Year after infuriating year, the Utah State Legislature votes on new bills targeting trans people and DEI efforts, bills like H.B. 257 and H.B. 261 being their newest forms of terrorization. Meanwhile, they do nothing to improve Utahns’ quality of life, completely ignoring pressing issues like the drying Great Salt Lake and the conditions of our unsheltered community members.
And each year, the legislature runs those with skin in the game ragged as they attend protests, contact legislators and organize tirelessly to defend their rights.
Now, however, Utahns have a chance to be listened to this year. As the preferred host for the 2034 Olympic Winter Games, our state officials have something that can be taken away as easily as the rights they try to take away from others.
Join the collective action to take away Utah’s hosting privileges if it continues to enact its transphobic and racist attacks.
Why the Olympics?
Utah attempted to win the bid for the games four times before in 1995 they were selected to host the 2002 games. It has spent the last ten years begging for the Olympics to come back.
The last time Utah hosted the Olympics, the games put the state on the world’s radar. Since then, it has profited off this attention, bringing in companies, tourism and a wave of new residents. Utah organizers knew this would be the case, considering they bribed International Olympic Committee officials in an international scandal.
The LDS church even minimized its presence and involvement for once, going so far as to send out edicts to its members to cease promoting their views during the games. The church quieted down to improve Utah’s public image — and it worked. It received so much undeserved positive global coverage.
It stands to reason that a lot hinges on events like the Olympics. But Utah and the church are not the only ones getting a second chance to prove themselves. It’s time to expose just how over-involved and harmful the church truly is, particularly in state politics.
The Strategy
“Much would have to go wrong for the Olympics not to come to Utah after the Olympic committee announcement,” wrote The Salt Lake Tribune. Well, much has gone wrong, and the International Olympic Committee should know about it.
The Black Menaces, a Utah-based activist group, released a video calling for Utahns and non-Utahns alike to put pressure on the Olympics to threaten withdrawal. With the Olympics’ dedication to DEI, particularly under its new president, bringing Utah’s hostility toward trans people and people of color to the attention of the IOC could be a viable form of action.
To do so, people can submit a request using this link to express their concerns regarding Utah’s hostile culture and request the Olympics to put pressure on Utah.
As Mohammad N. of Arabs in Utah said, “If Utah state is gonna pass any laws or bills that are going to impact or discriminate against any group of people, either based on gender or based on sexual orientation or any kind of feature, I don’t think Utah deserves to host the Olympics.”
Ermiya Fanaeian of Armed Queers SLC expressed a similar sentiment.
“I don’t think anywhere in America does,” Fanaeian said. “I think so long as America is funding a genocide, so long as America does nothing about these anti-trans attacks … then they need to be held accountable. They need to face consequences for doing so. I think America should feel a lot of shame at this moment. And I think the world should hold it to account to feel that shame.”
Hit Them Where It Hurts
One of the most attention-grabbing protests for Palestinian liberation was the disruption of the iconic Sundance film festival, organized by several community grassroots organizers like Arabs in Utah and Armed Queers SLC. The protest made headlines in prominent newspapers like Variety, the Los Angeles Times and Teen Vogue, and according to Mohammad N., received international attention.
“It got the highest media attention of all our rallies and protests,” he said.
It’s clear that to make our legislators pay even an ounce of attention to any meaningful issue, we must make their pockets hurt — or at least inconvenience their ability to load them up further. Public image matters to them.
If the Black Menaces’ campaign to rightfully tarnish Utah’s public image proved successful, this wouldn’t be the first time the state found itself in hot water with the IOC. The Olympics had to radically change the way they ran the Olympic bid process due to Utah’s scandalous behavior in the 90s. There’s no better way to ensure Utah receives the global attention it so craves a second time than causing a ruckus about its disgustingly transphobic and racist legislature.
Utah officials will spend the next ten years sweeping problems under the rug just like they did last time. Even now, they’re putting off any solutions for the Great Salt Lake. And, if the NBA All-Stars game is anything to go by, they’re just going to further push aside unhoused Utahns to fake that sparkly Utah image. It’s insulting, and the public cannot allow them to get away with these false pretenses again.
Utah must hold itself accountable, or risk losing its coveted position as a host.
a.lezaic@dailyutahchronicle.com
The post Lezaic: Hit Utah Where It Hurts first appeared on The Daily Utah Chronicle.