(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mixsa Kafi waves a rainbow flag as she watched the Utah Pride Parade from a parking terrace, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City Mayor, Jackie Biskupski high-fives parade goers as she walks in the Utah Pride Parade, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City Mayor, Jackie Biskupski high-fives parade goers as she walks in the Utah Pride Parade, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Defend Our Future, Sacrifice No More group delays the parade as they lie down in the street for about 5 minutes, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mormons Building Bridges march in the Utah Pride Parade for the seventh year in a row, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Parade goers cheer as the Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Parade goers cheer as the Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Pride Parade marches up 200 South in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Celeste Weber cheers as she watches the Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Eowin Dillon, 4, rides on the shoulders of her brother, Cendan Dillon 15, as they walk with Mormons Building Bridges, in the Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City Mayor, Jackie Biskupski waves to the crowd, as she walks in the Utah Pride Parade, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rory Holland, participates in the Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dan Jolley of West Jordan (left) walks with Mormons Building Bridges, in the Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Abbie Minckler participates in the Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Savanah offers free hugs as she walks along the Utah Pride Parade route in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Pride Parade heads east on 200 South, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Thane and Jafabulous, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lexis, dances with the Zion Curtain Sisters, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown, high- fives parade goers as he walks in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kasey Kirklan twirls a gun as she marches with West Hugh, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Educators for Pride hold giant crayons as they march, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Supporters of Encircle march in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Khara Doxey of Syracuse, watches the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sister Flora, dances with the Zion Curtain Sisters, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown, high- fives parade goers as he walks in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) London and Savannah ride in a truck in the Utah Pride Parade heads east on 200 South, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kylee Galbraith, Brittany Hartman, and Nicole Lee at the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Supporters of Affirmation march in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Petunia Papsmear announces the parade entires as they march down 200 south, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Anna marches with Utah Leather Pride, in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Damn These Heels entry in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sparkles Del Tassle announces the entries in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mixsa Kafi and Andrew Izatt wave flags as they watch the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Students from Westminster College participate in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Students from Rowland Hall dance as they participate in the Utah Pride Parade, in Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.
Things were a little bit different at this year’s Utah Pride parade … for anyone who paid close attention.
No police presence at the front of the parade on Sunday morning in downtown Salt Lake City. More diversity represented in the first entries. And a bit of an undercurrent of dissent.
The parade was as loud, raucous, jubilant and colorful as ever. There were drag queens, bears, young men in speedos, masters and slaves, along with parents pushing toddlers in strollers, teachers and church groups — all amidst a multitude of rainbow flags and an enormous amount of glitter.
And, although there were rumors that a group opposed to some of the event’s corporate sponsors would try to disrupt the parade, that didn’t happen. Instead, the group was itself incorporated into the parade.
“We’re here to protest the corporate participation in the parade,” said Esther Merono Baro, a member of a group calling itself Queers Divest. “We know that corporate banking is part of a system of oppression that hurts the most marginalized among us, particularly people of color, immigrants and the poor.”
“Definitely, in hindsight, I would have loved to have started earlier,” said Kat Kellermeyer, an organizer of Queers Divest, who added that the group had not planned to block the parade route.
“I feel like the least appropriate way to do that is to disrupt something that means so much to our community,” she said — although Queers Divest did lay down in the middle of 200 South at about 150 East for several minutes, delaying the parade for several minutes.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Queers Divest group delays the parade as they lie down in the street for about 5 minutes, on Sunday, June 3, 2018.
“We’re going to revisit this and examine these issues more closely,” Kellermeyer said. “I feel like we have a really unique opportunity to move forward from this stronger and better as a queer community.”
The 25-member group marched ahead of many of the corporate-sponsor groups, chanting, “Don’t deny it, Stonewall was a riot” and “Pride is a protest.” And they were met by applause and cheers from the parade-goers lining 200 South.
Although the same applause and cheers met the corporate sponsors, and the hundreds of marchers in those groups — including a large group from Wells Fargo — seemed unaware they were the targets of a protest.
(The typical protesters were also on hand — holding signs proclaiming “Homo sex is sin” and “Ask me why you deserve hell,” and cordoned off behind fences and tape amidst smiling pride celebrants.)
Parade organizers had reached out to the Utah Coalition of La Raza to bring the group, which advocates for Hispanics, on board.
“We’re showing the intersectionalities between our communities,” said UCLR vice president Eva Lopez. “The queer, LGBTQ communities and the LatinX community are natural allies, and we’re here in allegiance today to celebrate that.”
UCLR was one of the first entries in Sunday’s parade, as was Utah’s Black Lives Matters group.
“We’re here because we want to help all marginalized groups and make sure people are aware we’re not some mean, down-with-the-government group,” said Genny Bailey, the LGBTQ+ leader of that group. “We just want people to see us and know that our lives do matter.”
It’s part of an effort to add diversity to the parade, which had sometimes been criticized for being so overwhelmingly white.
“That’s what we’re trying to change,” Bailey said. “Personally, my goal with my committee is to work with the Pride Center to become more intersectional.”
The politics playing out behind the scenes of the parade were only a footnote, however. This was not a seminar, it was an expression of joy and freedom and, yes, pride.
“I love the parade,” said a drag performer who goes by the name of Molly Mormon. “It’s so fun because it’s everybody coming together. Throughout the weekend, we all have our events and our things that we do. The parade is that time when we’re all actually together.