But Saturday evening, Ogden Pride organizers and allies rallied at the Ogden Amphitheater to express urgency about the situation the LGBTQ+ community is facing and proclaimed that Pride will not be quiet. This fit into this year’s festival theme “Pride Cannot Be Silenced.”

Sean Childers-Gray — board president and festival director for Ogden Pride — said while it hasn’t been the easiest time for the LGBTQ+ community, it continues to stand its ground.

“This year, especially, has not been easy at all,” he said. “If you have felt the heaviest, heaviest, heaviest of things, you’re not alone in that. But, they say ‘No,’ we say, ‘F— off!’ They say, ‘No,’ we say, ‘We will stand anyways.’ They say, ‘No,’ and we say, ‘Do you remember Stonewall and the history in which that came out?’ Because I remember that we won and that we continue to win.”

Bonnie O’Brien of Salt Lake City Pride said it’s important for people in the community to have conversations with others that may not necessarily see eye-to-eye.

“You telling your story, you having a conversation … with someone might bring them closer to understanding who you are and where you come from,” she said. “It might get them to not say, ‘That’s so gay,’ or ‘That’s so retarded.’ or fill in any other word, and it might give them a second to question what they’ve been doing and understanding the power that their language has to make you a more inclusive community or to shut you down.”

Bobby Childers — father of Sean Childers-Gray — repeated something he’d seen on Facebook about the importance of not staying silent.

“It said, ‘If we stay silent, we will be hiding in somebody’s attic,'” he said. “Powerful, and that is something that I have been spreading. If we go back to 1930s Germany and we stay silent, either we’re going to be hiding somebody in our attic or we’re going to be in someone else’s attic. Don’t let it happen. Do not let that happen. Stand up, be proud of who you are. We can not be silenced, we won’t be silenced and we need to let the Radical Right know that we are not going away, that we will not let you harm our family. We will not let you come after us without a fight. We are done being submissive. We are done letting you roll over us with your rules, your regulations, your laws — so-called laws — we can not let that happen.”

Chad Call of the Utah Pride Center said much has changed with the shifting political climate in Utah.

“Like it or not, our community lost some significant battles this year,” he said. “Our joy’s been challenged, our identities have been legislated, our stories have been pushed out of classrooms, our flags have been pulled down from city halls — not every city hall.”

However, he said there is still hope.

“Silencing our community has never worked,” he said. “It never will work. Not here in Ogden. Not in Utah and not anywhere.”

Project Rainbow’s Jacey Grace rounded out the evening of speakers, stating it’s important to keep other forgotten and neglected communities in mind.

“Just (30) years ago, it was illegal for me to wear cross-gender clothing,” Grace said. “We were all illegal as queers in this country, and they’re trying to get us back to that, so we have to be aware of the intersections of incarceral backgrounds, of our immigrant community our survivors of AIDS, we have to stand stronger and louder for them because they’re getting forgotten. And there’s no way we can do that without community, and it starts with empowering our youth, empowering ourselves and finding community.”

For more on Ogden Pride, visit https://www.ogdenpride.org/.