Seismic shift may be the best way to describe the political/social landscape. The shift showed up in the Eastern Sierra with COVID, came back in spades with Inyo County’s proclamation
recognizing indignities done to Native Peoples and then again this week with the reaction to Inyo’s proposed proclamation of June as Pride Month. Change is uncomfortable for some and a necessity for others.
Following three-plus hours of comments and Board discussion, Inyo’s Board of Supervisors
approved the proclamation with a 3-0 vote. Supervisor Rick Pucci was absent, Supervisor
Jennifer Roeser abstained. Supervisor Jeff Griffiths acknowledged the “rich tapestry of people”
in Inyo County, adding “we celebrate them all.” Supervisor Matt Kingsley looked “forward to
the day when we don’t need a proclamation, that we’re just inclusive.” Chair Dan Totheroh said
differences don’t mean one is good or the other bad.
Public comment was close to 2-1 in favor of the proclamation; letters submitted and read by
Assistant Clerk of the Board Darcy Ellis were nearly 3-1 in favor. Perhaps the most salient
comment came near the end: “California is the gayest state in the Union; why is this a thing?”
An older Lone Pine resident talked of having to play the tough guy in Inyo County. His deepest
regret, following the death of his partner, was never being able to “hold his husband’s hand in
public.” Gunner Davenport-Conway teared up as she tried to explain the need for the
community to feel safe and welcoming.
Some comments questioned the funding source for the Eastern Sierra Pride Festival scheduled
for June 4-5 at the TriCounty Fairgrounds. Leslie Chapman, Inyo chief administrative officer,
explained the funding source, Community Project Sponsorship Program, has “been around for
decades.” The program funds fishing projects, annual events and, this year, $34,000 divided
among seven competitive grant applications, one of which was the Pride Festival.
To put this in historical perspective and to answer a few of the questions brought up during
public comment: Pride month is celebrated in June to acknowledge the Stonewall Uprising in
New York City in 1969. The gay community in Greenwich Village responded to a police raid at
the Stonewall Inn; a year later gay pride marches were held in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles
and San Francisco. Now Inyo County joins that tradition.
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All gay pride celebrations have a “Folsom Street Fair” scene because that aspect of the LGBT community needs to be seen and heard as well, does anyone know where that section will be located at the Fairgrounds?
How glorious we were all created differently, yet we all look the same on the inside!
Is everybody going to keep their clothes on, or is this festival going to be San Francisco style? Somebody might want to set some rules here. Personally, couldn’t care less what people do in their bedrooms, just don’t want it thrown in my face in public. That goes for everybody’s sex life. Force feeding agendas tends to back fire, and solves nothing….
“Force feeding agendas tends to back fire [sic]”
Couldn’t agree more. One can try to force feed a dogma of hatred onto a child from birth until they are seven, or seventeen, but if they are an innately good and kind person, they will discard the hatred and hypocrisy at some point.
They will listen to messages of love, generosity, and empathy, but also have the intellect to realize that the institutions preaching those values never seem to hold them for anyone outside their bubble. And often not even for everyone inside their organization.
And then, as any casual look at demographic trends will tell you, they will realize that there is no honor or truth in an organization that preaches love while practicing hate, and they will leave that group. Forever.
And soon, only the oldest, the most ignorant, or those in both of those demographics will remain. Because the message of love isn’t the problem, the hypocrisy of not actually being loving is.
The joy of being an American is that we have freedom! You are free to not attend. Just like I am free to not attend Monster Trucks of the Rodeo!
Great article, Deb! Did I hear that there was a man in a unicorn outfit opposing the proclamation? I couldn’t make it to see for myself.
Yep–it was purple. Have no idea what the significance was. Was googling around for some of the anti-proclamation people. Found a clip on a church site that claimed God can make you un-gay. Wondering if He can make me un-sarcastic and decided He may help me keep my mouth shut, but He can’t make me un-sarcastic. We are who we are. The mtg. should be on the Inyo County Supes’ site.
