Someone disrupted a Pride event in Park City in mid-August, according to the Park City Police Department and one of the event organizers.

The gathering was held on Aug. 15 at Lucky Ones Coffee at the Park City Library. The police were summoned at little before 9:40 a.m. Public agency logs indicated someone was “super anti gay, filming and harassing people.” The police logged the case as suspected harassment.

The Police Department’s incident report, provided in response to a Park Record request under state open-records laws, said that an officer responded after a request by an employee. A man was at the location as a Pride event was underway. The narrative said the person “began recording the people at the event and saying things that sounded anti gay.” The person left.

An officer met with the person who called the police. That person indicated the man was “upset that there was a Pride event and said he was going to complain to the governor,” according to the narrative. He also said “there should not be a Pride event near where kids could see and demanded the library employees’ last names,” according to the narrative.

The officer advised the person to call the police again if the man “returned and started confronting people again.” The officer stayed in the library parking lot until the end of the gathering.

Summit Pride organized the event as part of a series of monthly gatherings.

Virginia Solomon, the president of the Summit Pride board of directors, was at the event prior to the man arriving. Solomon said approximately 30 people were there.

“Someone comes and makes a scene,” Solomon said. “But it attacks everyone that can hear them. … It impacts the entire environment.”

Solomon said the person probably meant to intimidate the gathering and described the person as an outlier in Park City. Solomon said Summit Pride continues to see the community as a safe place to gather.

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When Heber City native Jess Judd heard in 2020 that the Provo-based LGBTQ+ nonprofit Encircle was establishing a youth community center in their hometown, it was like a weight lifted off their shoulders.

“I thought, ‘Finally, this pressure that I, a teenager, have been under for years, is finally relieved for a moment, and I can just simply exist in a space where I feel safe without having to constantly fight for it,’” they said.

Now a 24-year-old Encircle volunteer, Judd is preparing to carry on the fight for a local LGBTQ+ safe space as Encircle announced the imminent closure of its historic home at 81 E. Center St. on July 2, citing low attendance and engagement. The community center, which opened in June 2023, will shut its doors at the end of the month. 

It will be the first of Encircle’s community centers to close since the nonprofit started in 2016. Encircle also has homes in Provo, Salt Lake City, Ogden and St. George.

Encircle offers support groups, activities, events and therapy at its homes. LGBTQ+ youth aged 12-25 can also visit to simply hang out with friends in an accepting environment. 

Before announcing the closure, Encircle conducted a community readiness assessment that studied engagement, leadership support, volunteer capacity, local resources and long-term sustainability at the Heber City home. The assessment and methodology were independently reviewed and validated by Dr. Lisa Diamond, a professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah.

“The findings reinforced what several years of operational experience had already shown: While need exists among LGBTQ+ youth and families in the region, the broader conditions necessary to sustain a dedicated physical location have not developed to the same degree seen in Encircle’s other communities,” Encircle said in a press release about the closure.

‘I can’t be in Heber anymore’

Judd is fundraising in hopes of purchasing the home from Encircle or buying or renting another space in Heber City that could serve as a LGBTQ+ community center. Judd is currently in contact with a realtor to look at potential locations. If that also falls through, the money will go toward programming events and get-togethers for queer youth. 

Encircle did not respond to numerous requests for comment by the time of publication on whether it would consider selling Judd the Heber City home. 

“I want to believe that Encircle’s mission to provide a safe space is still there, and even though they’re not willing to sponsor that, at least let us have the means of keeping that here ourselves,” Judd said.

Judd hopes to collaborate with other LGBTQ+ organizations on the project, potentially Summit Pride, and possibly create their own nonprofit.

This is not the first project Judd has undertaken to make their hometown a more inclusive place for its LGBTQ+ residents.

Judd founded an LGBTQ+ youth coalition that organized community events and approached the Heber City Council in 2022 with a proposal for a city-sponsored Pride event. The City Council approved the idea but transformed it into Unity Week. The annual celebration, which began that year, includes beautification projects and live music but does not recognize the LGBTQ+ community in particular.

Though Judd has long been committed to bettering Heber City, their first reaction to hearing the news about Encircle’s closure was an overwhelming desire to move away.

