I hope y’all are staying warm out there! More news is coming in as we all emerge from our holiday hiding places. Today I’m delivering some news about a high school Pride Prom happening tomorrow, Logan Youth Shakespeare’s upcoming performances, ways to get involved in your community this week, and what we know heading into Utah’s next legislative session. We are also good to go to meet on Tuesday, January 28th!
So, get cozy and prepare for 2025 with us!
Table of Contents
What’s Happening in January
Flyer for Pride Prom on January 11th
This Saturday: Pride Prom!
We are excited to announce that Logan High School's GSA is hosting a Valley-Wide Pride Prom for high school aged students!
Event Details:
Date: Saturday, January 11
Time: 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Location: Logan High School
Cost: Free!
This event is a celebration of diversity, inclusion, and community, and all are welcome to join us for an evening of fun, music, and dancing.
Please spread the word to anyone you know!
Logan Youth Shakespeare presents:
Twelfth Night
Come see all the hard work these young folks have been putting in!
January 31 at 6:30 pm
February 1 at 2 pm
February 3 at 6:30 pm
February 4 at 6:30 pm
All performances will be in the Bullen Center at 43 South Main Street in Logan.
Tickets are available in advance at loganyouthshakespeare.org. You can also purchase your tickets at the door. All tickets are “pay what you will”. Cash/Check/Paypal are all accepted methods of payment.
Twelfth Night Poster - Logan Youth Shakespeare
Opportunities to Get Involved
The WAB Warming Center needs volunteers!
Join the William A. Burnard Warming Center's mandatory volunteer on-site training on Saturday, January 11th at 9am-11am! We're seeking compassionate volunteers to support our community's most vulnerable members during winter.
This essential training covers organizational overview, the check-in/check-out processes, and a typical night and morning at the center. If you're ready to make a difference and help those in need, please sign up at https://volunteer.bloomerang.co/JE/dv3g98l1j5fdv6
WAB Warming Center Volunteer Flyer
Rainbow Resolutions Flyer
Buy books for Logan Pride!
Bear River Region LGBTQ+ Coalition is running a Rainbow Resolutions Book Drive for Logan Pride!
They are also currently taking suggestions for books you’d like to see at Logan Pride. Take this survey to add your suggestions!
If you want to buy a book for Logan Pride, check out their wishlist and purchase here: https://bookshop.org/wishlists/26f621bd87f98dfa397ef1e8dcb34799b1131189
Looking Ahead: Utah’s Legislative Session
Utah’s 2025 legislative session begins on Tuesday, January 21st and goes for 45 days. Utah has passed several harmful anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the last few legislative sessions, and with the incoming Trump administration, many folks feel anxious about how much bolder legislators may become. Last year, 6 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Utah were signed into law, out of the 11 introduced. Across the country, 671 anti-trans bills were being considered in 2024. Thankfully, only 48 new bills passed.
What to expect this time around
So far, two bills affecting LGBTQ+ individuals have been introduced for Utah’s 2025 legislative session. H.B. 77, “Flag Display Amendments”, aims to restrict which flags are allowed in schools across the state, bars the display of LGBTQ+ flags, and allows parents to sue if they feel people are in violation of this policy. We’ve seen such things happen independently at our local school districts, but legislators want to continue last year’s efforts to make this a unilateral decision.
Here’s a link to the Salt Lake Tribune Article about the bill, saved as a Google Doc so you don’t need a subscription to read it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qKSBAmd-K1KZeOveFuUbCWfT10DBbAT5OZnI2EmfhwA/edit?usp=sharing
H.B. 83, “Child Welfare Modifications”, makes a few changes to child welfare services in the state, but most notably bars child welfare intervention “solely” on the basis of “agreement or disagreement” between parents and their children about their gender identity. This is a blanket policy that on one hand protects families from having child welfare involved just for supporting their child’s gender identity; on the other hand, it restricts intervention solely for a family rejecting their child’s gender identity or enforcing their sex assigned at birth.
Beyond these bills, the months ahead are still a bit of a mystery.
The Utah Senate Majority Caucus announced their 2025 General Session Priorities, which is “powering Utah’s future.” They go on to explain, “This session, the focus will be on advancing policies that strengthen energy, transportation, education, water management and economic growth to keep costs low.” For context, this is not very dissimilar from their stated priorities last year: https://senate.utah.gov/senate-majority-session-priorities-2024/.
The House of Representatives has yet to release their priorities for this legislative session, but you can find out more here: https://house.utleg.gov/about-the-house/.
What can you do?
We do have the power to do something. It can just feel a bit overwhelming to start. The biggest thing you can do is communicate with your legislator regularly. As we’re close to the beginning of the session, here are some simple steps to get started this year.
Read up on the bills affecting your life and the issues you care about. This webpage is a helpful home base: https://le.utah.gov/~2025/2025.HTM.
You can subscribe to your favorite Utah newspapers for frequent updates, and check out the legislature’s social media pages as well:
Utah Senate, @utahsenate: https://www.instagram.com/utahsenate/?hl=en# and https://www.facebook.com/utahsenate/
Utah House of Representatives, @utahreps: https://www.instagram.com/utahreps/?hl=en# and https://www.facebook.com/UtahHouseReps/
You can also follow accounts on social media who are keeping their ears to the ground on LGBTQ+ issues in Utah, such as:
Equality Utah links: https://solo.to/equalityutah
ACLU Utah links: https://linktr.ee/acluutah
Planned Parenthood Action Council Utah links: https://linktr.ee/ppactionutah
FAM Utah: https://linktr.ee/fam_utah
Check in regularly with ACLU and Trans Legislation Tracker to see what bills Utah is considering.
Make sure you know who your legislators are! You can look them up here: https://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp. Make sure you use your actual address; just going by zip code, I wouldn’t have known that the people across the street from me have a different Utah state senator than me!
Also consider: What bills are they sponsoring? What committees are they on? Do you feel like the work they’re doing represents YOU?
Contact your legislators!
Come up with a script that talks about who you are, what you care about, and what you think they should do to represent you well this session. If you can mention specific bills directly, and ask them to take a specific action (like “vote no on H.B. 77”), that tends to be more helpful.
Reach them by: send them an email, calling them directly or leaving a voicemail, arranging an in-person meeting to chat, or even providing your testimony during the bill’s hearing
You can also access check out FAM Utah’s wonderful advocacy primer for more detailed guidance: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6265dccec3c65c1c294fce2a/t/662eb2f90446fb1a0d86da36/1714336511761/New+Layout.pdf
We are hoping to create more opportunities for folks to practice writing to legislators in the next few weeks. If you have any experience or recommendations, please email us at [email protected]!
Thanks for reading! We look forward to seeing you on January 28th!
Remember to be on the lookout for upcoming opportunities to get involved through our social media pages!
