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The City Of Logan Celebrates Its First Pride Festival

Through music, art and rainbow wear the Cache Valley community gathered in downtown Logan to connect with LGBT folk and their allies.  

Rainbow-clad rollerbladders made their way through people wearing socks and t-shirts bearing the symbol of a community that, until now, has held out on the celebration.

“What motivated me to [help organize] Logan pride was I met my husband up here at Utah State when he was a student,” said Turner Bitton. “I also had a conversation with a few folks from Logan down at the Utah Pride Festival who said that they wished that Logan had a pride festival. So I said, ‘I’ll help with logistics' because I’ve done event planning like this before. It’s been absolutely successful.”

Booths featuring groups that aim to connect the LGBT+ community ranged from support, to commercial, and even political. Utah’s first transgender candidate seeking a state senate seat, Democrat Misty Snow, was at the festival. 

“My favorite part is how quirky and weird Logan is," Bitten said. "It has this bad rep for being very conservative and very rural and distant. But it’s not. We have been embraced by the community, we’ve had so much success - so much fun. Certainly having Utah State here changes the dynamic. But also just Cache Valley at large is just an amazing place.”

Vendors sell and display their work, arts and crafts similar to what you find at a local farmers market. Music and visual art are used to help this community express thought.

“Art is a very important way of healing and expressing oneself whether it be the spoken word, visual arts or multimedia arts," Bitten said. "It’s all very important, color, sound all of that speaks to something that is very human in all of us.”

“Music, I think one of the reasons pride is important is because we gather as people who don’t have a voice,” Meghan Simper said.

Local musician Meghan Simper believes music is important in connecting LGBT+ individuals and allies, here in Cache Valley and throughout the world.

“Music is such an expression. I think that’s one of my main places that I found a voice. To get in touch with myself and know what’s happening internally is so important to self-discovery, self-expression. It brings us all together as humans."