June will be “Fidelity Month” in the Beehive State.
Cox had signed Pride Month declarations during the first three years of his tenure, asking Utahns in 2021 to “encourage relevant and vital conversations about what it means to love each other, understand our differences, and support our LGBTQ+ friends and family members.” In June 2016 following the deadly mass shooting that killed 49 people at Florida’s Pulse night club, Cox, then lieutenant governor, made national headlines for his emotional speech apologizing for his past attitudes about people who are gay.
However, he changed directions in recent years, first by declaring June 2024 as “a month of bridge building,” and then by skipping a declaration altogether in June 2025.
According to this year’s declaration, the document stems from an opinion poll showing that a majority of Americans “no longer esteem values like faith, family, patriotism, or community involvement.”
“Fidelity means dedication to faith, family and country,” the declaration reads. “It is imperative that we recommit ourselves to the pursuit of fidelity.”
The Fidelity Month concept was created by Princeton University professor Robert George, who has made a name as a conservative Christian legal scholar, who described the recognition as a small way to “restore the faith of our people and begin to heal the dreadful division in our country.”
Other Republican governors, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have also adopted the Fidelity Month declaration. In states like Indiana and Tennessee, governors have signed declarations recognizing June as “Nuclear Family Month.”
And, in Alabama, Gov, Kay Ivey recognized June as “Strong Families Month,” saying in a news release that “homes led by stable parents, a father and a mother, provide children with the structure and discipline necessary to succeed.”
Utah Senate and House Democrats said in response to Cox’s Fidelity Month declaration that they rejected “the idea that supporting LGBTQ+ Utahns comes at the expense of anyone else.”
“At a time when so many communities, including the LGBTQ+ community, are being targeted and erased, Utah needs leaders who bring people together, not leaders who deliberately look for new ways to divide us.
Salt Lake City Democratic Sen. Jen Plumb added that the Fidelity Month declaration made her “angry and deeply disappointed.”
“What makes this especially painful is that many LGBTQ+ Utahns supported leaders who spoke the language of compassion, understanding, and inclusion. They showed up, trusted those words, and helped build the coalitions that put those leaders in office,” Plumb said in a statement. “To now see Pride Month deliberately pushed aside feels less like a difference of opinion and more like a betrayal of that trust.”
This report was originally published at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
