Pride Fest Seeking Allies in Fight for Rights
The Salt Lake City Tribune
By Rosemary Winters
June 5, 2009
Event typically draws thousands downtown for parade,
parties and politics.
The Utah Pride Center wants attendees of this
week's pride festival to bring more than rainbow
flags and sunblock. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender revelers have an assignment: Bring a
straight friend.
"Our allies are very important to us," says
Michael Westley, spokesman for the pride center.
"Blacks didn't get equal rights until whites took
action. Women didn't get the vote until men voted to
give them the vote. We need our allies now."
Riding a surge of activism after the passage --
and last week's California Supreme Court validation
-- of Proposition 8, the Golden State's
voter-approved, gay-marriage ban, organizers of the
Utah Pride Festival are placing extra emphasis on
political action in the event's 26th year.
The theme: "Pride. Voice. Action."
The three-day gathering draws close to 20,000
people each year and boasts a parade eclipsed in
attendance only by Utah's iconic Days of '47
festivities, heralding the arrival of Mormon
pioneers in 1847.
On Sunday, renowned activist Cleve Jones will
lead the pride parade as grand marshal. Jones served
as an intern in the 1970s for Harvey Milk, the slain
San Francisco city supervisor and first openly gay
man to hold a major elected office. Jones, founder
of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, was played by Emile
Hirsch in the 2008 film "Milk."
The pride center and other advocates encourage
Utahns who are gay or transgender to be "out," both
for the individuals' well-being and as a way to
propel greater acceptance of LGBT people and support
for their civil rights.
An Equality Utah poll released earlier this year
found that 70 percent of Utahns know someone who is
gay or transgender, and 83 percent support at least
basic legal protections, such as hospital visitation
and inheritance rights, for same-sex couples.
"Politically, [coming out] is the single most
important step that any of us can take," says Jones,
who will spearhead a political rally on Saturday
amid the usual pop concerts and dance parties of the
festival. "When we reveal our true nature, it
becomes much harder for our friends and families to
take away our rights."
For the first time at the festival, a giant map
will be used to illustrate where, in Utah, attendees
hail from. On the "Pin Me Out" map, one color pin
will be for out, gay Utahns, another for those who
are not out and a third for straight allies.
"This tells us three things: Who we are, where we
are and how we live," Westley says. "It will show us
where we need to do some work."
Matthew Burbank, a University of Utah political
science professor, says pride festivals provide the
gay-rights movement with at least one important
asset: visibility.
"One of the things that helps with any kind of
political movement is that indeed there's a human
face to it," Burbank says. "To the extent that this
becomes an issue about friends and family and people
that you know ... it becomes something that has a
more direct impact on people than if it is seen as
something that involves people you don't know."
Jon Rosky waited until he was 30 years old to
come out to his siblings and parents. But doing so
created an activist in the family: His straight
brother, Cliff.
Cliff Rosky, a University of Utah law professor
who serves on a legal advisory panel for Equality
Utah, plans to do the reverse of the pride center's
request. He's a straight ally who will bring his gay
brother to the festival. The pair plans to march in
Sunday's parade together.
Rosky was 19 when he learned his older brother is
gay. He quit his Amherst College fraternity and
later attended Yale Law School, developing a focus
in sexuality and family law.
"I was surprised that I was participating in a
fraternity that made anti-gay jokes every week,"
Cliff Rosky recalls. "It was a wake-up call that
treating everyone with dignity doesn't always come
naturally. It takes work."
After law school, Rosky practiced in San
Francisco before becoming a research fellow at the
UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, a think
tank devoted to LGBT legal matters. He filed an
amicus brief in the California Supreme Court case
that, temporarily, legalized gay marriage in that
state last year.
"We always think it's kind of funny that in the
family [Cliff's] the straight one, and he grew up
wearing pride flags and living in the Castro," Jon
Rosky says. "I'm living in a semi-rural place [in
New Jersey], where the nearest gay bar is 50 miles
away."
Both brothers have promised, at different times,
to be there for each other.
"It's a very emotional and rewarding feeling to
have someone almost dedicate their life's work to
helping me in an indirect way," Jon Rosky says. "He
certainly could have helped me in many ways and gone
on to be a patent attorney or a tax attorney. He
chose to make this his life's work."
The pride center hopes this year's festival
creates a few more such allies.
rwinters@sltrib.com
Q&A with Cleve Jones
Why did you agree to be grand marshal of the Utah
Pride Parade?
like going to Utah because it's a beautiful state
with very interesting people. But also because Utah
is exactly where people like me need to be working.
We need to show our support for the local community
that is struggling with equality. We need to pay
attention to the lessons they are learning. The
movement is rapidly becoming a national movement.
For us to succeed, our voices need to be heard in
every single congressional district.
What did you think of the Equality Utah's 2009
legislative campaign, the Common Ground Initiative,
that pushed for basic legal protections, short of
marriage, for same-sex couples? All three bills
stalled in the Legislature after opponents argued
such laws could put Utah on a slippery slope to
legalizing gay marriage.
It would put them on a slippery slope -- to
equality. I think these kinds of battles underscore
the necessity for a new strategy. It's time we focus
more of our resources and energy on the federal
government. ... Every time we agree to a compromise,
every time we agree to another delay, we are
compromising our humanity. Why on earth should we
accept fractions of equality? Why on earth would we
accept waiting another decade or more? How many more
generations are going to grow up facing violence and
persecution? It's time to end it. It's time to
decide, as a country, we're going to move beyond
this.
What kind of progress have you seen since you
were marching with Harvey Milk in San Francisco in
the 1970s?
When I came out, it was a felony to be gay. It
was illegal to dance together. There were laws
making it illegal to serve homosexuals in taverns.
We had to struggle just to find places where we
could meet and have coffee together. No one was
talking about winning the right to marry. We were
just trying to get [being gay] decriminalized. Now
we have really strong cohesive communities in every
state.
What advice do you have for a young gay person?
In the '70s, my only advice would have been: Run
away. Now I say stay and fight. ... For those young
people who are contemplating coming out, I would say
they would be happier in the long run if they come
out. If their friends and families don't respond
immediately [with acceptance] then give them some
time. ... People change and grow and learn. My own
parents were pretty upset when I came out. They are
my closest friends today and my biggest supporters.
Rosemary Winters
Utah Pride Festival
Friday » Grand marshal reception and after-party
with Cleve Jones at the Hilton Salt Lake City
Center. Tickets are $75 for the reception, $150 for
the reception and after-party.
Saturday » Festival grounds at Washington Square,
450 S. State St., open at 4 p.m. Comedian Paula
Poundstone and music act Voodoo Box headline. There
will be a rally with Cleve Jones at the Wallace F.
Bennett Federal Building, 125 S. State St., at 4
p.m.
Sunday » Pride Parade starts at 10 a.m. at 300
South and State Street. Festival grounds, featuring
live music, food and vendors, will be open 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m.
