It started in 2015 with some local high school students. Samuel Cash, then only about 15, and a friend of his wanted to bring a pride festival to St. George since gay marriage had just been legalized across the United States.

It was more of a potluck than a festival that year, Cash said, and only about 100 people came because it happened to hail that day. But it laid the foundation for the following year, when Stephen Lambert helped pull together a pride festival that would result in the formation of Pride of Southern Utah, a nonprofit LGBTQ resource center that Lambert now serves as the director of.

About 1000 people attended in 2016, and it’s only grown since then. Case in point: last year, Lambert said they had close to 2,000 people in attendance.

This year, the “free and family friendly” pride festival will be held on Sept. 21 at Town Square Park (50 S. Main St., St. George) from 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

It will be preceded by a week’s worth of activities in St. George and Cedar City, from an interfaith service on Sunday night to a drag show on Friday night.

Pride week, which will run from Sept.15 through the festival on Sept. 21, will also feature pride flags from Project Rainbow, a nonprofit that stakes pride flags across residences and businesses in Utah.

Project Rainbow founder Lucas Horns said they work with pride festivals all over the state. People pay $15 to have a pride flag put outside their homes or businesses, and volunteers put them up the weekend before local pride festivals and take them down right after. All proceeds go toward local LGBTQ centers in the area of each project.

This is Pride of Southern Utah’s second time working with Project Rainbow, and though the deadline to get a flag for St. George’s pride week has now passed, Lambert said people can always donate to Pride of Southern Utah through their website.

Horns said there will be about 150 pride flags in St. George during pride week, part of the 2,000 flags they’ve put up around the state this year.

A political issue?

Project Rainbow and Pride of Southern Utah haven’t avoided their share of controversy. For example, Horns said Project Rainbow sometimes get messages telling them to stop forcing their beliefs on people.

“But you know, we’re not forcing beliefs on anyone. We’re just allowing people who support the LGBTQ community to do so publicly,” he said.

More recently, Larry Meyers, a local attorney and former U.S. Senate candidate, shared on Facebook an email from St. George Councilwoman Michele Randall to a constituent.

In the email, Randall expresses being unhappy with the Pride of Southern Utah banners hung on St. George Boulevard. Lambert said Pride of Southern Utah put the banners up on Sept. 9 and they will stay up until the 23rd.

“I believe the LGBT community has the right to have their annual pride event,” Randall wrote in the email. “I wish their agenda didn’t have to be political. … We, as a city council, need to look at our (banner) ordinance and see what can be done to prevent political statements from being made in the future.”

As of Sept. 13, the Facebook post has nearly 200 comments. Some express support for limiting what banners can be hung in the city, while others argue against restricting free speech.

Some comments also suggest hanging "MAGA" or "Trump banners." One man wrote that he has ordered 100 Trump flags for a “Trump Pride” week and is interested in completing the paperwork for hanging them in the city.

Randall has not returned requests for comment to The Spectrum, but she commented on Meyer’s Facebook post.

“I don't want to see straight pride banners either!” she wrote. “I think political/special interest groups have no business putting banners on those poles. My opinion is we limit the banners to city-sponsored events!”

Randall’s email states that the current city ordinances don’t prevent the banners from being displayed. The city’s temporary advertising banner permit application shows a nonprofit organization like Pride of Southern Utah only needs to produce the necessary documentation, such as proof of 501(c)3 status, to receive the permit.

In an interview, Meyers said he thinks the problem with the Pride of Southern Utah banners is that they give the impression that the city endorses a certain political message.

“And it’s not just these banners, but it could be any banner,” he said. “There could be other groups that come in with things that maybe don’t reflect our community and values.”

He said the LGBTQ pride movement is “inherently political” because it’s pushing for changes in the law that give LGBTQ people favorable treatment in areas such as employment and victims’ rights in criminal prosecutions.

“I don’t agree with giving special treatment to certain lifestyles, and so I don’t agree with that type of legislation,” he said.

Lambert, however, said there’s nothing political about Pride of Southern Utah.

“We are personally not out there trying to change policy,” he said. “We’re out there providing a place of love and support for the LGBTQ community.”

Horns added there’s nothing political about the pride flag, either, because it’s a symbol of inclusion; it shows that humanity is a spectrum and everyone lies somewhere on it.

“It’s simply to recognize the diversity of the community,” he said.

Power in Unity

This year’s pride week theme is “Power in Unity,” which Lambert said means coming together as a community and having “synergy” to create a sense of love and family.

“My hope is that we… (can) just really be able to learn from each other, listen to each other and appreciate each other,” Lambert said.

He said the biggest issue facing the LGBTQ community right now is being misunderstood, especially among youth.

“There is a lot of younger people in the small-town culture that are still afraid,” he said. “They don’t know how they fit in, and they just need to know that there is a place for them and that there is a community of love here.”

He said the best way to support the local LGBTQ community is listening to, learning about and loving them. This includes being careful about making any jokes or derogatory comments because anyone could be listening.

Horns, with Project Rainbow, said one of the biggest ways people can support the LGBTQ community is by being vocal about that support.

“You know and love an LGBTQ person whether you realize it or not,” he said.

He said the best part of Project Rainbow has been seeing LGBTQ people learn that they have supportive neighbors.

“It makes communities feel more safe and more loving for a lot of people, especially in these smaller town prides,” he said.

Kaitlyn Bancroft reports on faith, health, education and under-served communities for The Spectrum & Daily News, a USA TODAY Network newsroom in St. George, Utah. She's a graduate of Brigham Young University's journalism program, and has previously written for The Denver Post, The Daily Universe, Deseret News and the Davis Clipper. You can reach her at KBancroft@thespectrum.com, or follow her on Twitter @katbancroft.