St. George • Greater than per week after a gunman killed 5 folks and wounded 19 others at a homosexual nightclub in Colorado, members of the LGBTQ neighborhood within the St. George space are experiencing an all-too-familiar emotion: worry.
“I triple-check my doorways at evening to ensure they’re locked,” mentioned St. George resident and LGBTQ advocate Katheryne Knight. “I additionally discuss to my buddies greater than I ever have and ensure they’re OK, and I’ve to pay attention to who’s round me always.”
Toquerville resident Amberlyn Storey is contemplating shopping for a gun — not a lot for herself, however out of worry of what would possibly occur to others within the LGBTQ neighborhood. Others have mentioned they’re hunkering down of their residences and houses, avoiding public occasions that might make them a goal.
Knight and others say the feedback of some St. George Metropolis Council members, particularly Councilwoman Michelle Tanner, and different political leaders have stoked worry and hatred in opposition to drag exhibits. That, they consider, has put the queer neighborhood in danger.
To buttress their issues, some cite Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s recent Twitter post concerning the tragedy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“If you happen to’re a politician or media determine who units up the LGBTQ neighborhood to be hated and feared — not as a result of any of us ever harmed you however since you discover it helpful — then don’t you dare act shocked when this type of violence follows. Don’t you dare act shocked,” tweeted Buttigieg, the primary brazenly homosexual presidential Cupboard member to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Whereas Buttigieg was not particularly referring to anybody in southern Utah, members of the native LGBTQ neighborhood say he would possibly as nicely have been.
“I see a direct correlation between what occurred in Colorado Springs and what’s occurring right here,” mentioned Dana Henry Martin, a Toquerville author who’s nonbinary and sexually fluid. “Hateful speech can incite hateful actions. We’ve had quite a lot of hateful speech right here these days. Phrases and labels can flip to violence within the blink of a watch. I worry we’re on the cusp of that proper now in southern Utah.”
What Martin and others are referring to is the furor over drag exhibits, particularly the “We’re right here” drag present that HBO staged June 3 at St. George’s City Sq. Park. After St. George Metropolis Supervisor Adam Lenhard refused to buckle to the Metropolis Council’s demand that he revoke the allow for the occasion, he was pressured to resign and given $625,000 as a part of a confidential settlement settlement to keep away from what might have been a pricey lawsuit for wrongful termination.
Knight remembers the worry she felt going to a Metropolis Council assembly final summer time to voice assist for drag exhibits.
“I left a message on my laptop computer telling my household that I beloved them,” she mentioned. “I didn’t know if I’d return dwelling as a result of folks had been threatening [the LGBTQ community]. It has at all times felt like when you attempt to get up for the LGBTQ neighborhood your life goes to be in danger.”
Morgan Barrick, operations director of Satisfaction of Southern Utah, mentioned the already heated ambiance in St. George grew much more tense in September when protesters disrupted the annual Satisfaction Pageant at St. George’s City Sq. Park.
“They determined to dam the stage with their large indicators, saying issues like ‘Homo intercourse is sin,’ ‘You’re going to hell,’ and ‘You’re a risk to nationwide safety,’ ” Barrick mentioned.
A gathering of the Liberty Motion Coalition, which the Institute for Analysis and Schooling on Human Rights just lately listed as a far-right extremist group, additional roiled feelings. Throughout her remarks on the October assembly, coalition founder Patricia Kent displayed footage of youth at a pleasure occasion in St. George.
“That is alleged to be the brand new thrilling way of life and everyone’s alleged to like it. They’re grooming our youngsters for immoral satanic worship,” mentioned Kent, who’s the nationwide chair of the Impartial American Get together and a write-in candidate who misplaced her bid for the Washington County clerk/auditor’s place on Nov. 8.
A former instructor within the Washington County Faculty District, Kent resigned in 1996 and had her educating certificates suspended on June 30, 2000, The Tribune reported Monday, for unprofessional conduct and having inappropriate and overly acquainted relationships with college students. Kent maintains she did nothing fallacious.
Such occasions might need introduced tensions about drag exhibits and LGTBQ points to the floor, however Storey mentioned they’ve been simmering in southern Utah for a very long time.
“My automobile, which has homosexual stickers on it, has been tampered with on a number of events,” mentioned Storey, a Secure Zone coach in southern Utah who presents free workshops to assist companies and neighborhood members higher perceive LGBTQ tradition and terminology and how you can hold folks protected if issues come up.
Storey is not any stranger to brushes with bigots in St. George.
“I’ve had folks pull up alongside me [in their vehicles] waving their MAGA hats and honking and screaming at me,” Storey continued. “I’ve had folks inform me on three completely different events whereas ready in a Costco fuel line that I used to be courageous for having homosexual bumper stickers. That doesn’t occur in California or Washington [state]. They couldn’t care much less about my stickers there.”
An brazenly queer particular person is uncommon in Toquerville, and Storey mentioned many individuals say inappropriate issues once they meet her. As an example, one dwelling well being care nurse tending to her ailing father was not vaccinated and mentioned COVID vaccines and boosters modified folks’s DNA and made them homosexual.
“I requested her, “Wouldn’t everyone who bought the shot be homosexual, then?’” Storey recalled. “And he or she couldn’t give you a solution for that.”
‘We’re Right here’ screening
As unhealthy because the local weather for the queer neighborhood has been, some worry it might get even worse. After Tanner and Liberty Motion Coalition members lambasted Utah Tech for permitting LGBT college students to host a drag present on campus, Sarah Ostler, president of the LGBTQ Membership at Utah Tech, mentioned college police added additional safety at such occasions. She mentioned she was slated to satisfy with the college’s interim police chief, Ron Bridge, this week to debate beefing up safety much more on the membership’s weekly occasions.
One other potential flashpoint for violence is the screening of the HBO “We’re Right here” drag present that was filmed in St. George, which can be proven on the Sundown Megaplex Theatre on Dec. 7.
Micah Barrick, Morgan’s husband and government director of Satisfaction of Southern Utah, mentioned some locally have reservations about attending the screening.
“Lots of people are very afraid, particularly with quite a lot of the unfavorable rhetoric concerning the LGBTQ neighborhood coming from members of our Metropolis Council,” Micah Barrick mentioned. “They’re fearful that a number of the issues which might be being mentioned in St. George might probably incite [violence like what happened in Colorado Springs].”
Satisfaction of Southern Utah leaders say they’re working with St. George police to make sure there’s additional safety on the “We’re Right here” screening and at future occasions.
St. George police couldn’t be reached for remark.
For her half, Martin would love metropolis officers and neighborhood leaders to decide on their phrases extra fastidiously.
“Solid apart what’s not working, like calling the LGBTQ+ neighborhood evil,” she mentioned. “Cease pondering this doesn’t have an effect on you when you’re not LGBTQ+. This impacts everybody. I’m begging folks to appreciate that earlier than a tragedy involves St. George, one none of us will ever recuperate from.
“The LGBTQ+ neighborhood is devastated throughout the nation and right here in southern Utah,” she added. “We’re all coping with our emotions and grief in our personal method. It’s exhausting to be known as to reply, time and time once more, to these kind of tragedies. The LGBTQ+ neighborhood can’t do that work alone — the troublesome, not possible work of making an attempt to dwell absolutely on the one hand and making an attempt to remain alive on the opposite.”
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