I am not anti-proclamation but there is an aspect to this whole LGBTQ + AI and whatever comes next that most people may not be aware of. An aspect that I do not support a proclamation of acceptance for. The role environment plays in altering someones sexual preference and genitalia is pretty much never recognized by society. Chemicals in the water, food, and air cause genetic damage in many forms. Pointing out that chemicals can cause an alteration to ones sexual preference, genitalia and hormonal outcomes in humans does not mean I am hateful. I am simply trying to educate people to the facts in hopes people will recognize the problem and make changes for the better. One example I would like to share is an herbicide known as Atrazine. Atrazine is widely used in growing corn, sorghum, and 90% of sugarcane production. This chemical is proven to turn frogs gay. I am sure many people will disregard this connection as something that has no affect on humans because they want to dismiss the claim, but please keep in mind that the EPA recognizes over 85,000 different chemicals as toxic which are commonly used in modern society.
Why are the testosterone levels in men at an all time low? Sperm count in men at an all time low. Women being able to produce breast milk at an all time low. Infertility at an all time low. Girls reaching puberty as early as age 6. Cancer, autism, dementia, down syndrome, obesity, hermaphrodites, etc at all time highs.
The answer is a toxic, chemical filled environment. Yes, there are some people with a natural inclination to have a same sex preference and the role of a highly sexualized society can not be dismissed. However, the massive increase to genetic damage caused by a toxic environment without a doubt plays the largest role by far in genetic and hormone disruption. If you wondered why so many boys/men and girls/women struggle with their gender identify now you know why.
Oh my. No words here.
Why no words?
Atrazine has been shown to alter the reproductive capability of male frogs. 75% of the frogs are unable to reproduce at all and 1 in ten begin to function reproductively as female frogs. But these pseudo-female frogs are not capable of producing female offspring which skews the sex ratio and in the long term causes population decline in the species.
https://news.berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/#:~:text=Atrazine%2C%20one%20of%20the%20world's,of%20California%2C%20Berkeley%2C%20biologists.
This is just one source of “words” on the topic. There are a lot more and they are quite easy to find with an internet search engine – which I presume you do know how to use.
You seem to be implying that sexual preference is the same as sexual function. There are certainly a lot of studies on how chemicals can affect sexual function in humans. However, I’d appreciate it if you could provide links to those studies that show chemicals affect sexual preference, in humans.
thanks !
No I am not implying that sexual preference is the same as sexual function. I am implying that sexual preference and sexual function are both subject to alterations via environmental conditions. It sounds like you doubt the possibility that chemicals affect sexual preference in humans… Before I give you some links as requested, I would like to ask you some questions.
What causes cancer in humans?
What causes autism in humans and why is a top researcher at MIT saying half of all children will be autistic by 2025?
Why are there increasing amounts of genetic disorders in humans? IE. Dementia, Parkinson’s, ADHD, Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis etc.
If chemicals can cause cancer and autism to occur why would it be such a stretch to attribute chemicals to altering sexual preference?
Are you under the impression that environmental factors can cause one to develop cancer and die but there is no way it could possibly affect sexual preference?
Research on the role environment plays in genetics for sexual preference is still in the early stages. The same when it comes to the research on cancer, down syndrome, autism, alzheimer’s disease, MRNA injections, CRISPR and so forth. There are still many more questions than answers but apart from the MRNA and CRISPR technologies the fact that environment is the primary driver is well documented.
Although I am pretty well educated on these topics I do not need research studies to prove this connection. All I need to do is make simple observations of my fellow Americans to know that we live in a toxic environment. Oh, and if you think this is just by accident and not deliberate you are mistaken!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18157628/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2788155/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32491819/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201911/gender-fluidity-and-hormone-disruptors
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/668167.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ab946c732dc8ee8da4525fb32792087de&ab_segments=&origin=&acceptTC=1
https://sciencing.com/gene-mutation-definition-causes-types-examples-13718432.html
Thank you William ! I genuinely appreciate the links and appreciate more so that they are from science-based reputable sources. I use PubMed frequently, however have not pursued digging into reviews related to this topic, per se. The endocrine impact on neuroscience is pretty fascinating. I look forward to learning more, thank you.
You should probably stop listening to Alex Jones.
You are making an assumption that I listen to Alex Jones, which I don’t.
Here’s an assumption about you. You should stop listening to CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. Or maybe you are more of an apple news and yahoo news kind of gal… wait that’s also an assumption.. sir? They?
Why only a month? There was an ancient city in the Middle East that celebrated it all year! For a while, anyway.
