Claudia Bradshaw (who had started a local PFLAG chapter in order to raise awareness and support her family) contacted Linda Stay to ask if she wanted to march in a PRIDE parade in Springdale.

Not knowing anything about this event — but wanting to show allyship and acceptance for her queer children — Linda and her husband Steve made some “infamous” posters and attended the parade and festival.

At the festival, Linda connected with Chris McArdle who, with a small group, organized the Pride Festival and the organization: Southern Utah Pride. The event was held in Springdale because St. George City would not allow it.

After a few years of celebration the Springdale PRIDE festival stopped running (due to changes in leadership) and PRIDE presence in our area virtually disappeared for many years.

In 2011, we saw a small resurgence of fundraising and awareness building in the area as Linda Stay began to work with Equality Utah to organize an annual “Equality Celebration”. The first event was held at Kayenta Art Village.

The dinner and fundraiser was a warm, welcoming environment and a huge success. Linda continued to work with Equality Utah on those events until 2019.

Linda saw a Facebook event posted for a small pride festival to be held in June in St. George. Shortly after, she was asked to assist and quickly recruited some members of the community who shared a similar mission and vision of inclusivity and equality in the region.

In a matter of 2 short weeks Linda Stay, Stephen Lambert, Elise West, and many other volunteers assembled St. George’s very first PRIDE Festival. The festival included a parade at Vernon Worthen park and performances from local artists and venues, like Tuacahan.

It was expected that around 200 people would gather, but the crowd grew to over 1,000 people. This was evidence of the need for LGBTQ+ people to have a place to come together and celebrate with the support of their community and allies.

Very shortly after the PRIDE festival took place, our country experienced the deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQ+ people in the United States: the PULSE Nightclub shooting.

The organizers of the PRIDE festival held a vigil in honor of the victims of the shooting. St. George mayor Jon Pike attended. Jon Pike continued to show up as an advocate for the community throughout his time in office. He was a huge reason why PRIDE in this area was able to gain traction.

In 2017, Stephen Lambert moved into the primary leadership role for PRIDE. He quickly involved Katie Perkins and Lisa Wucherpfennig and the trio would continue to oversee the organization through 2022, when they stepped down to pursue other advocacy work in the community.

During this time, it was decided that PRIDE month in Southern Utah would take place in September.

Under this leadership, Pride of Southern Utah began to leverage an already established 501c3 organization (Arts Inc.) in order to begin accepting charitable donations and operating as a non-profit organization.

In 2020, our country faced the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted PRIDE activities while social distancing and large group gatherings were put on hold. Pride of Southern Utah was dormant during the majority of this time.

In 2022, after COVID-19 restrictions had been loosened, Pride of Southern Utah made a resurgence (under the new leadership of Micah and Morgan Barrick).

It was during this time that Pride of Southern Utah officially established as an independent 501c3 non-profit — a huge step for the organization's growth and foundation for the future. An official board of directors was elected at that time.

With little time to plan and execute and a small committee of volunteers, the 2022 PRIDE festival was held in St. George Town Square, in September.

In early 2023, Pride of Southern Utah experienced another change in leadership when Micah and Morgan stepped down to pursue other endeavors.

With the foundation laid and a solid team of volunteers to collaborate with, Katie Methe was elected as the new Executive Director.

Katie created an executive committee to look after specific functions of the organization and to maximize time and efficiency.

The organization has focused much of 2023 on creating a plethora of community events and cultivating important partnerships.