The Delano City Council approved to fly a Pride flag outside of the City building in honor of Pride Month.

The idea to fly the Pride flag came about when the LGBTQ+ Alliance community and Loud for Tomorrow organization started a petition and collected more than one thousand signatures in support of flying the pride flag.

Delano Mayor Bryan Osorio started last week’s city council meeting by saying that the City of Delano is a welcoming community and recognizes equality and freedom and opened up the meeting to comments from the public regarding the pride flag.

Marivel Servin, a member of the LGBTQ+ Alliance, said at the meeting she encourages everyone to educate themselves on how LGBTQ communities have been excluded and ignored in politics and in government. She also made note of the White House flying a Pride flag.

“I just wanted to say that this afternoon, Delano LGBTQ and Loud for Tommorw submitted over 1,000 signatures on a petition that we started in favor of the flag at city hall,” said Servin. “I encourage the council to read over all the comments that were included in there. It was really emotional and heart warming to read it myself.”

Jose Orellana, the lead organizer for Loud at Tomorrow, said that the City needs to represent the LGBTQ community more and be an ally for the community and its needs. 

“ I just want to echo what Marivel said, and that is that this weekend we started a petition for flying the pride flag outside of Delano city hall, and we got an overwhelming support from the community, and I think that speaks to the level of acceptance and progress that the city needs to catch up with its residents,” said Orellana. “I am really hoping that the city council takes this step towards acceptance and diversity towards our community.”

Joseph Dailey, a teacher in Delano, said he would call it an incredibly positive opportunity for Delano to fly the Pride flag of members of our community, especially the pride flag for the month of June. He also said that if there are other organizations or groups that are members of our community that would like to be represented and celebrated, he thinks that’s a phenomenal opportunity for the City to offer as a community.

Audrey Chavez, resident of Delano, also supported the flying of Pride flag outside of City Hall. She said she thinks this is very important to many people and is something that will help to show the City stands in solidarity with the President who also understands the importance of showing support to the LGBTQ population who have made tremendous contributions globally, nationally, and locally.

Although flying the Pride flag outside of City Hall had much support, there was still hesitation among some residents.

“I believe that there was some concerns at the last meeting of people wanting to make a statement about what is going to stop all these other flags wanting to be flown on our city flag pole and so I think that as a community our people would like to be a little bit more informed and have more discussion,” said Silvia Soto. “I was hoping that we would be able to do that and not be so quick to approve such a change in just 2 meetings.”

Anthony Cortez, resident of Delano, also shared his concerns with having the pride flag flown on the city building.

“My problem is flying any flag other than the American flag which represents all Americans regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, or gender,” said Cortez. “I  don’t believe the Mayor has really thought this through if allow this flag to fly you have to consider any other request that a person has to display a non governmental flag on the city flagpole.

Once the public comment period was over, the city council voted on the resolution. Council members Joe Alindajao and Liz Morris voted no, while Council member Salvador Solorio-Ruiz, Mayor Bryan Osorio, and Council member Veronica Vasquez voted yes.

There is a Pride event planned for June 27 at Forty Acres, where local vendors and performers will be. The community is invited to attend. Masks are encouraged.