Was that Camelot? Yaochi? Valhalla? Atlantis? Shangri-La? Themiscyra? Nysa? Aztlan? Zerzura? Tir na nOg? Olympus? Kandor? Brigadoon? Sunnydale? Bikini Bottom?
Oh you’ll find out some day. I don’t want to spoil the suspense.
Congrats to Eastern Sierra Pride and those members of the Inyo County Supervisors brave enough to support this measure.
I’m hopeful that this as a sign that those Inyo residents who are closeted are one step closer to living a community where they may be safe and need not live in fear of the reactions of family and community if they are their true selves.
While 2022 does seem very late to come to even this basic step of tolerance, it’s great to see the Eastern Sierra taking steps forward.
Is it bravery or fear that drives their support?
Bravery.
I grew up in a Bishop where gay kids were chased home after school by rock-throwing bullies. Never saw a pack of gay kids playing “smear the straight”.
Siding with the oppressed over the oppressor is bravery.
And straight, white, Christians in the Owens Valley have never been oppressed for those things (even if they were more “Christian” than Christian). But after decades of privilege, equality can feel like oppression to some fearful souls.
I grew up in a small town in Mono County. NOBODY threw rocks or bullied gay kids. Actually they were quite popular. Quit blanketing an entire community.
Are you sure about that? After all, decades later, you need only scroll up a little to find someone delighting in the idea of gay people being tortured for eternity.
But who knows? Maybe you were friends with every single gay kid in that small town and they told you they never faced attacks or bullying. Or maybe they were able to read the room (or at least you) and so remained closeted? Or maybe you turned a blind eye to it? Or participated and are excusing it now? The idea that it didn’t happen at all seems quite unlikely, again, just from the comments on these articles.
I have absolutely no idea what the truth is for gay kids you grew up with, but I find it intriguing that when I give a factual example of an experience growing up in one particular town in the Eastern Sierra, you somehow both accuse me of blanketing an entire community while simultaneously speaking for an entire community that gay kids weren’t ever bullied.
The complete hypocrisy is not at all shocking.
Shouldn’t Jeff Griffiths have had to recuse himself from voting on this proclamation since he is on the Board of Directors of Eastern Sierra Pride?
As stated by county council several times board members only need to recuse themselves when there is a financial interest not for policy issues. Board members sit on many boards and many times they are appointed. So there is no need for recusal in this case
By that argument, shouldn’t Jen Roeser recuse herself from every decision because she always wants to inject her religiosity in it? The founding fathers were pretty clear about the separation of church and state.
I have no issue with Jeff Griffiths support and not recusing himself. I like people with a solid foundation. I would expect his support on such a proclamation.
Imagine being a non-hetero county employee, or a non-hetero employee of one of the many organizations that Roeser sits on the board of. As an Inyo appointment. To know that you are not valued because of who you love. I’m sure her “dear friend who is gay” called her and begged her not to approve this, like she claimed with the Indigenous Peoples Day proclamation.
Abstention doesn’t hide your bigotry, Supervisor. We see you. We all see you.
Your willful ignorance is astounding but not surprising, hence the adjectives with zero evidence. Maybe if you had a tenth of the values she holds, you’d educate yourself enough to not make such foolish statements. I know full well this paragraph will carry zero weight with someone so intentionally gullible and foolish.
Why do you need to be so rude to state your point? We should all be able to discuss without hitting below the belt. Shame on you. Try again…
Exactly what are these values? Because so far all we’ve seen is intolerance.
Oh we’re well aware of what her “traditional values” represent. She’s made that very clear in supporting organizations of hate.
Its the folks who are the most insecure in their own religious beliefs who continuously push their beliefs on others and on society at large.
you could substitute the word religious with the words” Sexual Orientation” also and be right.
“Gender identity” is clearly one of the issues where one’s own belief is pushed on others – often under threat of violence – but I’ve never had a gay man or lesbian woman insist I should be beaten to death because I didn’t use the “correct” pronoun. I mean – dress however you want to dress but learn to validate yourself because anything else is controlling and abusive.
https://www.feministcurrent.com/2017/09/21/terf-isnt-slur-hate-speech/
Okay, Steve.
It’s about time we practice love and acceptance – of ALL. To most of our City Council , thank you for seeing that kindness and inclusivity are the only way to be.