Salt Lake City — Each day this week the Alliance for a Better UTAH will announce a winner of its 2012 Better Beehive Awards. The award recognizes five notable Utahns and groups for their progressive efforts this year.
The second winner of the Better Beehive goes to the cities of Springdale and Harrisville for enacting ordinances this year that bar employment and housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Springdale is a small southwestern Utah community situated just outside the world-famous Zion National Park. In April of this year, the town council voted to extend equal protection rights to its LGBT citizens. It is the first municipality in Washington County to pass such a measure.
Harrisville, part of the Ogden-Clearfield metro area, passed its non-discrimination ordinance in January of this year. It joins Ogden as the second city in Weber County to pass the LGBT non-discrimination ordinance.
Springdale and Harrisville join a list of 13 other cities or counties that, in the past three years, have passed similar non-discrimination ordinances. They include Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Park City, Summit County, Taylorsville, West Valley City, Murray, Midvale, Moab, Grand County, Ogden, Logan and Alta. The successes of many of these ordinances have come in large part due to efforts by Equality Utah, an organization dedicated to securing equal rights for LGBT Utahns.
Previous Winners
This week’s previous Better Beehive Award winner was retiring state senator Ross Romero. The Alliance for a Better UTAH recognized Romero for his efforts to secure the release to the public of the legislature’s 2010 redistricting records.
About the Better Beehive Award
The Better Beehive is given to those individuals or organizations that have worked to make Utah a better, more progressive place to live. Winners of the Better Beehive come from all walks of life, from all over the political spectrum and from all over the state. While there will always be more work to be done, these are five individuals or organizations that leave Utah a better place to live and work at the end of 2012 than they found it at the beginning of the year.
“When you’re of a more progressive mindset, it can often be discouraging, but there is a lot of good happening here in Utah,” said Maryann Martindale, executive director of the Alliance for a Better UTAH. “We want everyone to remember that while it’s often easy to point a finger at deficiencies in the system, real progress is achieved by those who stand up for what is right in an effort to make Utah a better place.”
Better UTAH has named the award “the Better Beehive” in recognition of the value of the hard work required to build a more progressive Utah, while simultaneously honoring Utah’s tremendous history.
“We joke that our informal motto is ‘Building a Better Beehive,’” said Josh Kanter, Better UTAH’s founder. “Consistent with our mission, we hope to be a part of making our already great state an even better place to live for all of its citizens.”
Each day this week an additional winner will be announced. More information can be found at http://betterutah.org/better-beehive-awards-2012/
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Alliance for a Better Utah | 801.557.1532 | www.betterutah.org
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The Alliance for a Better UTAH is a year-round, multi-issue education and advocacy organization providing resources, commentary, and action on important public policy matters.