I lived there 2012-2017, never had an issue with dating/making friends/getting promotions at work. There were of course many women that would only date mormon men, but the non-mormon population was big enough that I didn't think about it much.
I worked for multiple tech companies there, had plenty of non-mormon co-workers (and bosses!), and while people did talk about mormon things sometimes in social settings, it was never pushed on me, nor did anyone make a big deal that I wasn't mormon.
I should mention I lived in downtown SLC, which is arguably more liberal/secular, and I worked for companies both in and outside the city.
2.2M divided by 3.2M --> 70%
LDS seems to at least be a dominating factor in that state.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/01/14/latter-day-s...
> Eighty-nine of the 103 lawmakers to be seated Jan. 19 (with one current vacancy) are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s 86%. Utah’s population is 60% Latter-day Saint, according to research by The Salt Lake Tribune. Latter-day Saints also hold 100% of the state’s congressional seats and statewide political offices, such as governor.
> Independent Latter-day Saint demographer Matt Martinich has estimated that about 40 percent of Latter-day Saints in the United States are “active,” and he guesses that roughly half of Salt Lake County’s members go to church, or roughly 24 percent of the county’s population.
Apostasy among young people has grown extreme in the last couple of decades by the church's own admission.
You'll only understand the depths to which the LDS church controls the state and enforces it's social and moral code if you've lived in Utah for an extended period as an outsider. It's pretty fucking weird.
- Hard liquor only sold by State Liquor stores, where they digitally record your ID. Only open a few hours a day, and on certain days. Additional state-mandated restrictions on what may be stocked (not too high of proof, etc). Fiendishly overpriced.
- Beer is all 1/2 the standard alcohol content, and may not be purchased on Sundays or after something like 10pm (forgive me, I don't recall the exact hours but you get the point). You must drive to a neighboring state to get regular alcoholic beverages.
- The LDS church wields immense financial power, usually wielded with a thin veil indirection to avoid running afoul of federal non-profit tax law.
- The LDS church is above the law, because they control it. Can't say they hijacked the state, because they founded it. There is no other place in the United States controlled by a single faction like Utah, which should terrify you. Fortunately for the rest of us outsiders, if you leave the morms alone in the macro sense, they'll ignore you, seeing you as a non-variable / non-threat.
- Church is full of porno fiends and sexual abusers; hypocrites at every level (denying human nature breeds curiosity and extremist effects on the population). It's really sad for all the victims, who are often the perpetrators' own family members.
- Lots of closet homosexuality. Also sad. The church has also squashed gay rights in the state and attempted to also suppress same-sex rights at th e federal level.
It's worth noting that over time as more non-morms move to Salt Lake City, some of the cultural norms and somewhat diluted just by sheer numbers of outsiders.
Once you get away from that lone big city, it's something like 80-90% "active" mormons. This is the phenomenon granting the church indirect controls over the vast majority of the politics and state at large.
The mormons and church are clever, going to great lengths to ensure their activities are technically legal.
Lots of nice individual people, but a scary powerful organization. It's a cult.
https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2022/06/20/mendenhall-lds-chu...
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/08/10/lds-church-moves-quas...
Similar to about 15 other states.
>Only open a few hours a day, and on certain days.
11 AM - 10 PM Monday thru Saturday. If you can't work with those hours you have a different problem than the lack of opportunity to buy alcohol.
>Additional state-mandated restrictions on what may be stocked (not too high of proof, etc). Fiendishly overpriced.
You can buy Everclear which is 190 proof. There is a limit but I think it has more to do with physics and chemistry than puritanism. If you want something they don't stock you can have them order it for you.
It's onerous sometimes, and often weird, but it's no more difficult to purchase liquor in Utah than in a state like Virginia.
Um? What?
There's like a dozen states that are just as bad if not worse. The only difference is that the "faction" just happens to be the state branch of one of the two big national political parties instead of a religion.
Heck, other than the whole anti-gay thing your description of Utah sounds just like my tiny northeast state. Actually now that I think about it our liquor laws are worse and I can't even buy fireworks despite the fact that this place is anything but arid...
I don't need to imagine it. I pay my f-ing taxes.
Between income, sales, property, fuel, sin taxes and government fees the state tax burden is probably close to 20%. Just like the Mormon church then go on to spend that money, a lot of it on good stuff that is helpful to everyone, but a ton of it is also spent on cronyism, make-work BS, enriching the leadership and those connected to it (with pretexts of course, they're not amateurs at this) and expanding the organization itself.
Utah is the same as any other one-party state. It just so happens that the values-defining "club" that nearly everyone at every level of government belongs to is religious and not overtly political. Why is this so hard for you people to grasp?
Might have something to do with that whole pesky First Amendment thing.