SALT LAKE CITY — A relaunch with new leadership is taking place at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City, with staff promising to continue serving Utah's LGBTQ+ community.
PHOTO: Police investigating after Utah Pride Center vandalized
The center shut down suddenly over the summer, laying off staff and admitting to "inexcusable management," but at the time detailed a path to return.
“Over the last 10 years, it's been a a bit of a shaky ride with the Pride Center,” said Club Verse owner, Michael Repp.
Repp said he has watched the local queer community’s trust in the center plummet to what seemingly hit an all-time low when the non-profit hosted a controversial ‘Pride’ festival this summer after upping security, as well as costs for local creators and patrons.
“It went from a small town Pride, which had been the draw for so many vendors, so many career individuals, so many youth, to this corporate design; raise money, bring in the funds. It didn’t happen," Repp explained. "What they did is they alienated a large portion of Salt Lake City from their pride. So it was an inappropriate design that really had harmful results.”
On Wednesday, the center's new Executive Director, Ryan Newcomb, openly admitted the organization spent $1.5 million more on Pride than the year before, which left the organization in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and which he says resulted in the furloughs and layoffs of more than two dozen staff members.
“This was to put it mildly, inexcusable and egregious," he said. "The new board leadership and I join public calls for full accountability and take full responsibility for correcting the mistakes of the past.”
The relaunch of the organization hopes to ensure the mistakes don't happen again.
“We are pursuing and putting into action, aggressive plans that are both timely quick and fully rectify our debts over the coming months," said Newcomb. "We're launching an internal review of all finances in the last year to ensure there were no irregularities and to get to the bottom of what happened this summer; this will be made public once it is complete.”
When it comes to the community’s trust of the Utah Pride Center, Newcomb doesn’t expect the changes to come overnight.
“My top priority in this role going forward is to be as transparent as possible, and that starts today to restore trust and build an inclusive welcoming center that our entire queer community deserves,” he said.
For Repp, it’s going to take time.
“We’re just curious as to when the transparency starts," he asked. "We are hopefully optimistic but very reserved with opposition.”
When the center shut down, Repp opened his doors to marginalized groups needing a space or services.
“The displacement of their safe space was really harmful for them," he said. "And what we are hoping to go forward at this point is that the transparency that is now being offered or promised rather is true.”
