FBI was involved in placing pipe bombs around Washington, DC that day,' Ballou wrote. 'By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history. It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them.' The law requiring Congress to install the plaque was buried in a thousand-page government funding bill, so it wasn't something that received much attention or debate when it passed the House in March 2022. Back then, Republicans had not yet fully abandoned their recognition of what happened on Jan. 6. But the text of the statute is clear: Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Architect of the Capitol shall obtain an honorific plaque listing the names of all of the officers of the United States Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and protective entities who responded to the violence that occurred at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and shall place the plaque at a permanent location on the western front of the United States Capitol. During their annual 'police week' commemorations last month, Johnson and other Republicans held a vigil and repeatedly praised law enforcement officers, including the Capitol Police officers who responded to the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, but couldn't spare a word for the officers who fought Trump's mob. This isn't the first time that items recognizing police for defending the Capitol on Jan. 6 have been missing in action. In February, commemorative bronze duplicates of the Congressional Gold Medal that Jan. 6 police officers received suddenly went missing from the U.S. Mint's website. The coin, which had been available for purchase for more than a year up to that point, vanished from the site without notice. It was reinstated a little more than a week later. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Thursday that he would be putting up a poster depicting the plaque design outside his office, and that Democrats would be urging all House members to do the same until Johnson complies with the law. 'Put the plaque up or change the law,' Dunn said in a livestream from Raskin's office. 'It's unfortunate that we had to have a lawsuit to compel Congress to follow their own law, but here we are.' Top Jan. 6 Prosecutor Quits DOJ, Slams Trump's Pardons As Green Light For Violence Trump Honors Police – Four Months After Freeing Hundreds Of Felons Who Assaulted Them Ashli Babbitt Family To Receive $5M Settlement From Trump DOJ: Report


The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Same-sex married couples lead growing share of US households: Pew
More U.S. households are headed by same-sex married couples, according to new data released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, with the number steadily growing over the last decade. Large shares of married LGBTQ couples said they were married for reasons including love, companionship and wanting to make a formal commitment to one another, according to a survey from the nonpartisan think tank based on responses from more than 1,100 U.S. adults married to or living with a same-sex partner. The data reflects responses from a larger poll of LGBTQ Americans conducted Jan. 8-19. Sixty-four percent also said legal rights were a major factor in getting married. The survey, released during Pride Month, comes as a growing number of Republican state lawmakers are urging the Supreme Court to reverse its landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which effectively legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. and celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. In January, Idaho lawmakers passed a resolution calling for the court to reconsider its decision, which the justices cannot do unless they are presented with a case on the issue. The resolution, which is nonbinding, expresses the legislature's collective opinion that the Obergefell ruling 'is an illegitimate overreach' and has caused 'collateral damage to other aspects of our constitutional order that protect liberty, including religious liberty.' Republican lawmakers in at least five other states, including Democrat-controlled Michigan, have issued similar calls to the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Southern Baptists overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage at an annual meeting in Dallas. The sweeping resolution approved at the gathering of more than 10,000 church representatives says legislators have a responsibility to 'pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law — about marriage, sex, human life, and family' and to oppose laws contradicting 'what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.' It calls 'for laws that affirm marriage between one man and one woman.' While unenforceable because of the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling, more than half of states have statutes or constitutional amendments that ban same-sex marriage still on the books. 'Zombie laws' against marriage equality are largely concentrated in the South and Midwest, where same-sex married couples are less likely to live, according to Thursday's Pew Research Center survey. Compared with different-sex couples, same-sex couples are more likely to settle in the West and Northeast. According to Pew's findings, same-sex married couples also tend to have higher levels of education than different-sex couples and are more likely to both work full-time, particularly in couples of two men, which have by far the highest median household income, at $172,689. The median income for a household of two women stands at $121,900, according to Pew, only slightly higher than the median income for different-sex couples, $121,000. Same-sex couples also appear far less likely to have children compared with different-sex couples, according to Thursday's findings. While roughly 53 percent of different-sex married couples are raising children, just 31 percent of couples with two women and 10 percent of couples with two men are parents. At least a portion of that can be linked to barriers to parenting that are unique to same-sex couples. A 2024 Williams Institute study found that 32 percent of couples said that 'not having one of the needed parts,' such as sperm, egg or uterus, was a barrier to having children. Nearly a third said concerns about discrimination gave them pause about becoming parents, and 25 percent said insufficient health insurance coverage presented a challenge to parenthood. Most same-sex couples said costs associated with things like sperm donation, IVF, surrogacy and private adoption had stopped them from becoming parents. According to Thursday's Pew survey, most LGBTQ adults who are either married or living with a same-sex partner are at least 'fairly' satisfied with their relationship, including 63 percent who said their relationship is going 'very well.' Those who are married are more likely than those unmarried to say the relationship is going very well.