Salt Lake County Election Statistics
Reasonable Conservative Voices are being suppressed
Here is a gentle reminder of what happened to Republican candidates during the 2022 midterm election season. Their campaign signs were vandalized, ripped down, and replaced with:
Deseret News refused to print the following opinion piece by former US Congressional District 1 candidate Andrew Badger:
From Andrew: "Here is my op-ed response to Mike Lee that the Deseret News turned down."
*** OPINION: The New State Flag is About “More Than A Flag” Andrew Young Badger ***Last week Senator Mike Lee voiced his support for a new state flag in this paper. As many may know, this proposal is currently up for vote by the state legislature.
If approved, Senate Bill 31 would make official a new state flag chosen by a 9 member task force.
Senator Lee makes valid arguments about the simplistic design of the new flag and the relative complexity of the seals and lettering on our current one.
The problem is however that the fundamental push behind the new flag is not driven by aesthetics, but ideology.
From the get-go, the few politicians pushing Senate Bill 31 have emphasized it’s about finding a new flag that supposedly “represents all Utahns”.
On their website the Utah State Flag Task Force claims, “this effort truly is about more than a flag, it’s a chance to have a conversation about who we are today and the importance of choosing a 21st-century flag to represent us all”.
Emphasizing this point, the motto of the task force is: “More Than A Flag”.
It is because of this underlying motive that many who oppose the new flag label it “woke”.
Wokeness is an attempt by an ‘enlightened’ few to revise history to conform to 21st century political standards, often on a false pretense of greater ‘inclusion’.
The only problem is these politicians are wrong: Utah’s current state flag does indeed represent us all.
Symbols tell stories. And our flag, the most important symbol of our state, tells the story about fortitude in the face of adversity.
It commemorates the founding of Utah and the brave souls who endured unspeakable hardships in doing so – from the year “1847”, when the pioneers first settled the Salt Lake Valley, to the sego lilies which provided sustenance to the settlers facing starvation (all symbols & references to our unique cultural heritage that would be lost in the new version).
This story of fortitude is one which all Utahns can indeed share.
Far from dividing us, our state flag therefore binds us together. It’s a literal and metaphorical thread which connects us to the spirit of our founding. It’s a thread that is sanctified and strengthened over time as each generation of Utahns shares it with the next.
Once we open the doors to casually modifying these symbols to meet the political trends of the moment, we can easily fall into a never ending cycle of historical revision until one day we wake up and find our story so diluted that, over time, it becomes lost.
Our state flag is indeed about “more than a flag”.
I would urge our state legislators to drop this expensive endeavor (which is estimated to cost over half a million dollars at the least) and focus their limited time & resources on the issues that are truly important to improving the welfare of our state.
Ahead of the final vote in the house, likely this week, I would also urge readers to voice their opinions to Utah’s state representatives as well.
This is Phil Lyman’s op-ed that was pulled by the Salt Lake Tribune after readers objected:
*** Phil Lyman: Utah can work out a place for transgender athletes ***There are several organizations that provide a place for LGBTQ youth to participate.
As a member of Utah’s House of Representatives, a heterosexual, LDS, husband, father of five and a friend to many in the LGBTQ community, I reject the label of “transphobic” and the accusation of “stomping on trans people” directed at those who do not embrace certain transgender policies that seem fraught with misinformation and political agendas.
Instead of political theatre, let’s wisely utilize this upcoming summer legislative interim session (https://senate.utah.gov/what-happens-during-interim/) , and commit to a more robust, honest, and transparent approach to policy issues, including those relating to the LGBTQ community.
Over the last few years, it seems that we in the Utah Legislature were simply expected to accept many statements and assumptions as fact with little room for questioning.
Now, it seems, we are expected to embrace, even applaud, biological males, who come out as trans women, as they compete unfairly in sports against biological girls and women. A couple of years ago, a legislator might have been laughed out of the room, and his or her resignation demanded, for asking a question such as, “What will happen if at some point a biological male who is a mediocre collegiate swimmer, comes out as a trans woman, joins the women’s swim team, then almost overnight becomes the fastest female swimmer in history as she sets her sights on the Olympics?”
But now, of course, instead of such a scenario being preposterous, we are expected to embrace it as our “new normal.”
I challenge the LGBTQ community, indeed all of us, during this summer interim, to look inward. Are there sports and athletic opportunities and programs that can be enhanced, created or expanded for LGBTQ teens and adults, particularly transgenders?
Many parents will be relieved and very pleased to learn of athletic organizations such as Queer Utah Aquatic Club, International Gay Lesbian Aquatics (https://www.tnya.org/igla/), the Gay Games (https://gaygames.org/) and more that already accommodate transgender athletes and sports enthusiasts. In fact, the Gay Games website (https://gaygames.org/Sports) proclaims, “Sports are at the heart of the Gay Games … Every four years the Gay Games welcome over 10,000 athletes in 30+ sports.”
Not only have these reputable sports organizations been around for decades, but some of their events draw athletes from more than 60 countries, tens of thousands of spectators, and millions of dollars in sponsorships by such reputable companies as Marriott International, United Airlines, Coca-Cola, YouTube, The Cleveland Foundation/
See: https://www.cleveland.com/travel/2015/02/clevelands_gay_games_most_fina.html
With these established organizations in place, we are not faced with an all-or-nothing proposal and we do not need a “commission” to determine an athlete’s eligibility. The Gay Games addressed this issue decades ago. They have policies in place for their athletes who compete in their events, and they have continued to grow their programs, outreach and participation.
Local LGBTQ providers such as Encircle, the Utah Pride Center, Equality Utah and others, whose outreach includes trans teens, can assess the needs and demand for LGBTQ youth sports. These organizations, with their big hearts, their tremendous fundraising capabilities, and prominent supporters (https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/2021/oct/15/encircle-reaches-8-million-for-8-homes-goal-after-starting-in-provo-just-five-years-ago/) such as Apple’s Tim Cook, NBA Legend Dwayne Wade, local billionaire Ryan Smith, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and many others can expand their existing programs by putting in place sports teams, schedules, coaching, funding, and more to meet the critical sports-centered demands for trans teens.
I am not opposed to individuals pursuing their “true self,” but I echo Neil Hardin (https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2022/02/its-hard-to-celebrate-womens-sports-when-men-keep-winning-them/) in stating, “This isn’t just about men in women’s sports. These lost opportunities can harm women in other areas of life too. One global survey found that 94% of senior female executives played competitive sports.