Blind Prophecy

Yesterday, over 3,000 Utahns gathered around LDS church headquarters to protest the passage of California’s Prop 8 and the Mormon involvement in the campaign. My friend Jesse took some amazing photos and videos of the event. Troy spoke at the event and has video from KSL that put the attendance at 3,500.

Meanwhile, California activists are getting national attention for calling on the queer and allied community to boycott Utah, including putting pressure on Robert Redford to move the Sundance Film Festival to another state. And over 20,000 people in my other former home of San Francisco marched in protest last night as well.

I feel uniquely invested in these things–as a person born in Utah and very fond of the local queer community, as a person raised within the Mormon faith, as a person who worked for the Sundance Film Festival, and as a person who was living in San Francisco on that historic day when the California Supreme Court recognized my right to marry the person of my choosing.

That said, I’d like to propose an alternative to boycotting Utah. Support Utah’s strong and growing queer community instead. Nothing would strike at the heart of the Mormon voice more than helping change the climate in Utah to one of genuine celebration of queer diversity. And there is already so much good work being done in Utah, it just needs more help.

For example, in 2004, when Utah faced its own anti-gay marriage amendment, Summit County (home to Park City and the Sundance Film Festival) voted 61% against amending the state constitution. Salt Lake County managed to reach a 46% vote of “no.” While the rest of the state was massively anti-gay, these two counties showed a greater degree of understanding that anyone expected. Furthermore, Salt Lake’s former mayor, Rocky Anderson, was named one of the nation’s top 10 allies to the LGBT community, and the politicians who ran to fill his seat seemed ready to trip over each other in their efforts to get the queer vote. Utah has elected three openly lesbian or gay people to political office.

Utah’s queer community boasts a very large regional Pride festival, a fantastic community center, a strong and active statewide PAC, numerous social and political organizations, a wonderful community newspaper, impressive student clubs at many high schools and universities, and much more. Is it San Francisco, no? But it’s doing a hell of a lot better than Cincinnati (or, with apologies to my friends there, Las Vegas).

So if you really want to protest the LDS involvement in anti-queer politics, I suggest taking away the one asset they think is safe, the hearts and attitudes of their home base. Donate to the Utah Pride Center, donate to Equality Utah, buy advertising in QSaltLake, and support the Utah queer community, because I can tell you from personal experience that they are doing more on a day-to-day basis to change attitudes and opinions than many Californians do in a year. Just watch Jesse’s videos and try to tell me that you disagree.

Filed under: San Francisco, queer rights, utah by Jere Keys