Transcript

Stevie Shaughnessey: Hi and welcome back to Point of View, the Daily Utah Chronicle’s opinion podcast. My name is Stevie, and I’ll be your host. Today, we have opinion writer Morgan Champine joining us to talk about their article in the Business and Politics print issue. Hi Morgan, and welcome to the podcast!

Morgan Champine: Hi Stevie. Thanks for having me.

Stevie Shaughnessey: Morgan, what is your piece about?

Morgan Champine: So, my print piece is about the queer wedding scene in Utah and how Utah wedding vendors should express their support for queer couples loudly and proudly for both economic and moral reasons. It covers the wedding industry as an economy and most notably, includes an interview I did with a Utah officiant named Jenn Brook Wilde.

Stevie Shaughnessey: Great! and why did you choose to write this piece?

Morgan Champine: I found myself scrolling through a website, which is just lgbtweddings.com, and I was searching for queer Utah wedding friendly vendors, because I was curious, and I couldn’t find as many as I felt I should have found. I’m personally a big fan of watching the way the wedding scene evolves every year and I’ve always loved discussing the intricacies of weddings. I’m disappointed by how little queer weddings are presented as a part of this industry. The few vendors I could find in Utah were very open about their support, and personally, in my opinion, I think there are more wedding vendors in Utah who support the queer community. I wanted to encourage more vendors to be open about their support. 

Stevie Shaughnessey: And why is it important that wedding vendors specify that they are queer-friendly?

Morgan Champine: Yeah, there’s a number of reasons why this is important. So there’s great business to be found in working with queer couples, like, economically speaking, and on top of this, the importance of declarative support lies in safety. Queer couples have to be careful in red states such as Utah to avoid discrimination, and it is better to be safe than sorry and go with a vendor who declares their support for the queer community instead of a vendor who doesn’t specify. Queer people have a right to beautiful weddings. A lack of inclusive vendors can take away opportunities for queer people who want more traditional, bigger weddings, or even just want catering. I found quite a few photographers and two officiants who were openly queer-friendly, but very few venues or caterers who declared their support outright. 

Stevie Shaughnessey: And I know you talked about this in your article, but what is the best way for wedding vendors to display their support for queer people?

Morgan Champine: In my opinion, the best way for wedding vendors to display their support is to add to their website page and create a section on their website specifically for inclusivity. Ideally, this section on the website shouldn’t be hidden away, it should be front and center, where it’s easy for everyone to see. It’s also incredibly important, in my opinion, to ask customers for their pronouns when asking for information on their weddings. This ensures they’ll properly address every customer they work with and create a strong bond with trans clientele. 

Stevie Shaughnessey: How can wedding vendors benefit from specifying that they are queer-friendly?

Morgan Champine: There are really great economic benefits to supporting queer weddings. An entirely new clientele opens up. A study done by the Williams Institute’s School of Law determined same-sex couples have spent a total of $3.766 [billion] and 45,000 jobs have been created since and as a result of the passing of Obergefell v. Hodges. The Salt Lake Tribune estimates 2.8% of Utah’s adults identify as lesbian or gay and 6.1% identify as bisexual. If wedding vendors serve the queer population, frankly put, they’ll get a lot more money. 

Stevie Shaughnessey: Are there any openly queer wedding vendors in Salt Lake City?

Morgan Champine: Yeah. So as I mentioned earlier, there are a lot, but one in particular I got to talk with and interview for my article is Jenn from WildeHeart Weddings. She’s an officiant. She got her start in officiating weddings when she wanted to become a Reiki master, and told me that in order to become a Reiki master in Utah, you have to be a massage therapist or an ordained minister, so she chose the path of ministry, especially when she began planning her own wedding and realized there was a lack of spiritually-based officiants in the Utah area. She wrote her own vows and had her town mayor read them out, and ever since then, she’s been officiating weddings. Her website opens with “love is love,” introducing upfront what she believes in. Jenn described to me an experience she had with a queer couple where they asked if she’d be “willing” to officiate their wedding. She was shocked about the word “willing,” and told me, “I want to make it so clear that no one ever has to share their queerness with me or I ask if I am ‘willing’ — they know right away I mean love is love.” 

Stevie Shaughnessey: In your opinion, how should wedding vendors prioritize inclusivity like Jenn did?

Morgan Champine: In my opinion, Utah wedding vendors must begin to prioritize inclusivity as Utah’s queer population grows and the community expands. Those numbers from The Salt Lake Tribune, we’re only going to see them go up, and marriage is a human right. I believe plenty of wedding vendors in Utah support the queer community and their queer customers, but it’s hard to know if they’re not upfront about it. Showing support is just as important, if not more important, than just having it. 

Stevie Shaughnessey: Awesome, and any final thoughts on your piece?

Morgan Champine: I just want to further encourage wedding vendors to be declarative with their support. Don’t stand in silence. Speak out. 

Stevie Shaughnessey: Great, Morgan. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, and where can people find your article?

Morgan Champine: People can find my article online at dailyutahchronicle.com or anywhere around campus where our, we have the little booths up with the print pieces so anywhere in the Business and Politics piece.

Stevie Shaughnessey: Thank you for listening to Point of View, the Daily Utah Chronicle’s opinion podcast. Stay tuned for new episodes coming each month.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Producer and Host: Stevie Shaughnessey — [email protected]   | @steviechrony

Guest: Morgan Champine — [email protected] | @MorganChampine