ST. GEORGE — Inspired by two high school who wanted to celebrate Gay Pride Month, a gay pride celebration in St. George will be held at Vernon Worthen Park Saturday from 5-9 p.m.
According to a news release issued by St. George residents and event organizers Linda Stay and Cody Ham, the students contacted them, and they formed a small committee to put together the event.
“This community needs this desperately,” Stay told St. George News. “Now more than ever. And our youth need to see us coming out and facing the fear …. We just need to love louder.”
Organizers were additionally spurred on by the recent horrific killings in Orlando. Rather than retreat in fear or be scared back into isolation, Stay said, they want to come together and support each other.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual pride celebration will include live entertainment, lawn games, a short program to honor the victims of the Orlando shooting, a conga line parade and prize drawings. All are welcome and encouraged to enjoy the event.
“A picnic in the park, basically,” Stay said of the event. “Come and we’ll have some fun. We’ll have some music, some entertainment, and we’ll just be together and enjoy each other and celebrate who we are.”
Ham said he has seen considerable changes in the perception of the LGBTQ community in St. George over the past 10 years.
“The difference from when I went to high school here in 2006 through 2008 to now, it’s a world of difference,” Ham said. “I feel that the town is very accepting now of the LGBTQ community. Maybe they don’t agree with the cause as much, but they’re our brothers and our sisters, our parents, friends and family.”
Ham said the city was very accommodating and helpful in their attempt to obtain the permits for this event on such short notice.
“At first, when we were putting this together, we didn’t know about the permits we would be needing to have this event,” he said, “and when we got in contact with Laura Woolsey (at the St. George City offices) … someone in our committee went in and met with her, and that morning, we had the permits and everything that we needed.”
The event is free to the public; however, the organizing committee is asking for donations to cover expenses. Ham said any excess funds will be donated to the newly formed LGBTQ Inclusion Center at Dixie State University.
Guests are encouraged to bring blankets or lawn chairs to enjoy the evening events.
For more information, contact Linda Stay at 435-674-0994 or Cody Ham at 818-720-2156.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews | @NewsWayman
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.
You are all invited to attend the straight pride parade as soon as it’s developed (equal rights for a parade)
Hey ladybug I’ll be there. .is it formal dress ?
“celebrate who we are”
You mean celebrate being perverts?
If the organizers want to provide recognition for all alternative sexual relationships, they should have some FLDS members there too.
Gays and lesbians say they are born that way, but I know men who have been married children now in college and decided to have a male lover and leave the wife, I know college girls who are gifted by boyfriends far away and a girl puts their arm around them and they fall in love,, look at Ellen Degeneres who is gay and when George Clooney or other good looking men come on the show they swarm all over them with kisses etc… What message are they sending??? Robin Roberts in GMA was asked when they were discussing gays and lesbians and she said she tried it but didn’t like it, but now announces she has hada lover female for 10 yrs and they are together, what happens when Alex is involved,, they have to look for a surface partnER to give birth, and then divorce and have problems in court who gets the kids.. It make life confusing for the kids for identity in the family.. God intended a man and woman to become parrtners and have off spring as a gift from God..I don,thin gays axles Ian’s in y Bibleor teachings of the church…
what in the world?!
For decades the Mormon church encouraged young men with questions about their sexuality, to get married to a woman and have children because they would become heterosexual.
Many confused men have always tried to live a heterosexual life because of the pressures society has put on them.
When older adults have changed course to live a homosexual life, they are choosing the life your God planned from their birth.
This is going to leave a bad taste in somebody’s mouth.
eew…
LOL
ROFLMAO. !!!!!!!! 422
How dare you all judge others! We are all different! That is what life is all about! Be kind
Everyone quit joking around and be quiet, or the whole class will be put in detention!
Why don’t you practice what you preach and dial it back a little instead of scolding everyone from your self-righteous high horse.
Detention. ? Hey that’s a good idea, that way RealLife and Bob and I can get some bonding time. ….ROFLMAO !!!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that’s some funny stuff right there. !
It’s been a long time coming. I’d like to attend this event provided there is …
Ed. ellipsis.
Ha Ha you got edited !!
