When Phillip Sevy opened an email from Utah’s Hogle Zoo advertising this year’s ZooBrew events, they weren’t happy.
The list of 21-and-up evenings lacked an event the zoo had hosted during Pride month for the past few years, an event Sevy had enjoyed attending.
They emailed the zoo to ask: What happened to “Pride with our Pride”?
In its place, Sevy noticed, the zoo had instead scheduled a ZooBrew event called “Colors of Conservation” for June 11.
“We changed the name of the Pride with Our Pride event to Colors of Conservation to keep the focus on what unites us — our shared commitment to protecting wildlife and celebrating the diversity of people who make that possible," a guest services director at the zoo said in an emailed response, which Sevy shared with The Salt Lake Tribune.
“In today’s climate, certain words can unintentionally shift attention away from our mission,” the zoo official added in the email.
In a follow-up email, the zoo official told Sevy, “We will stay true to the values of supporting that diverse community while at the same time navigating the realities of the environment we operate in.”
In a separate statement, the zoo told The Tribune that its impact as a conservation organization “comes from building connections between people and wildlife as we protect the animal kingdom.”
Along with changes to “Pride with our Pride,” the zoo’s current June calendar does not show a 2025 family Pride celebration, another event the zoo has hosted in the past.
The switch, Sevy said, suggests the zoo’s support was only ever surface level.
Sevy said they have felt the pang of larger corporations stepping away from pride messaging out of convenience — but this time, it hit closer to home.
“Going there for the ‘Pride with our Pride’ event was a very different feeling,” said Sevy, who is nonbinary.
The busy event in deeply red Utah drew crowds of LBGTQ+ people and allies alike, Sevy said. Its replacement especially stings after the Utah Legislature this year enacted a ban on pride flags on government property, which took effect last week, and passed other legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
In 2023, Hogle Zoo relied on state funding for over $1.1 million dollars, making up 5.2% of its operating revenue, according to the organization’s 2024 annual report. Salt Lake County contributed over $4 million, or 18.4%, through its Zoo, Arts and Parks (ZAP) tax.
The zoo isn’t the only Utah entity to pull away from embracing Pride Month in recent years. Gov. Spencer Cox declined to issue a Pride Month declaration in June 2024, as he had done in his previous years as governor — instead declaring a “Month of Bridge Building.”
Chad Call, executive director of the Utah Pride Center, said that though ZooBrews has never been tied with the organization, the nonprofit hopes that “our partners and our allies out there are guided by morals enough to stand with a marginalized community.”
“We hope that they are brave enough to take that stand,” Call said.
Aside from the zoo’s change, Call noted that the Utah Pride Center this year has received significantly less corporate funding than it has in the past.
He said that not only impacts the Utah Pride Center’s finances, but it can make LGTBQ community members feel less seen and can affect those companies’ LGBTQ employees.
Sevy moved to Utah from California 20 years ago. They left for Georgia at one point to pursue a master’s degree before returning and acknowledged they had been fairly conservative for a majority of their life.
While Sevy feels disappointed in the zoo, if the messaging of the event were changed to more directly celebrate LGBTQ+ pride, Sevy said they would “gladly and excitedly buy tickets and attend.”
“I had people around me who gave me space and gave me grace to grow,” Sevy said. “I’ve got to give them that grace.”
