Editor’s note: This article was updated to more accurately reflect the number of people that attended the event. The previous version stated 30 people attended. Upon review of additional photos and video, BenitoLink concluded about 70 people attended the event at the time the photo and video were taken. The count did not include speakers, booth attendants and performers.
About 70 members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community came together on Jan. 27 on Fifth Street in front of Hollister City Hall for the first LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration in the city. The community also reenacted raising the LGBTQ flag at City Hall.
Hollister Councilman and Vice Mayor Rolan Resendiz hosted the event. Mayor Ignacio Velazquez sent his thoughts on the event through Resendiz because he and his family were on their annual road trip across the country.
Speakers included Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel), Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), and a representative of Senator Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), as well as San Benito County Supervisors Kollin Kosmicki and Bob Tiffany.
Kosmicki and Tiffany both spoke of their support of the LGBTQ+ community. Kosmicki told the audience they were a “true representation of our community.” He repeated what he said during the LGBTQ+ flag ceremony in San Juan Bautista that the San Benito County Board of Supervisors had not supported his efforts to declare June as LGBTQ Pride month.
“There should be no controversy,” he said. “We’re still in a farm town here and there’s still a ways to go. I brought it up in public session and put the folks that were against this on the spot to make them explain to the public why you couldn’t at least consider a simple proclamation in support of the flag.”
He said Tiffany was the only supervisor who supported him and he promised that he would continue to bring up the proclamation “again and again until it’s approved. Everyone knows this issue and this movement is about perseverance.”
Lauretta Avina said she has members of the LGBTQ community in her family that’s why she was happy to come out and support the event.
“I would love for people to open up their minds and accept them,” she said.
Jeff Leech lives in San Jose and said he came to the event with his husband, Ray Mueller, of 27 years.
“I felt it was important to support the first-ever event down here so it can continue to grow,” he said.
Local architect and Hollister Planning Commissioner David Huboi was watching the celebration with his granddaughters who had traveled to Hollister from Oregon. He said he is a Democrat going back to Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement.
“The raising of the pride flag is a civil rights issue. It’s not a matter of choice as it is with religion. Raising a Christian flag is discriminatory,” he said in an apparent reference to the current council debate on flying the Christian flag in front of City Hall. “As a city we tolerate all creeds, nationalities, individual’s and sexual preferences. It’s a matter of acceptance and love.”
Cesar Flores, vice mayor of San Juan Bautista, said he thinks it is great that the community is coming together.
“I was raised in Texas and grew up feeling differently,” he said. “That time has ended. Today, we need to be together and show we’re human beings and we can love each other, instead of hating each other. There’s enough negative stuff in the world. I don’t have to like you, but I can work with you.”
Hollister Fire Department cordoned Fifth Street with trucks between San Benito and Monterey streets, but were ready to roll at a moment’s notice should a call come across their radios, according to one of the firefighters. After the speeches, Resendiz introduced the entertainers and celebreties that included musician Zack Fietas, Shane Cota, author of “Queer Converstations,” singers Sasha Hernandez and Maestro Chuy Hernandez, and drag king Jean Batt.
Other related BenitoLink articles:
Hollister raises LGBTQ flag for second consecutive year
Hollister council votes to raise LGBTQ flag at City Hall
Hollister City Council discusses raising LGBTQ pride flag in June
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