Lydia O'Connor

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California Joins States Raising Pride Flags At Their Capitols, Defying Trump

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had the rainbow pride flag raised at the state Capitol on Monday for the first time in state history, sending a message of resistance against the Trump administration’s policy forbidding the LGBTQ banner at other government buildings. 

The Democratic governor tweeted out the news with a photo showing the pride flag flying beneath the American flag midway through LGBTQ Pride Month. It will stay up until July 1. REAL LIFE. REAL NEWS. REAL VOICES.Help us tell more of the stories that matter from voices that too often remain unheard.Support HuffPost

“In California, we celebrate and support our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community’s right to live out loud – during Pride month and every month,” Newsom said in a statement. “By flying the pride flag over the State Capitol, we send a clear message that California is welcoming and inclusive to all, regardless of how you identify or who you love.” View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Gavin Newsom✔@GavinNewsom

For the first time in our state’s history, the Pride flag has been raised at our State Capitol!!4,27110:26 AM – Jun 17, 20191,027 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

Newsom’s decision comes shortly after Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that the Trump administration rejected U.S. embassies’ requests to fly the rainbow pride flag in June.

Though Pence’s reasoning was that only “one flag should fly” on those State Department buildings, he’s long been one of the most vocal opponents to LGBTQ equality efforts, supporting so-called gay conversion therapy, fighting to stop marriage equality and defending people seeking to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Amid the controversy, political leaders in Wisconsin and New York also decided to raise pride flags at their state capitols for the first time. 

In defiance of the Trump administration policy, some U.S. embassies and diplomats have flown the pride flag anyway or found other ways to honor Pride Month, such as by shining rainbow lights on the exterior of embassies. 

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Gavin Newsom Sworn In As California Governor

Gavin Newsom (D) took office as California’s new governor on Monday, vowing during his swearing-in ceremony to be hard on President Donald Trump while uniting rural and urban communities in the country’s most populous state.

It was a long-awaited moment for the former California lieutenant governor and San Francisco Mayor, who announced his gubernatorial candidacy nearly four years ago. The Democrat takes over the post from Jerry Brown, a decadeslong fixture in statewide politics who termed out of office after 16 non-consecutive years as California governor.

“Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith and firm will can still come together to achieve big things,” said Newsom, who handily defeated Republican challenger John Cox. “We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people.”

Like Brown, Newsom has positioned himself as a lead figure in California’s resistance to Trump, who recently called him a “clown” who “wants to give [immigrants] health care, education, everything.”

When one of Newsom’s four young children sleepily wandered onstage during his speech Monday ― much to the audience’s, and Twitter’s, amusement ― it helped him underscore his stance against the Trump administration’s border policies and detainment of undocumented children.

“All kids ― not just the children of a governor and a filmmaker ― should have a good life in California … not ripped away from their parents at the border,” he said, referencing his documentary filmmaker wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Also like Brown, Newsom is poised to become a stand-in representative for the U.S. in international climate change discussions while the Trump administration reneges on Obama-era commitments. But unlike Brown, Newsom has vowed to take a hardline stance against any future fracking projects in the state. One of his first priorities as governor is working on a plan putting California on a path to 100 percent renewable energy, he’s said.

“Where Washington failed on the epochal challenge of climate change, California led, extending our cap-and-trade system and setting bold targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, then beating them,” Newsom said, tipping his hat to Brown.

The new governor also made an appeal to the state’s largely conservative rural voters and promised they wouldn’t be ignored  ― a sentiment voters are likely to hear on the 2020 campaign trail from Democratic presidential hopefuls dogged by reputations as coastal elites.

“We will be ‘California for all,’” he promised. “We won’t be divided between rural, urban, north, south, coastal and inline.”

“I recognize that many in our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesn’t care about them — doesn’t even really see them,” he said of the the state’s inland regions, where farmers have suffered the brunt of the state’s drought and unpredictable weather conditions. “Well, I see you. I care about you. And I will represent you with pride.”