Coverage of Utah Pride 2006

Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune:

The political awakening of Utah's LGBT community started, [Sen. Scott] McCoy said, with the 2004 passage of Amendment 3, which placed a ban on same-sex civil marriage in the Utah Constitution.

"That was the point at which the gay community said, 'That's it, that's enough,'" McCoy said. With groups like Equality Utah organizing to fight Amendment 3, "it allowed us to have meaningful conversations with our straight neighbors. ... And all that is now focused on the political process."

Much of that focus Sunday was on President George W. Bush's drive, including a White House event today, to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage.

Patrick Guerriero, national president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay members of the GOP, urged festival attendees to call the White House switchboard and their senators to tell them to "stop wasting time in Washington, and messing with my family and my Constitution."