Utah Pride Festival

The Utah Pride Festival is a festival held in downtown Salt Lake City in June, celebrating Utah's diversity and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender populations. The event is a program of The Utah Pride Center. It includes the state's second-largest parade. In 2004 an estimated 50,000 people attended, the largest since the festival began in 1977 when the "Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights" sponsored a three-day conference. Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons (then called "Gay Mormons United") was founded during this conference, on June 11, 1977. The 1978 keynote speakers were David Kopay, the first NFL player to come out of the closet, and Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, an ex-Mormon who was the first out gay person ever to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

In 1988 SLGCC (Salt Lake Gay Community Center) incorporated and became Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah

The First ever Pride Parade was started in 1990 and included a procession of nearly 200. In 1991 The Utah Stonewall Center opened and Pride festivities moved to the Salt Lake County Fairgrounds in Murray, Utah. 1991 saw the start of the Pride Day Art Expo and Competition that awarded the Lesbian and Gay Pride Art Award and the Mapplethorpe Award to local artist

However, in 2005, the first year in which an admission was charged attendance at the festival was between 15,000 and 20,000. Some have attributed this decline to patrons not wanting to pay for the festival. Utah Pride organizers, however, argue that 2005 was the first year in which an accurate method of counting the attendance were employed, and that the numbers did not reflect a drop in attendance.

Aspects of the Utah Pride include the Parade and Festival, a film festival, Dyke March, interfaith service by the Utah Pride Interfaith Coalition, 5K charity run and related parties and receptions.

Participation in the Festival cuts across a broad spectrum of Salt Lakers. Past speakers during the celebration have ranged from Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who was quoted in support of same sex marriage, to Rep. Jackie Biskupski, the state's first openly gay state legislator.

Actress Roseanne Barr served as the Grand Marshal of events for the 2011 festival and it is expected Dustin Lance Black will serve as the 2012 Grand Marshall.

The 2012 festival will include performers Frenchie Davis and Prince Poppycock