FOLSOM, Calif. — Folsom Mayor Mike Kozlowski will proclaim June as Pride Month in the city at a council meeting Tuesday.
There are existing resources available for LGBTQIA+ community members and allies seeking support in Folsom. Within the community, Reflection Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) on Blue Ravine Road aims to provide a safe space allowing people to be able to seek God “as they are,” according to Pastor Sharon Henry.
At the higher education level, the newly-founded Folsom Lake College (FLC) Pride Nest strives to offer a welcoming, safe hang-out and learning environment, according to its student personnel assistant, Eli Smith.
Reflection MCC
Henry said Reflection MCC is made up of mostly LGBT parishioners.
“I would say a large number of the people who go to church at Reflection do so because they are LGBTQ+ and they feel completely welcome and at home in the church,” she said.
Reflection MCC will have a booth during Sacramento Pride Saturday and Sunday. It’s had a booth at the event for the last five years, Henry said. This year, the church also purchased a booth at Kin-dom Camp in Lake Tahoe, a youth camp for children 12-17 providing LGBTQIA+ youth the opportunity to show up as their full selves, according to the event.
The church in Folsom began meeting as a small ministry in 2018 and was officially recognized by Metropolitan Community Churches in April 2019. It went virtual shortly after opening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“...In the last year, it feels like starting from scratch again,” Henry told ABC10.
Metropolitan Community Churches was founded as a Christian Church denomination in 1968 by Reverend Troy Perry to make a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQ people, according to Henry. Within two years, it reportedly grew into a global denomination.
“I specifically chose to become ordained in MCC because it is so inclusive, because it is a safe space and because it is something that allows people to be who they are without shame, fear or religious abuse,” Henry said.
She said the community has generally been very inclusive with the exception of a November 2023 incident where a minor allegedly stole the church's banner, which displays a
“I’m passionate about creating safe spaces,” Henry said. “I believe people should be able to seek God as they are and to meet God where they are. I believe that God has created each of us (in) God’s own image, and doing so (he) has not ever asked us to change that image.”
FLC Pride Nest
Eli Smith, who has been involved with the Sacramento LGBT Community Center for the past decade in both volunteer and staff capacities, said the FLC Pride Nest was established in 2024.
“We work to facilitate and support opportunities that cultivate the development of students, staff and faculty through leadership, self-love, self-acceptance and advocacy,” he said.
Located inside the Equity Center on FLC’s main campus, the nest primarily serves on-campus students but will serve other Los Rios Community College District students, staff, faculty and community members, Smith said.
Smith said he hopes to expand the nest’s staff by the fall 2024 semester, and because it is a brand new program with only one dedicated staff member, a little more than 50 people have been served so far. He said any business or organization looking to partner with the Pride Nest should contact him at SmithE@flc.losrios.edu.
Smith became involved when Folsom Lake College was hiring to start an LGBTQ+ program.
There are several resources available for LGBTQIA+ community members and allies at Folsom Lake College, including:
- The Folsom Lake College Queer-Straight Alliance, a student-led club within the Office of Student Life.
- Sexual health supplies, including but not limited to condoms, lube and dental dams.
- Expansion of gender-neutral locker facilities. The Pride Nest has partnered with college administration to advocate for a gender-neutral locker room and is planning to make a space available at the beginning of the fall 2024 semester.
- Partnerships with community organizations, such as the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, which provides students passes to Sacramento Pride 2024.
In terms of gender care, the Pride Nest will offer an expansive gender-affirming clothing closet complete with chest binders, shapewear, bras, panties and boxers starting fall 2024, Smith said. It was made possible through grant funding and some materials are already available now.
June is widely regarded as Pride Month, and Folsom’s proclamation Tuesday is just one acknowledgement of the existing commemoration.
"I call upon all residents to join in celebrating the diversity of our community, fostering acceptance, understanding and respect for all individuals," Kozlowski will say during his proclamation. "Folsom takes pride in being an inclusive city that values and promotes the well-being, dignity and rights of all its residents."
The federal government first recognized the month in 1999 when President Bill Clinton declared June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month,” according to Joint Base Andrews military facility. President Barack Obama again declared June LGBT Pride Month in 2009, and President Joe Biden did so in 2021.
