San Joaquin County raised the LGBTQ+ pride flag at the downtown Stockton administration building Friday — and this time, it will fly again for years to come.
The flag-raising event at the San Joaquin County Administration Building marked the first time the county has flown the LGBTQ+ banner since a March amendment to the county’s commemorative flag policy. The new policy proclaims the pride flag will honor “Stonewall Day, June 28th in perpetuity.”
“No ifs, ands or buts this year,” said Pat Barrett, a peer support specialist supervisor for the Central Valley Gender Health and Wellness Clinic, after attending Friday’s ceremony. “It’s done. It’s a deal.”
The pride flag is a rainbow banner designed in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker at the request of Harvey Milk, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and one of the first openly gay officials to win public office in California. Milk was assassinated in 1978.
The progress pride flag, which the county raised Friday, includes more stripes than Baker’s original design, and is intended to specifically honor LGBTQ+ people of color and trans, nonbinary and intersex people, alongside the community as a whole.
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, a time to recognize the community’s historic fight to live openly in the United States. June is the anniversary month of the 1969 resistance riot at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, which was sparked by repeated police raids of the Stonewall and other gay establishments.
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors first voted in 2022 to raise the pride flag for no more than five consecutive days in June. But in subsequent years, the board was inconsistent in flying the banner.
In 2023, no flag was flown after a vote requiring a four-fifths majority failed, 3-2. The following year, the board passed a proposal to fly the flag for one day in June.
Last year, the flag flew again. But a proposed flag policy amendment by Supervisor Steven Ding, which did not include the pride banner, kicked off a debate that ultimately led to the revamp ing of the county’s flag rules by a review committee.
That committee wrote the new rules that ultimately ordered the pride flag be raised each year, for a single day. It was slated to fly until 5 p.m. Friday, board spokesperson Stefanie Cruz said.
“Today’s pride flag raising has become more than a tradition. It’s a declaration of unity, dignity, and belonging in San Joaquin County,” board Chair and District 3 Supervisor Sonny Dhaliwal said in a statement.
“I think it sends a message that we stand for diversity and inclusion in our county,” District 2 Supervisor Paul Canepa said after attending Friday’s event.
Because of the new rules, Cymone Reyes, executive director of Central Valley Gender Health and Wellness, said she felt she could relax a bit at the celebration.
“For us, it was kind of a win — especially in this environment, with the attacks coming at a federal level,” she said.
In San Joaquin County at least, “This year, we raise the flag with a little more relief, and a little more peace of mind,” Reyes said.