The Outsiders Who Built This City
Pride in Utah has always been a strange proposition—equal parts defiance and homesickness. The defiance is the part others see: courtroom fights; legislative skirmishes; rainbow flags going up faster than they come down. The homesickness is the quieter half, the personal reasons why a lot of us, who could have left and lived somewhere easier, didn’t.
I want to start with a confession. For a long time, I thought being from Salt Lake City was something I’d have to apologize for. The Mormon thing. The conservative thing. The “you live where?” from people who imagine us as a punchline.
Somewhere along the way—maybe while knocking doors for a City Council run; or maybe while sitting in a federal courtroom, watching a judge dismantle Utah’s marriage ban—I figured out that being from Salt Lake is the whole point…