Silent March in response to HB0261
On Sept. 13, from 3-5 p.m., a silent march occurred on the Quad, with a starting point at Block A, at the Utah State University’s Logan campus.
This march was done in protest of House Bill 0261, and it was the second protest of the same style within this school year, the other being held on Aug. 30.
HB0261 was signed into law on Jan. 30, 2024 and took effect July 1. According to this new law, “This bill prohibits an institution of higher education, the public education system, and a governmental employer from taking certain actions and engaging in discriminatory practices.”
However, many students have found its intentions questionable at best, and many argue that the law has negatively impacted students’ lives.
“We’re here protesting some of the impacts that House Bill 261 has had on student resources on campus,” said Yash Rivera, the president of the Queer Student Alliance at USU. “For example, the inclusion center was shut down, which was a hub for a lot of resources for students to access regardless of their identity.”
“Our rights have been taken away under House Bill 261,” said Kris Pfeiffer, the current acting president of the USU chapter of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science, or SACNAS, as well as a member of the Navajo nation.
Kris argues that this law affects a broad proportion of USU’s student population.
“Statistically speaking, there are more LGBTQIA, people of color, minorities, interracial, mixed and BIPOC people than there are white, straight, cis, majority religion people [at USU],” Pfeiffer said.
Zach Johnson, a student who attended the protest, argued that HB0261 causes further issues.
“They [the Utah Lawmakers] create an unsafe environment for all students, not just the queer, Indigenous, black, brown and woman, as well as gender nonconforming people on campus,” Johnson said. “It creates an unsafe space for everyone by extension to that.”
Johnson argued that through this bill, tension is created between groups.
“When we have one group of people who are being told that they have no safe space here, it sends the message to the majority who exist in their general safe space, that those people have no legal right to exist. Therefore that creates tension between groups,” Jonhson said. “So those tensions make it unsafe for everybody.”
The main form of protest was a silent march. The route was from Block A to around the Quad.
The protestors also wrote letters.
“We really want to focus on student voices,” Yash said. “So we’re also encouraging people to write letters to the Utah Higher Board of Education talking about how this bill has impacted them.”
That being said, retaliation is one topic that isn’t a concern for many of the students.
“Retaliation is prohibited at USU. We have our freedom of speech here, and we’re following all of the rules and how we navigate this protest, and we’re doing this protest as students. We’re not representing the university,” Yash said.
The role of students protesting HB0261 is an important detail to note. Employees and representatives of the University are more affected by HB0261 in this regard, as the law limits what University employees say and do, whereas the freedom of speech that the average student at USU has won’t be inhibited by HB0261.
“When students come together and we organize, we can actually create change,” Yash said.