“I was like, ‘I can’t be in Heber anymore because I’m not safe,’” Judd said. “I cannot imagine what these kids who are as young as 12 years old are thinking, because it’s possible for me to leave if I really wanted to. It is not possible for those kids to leave.” 

Thinking of the next generation of LGBTQ+ youth informed Judd’s decision to try to fill the void Encircle Heber will leave.

Judd’s GoFundMe has raised about $3,000 thus far; the largest donation is $500 from an 18-year-old Encircle patron. The fundraiser can be found at gofund.me/b664da2a9.

‘We seriously aren’t just numbers’

Encircle declined to share its full community readiness assessment with The Park Record. 

However, Encircle Heber received more than 6,100 visits since its opening as of February this year, according to statistics Encircle provided The Park Record that month. 

Additionally, Encircle’s 2025 annual report shows the Heber City home received nearly 2,200 visits last year, with an average of nine guests per day and 15 volunteers per week.

The report said Encircle Heber “has seen strong engagement at major community events” but that “daily attendance at the home has been lower than anticipated.” 

“We believe this is largely due to limited public transportation and the town’s commuter-based population,” the report said.

In 2025, the Provo and Salt Lake City homes both had over 8,000 visits, the St. George home had nearly 7,000, and the Ogden home, which opened in September, had about 900.

Judd believes it is unfair to compare attendance in Heber City with the homes in more populous counties.

Wasatch County’s population was about 39,000 in 2025, according to data from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. The populations of the other counties where Encircle homes are located range from 209,000 in Washington County to over 1.2 million in Salt Lake County. 

Even if attendance was low, the need for an LGBTQ+ community center in Wasatch County still exists, as Encircle acknowledged in its press release.

Heber City resident Cherry Jones, who is collaborating with Judd on the fundraising, has been attending Encircle since its opening. 

He said he was suicidal and isolated before attending Encircle but that he found his closest friends at the Heber City home. Now, other LGBTQ+ youth will not have that same opportunity.

“I’m OK with where I’m at right now, but that was because of Encircle … because the community had a place to go,” he said. 

He added, “We seriously aren’t just numbers. We are human beings.”

Judd echoed that sentiment.

“The fact is, there were people at the house every day. And even if there was one person there, that is one person who is getting help and feeling safe in our community, and to me, that’s what the purpose is. That’s what matters,” they said. “It’s for every single person that enters that door.”

‘Broader organizational health’

It is unclear whether Encircle’s decision to close its Heber City home was a financial one. Encircle said in its press release that the closure was “not a reflection of Encircle’s broader organizational health.”

Encircle’s IRS tax forms paint a clearer picture of the nonprofit’s financial situation. 

Encircle spent more than $4.7 million in 2025. Other than 2022, when Encircle spent $5.1 million, that’s the most the nonprofit ever spent in a single year. Additionally, 2025 saw Encircle’s largest-ever disparity between annual revenue and expenses. Its revenues were only around $2.7 million, according to Encircle’s IRS Form 990 from that year.

Much of the difference appears to have been paid through Encircle’s net assets, which, at the end of 2025, were nearly $7.2 million.

Encircle’s IRS Form 990s show that it has spent more than it has earned every year since 2022. But it has been supported by the substantial funds it raised in 2021. The nonprofit raked in $14.5 million in revenue that year, in no small part thanks to publicity and fundraising efforts spearheaded by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Imagine Dragons vocalist Dan Reynolds and Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith.

Encircle’s revenues have been much smaller every other year. The year with the second-highest annual revenues for Encircle was 2022, when it raised nearly $4.1 million.

Encircle did not return a request for comment about whether closing the Heber City home was related to cost-cutting measures in the organization.

It is unclear how much it costs to run Encircle Heber. The location had two part-time employees and offered only virtual therapy at the time of the announcement. The home’s full-time program director, Elise Villaroman, left last July to serve as the program director of the new Ogden center.

According to Judd, an interim director filled the role until January, and day-to-day operations were handed over to the two part-time employees. 

At that time, the Heber City home also changed its hours. Formerly open weekdays, it shifted to only Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

‘Thrown to the wolves’

Volunteers and guests are still grappling with the news of Encircle Heber’s closure one week after the announcement.

