Saturday, September, 21, will mark a historic moment for members of the LGBT community in Utah: the first Provo Pride Festival is planned for that day. Utah has held an annual, 3 day long, pride festival in Salt Lake City since 1983. Utah Pride started quite small but has grown to include national headliners and recent attendance has reached to well over 20,000 people.
The LGBT community in Utah is growing, and if Utah County is in line with national statistics, there are likely 25,000 to 50,000 people who identify as LGBT in the county. This Saturday, September 14, Mormons Building Bridges will be teaming with the organization Out of the Darkness to hold a suicide prevention walk in Salt Lake City. According to David Pate, President of Provo Pride, thirty percent of all teen suicides are committed by lgbt youth and 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT. We’ll talk about living as a gay, bisexual, or transgendered person in a traditionally conservative area and about suicide among the LGBT community. Joining us today are David Pate; Rebecca Taylor, a Utah resident who identifies as transgender; a bisexual BYU student who prefers to go by the pseudonym Rachel Smith; and Doree Burt, a member of Mormons Building Bridges.
