The ACLU of Utah and the national ACLU LGBT Project filed a lawsuit to force the State Office of Vital Records and Statistics to recognize a married same-sex couple as legal parents of their child. The lawsuit was filed in Utah federal court on behalf of Angie and Kami Roe, who seek to both be recognized as parents to their daughter, Lucy. Under Utah’s assisted reproduction statute, the husband of a woman who conceives with donated sperm is automatically recognized as the child’s parent. But because Angie is Kami’s wife instead of her husband, the State Office of Vital Records and Statistics refuses to recognize Angie as Lucy’s parent.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Utah, and Strindberg & Scholnick, LLC; have filed a lawsuit in Utah state court on behalf of four same-sex couples who were legally married in Utah after a federal court struck down a state ban, but before the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted marriages from taking place while the state challenged the decision. Although the marriages were valid, the state has announced that it has placed recognition of their marriages on hold indefinitely.

Utah was one of five states to pass anti-immigrant laws in 2011. The Utah state legislature approved HB 497 in March, 2011 which, among other provisions, authorized local law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of individuals they stop, made it a crime to transport or harbor undocumented immigrants, and allowed for the warrantless arrest of individuals an officer has reasonable cause to believe are subject to federal immigration deportation orders.