Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah joined two young people at the flag pole at the Office of Education headquarters on Encinal Street in Santa Cruz Friday morning, where they attached a Pride flag that will fly with the U.S. and the California flags through the month of May.
It was the fifth year the county office has raised the flag, done in observance of Harvey Milk, whose birthday falls on May 22. Milk, who commissioned the first Pride flag’s design in 1978, was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S. when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.
This year’s event, attended by about 100 people, also comes as the Republican-led federal government is leading attacks on the LGBTQ community.
The executive orders coming from the White House, Sabbah said, “do not carry the force of law.”
Raising the flag, then, is a way to show the support of the community, he said.
“In California public schools, (the executive orders) have no bearing on our community, or how we support and how we protect our students here in Santa Cruz County,” he said. “We want to tell our students in our community that you are safe in our schools, and that we’ll continue to support you in every way possible so you can fly, and you can achieve your dreams.”
Santa Cruz High School student Sloan Peterson, 15, said the flag represents a connection to the people who have fought for LGBTQ rights.
“Because of their work, we get to be as visible as we are today despite the challenges we face federally,” Sloan said.
They added that being oneself “is one of the most powerful forms of resistance out there.”
“And that is exactly what the flag symbolizes,” Sloan said. “A group of people who refuse to be silenced and refused under no government force or societal pressure to be anything but themselves.”
Mission Hills Middle School student Bryce Grossman, 14, an organizer of the We Will Not Be Erased march on May 13, spoke of the danger still facing the LGBTQ community.
“I’m quite tired of waking up every day fearing for mine and others’ well being,” Bryce said. “We can no longer stay silent when our rights are being stripped away. we shouldn’t have to feel like we’re shutting our true selves off just to be safe.”
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Monica Martinez, the first openly LGBTQ person to hold a seat on the board, said that the shift to public schools becoming more accepting of LGBTQ students has been a pleasant surprise. That a school district would fly the Pride flag “wasn’t within my wildest dreams,” she said.
Martinez said that the county passed one of the nation’s first anti-discrimination ordinances in 1975, and elected John Laird—the first openly gay mayor—in 1983.
This year, the supervisors reaffirmed the county as a sanctuary to LGBTQ people, Martinez said.
“These are not just milestones, they are a reflection of who we are and what we value,” she said. “It’s more than just symbolic. It’s leadership. It tells LGBTQ youth—and everyone—that they are seen, they are valued and that they belong.”
Still, across the nation, more than 850 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced.
The day, then, was also about a call to action and re-committing to the work ahead, Martinez said.
“Progress is not permanent,” she said. “It only holds if we keep fighting for it. Let’s ensure that every student, every teacher and every family in our county feels safe, supported and free to be exactly who they are.”
