Since when has it been a conservative, Utah value that government has the power to tell individuals or private corporations what they may or may not say on social media?
Even companies that benefit from hefty taxpayer subsidies do not waive their First Amendment rights. And threatened legislation to say otherwise is deeply offensive to our nation’s and state’s constitutional values.
Among a shrinking, but still large, number of corporations and organizations, the Utah Mammoth hockey team and Utah Jazz basketball team recently posted some messages in support of Pride Month on their X accounts.
At a time when support for LGBTQ+ equality is suffering from a significant backlash, the teams owned by Ryan Smith’s Smith Entertainment Group displayed a refreshing level of courage by posting these rainbow-flagged messages.
Or maybe not.
Maybe Smith, who made his mega-millions in the survey and data analysis game, just knows that most Utahns support, or are at least OK with, equal treatment for all.
Whether the messages are sincerely felt outreach or cynical corporate virtue-signaling, a Happy Pride message should be no more controversial than a Happy Arbor Day posting.
Sadly, attention-seeking politicians are likely to push back. That’s what Utah state Rep. Trevor Lee did, responding to the Mammoth’s happy post with an angry one of his own. And a threat.
Lee, sponsor of the ban on pride flags at schools and other public buildings in Utah, threatened some “some significant legislation this next session that pushes back onto these woke groups.”
He claimed that Utahns “overwhelmingly” don’t support Pride Month and get “mad when political ideologies get pushed into their lives.”
Utah’s major pro franchises did no such thing. They just posted an inclusive message on their social media accounts, where no one is forced to see it and nobody has to agree.
Lee has no claim to be speaking for all Utahns on this matter. Most folks around here don’t seem bothered by the pride observances or the LGBTQ+ community in general. It’s a vocal few who oppose the celebrations.
A 2023 poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 86% of Utahns favor laws banning discrimination against LGBTQ+ humans. Approval of marriage equality came in at 65% in the same survey.
Some may think that SEG and other beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded subsidies should be subject to some kind of punishment if they say anything that some elected official doesn’t like.
And it is true that taxpayers are coughing up more than $1 billion in support — along with $3 billion of SEG’s money — into the renovation of the downtown Delta Center and surrounding properties into a shiny new entertainment district.
But that doesn’t, and shouldn’t, give the state ownership of SEG’s social media accounts, or limit the free expression rights of that company’s owners and managers.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
