Oakdale will host its first Pride Month event on Sunday, but not without some controversy that ultimately galvanized considerable community support.
Last week, a call went out to supporters of CalPride Stanislaus, a nonprofit that supports the LGBTQ+ community in the Valley, to show up at the Oakdale City Council meeting. A local church planned to protest the group’s permit for Oakdale Pride, which was originally slated for June 28 at Dorada Park.
While a senior pastor at Oakdale’s Calvary Chapel argued during public comment that the event should be canceled because children should be “protected” from watching an all-ages drag show at the park, dozens more community members filled the chambers to offer comment in support.
The Oakdale City Council did not revoke the event’s permit and instead worked alongside CalPride to ensure the event’s success. The commotion caused the event to be moved from Dorada Park to Bianchi Community Center.
CalPride Stanislaus spokesperson Ryann Hall said LGBTQ+ Pride events are often sexualized, but have no reason to be.
Since 1999, under then President Bill Clinton, June has been heralded federally as Pride Month. The celebration commemorates the start of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, when patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York City rioted against ongoing police brutality after a raid in 1969.
Hall said misconceptions about Pride continue to this day, and often conflate sexualization with sexual orientation.
“No one deserves to be sexualized without their consent, and no child deserves to be sexualized at all,” Hall said.
CalPride, which serves LGBTQ+ communities in Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, and Mariposa Counties, has hosted events every June in honor of Pride Month for the past several years. This year the group had sponsored Pride events in Ceres and Turlock with another planned in Waterford at Beard Park Saturday, June 27.
With the controversy over the Oakdale event, Hall spent the past few days speaking to various media outlets about Pride. People all across the region are curious to hear the organization’s response to local Christian faith leaders’ concerns over a local personality. They claimed that drag artist Sasha Devaroe would “expose” and “indoctrinate” unsupervised children in the public park.
The concerns are a tired comment rooted in the stigma that queer and gender nonconforming identities are inherently sexual, Hall said. CalPride events gather community resources, create a space for people to ask questions about the culture and see themselves reflected publicly.
CalPride’s events platform local resources like the California Rural Legal Assistance, HAVEN and more.
“We have the opportunity and the responsibility to create a world where new generations can live safer in their authenticity, that is one of the biggest things that we are advocating for right now,” Hall said.
Instead of revoking the permit, Oakdale city hall put out a statement about the event changing venues with CalPride’s consent to the indoor Bianchi Community Center. The move was beneficial to Oakdale’s community, said city resident and organizer Sierra Humiston. Vendors, adoptable pets, elders and children will have the opportunity to gather in an air conditioned environment instead of the open-air park.
Over the past 10 months, Humiston, her wife Julliette, and a handful of neighbors, local business owners, and CalPride staff have planned Oakdale’s first Pride event. The small eastern Stanislaus County community has historically been known more for its traditional Americana aesthetic rather than LGBTQ+ acceptance. For example, its city slogan is “Cowboy Capital of the World.”
The group regularly meets at Sisters Coffee Shop on F Street to discuss the event, engage in Proud Pages (their LGBTQ+ bookclub), and create a sense of community. Since it began last fall, they’ve formed a consistent group, with members ranging from teens to elders in their 70s.
“Children and queer families exist here, and they deserve to be part of the community just as much as anyone else, and I’m really hopeful that those families can come to the event and see that we’re not alone. We’re surrounded by community. We’re welcome here. We’re allowed to be here,” Julliette Humiston said.
The Humistons took on leadership roles in Oakdale’s LGBTQ+ community out of necessity. Before them, folks would look outside their city for support and resources – mainly in Modesto.
Modesto has a more lively and active LGBTQ+ community. It hosts a CalPride office, the gay bar Splash, and an annual drag event at the Gallo Center. The city also has MoPride, a grassroots nonprofit LGBTQ+ resource center not affiliated with CalPride.
June Sparrow, vice chair of MoPride, was amazed to see a “small conservative” city like Oakdale embrace and support all its residents.
“Pride this year is about more than a celebration,” Sparrow wrote in a text. “It’s about resilience and thriving even in hostile environments. It’s about fighting to be seen so that we are not erased. It’s about more than tolerance or acceptance. It’s about being fully free to be yourself. And that’s something we can all feel proud about.”
David Allen is a hair salon owner in Oakdale who performs as Sasha Devaroe, who much of the controversy centered around. He said he’s excited to emcee and perform at an event in his hometown.
His support for the local LGBTQ+ community extends beyond his performances and includes his work as a hairstylist, when he provides gender-affirming haircuts.
“Anybody who walks through these doors is family. That’s how we treat them, and that’s how it should be,” he said.
Drag as an art form, he said, has given him the platform to fight for his community, bring people together and change lives through authentic expression. He regularly performs at Splash in Modesto and Faces in Sacramento.
He said the local pride event is an exciting opportunity for people who feel like they can’t be accepted in Oakdale to find a community that is willing to accept them and bring them together, even if it’s just for one event.
“I believe that this Pride (event) in Oakdale will be a statement for empowerment, and hopefully an eye opener for the people who were against it to know that this is not a negative,” he said, “it’s …more about pride for our community and our allies to have one day to get together and conquer hate with love.”
Oakdale Pride will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, June 28, at the Bianchi Community Center, 110 S 2nd Ave.
Vivienne Aguilar is a reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at vivienne@themodestofocus.org.