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During Saturday's ceremony, veterans and officials celebrated this milestone, while also criticizing a Trump Administration policy, effective this month, that effectively bars transgender people from joining the military. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed such a bill in 2004. Nearly 15 years later, State Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia tried again, authoring another bill that created the state designation. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill, A.B. 2439, in August 2018.

Garcia called the designation “a long-overdue recognition.”

In its 2018 Legislative Scorecard, Equality California awarded Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia 100 percent.

“For me it is simple,” Garcia told Uken Report about his perfect score. “I was elected to represent the residents of our 56th California State Assembly District. That means all of our residents. I am very mindful that the policies I introduce and support are both equitable and inclusive. For me, there is no room for discrimination, and I am proud to help advance legislation that will ensure a more just California for all.”

Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, led Steyer and a delegation of local and state leaders on a tour of areas that have, for years, lacked clean drinking water, including a Thermal elementary school whose water source is an old, unreliable well.

"Water is key,” said Sergio Carranza, executive director of Pueblos Unido CDC, a Coachella nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing in the east valley.

Many California residents, Garcia said, are still unaware of the connections between climate change policy, the air they breathe and the water they drink.