Volunteer and ally Jaxson Persch first became involved with Encircle Heber around three years ago and runs weekly tabletop role-playing games, including a Sunday event for adults out of his home in Midway.

He said he wanted to volunteer at Encircle because it was one of a few community spaces not associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was unsure at first if he would be welcomed at Encircle as a straight man but was surprised by what he found.

“I’ve gotten incredibly comfortable around the queer community, and I consider them far more welcoming than most straight people I’ve met,” he said. “The people here who have their very traditional views kind of believe this valley belongs to them. They’re going to see this as a victory.”

Persch plans to continue hosting his Sunday game sessions, but the center’s sessions for those under 18 will be discontinued, leaving younger Encircle patrons with fewer gathering spaces. 

The idea of local LGBTQ+ kids losing a safe space has been particularly devastating for Alison Meldrum, a 19 year old who often visits the Encircle Heber City location. She said having a circle of accepting people helped her come out as transgender and ultimately saved her life. 

Meldrum has attended Encircle Heber for about a year. She formerly lived in Kaysville, where she was closer to Salt Lake City, which has an abundance of LGBTQ+ spaces. When she moved to Heber City, she felt anxious even leaving the house — until she found her community at Encircle.

“I hope that the (Encircle) higher-ups realize how much more of a blow it is to these small communities where there is no other place to go,” she said.

Meldrum’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Crow Daugaard, said the same. She was raised in Midway and first heard about Encircle’s programs from a therapist four years ago.

Daugaard said at that time she was shy, awkward and not fully accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, despite being part of it herself. But as she repeatedly attended Encircle programs, she became happier and ultimately decided to give back to the organization that had helped her as a volunteer at the Heber City home.

The couple recently moved from Heber City to Layton, and Daugaard considered volunteering at Encircle’s Ogden home. But after the organization announced the closure of the Heber City location, she’s not sure she wants to continue volunteering, citing broken trust.

“From the beginning, I was told that Encircle is home. It is home for people who don’t feel safe in their own homes. And now, that home is being shut down,” she said. “Essentially, they are being evicted, thrown to the wolves.”

Encircle stated in its press release that the organization “remains deeply committed to its mission of bringing family and community together to enable LGBTQ+ young people to thrive” and will continue operations at its other locations. 

The following is a noncomprehensive list of LGBTQ+ resources: 

• Wasatch High School has a Gay Straight Alliance. The faculty advisor is Lauren Cressman.
• Summit Pride focuses on events, visibility, advocacy and scholarships in Summit County.
• Flourish Therapy Inc. offers mental health resources virtually and in-person at its Orem, South Jordan and Salt Lake City locations.
• Mama Dragons supports Utah’s mothers of LGBTQ+ children through support groups and by teaching inclusive parenting.
• The University of Utah provides gender-affirming care through its Transgender Health Program.
• The Trevor Project is dedicated to suicide prevention nationwide and operates a 24/7 hotline.

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It was about five years ago when — after deciding that Salt Lake City’s pride festival had grown too commercialized for his liking — Heber City local Joshua Knight decided to forgo the event and host a weekend celebration in his own backyard.

“My brother does drag in Salt Lake,” he said. “We kind of had this harebrained idea while he was up here. I’m like, ‘Why don’t you bring your drag stuff up, perform a little bit, and we’ll have a great time along with Pride. And afterwards, I think a couple of people shoved money in his décolletage, his cleavage.”

Thus, the idea for Heber Valley’s annual Not Your Mama’s Backyard Drag show.

The first formal show was in 2021, when Knight’s brother returned to the valley with several of his friends and fellow queens. 

“We had just broken free from COVID, and we had 107 people in the backyard. My neighbor had the food truck, we had Porta Potties, we had the whole nine yards,” Knight said.

He said the had a “rinky-dink” setting that included lighting he bought from Amazon, a rented sound machine, and a back porch with black sheets that served as curtains.

“We sold tickets on Venmo, and we donated the money in the first year to the Encircle House here in Heber,” Knight said.

The next year, they sold out of tickets, and the show has only gotten bigger.

Now they hold the event in his other brother’s house in Daniel, and attendance is only growing. This year, they had 365 attendees.

