Utah Politician Throws Billion Dollar Tantrum Over A Rainbow Logo
A simple social media post has ignited a firestorm in American politics. When Utah’s new NHL team, the Utah Mammoths, celebrated the start of June by changing their logo to rainbow colours, one local politician saw red. Utah state representative Trevor Lee has threatened to introduce legislation that could block public funding for any private group that supports Pride.
Utahns overwhelmingly don’t support pride month.
— Trevor Lee (@VoteTrevorLee) June 1, 2025
We are the most kind people in the world and are taken advantage of because of that kindness.
Nothing makes Utahns more mad when political ideologies get pushed into their lives. And even worse, having taxes prop up these… https://t.co/NzjUn52xVv
The threat carries significant weight. Smith Entertainment Group, the owner of both the Utah Mammoths and the NBA’s Utah Jazz, was recently approved for nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer money to maintain the Delta Center arena where both teams play. For Lee, this public funding comes with strings attached. “If they want to be a private company and group, they can do what they want,” Lee stated. “But the minute they take taxpayer money, that is our money going to fund their agendas.”
Is his proposed bill even legal? According to legal experts, not even close. Critics warn that Lee’s plan is a clear violation of fundamental First Amendment rights, which protect free speech. The government cannot use the threat of withholding funds to control the viewpoints of a private company.
Katie Fallow, a director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, explains that the government is forbidden from making funding dependent on companies speaking in a way it prefers. Carolyn Iodice from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education agrees. “The fact that the government is choosing to subsidise an arena for the team does not grant the government any right to ban it from creating a logo for Pride Month, or for Christmas, the Fourth of July, or anything else,” Iodice says.
ICYMI Trevor Lee is having a tantrum again, and no we won't feed his algorithm by referencing it. pic.twitter.com/cOrXeOMJ9f
— Better Utah (@betterutah) June 4, 2025
A History of Hostility
This isn’t the first time Trevor Lee has targeted the LGBTQIA+ community. He is best known for sponsoring a bill to ban Pride flags from schools and government buildings. That same bill included a controversial amendment that would permit Nazi and Confederate flags for so-called “educational purposes.”
In 2022, reporters also uncovered that Lee was running a secret social media account that promoted conspiracy theories and posted attacks against women and LGBTQIA+ people. His actions stand in stark contrast to public opinion. Despite his claims that Utahns do not support Pride, a 2019 poll showed that 77 per cent of adults in the state actually favour laws that protect the rights of their LGBTQIA+ neighbours.
