South Bay Kicks Off LGBTQ Pride Month In 50th Year

SAN JOSE, CA — Pride rules in Santa Clara County, as a microcosm to the civil rights cause in California — which spanned across the United States through the efforts of the Golden State's now governor.

The county is launching Tuesday LGBTQ-focused Pride Month, which recognizes the civil rights accomplishments and works in progress with a rally to denounce violence faced by transgender community members and discriminatory policy changes from the Trump administration. Such changes include the federal Housing and Urban Development policy allowing federally-funded shelters to consider sex at birth for purposes of determining accommodation, along with the Denial of Care Rule. This restriction is being challenged in U.S. District Court by the county.

The "Pride with a Purpose" rally also seeks to make the community aware of essential programs, services and resources for transgender community members.

“This year the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era regulation that protects transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court of the United States allowed a Trump policy barring many transgender people from the military, and the administration moved to limit transgender rights in the workplace,” county Office of LGBTQ Affairs Director Maribel Martinez said. ”This is unacceptable and definitely lacks the compassion and spirit of inclusiveness reflected in the LGBTQ community in Santa Clara County.”

In addition to institutional setbacks, violence is also on the rise for the transgender community, despite progress and higher visibility.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least five transgender people have been violently killed in the United States in 2019. Last year, 26 transgender individuals were fatally shot or killed by other violent means. For one such example from last month, Muhlaysia Booker — a black transgender woman who was previously assaulted with an attack made public via a social media video— was fatally shot in Dallas.

And there are others — some just days apart.

“The violence perpetrated against Muhlaysia Booker, Michelle Washington and Claire Legato is inexcusable, and my heart goes out to their families,” said Susan Ellenberg, county Supervisor and Public Justice and Safety Committee chairwoman. “Our LGBTQ community is an important facet of the diverse culture of Santa Clara County, California and the U.S. and deserves to live without fear. As we continue to bolster our efforts within our own community around our culture of inclusion, we hope the rest of the country does the same. Enough is enough.”

Jeffrey Smith, who runs the county, pledged ongoing support for the local jurisdiction to "protecting the rights of all our residents and our transgender and non-binary communities,” with "zero tolerance for any kind of hate crime."

Smith was joined by the county's District Attorney Jeff Rosen.

“The District Attorney’s Office has no tolerance for hate crimes and will seek justice when a person is harmed because of their actual or perceived race, religion, disability, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation,” Rosen said.

Government dignitaries and community members had gathered at the County Government Center in the James P. McEntee Plaza at 70 West Hedding St. in San Jose to show their commitment to supporting these rights.

Down the street Tuesday evening, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo will host a flag-raising ceremony and be on hand with other dignitaries and community members to celebrate Pride Month, which runs through June.

The event will be staged at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall west plaza at 200 East Santa Clara St. in San Jose.

For this year, National Pride Month commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City in which drag queens took their displeasure of police harassment to the streets from the so-named inn that served as a refuge for the LGBTQ community, thus making a historic public disturbance. This uprising sparked the LGBTQ civil rights movement.

In every year since the uprising, cities across the United States stage events that draw thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of people to mark the stance. When the U.S. Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal across the nation in the landmark Obergefell vs Hodges case in June 2015, the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade brought out more than a million people.

Facebook and Apple featured about 20 blocks of marchers in the city as well as dignitaries such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who facilitated the same sex marriage fight when in February 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, he defied state statutes by beginning to issue marriage licenses to couples. At the time, the crusader who bucked his own party to take the equality stance asserted the California Constitution's equal protection clause, and more than 4,000 licenses were granted.

On the day, Newsom told this reporter in Lake Tahoe News he was motivated by the prospect of a federal constitutional amendment to bar the marriages and heard a supporter using "a grimaced venom that it was too much to sit idly by" and was triggered to wage his own part of the fight.

"We have many parts and one body. When one part suffers, it all suffers," he said.

Today, Newsom issued a proclamation Tuesday statewide to mark the historic celebration.

"As we celebrate and declare June as Pride Month in California, we are reminded of what makes California great — our remarkable capacity to live together and advance together across every conceivable difference," it reads, adding how the anniversary marks a tireless effort to gain and retain respect and equality. "Their fight continues to this day, as we combat discriminatory laws across the country."