Utah’s biggest parade, Days of ’47, has deemed the LGBT-affirming faith-based group Mormons Building Bridges“too controversial” to have a participating float, reported the Salt Lake Tribune.
Mormons Building Bridges is dedicated to building positive connections between the LGBT and the Mormon communities. It’s website proclaims the grassroots organization “asserts that all our sisters and brothers are worth of love and belonging in our homes, congregations, and communities.”
The parade’s Executive Vice President Greg James said, “We don’t take a position on any issue…We’re just trying to stay as neutral as we can.”
Greg continued, “The parade is very specific in its requirement that no float can enter that will create controversy. We wouldn’t have the Mormons Building Bridges float in there any more than we’d have the NRA [National Rifle Association] or something else that might turn people off." The theme of this year’s parade, scheduled to take place this July, is “Pioneers Pushing Toward Our Future.”
Kendal Wilcox, co-founder of Mormons Building Bridges, told the Salt Lake Tribune, “Members of the LGBT community are part of the Utah community [and] they really are pioneers today leading to a better Utah, so why not celebrate them?”
The group’s proposed float would have carried Mormons or people with Mormon heritage, all of whom identify as LGBT and serve various service roles within the Salt Lake community. Days of ’47 organizers have also rejected applications from the LGBT groups Utah Pride, Equality Utah, and PFLAG.