Over the weekend, I encountered someone online saying they had spent a lifetime “marinated in trauma.”
In my lifetime, I have always felt the acute sting of this very harsh reality deep in my bones. From a very young age, I had built up a callus of sorts to loss and exclusion. Still, I was entirely unprepared for the gut-wrenching pain emerging in my stomach as I walked into my office on March 10, just a few days after the closing of the 2025 Utah Legislative Session.
HB77 is set to be signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox shortly. It ostensibly makes it against the law for any individual to display certain flags on Utah property. In April, the Ogden City Council (except Council members Marcia White and Angela Choberka) voted in favor of an initiative led by Council member Richard Hyer and Mayor Ben Nadolski to do the same thing but only on Ogden’s flagpoles.
They are saying the quiet part out loud, and they are erasing our pride. Do they want to erase us, too?
I once wrote about the tremendous compassion that arose in Ogden City after my husband and I were the targets of a senseless act of violence when our very own pride flag was burned as it hung on the awning of our porch. In response, I wrote, “... out of the ashes of violence, love will prevail…” In this piece, I discussed the Human Rights Commission’s Municipal Equality Index Score, which awarded Ogden a failing grade of 58 out of 100 in 2022. Today, in 2025, the score has dropped by a point to 57 out of 100. As you can see, nothing has changed; it’s worsened.
Ogden is losing the fight for equality for our community, and in that loss, we are leaving behind our most vulnerable.
Is this the Ogden Way we hope to find together as a city?
There is a near-constant battle fatigue of existence as resistance in who I am. If you know, you know. As I sat in silence in my office — unable to find my voice — I reflected on loss.
There is an unspeakable loss in my soul in bearing witness to how our elected leaders aim to visibly remove any symbols or mention of our LGBTQIA+ communities in public landscapes, flagpoles and cubicles alike.
We are seeing a loss of compassion, empathy, care, dedication, authenticity and duty to public service as a profession at every level of government — a near-total erosion of public trust in the very institutions tasked with maintaining the quality of our lives holistically.
While I may no longer be able to hang a “rectangular piece of fabric” in my office, thanks to Rep. Trevor Lee and Sen. Daniel McKay, I have not lost my pride.
I still hope that love will prevail, as I once wrote, believe it or not. It’s just a hope that hurts a little more today than yesterday.
(Taylor N. Knuth) Taylor N. Knuth is a passionate community leader and public servant for the State of Utah.
Taylor N. Knuth is a passionate community leader and public servant for the State of Utah.
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