STOCKTON, Calif. — Stockton City councilmembers pushed a decision to raise the Pride flag in honor of LGBTQIA+ Pride month to another meeting. It was an agenda item on the council’s regular Tuesday meeting.
If passed without changes, the flag would have flown on city flagpoles from June 14-21.
The vote was part of a bigger story unfolding in this community and beyond, including at the county supervisors meeting just last week.
At their regular meeting on Tuesday, June 6, San Joaquin County supervisors voted on a recommendation to fly the Pride flag outside the San Joaquin County Administration Building. The flag would have flown for five days, from June 12-16. The measure failed. Only three of five supervisors voted to fly the flag; it needed four votes to pass. Supervisors Tom Patti and Steven Ding voted against the recommendation.
Supervisor Paul Canepa, who introduced the recommendation, called himself a God-fearing person while speaking in favor of flying the Pride flag.
“For me, the way that I was raised, I mean, this is definitely outside the box for me, but I want to be a more inclusive society,” he said.
Some members of the public commented in favor of flying the flag – others, against.
“What I am not understanding is, why this is even an issue when it’s a sexual thing? And why is a sexual thing being brought to the forefront?” said Jane Weisenburger, a meeting attendee.
“How they got a month worth of celebration is beyond me, but – anyway – if there’s another flag that should be flown, it should be the veterans,” another person commented.
“If we fly a flag for five days from one group, you need to fly a flag for five days from every single group that’s represented in the United States, and I don’t see how you could possibly do that,” another commenter told supervisors.
ABC10 took the question of why flying the Pride flag matters to the San Joaquin Pride Center. That’s a local non-profit organization serving San Joaquin County with free LGBTQ+ resources, health services and events.
“That means so much to the LGBTQ community, to know that there are spaces in the world that not just see us but also, like, celebrate us and want us to feel safe there, and I think that flying a flag is a very simple way for a city and a location to do that,” said MichaelWayne Cozzens, community outreach coordinator with the San Joaquin Pride Center.
They and the center’s transgender service specialist, James Patnaude, say flying a Pride flag is especially meaningful this year.
Doing so shows that a community is "standing firm in their support with us against the bigotry that we have historically faced worldwide - and even now, currently, are facing nationwide,” said Patnaude.
Also sparking controversy in the Stockton area is the San Joaquin Pride Center’s upcoming family-friendly We Are Family Drag Show fundraiser, which is Saturday at Pixie Woods. ABC10 was at the May 23 Stockton City Council meeting, where people showed up to speak in support of – and opposition to – holding the event at a children’s park.
“These people that have a right to have whatever they want to put on. It shouldn’t be at a children’s park,” said retiree Tom O’Brion.
In support of the event, minister Matt Pargeter-Villarreal told ABC10, “trying to ban something like this is honestly ridiculous.”
Ultimately, the San Joaquin Pride Center got a permit from the city to hold the event at Pixie Woods - but at a steeper cost than they anticipated, as explained in a Facebook post HERE.
“Due to the backlash that we have received from the community in response to this event, we have now had to almost triple our expenses just to put on this event,” said Patnaude. “Now, we are required to have not only paid security but also have a Stockton PD presence…That was required, by contract, with the city.”
It’s been frustrating for the center, Cozzens said, with “this event - that was just for promoting safety and celebration of all expression - turning into this really big controversy and fight, when it was just supposed to be a space of safety for LGBTQ families to come and have a fun time.”
The San Joaquin Pride Center stresses it is a family-friendly event, with drag performers dressing as Disney characters and video game characters.
Tickets are $15 each and only on sale through 11:30 Thursday night, Patnaude said. For safety purposes, organizers said, there will be no same-day tickets sold to this Saturday event.
People who want to support the San Joaquin Pride Center can also buy tickets and then donate them. Tickets can be bought HERE. Then message the San Joaquin Pride Center on Instagram, Facebook or by emailing info@sjpridecenter.com.
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