Palm Desert Pride Month Recognition Stays After 4-1 Council Vote

Palm Desert Pride Month Recognition stayed in place after the City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday to reject Mayor Pro Tem Joe Pradetto’s proposal to stop recognizing Pride Month and stop displaying a Pride banner at City Hall.

The vote came during a special meeting at City Hall that ran long, with more than three hours of public comment. KESQ reported that more than 50 people spoke, and nearly all of them opposed the proposal. 

Evan Trubee and Councilmembers Karina Quintanilla, Gina Nestande and Jan Harnik voted no. Pradetto was the lone yes vote. 

Inside the room, the message from most speakers was basically this: don’t take down something that people see as a public sign of welcome.

“To see that in the city that I live in, which is Palm Desert, and so for that to be on the line of being taken away, really hits close to home,” Eugene Williams told News Channel 3 at the meeting. 

Gary Williams also pointed to the local business angle, saying he’s heard the same reaction from people around town, including businesses that benefit from LGBTQ visitors and customers. 

There was at least one speaker who backed Pradetto’s idea. Palm Desert resident Christian Jelmberg told News Channel 3 he sees a gray area when government gets involved in social issues, and asked where the line gets drawn. 

Pradetto framed his proposal as a push for what he called government neutrality. He told the Council he values personal liberty, including the freedom to love and marry who you want, but said he does not think government should be “celebrating the private identities of one group over another.” 

He had asked staff to bring back two items tied to city resolutions, one to rescind Resolution 2024-038 on LGBTQ Pride Month commemorations, and another to amend Resolution 2018-09, the city’s diversity and inclusion resolution. 

In Tuesday’s meeting, he said he brought it forward because he wants unity in the community, and he argued that banners on City Hall can turn into a fight over which groups get recognized. “Regarding the banner on City Hall, I still believe the principled, smart strategy is neutrality,” he said. 

After the vote, Pradetto told News Channel 3 he wasn’t “disappointed” and said he learned something from the discussion, including that Pride is not just about identity, it’s tied to the history of fighting for equal rights. He called that “very American.” 

Before Tuesday’s meeting, the proposal was already drawing criticism from outside Palm Desert.

Wallis weighed in before the vote. In a statement released Saturday, the state Assemblymember said Pride Month recognition “doesn’t create division, it affirms that every resident deserves to be celebrated and respected.” He also called Pradetto’s proposal a “slap in the face” to LGBTQ residents.

Palm Desert also made it clear this wasn’t going to be handled quietly. The city scheduled Tuesday’s special meeting so the discussion would happen in public, with residents able to speak before the Council voted.

After hours of comment, the Council voted 4-1 to reject the proposal. Palm Desert Pride Month Recognition stays in place, and the city is not changing its current approach to the Pride banner at City Hall based on Tuesday’s vote.

For WEHOonline readers, the reaction in Palm Desert probably sounds familiar. People can call it “just a banner,” but that’s not how it feels when it’s your community being debated in a public meeting.