Will Fresno County allow the library to participate in Pride Month? Vote looms
A new Fresno County policy about which holidays can be officially recognized by employees and potentially receive public funding looks to be facing its first major test with Pride Month, the yearly recognition of queer communities that sparked the new guidelines.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors will be asked to support the Fresno County Library’s request to recognize Pride Month in June as well as spend $125 for a booth space at Fresno Rainbow Pride, which is a gathering at Fresno City College that follows the parade through the Tower District.
Supporters of the library participating began drumming up support over the weekend, and many of them gathered Monday outside the Fresno County Hall of Records to continue to push for support going into the county meeting Tuesday morning.
“We stand with the library in its desire to serve every part of our community, including our LGBTQ neighbors, friends, family members, youth and elders,” the Rev. Akiko Miyake-Stoner of United Japanese Christian Church said Monday. “We also recognize that words spoken from positions of power have real consequences.”
The supporters said they were concerned over whether the library would get enough votes after one of the supervisors spoke out against it.
Supervisor Garry Bredefeld has been vocal about his disdain for what he describes as “the LGBTQ political agenda” and indoctrination of children, according to a May 7 social media post, his most recent public comments on events related to Pride Month.
His post said he received a letter from a constituent who said their 13-year-old was given a bookmark at school that depicted books with LGBTQ content. He said he’s learned the library staff would hand out more bookmarks.
“That is why I will fight against what the library is doing and return our libraries to an environment that is safe for children, is free of any political ideology, and promotes literacy programs in a transparent and healthy manner,” he wrote in the post.
Bredefeld last year championed the county’s new more-restrictive policy adopted in July after he saw the Fresno County Health Department had passed out condoms, lube and educational brochures. He said county staffers estimated the county spent about $6,000.
Pride supporters said last year the county had been a long-time participant in the events going back at least a decade.
Bredefeld campaigned against any Pride displays at the library. The display last year at the downtown Central Library was a shelf near the entrance that featured books related to the lives of the members of the gay, lesbian, trans and other queer communities.
Outside the pre-approved holidays on the county’s list — like Christmas and Juneteenth — county employees are now required to ask the supervisors for permission to recognize the events in places like the library or to spend money.
Advocates for the queer community argued the library should be a safe place for exploration, noting young people can get to books and other media without having to pay for it.
Providing spaces for members of a community that is not always welcome could go a long way to comforting those young people, according to Tracie Cisneros, a volunteer with Fresno Rainbow Pride.
“Attempts to remove or restrict LGBTQ+ visibility in our public spaces, especially in our libraries, does not protect our children, however, it does put them in grave danger of self harm and even death,” she said. “That is not an exaggeration. That is a fact.”
LGBTQ+ teens are more likely to commit self-harm and report higher rates of suicidal ideation than heterosexual teens, according to well-established academic research tracked by the National Institute of Health.
Not allowing library staff to participate in the event amounts to censorship, and sends the wrong message to the young and vulnerable, according to Stetler Brown, a professor of communications.
“We need to learn about what we are telling our students, our citizens of the Valley, that if their stories are not wanted in the library, what does that mean about their worth in the world?” he said. “So I’m here to push back. You all belong.”
