Why Pride Matters in Small Town Moab, Utah

[William769]

After Amy Stocks and her partner Ali Lingel watched a satiric video from The Onion about a small town throwing a pride festival for its only gay man, she posted the video on her Facebook page with a note asking when her own hometown, Moab, Utah, was going to throw a party for her. The response eventually turned into the city’s first ever LGBT Pride parade and festival, an event that attracted a full 10% of its citizens.

For Moab — a small town nestled between Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, in rural conservative southern Utah — last month’s Pride was more than just a party and a parade. It was a political statement heard far beyond the city’s borders, in part because the state’s predominant religion — the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the official name of the Mormon faith) — has been in the national spotlight all year and in LGBT crosshairs for several more.

Two GOP presidential candidates — former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — have put Mormonism in the national conversation, notes Celia Alario, media strategist and founder of PR for People the Planet. And the Mormon Church’s role in funding the 2008 campaign for Proposition 8 in California, she said “put the church and the state of Utah smack in the middle of a national debate on issues impacting members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex community.”

By hosting Pride in Moab, LGBT organizers recognized that their little town could potentially impact the entire state “by raising awareness and encouraging understanding and acceptance of LGBTQI people,” said Sallie Hodges, Moab Pride Festival Creative Director. “Having attended many Pride festivals in cities such as London, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, I can't help but feel that this festival is as important if not more so than the bigger metropolitan festivals.”

http://www.advocate.com/News/News_Features/Why_Pride_Matters_in_Small_Town_Moab_Utah/

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[William769]

2. It just goes to show that it can start with one person.

I love people like amy willing to take a chance. One day before I die I would love to see parades in every town in America celebrating diversity (ok that was a John lennon moment (imagine)).

[freeplessinseattle]

3. That is wonderful! Especially to a former SLCer (& non LDS) n/t