Sonoma County group raises Pride flag ahead of parade and festival Saturday

Organizers of the Sonoma County Pride parade and festival kicked off this weekend’s celebration with a flag-raising ceremony Thursday at Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa.

Along with the American flag, event organizers raised the Pride flag shortly before 11:30 a.m. on the pole atop the Rosenberg Building at Mendocino Avenue and 4th Street, across from the square.

Thursday’s commemoration precedes a host of local Pride events this month, including a parade and festival in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday. It is the 38th year of local Pride celebrations, said Grace Villafuerte, vice president of Sonoma County Pride.

“I just think of the pioneers that started back then,” said Villafuerte. “They really fought to just have a Pride picnic.”

She said that in early parades, participants only got half the street shut down and didn’t get as much support from the local community.

Christopher Kren-Mora, president of Sonoma County Pride, said participation in Saturday’s parade stands to dwarf that of previous parades. Last year, the event’s biggest, featured 63 parade contingents.

“This year we’re at 91,” Kren-Mora said. “Awareness of the event has grown in the past two years, and I believe people are more comfortable with showing their pride — at least in Sonoma County.”

This year’s Pride event takes place against a backdrop of increasing backlash against LGBTQ+ rights across the nation, as many Republican-controlled state Legislatures push through bills targeting those rights.

Examples include laws prohibiting classroom instruction related to gender identity or sexual orientation and banning drag shows.

Tiesa Meskis, a trans woman who recently moved to Sonoma County from Aberdeen, Washington, to help care for her ailing mother, said the LGBTQ+ movement has come a long way but also needs to advance further.

Meskis, a volunteer with Sonoma County Pride who attended the flag-raising Thursday, came out as trans while serving on the Aberdeen City Council a few years ago. She had been in poor health with “major health issues,” and she couldn’t figure out what was causing them.

“It was the stress of knowing this is not really who I am,” she said. “When I came out there was a huge weight lifted off my chest.”

Meskis said she doesn’t understand the current vitriol being directed at the trans community.

“We just want to exist as we are,” she said. “When we go to the bathroom, we want to go to the bathroom. That’s it. We’re not there for a nefarious purpose.”

Security has been a key concern for Pride organizers this year locally and nationwide.

The Pride flag raised atop the Rosenberg is the latest addition to the ever-growing family of Pride flags. The banner, known as the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag, adds a yellow triangle and purple circle to represent the inclusion of intersex people.

Sonoma County Pride has adopted the new flag and launched a GoFundMe to pay for the cost of replacing the flags it uses during celebrations. The online fundraising effort has reached $745 of its $1,000 goal.

For more information, visit pdne.ws/43zkm7o.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.