Should LGBTQ+ Buyers Stay in Utah? An Honest Answer From a Salt Lake City Realtor
- Kevin Petersen
- May 25
- 5 min read
"Should I even be buying here?"
I get this question often. Sometimes at the start of a buyer consultation. Sometimes over coffee with a client I have worked with for years. Sometimes in a DM at 11pm after a particularly rough news cycle.
Let’s be real, this is a serious question for those of us who feel our core values are not being honored by the Beehive State. It is a real question, and it deserves a real answer. So here is mine, as honestly as I can give it.
It has been a challenge to feel supported in Utah, but Salt Lake City is its own world.
I am not going to pretend the Utah legislature is your friend, because it isn't. In January 2024, the legislature passed HB 257, the bathroom bill, which restricts where transgender people can go in public schools and government buildings. It was the third year in a row Utah passed legislation targeting trans residents.
Then in 2025, the legislature passed HB 77, which effectively banned the Pride flag from public schools and government buildings. The governor allowed it to become law without his signature.
I am not telling you any of this is okay. I am not asking you to make peace with it. If you are tired, you have a right to be tired. If you are angry, you have a right to be angry. If you are weighing whether to stay in this state at all, that is a legitimate question and you deserve real information to answer it with.
So here is the rest of the picture.
Salt Lake City Is Its Own World. It is not the Utah legislature. It is its own city, with its own values, its own laws, and its own track record. Here is what that track record actually looks like.
In 2021, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group in the country, gave Salt Lake City a perfect score of 100 on the Municipal Equality Index. We were the first city in Utah to earn it. The index measures how inclusive a city's laws, policies, and services are for LGBTQ+ residents. A perfect score is not common.
Salt Lake City passed Utah's first nondiscrimination ordinances in 2009 and 2010, prohibiting employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The LDS Church publicly supported the ordinances, calling them fair and reasonable. Those protections still hold today.
Salt Lake City has one of the largest LGBTQ populations per capita in the country. There are more of us here than people outside Utah realize. We renamed 20 blocks of 900 South after Harvey Milk in 2016, and when a state representative tried to rename it in early 2026, the city, Equality Utah, and local business owners fought the bill until it failed. We have had multiple openly gay elected officials, including a former mayor and current city council members. A majority of our current city council identifies as LGBTQ+
According to a 2013 Williams Institute analysis of census data, Salt Lake City and its suburbs had the highest rate in the country of same-sex couples raising children, at 26 percent. Queer families have been proudly building lives here for a long time.
The city of Salt Lake swiftly sidestepped the flag ban.
Here is what Salt Lake City did when the state banned the Pride flag from public buildings in 2025.
Hours before the ban took effect, Mayor Erin Mendenhall and the Salt Lake City Council adopted three new official city flags. One for LGBTQIA residents, called the Sego Belonging Flag. One for transgender residents, called the Sego Visibility Flag. One honoring Juneteenth and the city's Black and African American residents, called the Sego Celebration Flag. Each one carries the state & city official flower, the sego lily.
By making them official municipal flags, Salt Lake City sidestepped the state ban entirely. The flags went up. They are still flying.
Mayor Mendenhall said her intent was to represent the city's values "with honor." That is not symbolic. That is a city government putting itself on the line for its residents within hours of being told not to.
This is the city I have chosen to live in, work in and sell homes in.
Why I chose to stay:
Am I really supported here and am I safe?
These are the questions I’ve had to ask myself to decide if I should stay in Utah or leave. Like you, I see our legislature passing horrendous bills that just cause harm and division, and then we also see senators and congressmen trying to erase the LGBTQ+ presence out of Utah. Although this stings at times, I am encouraged to stay because there are so many advocacy groups that are fighting the fight for our community.
Equality Utah, HRC, ACLU of Utah, Utah Pride Center, Project Rainbow, The LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, Encircle, Love Loud, and so many more.
Having all these resources tells me that my community is here, we support each other, and we won’t let hatred or bigoted government be left unchecked. We elect our representatives and they need to do what their constituents - You and Me - want or they will be voted out.
The other part that keeps me in Utah, and especially in the Salt Lake area, is that majority of people are very open-minded and supportive of the queer community. This area truly is a bubble and is different than the rest of the state. You might find that your right decision is different than mine, which may lead you out of Utah, just know- that’s ok.
TL;DR - The Short Version
The Utah legislature has proven on multiple occasions that they are NOT advocates to LGBTQ+ residents; AND Salt Lake City is its own world. We earned a perfect 100 from the Human Rights Campaign in 2021, passed the state's first nondiscrimination ordinances in 2009 and 2010 with LDS Church support, have one of the highest LGBTQ+ populations per capita in the country, renamed 20 blocks after Harvey Milk, and adopted three official city flags within hours of the 2025 flag ban so we could keep flying Pride, trans, and Juneteenth banners anyway.
Whether you stay or leave is a real choice with real information and real impacts. Both are legitimate. The answer is to look with clear eyes at all the information in front of you both positive and negative so you can make your stay or go decision from a place of clarity, rather than fear.
If you are weighing the question, I would love to talk it through with you. No pressure, no pitch, just an honest conversation about what is right for you.
Ready to have that conversation? Book a coffee or tea at KAPRealEstate.com/book
Kevin A Petersen is an LGBTQ+ affirming real estate agent serving buyers and sellers throughout the Salt Lake City area. Schedule a no-pressure conversation about your home buying goals.
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