Pride Month in the San Gabriel Valley, 2024 (Photo – Chasity Jennings-Nuñez)
By Viki Goto and Chasity Jennings-Nuñez
Vice Mayor Denise Menchaca,
We were quite surprised to see you at the Alhambra-Monterey Park Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 1st. It is hypocritical of you to “support” our neighboring cities’ Pride celebration when the City of San Gabriel did nothing to recognize the start of Pride Month and is not participating in the San Gabriel Valley Pride Tour, despite receiving an open invitation from the SGV LGBTQ Center at a San Gabriel City Council meeting in February.
You may think that walking in a parade and taking your photo with other elected officials makes you an ally. It does not. Your actions to reject a safe space program for the LGBTQ+ community, your lack of support of the LGBTQ+ community’s very real concerns, rights and safety, and your dismissal of the powerful, personal testimonies of more than 50 people is the true measure that you are the opposite of an ally.
We did not say anything to you at the event because we didn’t want to ruin the spirit of the day, but you should do some serious self reflection about your participation in Pride celebrations.
If you were there to educate yourself about the needs and concerns of the LGBTQ+ community, then we would welcome your participation. However, we did not see you engaging with any of the parade participants to find out what brought them there, other than the ones that you came with, and we did not see you talking to any LGBTQ organizations at the festival to learn about what issues are most affecting them. Therefore, we can only conclude that once again, your “allyship” is a performative gesture.
The City of San Gabriel could easily have dedicated its Farmers Market on June 1st to celebrate the beginning of Pride Month, as was suggested by the HEAR Commission. It could have hosted a Pride booth at the Culture Festival in June to participate in the SGV Pride Tour, as the HEAR Commission did at last year’s Surf’s Up event. It could raise the Progress Pride flag over City facilities during June to show that it is an “inclusive and welcoming” City and so provide leadership in the SGV for other cities to do the same.
None of these activities would have required much effort on the part of you or the City of San Gabriel. If you had not terminated the HEAR Commission, we would have taken the initiative on these efforts. The ineffective “Ad Hoc” subcommittee of City Councilmembers, which hasn’t even been formed and has no credibility, LGBTQ+ community input or accountability to your constituents, most likely will accomplish nothing beyond a meaningless proclamation.
As a representative of all the residents of San Gabriel with the power to enact policies that address their needs and concerns, you are obligated to do more than show up to events to take your photo. Do your job or step down.
Viki Goto and Chasity Jennings-Nuñez are founding members and former Chairs of the Human Equity, Access and Relations (HEAR) Commission in the City of San Gabriel.
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