So for 10 years I’ve lived here. Chatted with numerous guys online. Many married and cheating on their wives. Many others who are just in it for the quick sex. What I have concluded is that gayness IS in fact a mental disorder. Guys wanting to “hook up” with me and sending me pics of their genitalia, never mind if they don’t even know my name. One guy who hit me up (for sex, not like actually treating me as a person) actually makes pervert porn vids on xtube. Maybe others do too. I don’t know and I don’t care. What I do know is that when I came out in the 80’s the struggle was more against being marginalized as NORMAL people, not … freaks, like what “gay pride” has come to signify. It makes my heart hurt that my first love died of AIDS not because he was homosexual. but because he was stigmatized by people as a “freak” because of why? GAY PRIDE PARADES. So, I say … these people and their stupid show of perversity. I don’t care that 49 people were killed in Orlando. They died because Omar Mateen was probably looking for “acceptance” and what he found was a bunch of poeple who simply treated him like an object, someone whose “hot” image they could get off to in private, while disregarding the fact that what he may have wanted was a GENUINE human-to-human connection. And that brings me to a segue. These idiotic religions like Mor(m)onism which vilify people for same-sex attraction while celebrating the fact that Joseph Smith loved and had sexual relations with 14 year old girls, and also 16 year old girls who were already married to some other men, are nothing more than hypocritical. Frankly , I understand why Utah is the #1 state for suicide. There is no way to win here. I’m glad as heck that Joseph Smith was murdered. I only wish it had been 20 years earlier. And for my mother, who called me “a failure” because I’m gay and who sexually abused me because…MORMONISAM. Frankly, I hope she spends decades in a rest home sitting in pee and … filled diapers. Because she’s a worthless …. And so is every other person who believes in such an idiotic religion!!!!!
Ed. ellipses.
Ha Ha you got edited. !!!!!!!!
Fact check: Utah is not close to the #1 state in suicides. Google search revealed one article had Utah #15, another article didn’t list Utah in their top 10.
Here are a couple reports we have prepared on the subject, Henry and Roland.
While I won’t speak to Roland’s comment, it can help to look at what questions and conclusions are raised in surveys on these kinds of rankings.
For example, our report, “The Utah Dichotomy: High rankings in happiness and suicide,” published in December 2015 derives from a survey on overall well-being. See the whole story here: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2015/12/26/djg-the-utah-dichotomy-high-rankings-in-happiness-suicide/#.V2mIo5MrLjA
Another report we published in May 2015, “Southwestern Utah’s high suicide rates; prevention: What do you say to a loved one?” discusses Utah’s placement in what is called the suicide belt, among other things. See that story here: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2015/05/08/jla-southwestern-utahs-high-suicide-rates-prevention-what-do-you-say-to-a-loved-one/#.V2mJoJMrLjA
There are many more reports dealing with concerns about suicide and suicide prevention on our site; just use the search term suicide to pull them up. Or start with this link here: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/?s=suicide
It is an important discussion and we appreciate the conversation and consideration,
ST. GEORGE NEWS
Joyce Kuzmanic
Editor in Chief
Joyce – thank you for the background information. My point was that Utah is not #1 in the nation for suicides. But any suicide is a tragedy and no matter in which state we live, we all should try to help those individuals at risk and get them the help that they need.
Absolutely, Henry. The links I provided actually have local helps in them for those that may need them.
Thank you again.
Joyce
Finally a gay man gets it. I respect gays as much as anyone, but the fact is a huge percentage of them a just sexual degenerates and tend to be far more promiscuous than even the most promiscuous women, hence the massive spread of AIDS. these gay parades are purely a celebration of promiscuity and sexual degeneracy. I won’t say gayness is a mental illness, but a lot of them are just mentally ill. They need to learn to respect themselves, and then others will respect them.
i will say though, that transgenderism/transexualism is 100% a mental illness. surgical and chemical modification of the body as part of some delusion is crossing a dangerous line.
Well that’s just your unprofessional opinion and believe me .that’s all it is. ….. have a nice day Sigmund. …..
You should learn to respect other people’s rights to live their lives as you do yours ..talk about ignorance. ….! you should be a politician because your full of it
I ain’t got no respect for liars and thieves