Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation on Sunday declaring June 2026 as “LGBTQ Pride Month.
“California is proud to continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with all members of the LGBTQ community to protect and build on our progress toward a better and safer future for all,” the proclamation reads.
The proclamation outlines the decades-long movement for gaining rights in the LGBTQ+ community and the role California and the Bay Area have played in that journey.
It mentions the Compton’s Cafeteria riot in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district in 1966, where transgender and gay youth rose up against police oppression, as well as the efforts of former San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk who led political initiatives to grant more civil rights to LGBTQ+ people.
“LGBTQ history is inextricably intertwined with American history — and with Californian history,” the proclamation reads. “Californians have known both the depths of loss and the heights of hard-won progress.”
The proclamation notes that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights is ongoing given the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation under the administration of President Donald Trump. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, says that the amount of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation signed into law this year has more than doubled compared to last year.
“The fight is far from over,” reads the proclamation. “A hostile federal administration is attempting to erase decades of progress, outright denying the existence of transgender people, even as it works to attack critical supports for transgender and other LGBTQ individuals”
It also emphasizes that celebrating LGBTQ+ people should be a year-round effort.
“This month, and every month, California supports and celebrates the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community as they take pride in who they are and whom they love,” reads the proclamation. “That pride is inseparable from history: a history of resistance, resilience, and the refusal to be erased.”
