LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality Utah is celebrating its 25th anniversary this fall.
McCann said he’s watched Utah culture change in those years.
“When Equality Utah was founded, there was very little statewide support for LGBTQ rights across the state of Utah,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Sept. 23. “You know, gay marriage was not legal.”
Since then, marriage equality has been secured, queer and transgender Utahns have won anti-discrimination protections and the state has banned conversion therapy.
McCann said it’s much easier to be openly LGBTQ+ in Utah now than when he was growing up in the ’90s.
“We still have a ways to go and progress to be made, but… I live now in Salt Lake City with my husband, and we have a son, and we have found it to be a really lovely community to live in,” he said. “And I want to do everything I can to make that true for as many people across the state as I possibly can.”
He said it is an “unrelenting battle” to preserve the progress that’s been made.
“Year after year, we see bills that are proposed at the legislature that we, you know, interpret to be really harmful to a lot of people in our community,” he said. “And sometimes we're successful in pushing back on those, or at least weakening them, and sometimes we're not.”
Equality Utah’s annual fundraising gala is Oct. 3 in Salt Lake City.
The organization’s work includes advocating at the Legislature and educating students and professionals about LGBTQ+ issues.
