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A guide to LGBTQ Pride Month in Park City

Then Park City Mayor Andy Beerman raised the pride flag at Miners Hospital, with LGBTQIA members and allies in May 2021.
KPCW News
Then Park City Mayor Andy Beerman raised the pride flag at Miners Hospital, with LGBTQIA members and allies in May 2021.

June is Pride Month nationwide and Park City’s LGBTQ+ task force has several events on the calendar to celebrate. 

LGBTQ Pride Month every June honors the Stonewall riots back on June 28,1969, in Manhattan's West Village. According to the Library of Congress, President Bill Clinton was the first president to officially declare June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999.

Two decades later, and multiple additional acronyms, Park City has various events planned to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month.

Joe Urankar sits on Park City’s LGBTQ task force. He said it was created in 2020 to bring awareness to events like Pride Month and improve the needs of the community.

FULL INTERVIEW: Park City Pride Month 2023

“Our task force came together and started conversations about what are the needs of queer residents,” he said. “And how does that fit into the broader social equity conversations? And how do we kind of move together and create more camaraderie in this time where there's a lot of division?”

Urankar said the task force works with the city and interfaces with different organizations.

“We've helped them and done some Diversity Equity Inclusion trainings with Equality Utah,” he said. “We have collaborated with city and county staff on statements against some of the legislative bills that are targeting queer and trans people in particular.”

The task force also puts together various events to celebrate Pride Month. Urankar said there will be a flag raising ceremony at 9 a.m. on June 1, at Miner’s Hospital located on Park Avenue. He said the event will be a mini “state-of-the-queer union” where speakers like Mayor Nann Worel will speak on current political issues in the LGBTQ community.

“There's just been a lot of movement, particularly in state and national legislatures, against our community,” he said. “So we're going to talk about some of the work we've done, some of the work they're doing, and keep everybody up to date. Then finish off with donuts, coffee and a flag raising.”

Cami Richardson also sits on the task force. She said on June 17 there will be an event called the Living Library at the Park City Library on Park Avenue. She said the event is like checking out a book, but it’s a person instead.

“For example, they can say, 'I want to meet and talk with Cami Richardson about being transgender. What's it like? And what are some of the obstacles that people have faced?' So we're going to have six different people that will be representing the LGBTQ+ community and we invite everyone in the community to check us out,” Richardson said.

Urankar also talked about an event hosted by Park City High School’s Gay Straight Alliance called “Letters to Parents” at the Jim Santy Auditorium, June 24 beginning at noon. He said the organization reached out to other GSAs across the country and solicited anonymous letters from students writing to their parents.

“It's going to be a reading of those letters,” he said. “Things that they wish they could have said, or wish they had said, or things that they see and the challenges in their relationship. And maybe something the parent has struggled with and letting go of their idea of the child versus who their child actually is. And it's going to be a really intimate view into the perspective of queer youth.”

Another event on June 25 is the third annual Pride picnic at City Park beginning at 11 a.m. It’s a bring-your-own-food picnic. Music and activities will be provided.

Complete details about Park City Pride can be found here.