Utah News

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is among a wave of Republican governors across the country who have declared June something other than Pride Month, stepping away from what was a common recognition nationally since 1999. 

Instead, June will be “Fidelity Month” in the Beehive State. 

Cox had signed Pride Month declarations during the first three years of his tenure, asking Utahns in 2021 to “encourage relevant and vital conversations about what it means to love each other, understand our differences, and support our LGBTQ+ friends and family members.” In June 2016 following the deadly mass shooting that killed 49 people at Florida’s Pulse night club, Cox, then lieutenant governor, made national headlines for his emotional speech apologizing for his past attitudes about people who are gay.

However, he changed directions in recent years, first by declaring June 2024 as “a month of bridge building,” and then by skipping a declaration altogether in June 2025. 

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According to this year’s declaration, the document stems from an opinion poll showing that a majority of Americans “no longer esteem values like faith, family, patriotism, or community involvement.”

“Fidelity means dedication to faith, family and country,” the declaration reads. “It is imperative that we recommit ourselves to the pursuit of fidelity.”

The Fidelity Month concept was created by Princeton University professor Robert George, who has made a name as a conservative Christian legal scholar, who described the recognition as a small way to “restore the faith of our people and begin to heal the dreadful division in our country.” 

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Other Republican governors, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have also adopted the Fidelity Month declaration. In states like Indiana and Tennessee, governors have signed declarations recognizing June as “Nuclear Family Month.” 

And, in Alabama, Gov, Kay Ivey recognized June as “Strong Families Month,” saying in a news release that “homes led by stable parents, a father and a mother, provide children with the structure and discipline necessary to succeed.” 

Utah Senate and House Democrats said in response to Cox’s Fidelity Month declaration that they rejected “the idea that supporting LGBTQ+ Utahns comes at the expense of anyone else.”

“At a time when so many communities, including the LGBTQ+ community, are being targeted and erased, Utah needs leaders who bring people together, not leaders who deliberately look for new ways to divide us.

Salt Lake City Democratic Sen. Jen Plumb added that the Fidelity Month declaration made her “angry and deeply disappointed.”

“What makes this especially painful is that many LGBTQ+ Utahns supported leaders who spoke the language of compassion, understanding, and inclusion. They showed up, trusted those words, and helped build the coalitions that put those leaders in office,” Plumb said in a statement. “To now see Pride Month deliberately pushed aside feels less like a difference of opinion and more like a betrayal of that trust.” 

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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared June 2026 “Fidelity Month,” calling for a return to America’s “core values,” as Republican-led states across the country issue various proclamations in reaction to “Pride Month” celebrations.

Utah joined Arkansas in endorsing Fidelity Month, a movement promoted by conservative scholar Robert George. The initiative urges Americans to rededicate themselves to principles of God, marriage, family, country and community.

Cox’s announcement comes amid differing June declarations — and after his shift on whether to recognize Pride Month.

This year, Tennessee, Alabama and Indiana proclaimed June as “Nuclear Family Month,” underscoring the role of traditional families. Oklahoma declared June “Life Month,” committing to support unborn humans from conception.

Democratic states continued to recognize June as “LGBTQ Pride Month,” accompanied by parades and rainbow decorations. President Bill Clinton made the occasion official in 1999, before Barack Obama expanded it in 2009.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, announced for the second year that June will be known as “Title IX Month,” referring to the 1972 civil rights law banning discrimination in publicly funded schools on the basis of biological sex.

The contest over the month of June reflects decadeslong culture war questions, exacerbated by partisan polarization and a sense that red and blue states increasingly represent different values ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.

What is Fidelity Month?

As governor of the Beehive State, Cox has changed his Pride Month messaging considerably since entering office. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Cox made Utah one of the only GOP-leaning states to officially recognize “LGBTQ+ Pride Month.”

But in 2024, ahead of a competitive primary election in June, Cox stated his past declarations had “turned into a lightning rod for more division and hurt.” The governor, instead, declared June “a month of bridge building.”

Last year, Cox did not issue a declaration at all. He posted that he was taking the month of June to reflect “on the values that bring us together.” He once again encouraged Utahns to “keep building bridges of understanding.”

In his latest change, Cox has chosen to highlight Fidelity Month for 2026 with a declaration referring to recent polls showing a dramatic drop among Americans in patriotism, religiosity, childbearing and community involvement.

Cox’s declaration defines fidelity as “dedication to faith, family and country.” Founding fathers like John Adams believed the U.S. Constitution was made for a “moral and religious people” committed to these values, Cox said.

“(T)he survival of the United States depends on the shared bonds of faith, family and patriotism,” the declaration states. “(I)t is fitting to observe one month each year to rededicate the United States to its core values.”

Is Pride Month inclusive or divisive?

Marina Lowe, the senior director of legal and legislative affairs at the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Utah, said she takes issue with the implication that Pride Month stands in contrast to values such as faith, family and marriage.

“I think it’s just the reality that LGBTQ people are people of faith, are people of family, just like any other group of individuals,” Lowe said. “I don’t think that these positions need to be in conflict with one another.”

Pride Month is about “love, acceptance and inclusion,” Lowe told the Deseret News, adding that she believes strong families are defined by “stability and love and commitment,” not by a concept of traditional “nuclear” family structures.

However, other Utahns, like Skyler Sorensen, are glad to see pro-family messages coming from state leaders.

Sorensen is a content creator who focuses on the importance of traditional family values as a Latter-day Saint with same-sex attraction. He said Pride Month represents “a very specific goal” of removing “sexual norms” in public.

“These aren’t just aberrations to the movement; they are very much central to the movement,” Sorensen said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for our government to adopt that and push it out as if it’s something that’s politically neutral.”

June declarations don’t have to become a tit-for-tat that “feeds into political divisiveness,” he told the Deseret News.

Instead of fighting over the month before America’s 250th birthday, Sorensen said leaders can follow the Founders by respecting the right of conscience, while remembering the values of God, family and country that hold us all together.

Editor’s note: This story had been updated to reflect a temporary change in the timing of Utah’s declaration, but it has since reverted to its original form.