Many Provo community members have been waiting for answers as to why Provos Encircle LGBTQ Family and Youth Resource Center was removed at the last minute from the Americas Freedom Festival parade lineup July 4.

According to Maxwell Eddington, program director for Encircle, the nonprofit organizations application was originally approved not for the parade itself, but for the group to march in the pre-parade. The pre-parade is not part of the official parade, and those marching in that portion are authorized to walk the entire route ahead of the parades beginning, but are not announced.

Eddington said the prospect of participating in the pre-parade was very important to all involved with Encircle. Clients, volunteers and community members spent many hours organizing and learning choreography for the parade. Eddington himself left a family gathering in Arizona a day early to march in the parade.

Late July 3, Encircle leaders received communication saying their application had been revoked.

I was in the car on my way to Utah when I was told it wasnt going to happen, Eddington said. Its been very tough for a lot of people and these are the people that need answers about why this has happened.

Eddington said there are two questions Encircle and its community wants answers to: First, why was Encircle not allowed to be in the parade? Second, will Encircle be able to participate in the pre-parade in the future?

Eddington and Encircle leaders may not ever get complete answers. Though Paul Warner, executive director of Americas Freedom Festival, met with the 11-member Festival board committee multiple times last week, the committee chose not to answer those questions directly.

Warner explained that according to Parade Guideline No. 3, The Executive Committee reserves the right to refuse an entry into the parade if, in its sole judgment, it determines that the entry is controversial, unlawful, political or otherwise considered to be inconsistent with the standards, theme, quality or purposes of the Freedom Festival.

According to its website, Americas Freedom Festival at Provo is a private, nonprofit, non-political foundation whose mission is to celebrate, teach, honor, and strengthen the traditional American values of God, family, freedom, and country.

Warner said a United States Supreme Court decision also backs up the organizations legal right to choose who fits that description and participates in the parade. The 1995 ruling, Hurley v. Irish American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, held that private organizations, even if they are holding a public demonstration, were permitted to exclude groups if those groups presented a message contrary to the one the organizing group wanted to convey.

Warner explained the committee does not allow political or advocacy groups to participate in the parade. The committee allows politicians who currently hold office, but regularly turns down applications from political candidates, Warner said.

When asked by the Daily Herald about the inconsistent inclusion of groups like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries who many see as an advocacy group Warner referred back to Parade Guideline No. 3.

As for an official statement from the committee on its decision regarding Encircle, Warner offered the following: Leaders of Americas Freedom Festival at Provo met recently with the executive director of Encircle House to discuss the misunderstanding related to the entry process for the July 4th Parade. They met to better understand each others mission and vision, and the meeting ended with a shared spirit of appreciation.

Other meeting discussion points centered on the unique contributions each organization makes to those it serves in Provo City and Utah County. Encircle House and Freedom Festival representatives have pledged to move forward as each continues to pursue their respective mission statements, Warner said in an emailed statement.

According to the Freedom Festival in earlier reporting, there were more than 100 planned entries in 2017s Grand Parade.

Encircle is not the only local nonprofit group to be denied entry to the parade. Warner said over the past three years, there have been more than 60 entries denied permission to participate. A number of other organizations also reached out to the Daily Herald to share their own stories of denials for parade applications. Some of these have applied for multiple years, and while a few have been cleared to walk in the pre-parade, there is still a feeling of frustration in being excluded from the parade itself.

One Provo nonprofit explained that because it participates in other parts of the festival, and wants that participation to continue, it accepts the committees decision on parade participation. But the nonprofit reapplies each year in hopes of walking in the parade.

Warner and Eddington said both groups are now focused on trying to put the entire experience behind them.

We want to focus all our energy and all our time on the youth and the families we serve, Eddington said. Having to spend so much time on this Freedom Parade experience, answering calls, etc. it has been hours of my time I couldve spent on youth programs.

Every minute of this weve taken from that goal, was a minute we could have used to make a family or youths life better.

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Weeks later, Freedom Festival cites legal rights in defense of 11th-hour decision to nix LGBT group from parade - Daily Herald