San Juan County proclaims June Pride Month, community leaders call for action beyond words
Published 1:30 am Friday, June 5, 2026
The San Juan County Council formally proclaimed June as Pride Month at its Tuesday morning meeting on May 26, reaffirming the County’s commitment to the rights and dignity of its LGBTQIA+ residents — even as advocates urged elected officials to move from proclamation to concrete action.
Council Chair Justin Paulsen read the proclamation aloud, tracing Pride Month’s roots to the Gay Liberation Movement and the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. The document acknowledged that LGBTQIA+ people across the full spectrum of identity “have lived in the San Juan Islands since time immemorial” and that community members “continue to see their civil rights eradicated at all levels.” The County pledged that those rights “shall be actively defended and protected” and called on all residents, businesses and visitors to engage in ongoing dialogue toward a more inclusive county.
Following the proclamation, Dr. Jessa Madosky, fundraising chair for the San Juan Island Pride Foundation, addressed the Council in person and read a statement on behalf of the organization. While expressing gratitude for the Council’s words, she made clear that the foundation was asking for more than a declaration.
“We respectfully request that the council go further than words and make actions towards protecting 2SLGBTQIA+ residents,” Madosky said, outlining three specific demands.
First, she called on the County to make its support publicly visible across the county. Second, she asked the Council to address discrimination and lack of inclusion identified within County employment — citing findings from the 2024 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Survey, which she said documented disparate treatment of 2SLGBTQIA+ employees. “If 2SLGBTQIA+ employees don’t feel safe creating programs that serve their specific community, the whole community of the county suffers,” Madosky said, urging the Council to “become a role model in the county for treating 2SLGBTQIA+ employees equitably.”
Third, she called for direct County support for LGBTQIA+ residents facing elevated rates of unemployment, homelessness and denial of medical care. Studies show trans and non-binary individuals are significantly more likely to face employment discrimination, LGBTQIA+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their peers and seriously ill LGBTQIA+ patients are routinely denied care for conditions unrelated to their identity.
Madosky also urged the Council to develop a formal, actionable plan to protect LGBTQIA+ residents as threats escalate at the national level.
Perhaps the most personal moment of the proceedings came from Council member Kari McVeigh, who offered remarks that drew on her own lived experience as a member of the community.
“The first thing I want to say is I do not speak for queer people. I speak only for myself,” McVeigh said. “But as a member of that community who’s lost jobs because they found out I had a partner — it’s not easy.”
McVeigh acknowledged the generational dimension of the moment, saying that young people are now facing the same hardships she navigated earlier in her life. She also pushed back against the notion that discrimination and violence are not problems in San Juan County.
“I hear people say, ‘Oh, well, that doesn’t happen in this county.’ And violence against queer people does happen in this county,” she said. “I know of it.”
She called for County staff to “leave your biases at home” and to treat all community members with respect and dignity, regardless of identity.
The proclamation was adopted at the regularly scheduled meeting of the San Juan County Council on May 26.
