Could Fresno County stop recognizing Pride Month? LGBTQ+ community pushes back
Fresno County’s top administrator was told to develop a new policy for what observances or celebrations employees are allowed to recognize on the clock — and members of the LGBTQ+ community worry Pride Month will be on the chopping block.
They have reason to be concerned, because the Fresno County Supervisor pushing the effort, Garry Bredefeld, said as much.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community said they value public agencies taking part in the events for the information they share and the message it sends to folks who may feel marginalized.
Bredefeld said he wants county employees who are on the clock to no longer be involved in the Pride Month parade and wants the Fresno County Public Library to stop recognizing the month with posters and a book shelf.
“It’s my hope that this board will not have it (Pride) on the list, and that these libraries cannot be a place where we’re promoting an agenda, because I think it is an agenda. It’s a political agenda,” he said on June 10.
He said he was upset that the health department spent about $6,000 as part of the event, where county employees passed out condoms, lube, brochures on a medication and rainbow hand fans as part of their educational efforts.
The potential new policy was expected to go before the Board of Supervisors at its July 8 meeting, according to Paul Nerland, the chief administrative officer.
It’s not immediately clear how long Fresno County Department of Public Health has been attending the Pride events in Fresno but it’s further back than recent memory, according to Tracie Cisneros, who for seven years has been the volunteer coordinator for event organizer Fresno Rainbow Pride.
She said county departments of one kind or another have been a presence at the parade even back “as far as I can remember” when she was attending before becoming a volunteer. She estimated 20,000 people attended the parade this year.
“This is one of the largest opportunities in central California, and on a single day, to reach out to that many people,” she said. “And so, of course, all of those organizations, all of our nonprofits that are in attendance, all of the health services in attendance, they’re all bringing all of their literature.”
Cisneros described herself as an LGBTQ+ ally whose home is in Bredefeld’s county district, and was also in Bredefeld’s district when he was on Fresno City Council.
Many local and regional public agencies and service providers routinely attend Pride, which this year included four tables for county departments like Social Services and Public Health. There were also state agencies like the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and local hospitals like Community Health System.
Multiple members of the LGBTQ+ community who spoke with The Bee said the potential policy seemed to be a chipping away of civil rights that mirrored what they see in national news.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January proclaiming there are only two genders. He also weighed in this month on a public fight in Clovis when several local politicians called a news conference to try to impede a transgender girl from participating in a track competition.
Trump on Wednesday said California must ban trans athletes from sports and strip medals from any trans athletes who have won or the state would face further action from the Department of Justice.
Em Bauer, who was at Fresno’s Pride event this month, said “it makes my heart a little sad and angry” knowing a potential new county policy could take away the county’s past support of Pride.
“It’s really unfortunate that so many politicians are going after queer and trans people so directly when there are so many other more pressing issues in the community that need solving over whether or not someone that’s trans deserves to play sports,” Bauer said.
Providing health education to people in the community is supposed to be the function of any county’s health department, according to Eli Sachse, who is the founder of LGBTQ Merced, an offshoot of LGBTQ Fresno.
Sachse works as a public health nurse in Merced County, though he stressed he was commenting as a nurse and nonprofit volunteer and not as a public employee.
Among the items shared at the Health Department’s table at Pride was information on Apretude, a medication that reduces the risk of transmitting HIV.
“It’s about addressing health disparities, and so public health’s job is to meet your clients where they are,” Sachse said. “If the clients who are at risk of HIV are at Pride, and they go to pride to give them health information, it’s not promoting anything in particular. It’s a public health mandate to me.”
Fresno County leaders have resisted past calls to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community. The supervisors in 2023 adopted a policy that would not allow any flag other than the American and California flags to fly outside county buildings after Fresno city began to fly the Pride flag outside City Hall.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community in the San Joaquin Valley said the region has long lagged behind other parts of the state when it comes to resources for the community, so the Pride events help to fill in those empty spaces.
There has been a growing public support for those in those marginalized community, but there remains a backlash from more conservative leaders, they said.
The presence of service providers at Pride events is a reminder to many people who are part of the marginalized community that “they matter,” Cisneros said.
“Those folks that come out to show their support, that goes such a long way for the LGBTQ+ community in a stronger sense of self, in self confidence, in belonging, and it can mean the difference in their mental health,” she said. “When you can walk out and you feel supported, you feel seen, and you feel appreciated and validated in a space.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 10:24 AM.
