Troy Williams and Marina Lowe’s Jan. 24 op-ed (“Utah’s latest effort to ban certain flags won’t help students or educators”) about protecting LGBTQ+ students rings hollow given Equality Utah’s track record. While they eloquently write about student safety and inclusion, their actions — or rather, inactions — tell a different story.
Equality Utah helped elect Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson to office during their first campaign in 2020. While they didn’t endorse the pair’s campaign, the Equality Utah PAC helped to fund it (See 2020 disclosures tab.)
Since then, the governor has systematically dismantled crucial LGBTQ+ protection programs across state institutions, including schools. More troublingly, when Cox, during the heated 2024 Republican primary, deployed militarized police forces from four jurisdictions to suppress peaceful student protesters at the University of Utah — including LGBTQ+ students and allied community groups — Equality Utah maintained a conspicuous silence.
This selective advocacy raises serious questions. How can an organization claim to champion LGBTQ+ student safety while remaining mute when those same students face state-sanctioned intimidation? The authors’ concerns about “schools as battlefields” take on a darker meaning when we recall their silence as actual police forces were deployed against peaceful student protesters.
If Equality Utah truly believes that “every young Utahn belongs in our schools,” as their op-ed claims, they must demonstrate this through consistent action, not just carefully worded essays when politically convenient.
Alex Thompson, Riverton
