Gay-wedding expo in Utah connects couples, businesses

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY

Jason Langlois and Will Bladh are in the early stages of making plans for their summer 2017 wedding, and they don’t want their excitement pierced by the pain of being rejected by a venue, florist and photographer who have a legal right in Utah to refuse to serve a gay couple.

That’s why they joined several hundred people Sunday at a gay and lesbian wedding expo in Salt Lake City aimed at connecting couples with businesses who want to make it known they’re open to doing same-sex weddings.

“We don’t have to worry about, ‘Will they or won’t they,’” said Langlois. “It’s a group of businesses that are LGBT friendly.”

With a string quartet playing on one side of the exhibit hall and pop music on the other side, gay and lesbian couples chatted with businesses showing off fancy wedding cakes, fun photo booths and elaborate floral arrangements.

Utah is one of 29 states where it is legal for businesses to refuse services to same-sex couples, according to the Human Rights Campaign. A proposal to change that law died last week in Utah’s Republican-controlled legislature. There are no estimates of how often it happens, but most gay couples know somebody who has been rejected.

The Salt Lake City event was the first of its kind since gay marriage became legal in Utah in 2013, said Michael Aaron, the show organizer and publisher of QSalt Lake, a magazine that caters to the LGBT community.

For wedding-related businesses, gay marriages represent a growth market.