This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's biggest party on wheels took off in an entirely new direction this year. Instead of traveling east to west along 200 South in Salt Lake City, the Utah Pride Parade traveled west to east — from West Temple to 400 East.
"You just have to look the other way now," said festival director Valerie Walker.
(By reversing the parade route, the parade ended up closer to the festival on Washington and Library squares.)
Sunday marked the first time that an openly gay mayor of Salt Lake City rode in the parade.
"When we raised the [pride] flag together with volunteers and staff the other day, it felt different," said Mayor Jackie Biskupski, who received the Breaking Barriers Award from the Pride Festival. "This is so meaningful and inspires people, and I am so grateful for that."
The mayor said she felt "super supported by my own team. There are so many staff people here. And directors and leaders that probably have never come before and are here today because they find purpose in it."
This was also the first pride parade in Salt Lake City since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a policy directive declaring that Mormons who enter into same-sex unions are considered apostates and their children generally are barred from baptism and other LDS religious rituals until they turn 18.
There was some fear the policy statement might cut the turnout for Mormons Building Bridges, which marched in the parade for the fifth consecutive year, although there still appeared to be more than 200 people in the group — and they received a warm reception from paradegoers.
Spencer and Michael Tweed — active LDS, legally married — helped carry the group's banner in the parade.
"We're still both members of the church," said Michael Tweed, who married his husband just days after Utah's anti-gay marriage laws were struck down by a federal court in December 2013. "We're still attending church, and it's something that's important to both of us."
Spencer Tweed said he and Michael have been "working with our leaders. And, so far, they've been able to make a space for us." But the couple acknowledged that not only does the LDS Church policy seem certain to end in their excommunication, but by marching in the parade and speaking to the media they may be making themselves targets.
"We have worried about that," Spencer Tweed said. "But we both felt so alone for so long trying to be Mormon and knowing that we were gay that we decided early on that anything we could do [to] help others along the way, it's a sacrifice we're willing to make and a risk we're willing to take."
No less public was the other family carrying the Mormons Building Bridges banner: Ann Pack, an LDS transgender woman; her wife, Bridget; and their daughter.
"We're just hoping to encourage people to be more accepting and welcoming of those who are different," said Ann Pack.
"Both of us have been desperately seeking support for our situation, but also for the entire LGBT community," said Bridget Pack. "Anything that's opening up the dialogue within the church, we try really hard to support."
Even many members of MBB are "still trying to understand the trans part of this," said Ann Pack. "But we're very open. It's healthy to try to understand one another."
While there are serious issues on parade, the event is anything but somber. It's about having a good time, and the thousands in the parade and the tens of thousands along the parade route were doing just that.
For the first time, a color guard from Hill Air Force Base led the parade, which featured 153 entries — college groups, corporate sponsors, bikers, bodybuilders, sirens, superheroes (at least, superhero costumes), drag queens, roller derby queens, radio disc jockeys and boys dancing on the back of semi-trucks in their underwear to the boom-boom-boom of electronic music.
There were LGBT groups like Equality Utah, the Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG. There were political candidates, seemingly all of the Democratic persuasion. The Salt Lake Comic Con group was led by two stormtroopers and a Darth Vader, who must have been wilting inside their costumes, what with the 90-plus degree heat.
(That never seems to change. You can generally count on high temperatures at the Pride Parade.)
Utah's leather and kink community was represented, and there was even an entry by the Asexuals of Utah — a very small contingent.
In an only-in-Utah moment, an all-white group carrying a "Black Lives Matter" banner marched past — causing some African-Americans along the parade route to burst into laughter.
For the second year in a row, Utah Educators for Pride — teachers from the Salt Lake School District and some surrounding districts — were represented with a yellow bus and a couple hundred marchers, both teachers and students.
"We want students to know that there's a safe space, especially here in Utah," said Chelsie Acosta, a teacher at Glendale Middle School.
During the school year, the teachers conduct anti-bullying campaigns and are particularly cognizant of the high risk of suicide for LGBTQ students.
"As educators, that's our biggest concern — that suicide is never an option," Acosta said. "Today, we're proud to walk with them."
In addition to the few Mormon groups, Unitarians, Methodists and Lutherans, there were several dozen atheists marching up 400 South.
"We want people to know that there are nonbelievers in the community," said Felicia Entwistle, president of Atheists of Utah. "We are voters, we support each other and we're an inclusive group. I mean, we've got no god, so we don't have to worry about excluding anyone."
One member of the group held a sign declaring "God Hates Facts" — a play on a familiar hate sign anti-gay protesters frequently wave.
Entwistle pointed to parallels between the gay community and atheists — young people who are kicked out of their homes, people who lose their families and their jobs.
"We take a lot of cues from the gay-rights movement while also supporting the gay-rights movement," she said.
Twitter: @ScottDPierce