For the first time in Salt Lake City’s history, a majority of the seven-member council is made up of out LGBTQ members, following last year’s municipal elections that produced a notably diverse governing body.
Erika Carlsen, a gay Latina, was elected to represent District 5, which includes Ballpark, Central Ninth, East Liberty Park, and Liberty Wells. Voters also reelected District 3’s Chris Wharton, who represents Capitol Hill, the Avenues, and City Creek Canyon.
Other LGBTQ members include Alejandro Puy, a gay Latino who represents District 2, which includes parts of downtown as well as Fairpark, Poplar Grove, and Glendale, and Eva Lopez Chavez, a gay Latina and the first Mexican American elected to the council, who represents District 4, covering parts of downtown, Central City, and East Central.
The council’s demographic makeup is further underscored by the fact that District 6’s Dan Dugan is the body’s only straight white male. District 1’s Victoria Petro is Latina, as are Carlsen, Puy, and Lopez Chavez, while District 7’s Sarah Young is the fourth woman on the seven-member council.
As the newly sworn-in, record-setting council took office on January 5, Carlsen reflected on the significance of LGBTQ, female, and minority representation.
“This moment reflects years of leadership and organizing by women across the city,” she said in a statement. “I’m proud to join a council that uplifts the voices of the people we serve, and I’m ready to get to work to deliver results for our neighborhoods.”
The council’s diversity stands in contrast to conservative Utah’s typical political makeup, where most officeholders are white, male, and — in partisan races — overwhelmingly Republican. While the body is technically nonpartisan, most of its members are affiliated with the Democratic Party.
The council’s expanded diversity also reflects how rapidly the city’s politics have changed, coming just six years after Salt Lake City elected its first minority council member, Ana Valderamos, to the District 4 seat.
Wharton, the openly gay District 3 representative and the council’s longest-serving member, said in a statement that the body is “the most representative Council I’ve ever served on.”
“We don’t just look like Salt Lake City,” he said. “We reflect it, and we identify with it.”
During the January 5 swearing-in ceremony, Wharton tearfully read from a letter written to his infant daughter, Ella, noting that one day, when she is older, she would learn about the historic moment.
“It’s not a time when everyone feels safe in our community or in our country because of hate, fear, and greed,” he read from his letter, “but there are so many of us who are working hard every day to make sure that truth, equality, and justice prevail, and that love conquers all.”
He said the council would “lead us through this, one of the more crucial times in our history,” and praised Salt Lake City as “a place that defies expectations and punches above its weight, a place that welcomes people of different cultures, nationalities and faith traditions, a place that’s always been a little different.”
The city of St. Petersburg has installed 11 rainbow-colored bike racks in response to the removal of several street murals -- including a Pride-themed mural -- by the Florida Department of Transportation.
The racks were installed in the Grand Central District at Central Avenue and 25th Street, the former location of one of five murals removed at the direction of federal and state authorities.
The mural at Central Avenue and 25th Street featured colored stripes representing the progressive Pride flag and was located just steps from Ride'em Cowboy, one of the city’s best-known LGBTQ nightclubs and a "safe space" for the community, according to Florida Politics.
The hit HBO Max series Heated Rivalry is drawing more online search interest than many real-life NHL stars, underscoring the show’s breakout popularity beyond traditional hockey audiences.
According to Cyd Zeigler of Outsports, Google Trends data from the past 30 days reveals that searches for the show’s fictional romantic leads, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, consistently outpaced searches for several prominent NHL players throughout most of December.
More strikingly, searches for "Heated Rivalry" briefly surpassed searches for "NHL" itself in late December, coinciding with the release of the Season 1 finale.
Netflix's Stranger Things is facing backlash from viewers after writers devoted the show's penultimate episode to a storyline in which Will Byers, played by Noah Schnapp, comes out as gay.
In part because of the negative reaction to the coming-out storyline -- which appears in the third of three episodes released on Christmas -- Season 5 is now the show's lowest-rated season, earning a 56% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The episode itself, "The Bridge," is the lowest-rated of the entire series on IMDb, with a 5.4 score. All other episodes in Season 5 are rated 8.0 or higher.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.