This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The day after U.S. voters elected Donald Trump to serve as the nation's 45th president, Steven McDaniel and Alister Cedeno got a marriage license from the Salt Lake County clerk's office and tied the knot.
It wasn't the wedding they had planned, but the couple worried they couldn't wait.
"[The gay community] fought so hard to be able to get married," said McDaniel, who changed his last name to Cedeno to match his new husband's. "The fear of losing that was just too great."
Trump's election — won with the support of alt-right voters — has triggered a wave of concern about the loss of tolerance and acceptance for many in the United States, including those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
That, in part, is why the Utah Pride Center on Tuesday launched its "We See You and We Love You" campaign, which seeks to unify members of the LGBTQ community, many of whom are frightened by the results of the 2016 presidential election.
"It felt like we had a respite. It felt good, and it felt like we were being valued," Pride Center board member Mona Stevens said at the campaign's launch, referring to recent victories such as anti-discrimination laws and the legalization of same-sex marriage. "This obviously is not going to be the case for our lifetimes."
As part of the push, the center will distribute 25,000 rainbow wristbands, which include support information for those struggling with their sexual identity. The wristbands are free and available through the center's website.
"We want people to know we are a unified force," said Michael Aguilar, chairman of the Salt Lake City-based center's board. "We can't change the minds of everybody, but together we are so much stronger. ... Our community is here to stay. The LGBTQ community has experienced the ebb and flow of progress for decades."
Trump's election isn't the only reason for the campaign, however. It also grew out of concern over the LDS Church's year-old policy that labeled gay marrieds "apostates" and banned their children from membership until age 18.
Combined, the election results and the anniversary of the church's policy shift have elevated the anxiety among LGBTQ Utahns and their allies, many of whom feel a double threat of rejection from political and religious establishments.
"Our phone has been ringing off the hook," Aguilar said. "Some calls are from people who are scared, and others are from people asking how they can help."
Trump has no history of animosity toward the LGBTQ community and on Sunday told the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" that gay marriage is "settled law" in the U.S. But his running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, vigorously opposed gay unions and signed anti-equality legislation as governor of Indiana. Many in the LGBTQ community fear a rollback of gay rights could be in the offing.
"It's not just marriage equality; it's much more than that," Aguilar said. "It's the transgender bathroom issues, it's gay conversion therapy … we're nervous."
There also is a fear that the political right will devise new, yet-unknown, attacks on LGBTQ people, Stevens said. "It's not knowing what guns are going to point at us now, and what we'll have to do."
Mormon gay activist Kendall Wilcox, who has ties to more than one online LGBTQ support group, said he's seen a flood of social media posts citing those and other concerns in the week since the election.
"There is a generalized sense of fear and dread," Wilcox said. "Some people are trying to minimize that by saying they had similar fears when [Barack] Obama was elected, but it's not quite the same thing."
Wilcox said he's spoken directly with more than three dozen individuals in the past week, trying to assuage their worries. One additional concern, he notes, is that fear over the election may lead to a spike in suicides in the Mormon/LGBTQ community, although Wilcox said he's not seen anything to suggest that's happened and many are posting support messages that include the number for suicide-prevention hotlines.
Nationally, the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been tracking reports of harassment or intimidation, including acts against Muslims, African-Americans, immigrant groups and LGBTQ citizens. As of Monday, the SPLC had documented more than 300 incidents across the U.S. in the wake of Trump's election.
Utah has not been immune.
At Orem's Utah Valley University, a profanity-laced flier found posted in campus locations celebrated Trump's election and said liberals "better shut the f—- up" about rights for Muslims, immigrants, gays and "all that other bulls—-."
And, in Ogden, police say a married gay couple reported their car had been spray-painted with anti-gay slurs the Friday after the election.
"It was just kind of a complete shock at first," Aaron McFarland told Ogden's Standard-Examiner. "I eventually just broke down, but not until probably 30 minutes later. It was just such a shock. I'm still in disbelief."
Salt Lake City attorney Christopher Wharton said nearly a dozen of the requests for services to the Pride Center-based Rainbow Law Free Clinic over the past week cited Trump's election as a reason they were seeking legal help on a range of issues. Among their primary needs: completing name-change applications, second-parent adoptions (for nonbiological parents) and securing passports for transgender individuals with their current and correct genders, a policy that has been allowed under the Obama administration, but might be discontinued, Wharton said.
"I actually think marriage is going to be OK," Wharton said, because a reversal of the Supreme Court decision would require both the appointment of at least two new justices and a case pending before the court. But other policies that have advanced equality for LGBT individuals might be easier for both Congress and state legislatures to change, he said.
"My fear," he said, "is that [the Utah Legislature] will read the election as a mandate against political correctness and a mandate against the advancement of social issues."
For Steven McDaniel Cedeno, who campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the uncertainty around the future of LGBT equality leaves him feeling frightened in ways he didn't expect.
"I never thought I would live in an America where you fear persecution," he said. "I'm a white male, but I'm not in the right white male club. I almost feel afraid to put it out there now, afraid to show who I am. I feel like I'm being closeted again."
And while the couple plan a big —second — wedding in Utah's mountains next fall, he said, they won't ever regret moving to "preserve our liberty" with a hastily organized ceremony in the backyard of a close friend.
"For a wedding that was planned in less that 24 hours it was still meaningful and beautiful and special," said Steven McDaniel Cedeno, who live-streamed the nuptials for his family in California. "I feel for the first time that I am legitimized in my relationship and I feel equal to my peers. It's the weirdest thing, just because I have this piece of paper."
— Tribune reporter Erin Alberty contributed to this story.