UTA pulled pride bus after ‘outside’ complaints it promoted ‘LGBTQ rights,’ emails show

Utah Transit Authority officials opted to pull a pride-themed bus from the annual Utah Pride Parade this year after they received backlash from “outside” parties who were concerned that the bus “appears to promote LGBTQ rights,” emails obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune through a public records request show.

The “parties” are not specified in the email records that The Tribune received this week, but text messages released to The Tribune on June 6 indicate that at least four state GOP lawmakers had reached out to UTA officials before the June 4 parade to express their displeasure with the bus, which was wrapped in livery that featured colors from the progress pride flag.

The bus had been in service for more than a year, and the livery was funded from a private donation from R&R Advertising and Lamar Advertising, UTA spokesperson Carl Arky previously told The Tribune.

UTA had promoted the pride-wrapped bus in a tweet on Wednesday, May 31, the day before Pride Month, which apparently prompted the lawmakers’ texts. By 9:23 p.m. on June 1, UTA executive director Jay Fox wrote in an email that “based on today’s discussions,” he would not approve a request for the pride-themed bus to appear in the Pride parade, the newly released records show.

The next day, on June 2, Arky told The Tribune that “a decision was made” to pull the pride bus from the parade and instead showcase one of UTA’s 20 new Gillig Electric buses.

“They wanted to emphasize the clean energy vehicle and put it in front of tens of thousands of people who stand to benefit from the technology,” Arky said of UTA’s reasoning at the time.

Arky and Fox had not responded to a request for comment as of 5 p.m. Tuesday regarding the email records The Tribune received.

Pulling the pride-themed bus

After Fox wrote on late June 1 that he would not approve the pride-themed bus for the upcoming parade, another UTA official, chief operating officer Cherryl Beveridge, replied early June 2, suggesting that Fox modify his original parade vehicle request to an “electric bus” instead.

Beveridge’s reasoning, emails records show, was to “keep the decision low-key.” Fox took her advice and instead requested an “unwrapped Gillig electric bus,” records indicate.

Later that day, at about 10:43 a.m., Arky sent an email to UTA chief communications officer Steve Wright and other UTA officials, inquiring about whether UTA would still be using the pride-wrapped bus in the parade. He was asking because a Tribune reporter had inquired about the status of the bus in the parade, email records indicate.

Wright forwarded that email at 11:23 a.m. to Fox, as well as UTA board chair Carlton Christensen and another UTA official.

“FYI. Someone made a call to the media,” Wright wrote in the forwarded email, records show. “We haven’t responded yet. I say we just tell them we are featuring one of our new Gillig electric buses and leave it at that.”

At 12:06 p.m., Wright replied to Arky’s original email inquiry, saying only, “CALL ME.”

Almost two hours later, at 1:52 p.m., Arky sent Wright a drafted statement on the status of the pride bus, which said that UTA had instead moved to feature one of its electric buses in the parade. The statement noted that about 70 UTA employees had indicated that they will be marching in the parade, and said that UTA remained “committed” to participating in the Utah Pride Festival and its associated events.

“I don’t want to ‘issue’ any type of statement,” Wright wrote in a reply to Arky at 2:19 p.m., which included a revised version of Arky’s drafted statement.

“I reformatted this as internal talking points for us to use in talking to the media,” Wright explained in the email. “I want to keep it verbal nothing written at this point. It’s the same messages just bullet‐pointed.”

When Arky replied a few minutes later asking Wright how he should respond to The Tribune, Wright wrote “not yet,” in an email at 3:13 p.m.

UTA’s ‘internal talking points’ and ‘response plan’

At 4:23 p.m. on June 2, Wright sent an email to UTA’s board of trustees, Fox and other UTA officials with a document titled “UTA Pride Celebration Support Response Plan.”

The document was intended for the recipients to use as a “basis for discussions,” Wright wrote. He advised that Arky would likely be speaking to a Tribune reporter that evening “using the talking points from the document.”

The document included an overview about why UTA would be involved in the weekend Pride events; the agency’s objectives in doing so; facts and issues related to UTA’s participation; a drafted agency statement; five FAQs that UTA may receive from media, customers and the public (as well as proposed answers); and a copy of a brief internal message that Fox emailed to the 70 employees who planned to march in the parade.

In the FAQs section, the document indicated that UTA would not have a pride-wrapped bus in the parade, noting that the agency “recently received numerous messages from parties outside the agency expressing concern” about the pride-wrapped bus, which those parties said “appears to promote LGBTQ rights.”

The document did not name the parties, but text messages previously released to The Tribune indicate that the following GOP legislators reached out to UTA officials about the bus: House Majority Leader Mike Schultz, R-Hooper; Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman; Rep. Kay J. Christofferson, R-Lehi; and Rep. Colin Jack, R-St. George.

“Honestly this is the last thing I want to deal with right now,” Schultz said in a May 31 text to one UTA board member about the bus, records show. “It seriously would be best if you made the change on your own. Let me know what you guys come up with.”

It’s unclear if any other “outside” parties reached out to UTA about the pride-wrapped bus. Phone calls, for instance, would not have been captured in The Tribune’s public records request for written communications.

The document Wright shared June 2 stated that UTA’s decision to pull the pride-wrapped bus from the parade “was a business decision” that took into consideration “UTA’s overall mission and long‐term vision, that of being Utah’s transit mobility experts as well as providing safe and reliable transit services to all Utahns.”

“We are first and foremost a public transit agency, committed to serving the diverse communities in our service area,” the document continued.

According to the document, Fox in his internal email to the 70 employees who planned to participate in the parade did not specifically state that UTA had received pressure from outside parties about the agency’s pride-themed bus.

Instead, Fox wrote that he was “excited” for the employees and said he wished he “could be there with you,” though he noted he was out of town with family that weekend.

“On a related note, I have decided to showcase our new Gillig electric bus in the parade on Sunday instead of the wrapped bus we used last year,” Fox wrote. “I would be happy to visit with any of you next week regarding this decision if you have questions.”

The electric bus that UTA ultimately included in the parade was decorated with pride flags, and a digital sign on the front of the bus that typically denotes its service route instead read, “ride with pride.”

It’s unclear if the pride-wrapped bus will remain in UTA service. The document Wright shared stated that the bus, which included a message that read, “WORK WITH PRIDE!”, was part of a UTA hiring promotion and was meant to incorporate “a message of diversity and inclusion.”

No public funds were used in the production or installation of the vinyl wrapping, the document stated, noting that it was featured in the 2022 Pride parade.

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