For the third year in a row, Mormons Building Bridges will not be allowed to march in the annual Days of ’47 parade, a celebration of the achievements of today and yesterday’s pioneers.

Organizers of this parade — which is the largest and most heavily attended parade in Utah — said they were concerned about the inherent political agenda of the group, whose mission is to strengthen ties between the Mormon and LGBTQ+ communities.

“We’re nonpartisan. We don’t take a position on any issue,” said parade organizer Greg James. “We wouldn’t have the Mormons Building Bridges float in there any more than we’d have the NRA or something else that might turn people off.”

It seems unfair that a group, whose mission is to unite and unify communities, is not allowed to participate in a celebration that aims to do just that; to unite Utahns. In light of the rejection of MBB’s parade application, it appears that the message of Days of ’47 has been forgotten.

The claim that MBB is a politically motivated and controversial group falls apart under close examination. The group’s website explicitly states that MBB does not represent any political party or caucus. Their “agenda” is to convey love and acceptance to the LGBTQ+ community.

The MBB website states that, “The MBB community asserts that all our sisters and brothers are inherently worthy of love and belonging in our homes, congregations, and communities, no matter where their life path may take them.”

Their goal of love and acceptance appears to be right in line with Days of ’47’s mission to honor the people of Utah “whose vision has led to new innovations, progress, industry and excellence that uplifts and benefits humanity.”

Why is being gay seen as a political stance, but religious affiliation isn’t? The parade partners with and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Moreover, as the parade application states, religious floats are exempt from the $300 participation fee other groups and businesses pay. Homosexuality isn’t an ideology. It is a sexual preference, and that’s it. Religion, on the other hand, can tell you about a person’s ethics, motivations and stances on social issues such as gay marriage, on which the LDS church has made its position clear.

It doesn’t seem as if parade organizers are disinterested in politics, it just seems like they prefer the socially conservative politics of the LDS church.

Furthermore, in light of events as recent as the Orlando shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub, hostility towards gay and trans people masquerading as nonpartisanship seems to be in especially poor taste. Even in 2016, to be gay, or to otherwise deviate from heteronormativity, is to put your life in real danger. Forty-nine lesbian, gay and genderqueer sisters and brothers were lost overnight in what will historically be known as the greatest mass shooting in U.S. history. Days before Orlando, a woman was charged with arson after a bomb exploded in a Target bathroom, likely in response to Target’s recently updated transgender bathroom policy. Historically and contemporarily, the LGBTQ+ community is an oppressed one. It needs strength and solidarity now more than ever.

By rejecting MBB’s parade application, organizers have demonstrated that they have forgotten, reimagined or otherwise abandoned the original message and purpose of the event.

If it is controversial to embrace and support a marginalized group, it may be time to reconsider our definition of controversy. Or hopefully, by 2017, being gay will be uncontroversial enough to permit participation and inclusion in the celebration of Utah’s struggles and accomplishments.

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