LGBT Friendly Salt Lake

Yes, Salt Lake IS a great place for the LGBT Community. Though Utah as a whole is conservative by nature, the Salt Lake metro area is quite ethnically diverse and gay friendly. In fact, the 2010 Census ranks Salt Lake #3 for gay couple households in mid-sized U.S. cities. A past mayor (Rocky Anderson) and current mayor (Ralph Becker) have embraced the gay community and received its support for their platforms and initiatives. Mayor Becker helped pass a bill that prohibits LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

   Visit Salt Lake is a member of IGLTA.

Gay Pride Parade

Since beginning in 1983, Salt Lake's annual Gay Pride Parade and Celebration  event has grown to a 3-day festival with national headliners. The annual three-day festival features numerous events and festivities in downtown Salt Lake and draws tens of thousands of both gay and straight people to celebrate the diverse lifestyles and multicultural make-up of Salt Lake and the state of Utah. Recent attendance reached well over 25,000 people — the parade is the second most attended parade in the entire state, and is the largest Pride festival in the Intermountain West.

Utah Pride Festival Grand Marshalls
2012: Dustin Lance Black, Screenwriter/Director/Academy Award Winner
2011: Roseanne Barr, Actress/Comedian
2010: Sister Dottie S. Dixon, Actor
2009: Cleve Jones, Human Rights Activist/Author/Lecturer
2008: Mayor Ralph Becker, Mayor Salt Lake City

Utah Pride Center

The annual Utah Pride Festival is a program of the Utah Pride Center. The center is a community-based organization that provides support, education, outreach, and advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals and their allies, through programs, services, and resources throughout Salt Lake and the state of Utah.

The Utah Pride Center helps to provide LGBT people and their families and friends living in Utah with a vast array of services. Many programs and services are generated through collaborations with other community organizations and allies operating in the broader Utah community. By establishing formal partnerships with various community-based organizations through the affiliate and sponsored programs, the Center is able to bring together the vast resources of the community to one central place.

LGBT Resources and Links

Utah Pride Center - Resources and listings
     LGBT Bars & Clubs
     LGBT Calendar of Events
Utah Pride Festival

Q Salt Lake - Utah's Gay and Lesbian News & Entertainment Magazine
Gay Nightlife - SaltLakeCity.com's listing of Gay & Lesbian Bars
HRC.org - Human Rights Campaign for LBGT equality in Utah
Stonewall Dems - Democrats for equal rights for Utah's LGBT communities and their families
Log Cabin Utah - Republicans who support fairness, freedom, and equality for LGBT Americans.
Equality Utah-  Working to secure equal rights and protections for LGBT Utahns and their families.

What Others Say about LGBT friendly Salt Lake

Don't just take our word for it. Here are some things that online guides and magazines say about Salt Lake as a LGBT friendly destination.

Salt Lake has a vibrant and active local gay community and was recently named the #1 Gayest City in America by The Advocate. 

As About.com put it, "Utah's gay community is out and thriving with gay neighborhoods popping up in the Marmalade area west of Capitol Hill, in the 9th & 9th neighborhood, and downtown."

Gay Cities, Your Gay City Guide explained Salt Lake this way: "Salt Lake is probably most known for it's neighboring ski slopes and as the home of the Church of Latter Day Saint's largest temple, but Salt Lake City itself (unlike small town Utah) does not have a Mormon majority and seeks to broaden its appeal."

Fodor's book, the Gay Guide to the USA, lists Utah as the "darling" of the Rockies and states that "Salt Lake has a highly active and visible gay community."

The Salt Lake Tribune, when reporting on Salt Lake being #3 for gay couples in America's mid-size cities said "Gay people in Utah come to Salt Lake City because it's almost like an island of liberal progressives in a sea of conservative Mormon culture."