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SALT LAKE CITY — Even after the Supreme Court struck down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, the prognostications from gay rights organizations that same sex-marriage would be legal in five years seemed wildly optimistic.
But as Utahns gathered at the 2015 Utah Pride Festival at Washington Square Saturday, gay marriage is legal in Utah and the issue is in the hands of the Supreme Court. The legal challenge of Utah's voter-approved Amendment 3, which defined marriage in Utah as a union between a man and a woman, was one of the first to reach a federal appellate court nationwide.
Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature, after seven years, passed Utah's first statewide nondiscrimination protections for the gay and transgender community, while providing safeguards for religious liberty.
That's the backdrop of this year's Pride Festival, which drew supporters and the curious to downtown Salt Lake City Saturday and is cause for reflection among those representing and supporting the LGBT community. Neca Allgood, who serves on the board of directors of Affirmation, an organzation that supports and advocates for LGBT Mormons and their families and friends, said it's cause for celebration. But she said it's no time to be complacent.
Allgood and her son, Grayson Moore, who is transgender, testified before Utah lawmakers this year seeking passage of SB296, the antidiscrimination and religious liberty bill.
"There's definitely more to do but I think that's the nature of the political process. You don't get everything done all at once." Allgood said. "You make progress. You stop. You look at how that legislation is working and at what do we need to do next."
Cappy Shapiro, a therapist with Utah Pride Center, said the change in Utah's laws were "like a dam breaking and flooding, after that was sheer awesomeness."
But Shapiro, who runs therapeutic groups for transgender and questioning adults and youths, pointed to suicide risk for transgender youth.
Shapiro said she recently received a referral from a hospital from a 15-year-old boy who had attempted suicide. His mother picked up the telephone and said, "We don't need any help from you people." But the boy likely needs help from resources and a community where he could feel safe and supported, Shapiro said.
There's definitely more to do but I think that's the nature of the political process. You don't get everything done all at once. You make progress. You stop. You look at how that legislation is working and at what do we need to do next.
–Neca Allgood, board of directors of Affirmation
In a recent Utah Pride Center survey of 330 LGBT youths who attended the organization's "Queer Prom," 18 percent said they had attempted suicide. Nearly 45 percent said they had inflicted self-harm within the past six months.
"You can see how important all of this work is that we're all doing, and how much more needs to happen to make our youth safe," Shapiro wrote in an email.
The festival was awash in rainbows and heavy rain Saturday. While some people attending the events huddled under tents, others reveled in the rain dancing to live music.
Doree Burt, working the Mormons Building Bridges' hugging booth, said changing attitudes starts with self-examination: reflecting upon how we talk about others and being mindful that their friends or family members might have a child who has just come out.
"You may have in your own home a 12- or 13-year-old who is wrestling with those same ideas 'I think I'm gay' or 'I think I'm lesbian' or 'I feel like I'm transgender and I don't dare tell my parents because I've heard what they say about all those 'others,' " Burt said.
"I think the main work is to realize, there are no 'others' anymore. We are all part of the same community and we don't have to have to separate our religious selves from our compassion toward the LGBT community. They fit together beautifully," she said.
The courts will decide the same-sex marriage issue and lawmakers will consider related policy questions that come before them, she said.
Pride Festival events conclude Sunday with a 5K and parade, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. The parade starts at 400 East and 200 South and moves west on 200 South to the Salt Palace Convention Center.
