What holidays and events are OK to Fresno County board after blocking Pride?
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors this week put the kibosh on a request to have library staffers run a booth at a Fresno Pride event, arguing that it’s not inclusive enough.
The board has also approved more than 50 other days, weeks or months of themed observances at the Fresno County Library, many of which focus on a specific demographic, since the new more-restrictive Policy 80 and Policy 81 were adopted last summer.
The split board Tuesday voted down the request for library presence by Fresno Rainbow Pride, which this year marks the 36th celebration with a parade that typically passes through the Tower District and continues into a festival at Fresno City College.
Supervisors Garry Bredefeld, Nathan Magsig and Buddy Mendes voted to deny the request to allow staffers to run a 10-by-10 foot booth inside the festival.
Along with blocking the staffers, supervisors voted not to officially observe Pride Month inside the library. But they have no sway over how books are displayed, according to Doug Sloan, the county counsel. Pride Month book displays near entrance doors have been the target of some critics.
Bredefeld said on Tuesday the library staffers should attend community events that “reflect a balance and inclusive approach” for the community. He also described Pride and the LGBTQ+ community as “a political ideology and lifestyle movement.”
“Our libraries belong to all of us. They should be about books, learning and bringing families together,” Bredefeld said during the meeting.
The list of board-approved recognitions includes holidays for multiple religions, ethnic groups and diverse demographics.
Fresno County Librarian Sally Gomez told the board that library staffers go to events they’re invited to and have only ever turned down an invitation because of late notice by the event planners or a lack of library staffing.
The observances approved by the board since the policy was adopted include:
- Administrative Professionals Day
- Arab American Heritage Month
- Autism Acceptance Month
- Braille Day
- Caribbean American Heritage Month
- Celiac Awareness Month
- Cinco de Mayo
- D-Day
- Dia de los Muertos
- Disability Pride Month
- Drop Everything and Read Day (D.E.A.R.)
- Earth Day
- Easter, a Christian holiday
- Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) Awareness Month
- Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday
- El Dia de los ninos / El dia de los libros, a national literacy effort for children of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds
- Fall/Autumn
- Fantasy Walk, which promotes reading, walking and audiobooks
- Father’s Day
- Flag Day
- Fresno County Reads, which highlights one book and offers activities around it
- Genre challenge, which highlights book genres
- Groundhogs Day
- Halloween
- Hispanic Heritage Month
- Holi, a Hindi festival of color in the spring
- International Harry Potter Day
- Irish American Heritage Month
- Jewish American Heritage Month
- Law Day, a focus on the rule of law
- Money Smart Week, an education effort around financial literacy
- Mother’s Day
- National Children’s Book Week
- National Library Week
- National Pet Month
- National Poetry Month
- National Shakespeare Day
- National Teacher Day
- Parkinson’s Awareness Month
- Passover, the Jewish holiday season
- Pi Day, annually on March 14 in a nod to the mathematical constant, 3.14
- Pop-Up Prom, an effort to provide dress attire to young people for their prom
- Preservation Week, a celebration of the archives
- Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam
- Saint Patrick’s Day, a Catholic holiday
- Star Wars Day, which is associated with the film franchise
- Summer At Your Library: Go Wild for Reading, a celebration of reading around animal-based books
- Teacher Appreciation Day
- Valentine’s Day
- Vesak Day, a Buddhist holiday festival
- Women’s Equality Day
- Yom Ha Shoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day
The library staffers also visit schools throughout the year to encourage reading and inform students about the services available.
Here’s a list of several other events the library visited in the past year:
- ZooBoo, a Halloween-themed event at Chaffee Zoo
- Trunk or Treat with Fresno PARCS (Parks, After School, Recreation and Community Services Department)
- The Young Authors’ Faire from Fresno County of Education
- Open house for Stone Soup Fresno, a nonprofit focused on immigrants
- You Matter Day, a community service event in Kingsburg
- Spring Fest at Einstein Park
- Summit Hope for the West Fresno Family Resource Center, a nonprofit
- Fresno Grizzlies Community Partner Night
- Back to School Night at Clovis Farmers Market
- Big Sandy Rancheria Annual Pow Wow
- Govaganza Job Fair, which is focused on government and education jobs
- Family Day at Fresno Art Museum
- Selma Raisin Festival
- Women’s Empowerment Fresno
- Fresno State Library for Print Signup Month, a push for residents to sign up for a library card
- Artes Americas Poetry Contest
The supervisors gave a blanket approval to a number of holidays when they first adopted the policy, which included New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
Cesar Chavez Day was renamed Fresno County Farmworker and Agriculture Appreciation Day in March after revelations about alleged sexual misconduct by Chavez, who died in 1993.
