Stop the Hate forum: Progress in LGBTQ+ community noted, but more concerns remain
When Dr. Apryl Lewis arrived in Fresno to begin her job in May 2021 as an English professor at Fresno City College, she happened to pass by the Tower District and noticed a Pride flag fluttering in the breeze.
“I didn’t know the cultural significance of the Tower; I just got here,” said Lewis. “But seeing that flag was so powerful for me.
“As someone who has had to hide who I am, who wasn’t comfortable coming out to hardly anybody aside from myself, I saw that flag and asked the person who was driving me around ‘Is this normal? It’s not June (Pride Month) yet.’”
The response: “We know.”
The visual gave the Texas transplant – who identifies as LGBTQ+ – a welcoming embrace. “I have felt welcomed since I’ve been here,” said Lewis.
That welcome does not paint a complete picture of how welcoming the LGBTQ+ community is in the heart of one of the most conservative regions of California, nor does it mark complete progress, according to comments heard at the “Stop the Hate: How to Keep the LGBTQ+ Community Safe” forum.
The forum, hosted Sept. 28 by Fresno City College in its historic auditorium, capped months of reporting by Vida en el Valle and Fresno Bee reporters on how the increase of hate crimes and hate speech have affected segments of the local population. The 2-hour forum focused on the LGBTQ+ community.
“I came from (México), which is supposed to be a Third World country where we have a lot of issues,” said transgender activist Rubí Juárez, one of nine panelists. “But I came here. It seems like this is not the America, the California they promised me.”
Juárez, a student at Clovis Community College, unretired from activism “because I don’t see activists, Latino activists.”
Yes, progress has been made, they say. But much more needs to be addressed and done beyond getting one’s pronouns correct.
–In May, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a website – CAvsHate.org, or the hotline (833) 8-NO-HATE – for people to connect with resources and report acts of hate, part of a $110 million investment in anti-hate programs. Yet, needs like mental health services, housing and health insurance are lacking, especially in the transgender community.
–Attorney General Rob Bonta, in releasing the 2022 hate crime report that indicated a 16.6% increase in hate crime incidents from 2021 to 2022, launched the Racial Justice Bureau to help local law enforcement agencies in combating hate and bias. However, Fresno police and other local elected officials admit that most hate crimes go unreported. Advocates say victims are either reluctant to file a report, don’t trust law enforcement or don’t believe a complaint will be investigated.
–When Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer accepted the raising of the Pride Flag at City Hall in 2021, it was seen by the LGBTQ+ community as a symbolic statement that it was being recognized at a time when Fresno County officials restricted flags at county facilities to be limited to the U.S. and California flags. Even then, national anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has seeped into the area as evidenced by hate speech, harassment by the Proud Boys and efforts by some school board members to limit use of school facilities or to have a say over what books are displayed in school libraries.
“It’s time now to gather our troops and prepare because this whole rhetoric is not new,” said Juárez. “It’s an uprising because of the political environment. Worse things are on the way, and we need to be prepared to face them as our brothers and sisters faced them before.”
The tone for unity, to go on the offense, to consider Spanish speakers, to demand more of their allies than just words, and to remember it took decades of advocacy to gain recognition for a thriving LGBTQ+ community was a common thread at the forum.
Jennifer Cruz, who directs the LGBTQ+ Resource Center for the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, noted that progress is happening but perhaps not fast enough.
“We’ve started to communicate more,” said Cruz, “and there will be regular meetings of the leaders of the LGBTQ organizations because we’ll have a liaison who can take our concerns right to city leaders.”
Cruz was referring to last week’s appointment of longtime LGBTQ+ advocate Robin McGeehee as the first liaison for the LGBTQ+ community within Dyer’s Office of Community Relations.
“My role is to work with the mayor to uplift the City of Fresno in becoming a more inclusive place for all citizens, including our members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies,” McGeehee, an instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, told The Fresno Bee. “The beautiful cultural fabric of Fresno is interwoven with threads representing the LGBTQ+ rainbow community and allies.”
Fresno City Council Vice President Annalisa Perea, the first self-identified LGBTQ+ member of the council, asked allies to get more involved with more than just words.
“My family always verbally supported me, but it really didn’t turn their allyship to more an an action-oriented support until I really started to be intentional with engaging them in LGBTQ things in the community,” said Perea.
“It’s one thing to say you’re an ally, but, like, how do you show that?”
This is the final part of a series on Stop The Hate, a project funded by the California State Library.
