SALT LAKE CITY — Candice Metzler said she was stunned to see the video from a doorbell camera showing someone stealing a Pride flag staked on her lawn.
"I didn’t think it would happen in my neighborhood," she said Friday. "That’s a classic kind of cliché."
The video, taken in the middle of the night earlier this month, shows an SUV stop and what appears to be a young person trying to obscure their face in a hoodie, rush out of the back and snatch the flag before the vehicle drives off.
"This Pride month is feeling very different than other Pride months," Metzler said. "I feel like what I'm seeing is a manifestation of examples set from the leaders in our state."
Metzler, who used to lead the group Transgender Education Advocates of Utah, believes some of it is fallout from Governor Spencer Cox's decision to no longer acknowledge LGBTQ Pride month and instead promote something conservative scholars have been pushing called "Fidelity Month," focusing on "faith, family and country."
Gov. Cox was the first Republican governor in the country to recognize Pride month back in 2021, and he issued similar proclamations through 2023. In 2024, he declared a month of "bridge building" that never explicitly mentioned the LGBTQ community. Gov. Cox did not issue any Pride month proclamation in 2025.
Metzler, who has met with Gov. Cox and his staffers in the past, said the Fidelity Month proclamation only further emboldens people to take actions that can target the LGBTQ community.
"The last conversation I had with the governor was in the Governor’s Mansion and he had asked us to be civil with one another," she told FOX 13 News. "And I don’t think this is civil. I think this is gaslighting."
Gov. Cox's office declined to comment to FOX 13 News on Metzler's comments or any impacts from his Fidelity Month proclamation. Once praised for his defense of the LGBTQ community, relationships have soured as activists, advocates and community groups criticized him for signing bills passed by the legislature that has impacted transgender people.
Vandalism and theft of flags recognizing the LGBTQ community is fairly common for Project Rainbow Utah, a group that stakes flags in lawns statewide three times a year for Pride, Transgender Day of Visibility and Transgender Day of Remembrance. Francisco Meza, Project Rainbow Utah's board chair, told FOX 13 News they estimate as much as 20% of the roughly 6,000 flags they put up in front of homes are either stolen or vandalized.
According to bias crime statistics kept by the FBI, from June 2024 to June 2025, 38 documented hate crimes in Utah targeted a person's sexual orientation and another six specifically targeted gender identity (there were 36 documented involving race, ethnicity and ancestry and 16 targeting religion). Property crimes were the top hate crime reported. Utah's Bureau of Criminal Identification told FOX 13 News on Friday it is tracking a decline in incidents with an LGBTQ bias between 2024 and 2025, with 37 total incidents in 2024 and 23 in 2025.
"Mostly what we see is adolescents that are going around who just kind of pick up flags," said Meza. "And it’s kind of disappointing when we see that. It’s often a reflection of what leadership has started to promote or that ideology that kids are picking up."
Project Rainbow Utah was among those who criticized Gov. Cox for his Fidelity Month declaration. Meza said the organization has observed some people continuing to contribute to their cause, but opting not to have a flag in their lawn for fear of being targeted.
Metzler has returned a Pride flag to her lawn.
"I went out and got another flag pole," she said. "It’s now a taller flag pole with a bigger flag."
