“What I ended up learning as I spoke with the L.G.B.T.Q. community members, including Goldsmith, saw that proposal as a half measure that denied their full humanity. In the audience that day was Fresno’s mayor, Jerry Dyer, a Republican and former police chief.Īt that moment, Dyer was embroiled in a controversy over his suggestion that the Pride flag fly at a nearby plaza instead of City Hall, because, as he wrote in a Facebook post, it had “the potential to alienate those who do not support that particular cause.” “A lot of hurtful things were said,” she recalled to me this week. So did Goldsmith, who spoke of being kicked out of her house for a few months during her senior year of high school. So she talked with fellow education leaders and members of the State Center Community College District’s board, who passed a resolution encouraging all of its schools to raise the flag.įresno City College held a ceremony to do just that, for the first time in its history, on June 4.Īt the ceremony, Hurtado spoke about her experiences. The Pride flag, she said, “serves as a symbol of hope and inclusion.” “I know what it’s like to feel like people hate you because of who you are,” she said. For Goldsmith, that means drawing on her own history, growing up in the Central Valley and, she says, “feeling othered,” to make the school welcoming to all.