Though he was still crunching some numbers, he estimated the event had raised over $10,000 for the Cavalier Crazy Rescue in Salt Lake — where he got his furry companion, Walter —  and The Horse of Many Colors, a nonprofit group supporting cancer patients and their loved ones. 

Despite the positivity Knight aims to promote, he acknowledged it hasn’t always been easy to find community support for his drag show, or even to live as a gay man in Heber City.

The first two years he held the event, he said it went without a hitch.

He told neighbors there might be some attendees parking on the street, and he asked people not to block driveways.

Last year, they got a dozen complaints.

“My brother got calls from Daniel township’s mayor saying that there had been complaints, emails, phone calls,” Knight said.

He doesn’t know who filed the grievances. He doesn’t want to.

“Their complaint was parking. We all know it wasn’t about parking. I will put my neck on the line about that,” he said. “We took care of everything we needed to with the city and the county.”

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it wasn’t the first time he’s felt pushback because of who he is in Heber City.

“We were tiny growing up. … I was born in 1982, was educated here in the public school system in Wasatch County, and I was bullied, teased,” he said. “There wasn’t a day that went by walking down the high school hallway that I wasn’t called a fag or a queer or a homo. And it definitely opened up my eyes to a different aspect of my community where hate could lie in a place where everyone professes to be religious and Christ-like, and it definitely opened my eyes to the true meaning of what it means to be an active member of the community.”

On a religious note, he added, it taught him something further about what it really means to be Christ-like as people who preached divine peace on Sundays made his life hell between school classes.

“I didn’t come out until I was 32. I was scared. I owned a small business here in town, I just bought a home. My mom had passed away a couple years prior,” he said.

When his brother came out, it helped. But it still took him seven more years.

Though he still faces slurs today, it’s a less common occurrence, and he said it’s completely different from Heber City in the ’80s and ’90s.

Still, he sees first hand the mountains left to climb.

Just this year, someone has twice ripped down the Pride flag that hangs next to the Stars and Stripes in front of Knight’s home and business, Five Penny Floral.

The hateful act won’t deter him.

“I grew up on the back of a horse. I tried to play the part. I tried to do the role. In my late 20s and early 30s, I said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ I needed to live my authenticity and be who I am,” he said. “I’ve never looked back.”

He’s working to be a part of a welcoming community he didn’t have growing up, one he doesn’t think Heber City was ready to provide back when he was young. It takes generations to break cycles of harmful ideologies, he explained, and many that target members of the LGBTQ+ community are still alive and well.

With his drag shows, he hopes to change that, to show the community that it’s “an expression of elevated art.”

“They say we’re groomers. They say that we have issues. They say that we’re pedophiles,” he said. “Most of us have been victims to a pedophile or a predator. … We are capable of amazing and incredible things. We love. We give back to our communities. We are about love and compassion.”

He said he giggles when people say drag performers are grooming kids. For his nieces, he explained, the drag community has been a way to promote inclusion.

Drag queens, he said, don’t make bank-breaking salaries through their performances. What they have to gain is expressing themselves, things they’ve had to hold inside.  

“They do it because they’re passionate about it, and they do it for the sisterhood, and they do it for somewhere that 9-year-old boy,” he said of queens. “It’s giving that 9-year-old boy hope that there’s a beautiful world out there, that that 9-year-old boy has a home and has a place to be creative and to express and to be who they want to be.”

The pride flag still hangs from Knight’s porch, and he’s still an active member of the community. He plans to continue to make the drag show even bigger in future years. 

“Drag has been around for centuries. It has taken different shapes, different forms. We have all been entertained: ‘Bosom Buddies,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ Klinger off of ‘Mash,’ ‘Tootsie’ by Dustin Hoffman,” Knight said. “To anyone who doesn’t understand, open your eyes. … I’m a proud member of this community, so is my brother, and so are many, many of my friends and supporters and clients. We’re not going anywhere. We will continue to get better. We will continue to raise more money for causes that are near and dear to our hearts.

“To anyone who doesn’t understand, you’re not going to lose a recommend, you’re not going to lose friends over coming to a show. We are about love, we are about inclusion, we are about hope. We are about hope that your children will not have to go through what we had to go through with chills saying that your friend has taken their own life.” 

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