Utah’s public transit agency — Utah Transit Authority (UTA) — will not be participating in this year’s Utah Pride Parade, hosted by the Utah Pride Center.
The Utah Transit Authority has opted out of participating in the 2025 Utah Pride Parade, alongside some major corporations.
Utah’s public transit agency — Utah Transit Authority (UTA) — will not be participating in this year’s Utah Pride Parade, hosted by the Utah Pride Center.
Gavin Gustafson, a spokesperson for UTA, said the decision not to participate in this year’s parade is “part of a larger review.”
“UTA’s Board of Trustees and administration [has] implemented a temporary hold on all of the in-kind, ticket-as-fare agreements, and a pause on all participation in festivals and parades for 2025,” Gustafson said.
He added a review of these agreements is “necessary” to “ensure consistency and responsible stewardship of our public funds.”
As a result, Gustafson said the lack of participation is not unique to the Utah Pride Festival. UTA also won’t be participating in other events: like the Utah Arts Festival or the Days of ‘47 Parade.
UTA has a recent history with pride. Last year,it pulled a pride-themed bus from the parade after a group of Republican state lawmakers pressured the agency to do so. The pridebus was instead replaced by a Gillig electric bus.
Gustafson said that the decision not to participate this year wasn’t influenced by any political concerns.
In 2024, 129 groups marched in the parade. In 2025, 128 groups are signed up, but groups like Zions Bank, Deloitte, Chevron, JetBlue, the U.S Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, Mastercard, Petsmart, Verizon and Walmart won’t be participating, according to the Utah Pride Center.
Heidi Prokop, the interim director of marketing and communications for Zions Bank, said their decision not to participate this year came down to a lack of employees registering for the event. Zion’s Bank remains a sponsor for the festival and has offered over 100 free tickets to employees to “amplify attendance,” according to Prokop.
Two local university groups who participated in 2024 will also miss out on the 2025 parade: the Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research at Utah State University and Utah Valley University’s LGBTQ+ Student Services — the latter a casualty of Utah’s anti-DEI law.
The University of Utah took part in the 2024 Pride parade and will be there this year, despite scaling back DEI initiatives, according to the Pride Center.
The Utah Pride Parade is Utah’s “largest LGBTQIA+ event” according to the center. Annually, it hosts nearly 150,000 spectators in downtown Salt Lake City and this year marks the 35th parade.
Chad Call, the center’s executive director, said it typically costs an organization $100-1,000 to participate in the parade, depending on their tax filing status.
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