Residents, community leaders and elected officials gathered Saturday, June 1, in front of City Hall to raise the Progress Pride flag in the City of San Fernando, celebrating the official start of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
“Happy first day of Pride Month everyone,” San Fernando Mayor Celeste Rodriguez said, greeting the crowd.
She recognized that the proclamation to acknowledge gay pride in San Fernando was introduced by the late city Councilmember Cindy Montanez, “[She] is not with us today to celebrate, but we are representing her today by celebrating.”
“A long time ago, our community wouldn’t even look like this, if we didn’t stand up, and show up, and make progress,” continued Rodriguez, pointing out how San Fernando was once a “sundown town, and people of color could not cross when it was dark” but now has a Latina mayor.
“We are raising this flag, and that is progress,” said Rodriguez.
Commonly referred to as “Pride,” the month of June celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender history and contributions. It traces its roots back to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, which although not the first form of resistance to queer oppression, became a defining event often associated with the start of the battle for equality and justice for the LGBTQ+ community in the United States.
The Progress Pride flag will fly in this small independent city under the American flag and the California State flag through the rest of the month. Its design holds the six-stripe rainbow of the original gay pride flag, with the addition of black, brown, light blue, pink and white stripes to include the marginalized Black and Brown community, trans people and those currently living with, or have passed away from, HIV/AIDS.
“It is incredibly important that we celebrate this month, especially now when we see so many attacks on the community. Whether it’s our trans youth, whether it’s attacks on our libraries, whether it’s attacks in our halls of justice or in halls of Congress, we have seen so many attacks on our LGBTQ+ community,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
Last October, when Horvath’s office arranged to have a Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Fernando Library, it was met with conservative demonstrators who stopped the event from taking place.
“Now more than ever, it is important for us to stand up in solidarity with the community, so they know they’re not alone,” she said.
Other elected officials attending the event included State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, Assemblywoman Luz Rivas and San Fernando Councilmembers Joel Fajardo and Mary Solorio.
“Unfortunately, the city of Downey caved to some of these pressures, and this year they won’t be having their flag-raising ceremony,” said Fajardo. “But here in San Fernando, we remained resilient, strong.”
The Downey City Council voted 3-2 to adopt a neutral flag policy, limiting which flags can be displayed on city-owned and maintained property, ending their annual pride flag-raising ceremony.
San Fernando has received its fair share of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric during both the library Drag storytime event and during subsequent City Council meetings which has caused the local queer community and its allies to more actively respond and speak out.
“Despite the opposition we face. Let us not live our lives with malice and hate. Let us love and befriend those who have shown no love to us,” said Fajardo, the city’s first openly gay elected city council member.
“Many of the people who come here with hateful rhetoric have challenges in their own lives – so for those of them who will hear us out, let us show through our actions, our undying love for mankind and each other.”
As attendees took turns cranking the handle and raising the flag, community members were invited to share their experiences.
“I just want to say that I’ve never felt more safe in the city,” said lifelong San Fernando resident Dani Varela.
“For a long time in this city, I didn’t feel like I belonged,” said Varela, who is a young trans woman. “Ever since people came together [in support of queer rights at a city council meeting], I’ve never felt happier. I’ve never felt more seen. I’ve never felt more proud to be in this city, in San Fernando.”
City of LA Raises the Pride Flag for the First Time
On June 1, LA Mayor Karen Bass announced that the Progress Pride Flag will fly over LA City Hall for all of June to celebrate Pride Month.
“Our message to the rest of the country and to the world is clear – now more than ever, we must stand together,” said Bass. “We know the harm that discrimination and hate brings and I’m proud that in Los Angeles, we accept our LGBTQIA+ community with open arms.”
LA city council unanimously voted on the last day of May, to amend an ordinance that banned the raising of most flags other than the American flag on city property. Bass signed the ordinance later that day, allowing the flag to be raised at City Hall and elsewhere in the Civic Center, throughout the month of June.
For the second year, LA County also raised the Progress Pride flag over the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration. The celebration took place before the first June meeting of the Board of Supervisors.
“It is important that for the second year in a row, the Progress Pride flag is flying high above not only the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, the heart of LA County government, but above every LA County facility countywide – sending a message to all our LGBTQ residents that their government sees them, supports them, and strives to make this county a place where they feel safe to live their truth,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who authored the motion last year to raise the pride flag.
The incoming executive director of the inaugural LGTBQ+ Commission, Sunitha Menon, was also acknowledged during the event. Supervisors Hilda Solis and Horvath authored the motion last June to create the Commission, which will hold its first meeting on June 11.
The Board adopted two items at the meeting that focused on uplifting the LGBTQ+ community. Authored by Horvath and Solis, “Care with Pride: Affirming and Expanding the Gender Health Program,” reaffirms the gender-affirming healthcare program, and “Gender Affirming Resource Closets for LGBTQ+ Foster Youth in Los Angeles County,” initiates a pilot program to establish no-cost spaces for trans youth in foster care to access clothing and other gender affirming resources.
Solis noted that raising the flag, “sends a clear, unambiguous message that Los Angeles County will always be a welcoming and inclusive space that celebrates love, respect, and dignity for all and universally rejects any form of hate, intolerance, and discrimination.”