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Members of the Provo community gather together in support of the first Utah Transgender Pride festival held Saturday, Sep. 28, 2019, at Lions Park in Provo.

Johnny Morris, Special for the Daily Herald

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Genderbands hosts the first Utah Transgender Pride on Saturday, Sep. 28, 2019, at Lions Park in Provo.

Johnny Morris, Special to the Daily Herald

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People work at a crafts table during the 2019 Utah Trans Pride festival. This year’s festival is scheduled for Aug. 12, 2023.

Courtesy Genderbands

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As transgender people have become a more prominent talk of discussion in Utah and across the country, Utah County is preparing for the second in-person Utah Trans Pride to be held on Aug. 12. The festival will be held at Provo’s Memorial Park, 800 East Center Street.

According to organizer Oakley, is designed to bring together the transgender community, allies and others with “an open mind and open heart.”

Oakley, who’s last name is withheld for safety reasons, is the entertainment lead for the nonprofit, Genderbands. Almost all of the performers are members of the LGBTQ+ community and all but one after-show act are local Utahns.

Whatever Mike, the only non-Utahn expected to perform, is a queer artist who Genderband said “is recognized as an inspirational and captivating singer-songwriter who blends genres like indie pop, electronic and hip-hop with a spiritual twist.”

The festival will be held from noon until 6 p.m. with three more hours of performances at the after party, including drag performances and go-go dancers. The 21-and-older after party will be at The Rise in downtown Provo.

While the full festival is family-friendly and free of cost, tickets are $10 per person for the after party and can only be purchased on the nonprofit’s website. The festival comes as transgender people and families in Utah move forward after the legislature’s actions in early 2023 which banned some gender affirming care for transgender youth.

All donations to Genderbands during the festival will go towards funding the gender affirming care grants “which we provide to recipients free of charge and help them cover social, medical, legal transition,” Oakley said.

Oakley said they are taking extra security measures at the festival to ensure the participants are safe. A fence will surround the festival “to make sure that everybody who wants to be in there is in there and hopefully keep people who are counter protesting or have malicious intent out,” he said. They will have a private security team and are working with outside groups to offer protection.

These extra security measures are being taken in light of recent violence seen against transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Organizers cite everything from protesters yelling slurs and brandishing weapons at an LGBTQ+ gathering in Provo in 2022 to the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting and other acts of violence and threats.

The transgender population in Utah is bigger than most people expect, Oakley said, adding that the festival is a chance for transgender people to get to know one another.

Approximately 1.6 million people age 13 or older in the United States, about 0.6% of the population, identify as transgender. “It’s easy to feel alone sometimes, but we’re never as alone as we think we are,” Oakley said.

Genderbands is based in Orem, and decided to hold the festival in Provo as a symbolic gesture, to show that transgender people can gather in Utah and every other part of the country, Oakley said.

“It’s just important to know that you don’t have to leave Utah if you’re a trans person. I know that there are some young people who need health care access, who might be having to flee the state to receive that access, and that’s incredibly important and valid, but I hope that people realize that you can be trans in Utah and there is a space for you and there is a vibrant community to stand by you,” Oakley said.

In addition to entertainment and connection, festival organizers are hoping to make Utah Trans Pride a vehicle for education with 60 Utah-based organizations on hand to provide resources for and about trans people.

“I think by coming to this event, and just witnessing trans joy, and trans people living their lives, I really hope that it’s able to counter a lot of the dehumanization and vilification that we’re receiving in the media, especially at the moment, but that we have received for many years prior,” Oakley said.

Oakley said the goal for the festival is to make it as inclusive and accessible as possible to all people with a focus on wheelchair accessibility, ASL interpreters for performers and “chill zones” for those who need a sensory break from the festival.

“It’s hard when you’re a trans youth to imagine that there is a future for you and that you can make it to be a trans adult and even a trans elder. So I think if trans youth were able to come and make that network and meet like, a trans person who is a grandmother or grandfather, I think that can be eye opening to like, truly witness that there is space and hope in the future for us,” Oakley said.