In Long Beach, there are many ways to spend a Saturday at the beach. You can swim. You can sunbathe. You can flirt with someone whose SPF application suddenly requires a suspicious amount of assistance. Or you can join the Big Gay Flotilla and spend the afternoon floating around with your fellow gays.
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Apparently, that was simply too much for some people.
The annual LGBTQ+ beach party went ahead on August 8 despite a wave of violent and homophobic comments posted online after Long Beach Classic shared an AI-generated flyer promoting the event. The flyer advertised the “Big Gay Float Party in Long Beach” at Horny Corner in Belmont Shore and featured gay men in swimwear, including one sporting a rainbow-colored thong.
Nothing says “threat to civilization” quite like a man in a thong entering the ocean, apparently.
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The comments quickly descended into the usual complaints about LGBTQ+ people being at the beach, arguments that public spaces should be reserved for “families,” and insinuations that queer people somehow pose a danger to children. Then things got considerably darker.
Two commenters reportedly called for the event to be bombed, while another wrote:
“Immma pull up with steal and projectiles that fly is great speeds towards people with a 357. That can take a head clean off.”
At that point, this was no longer a case of somebody simply being spectacularly unpleasant on Instagram.
The gays were threatened. The party stayed on.
Long Beach Classic removed the post on August 3, and people contacted the Long Beach Police Department about the threats. Police determined that at least one comment constituted a criminal threat.
On August 6, Long Beach police arrested Richard Alexis Castillo, 26, of Garden Grove, on suspicion of making criminal threats. He was booked into Long Beach City Jail, with bail set at $50,000. Police have not disclosed which comment Castillo allegedly posted.
“Seeing threats of violence on social media diminish the feeling of safety in our community,” Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish said in a statement. “We take all threats seriously and are committed to holding suspects accountable.”
Quite right. Because while the internet has apparently decided that a rainbow float is a five-alarm cultural emergency, threatening to shoot people is still, inconveniently for the commenters, a crime. But organizer Sal Flores had no interest in handing the event over to the people making the threats.
“These are public spaces. These are our beaches. We are allowed to be here,” he said.
And honestly, the gays have spent enough time being told where they are and aren’t allowed to exist.
Long Beach Moved the Flotilla. The Mood Stayed Put.
The Big Gay Flotilla did make one change. It moved farther down Bay Shore Beach from its original location at Horny Corner because a water polo competition was creating overcrowding. Important distinction: the gays moved because of water polo, not because of the death threats.
The event still ran from noon to 5 p.m., with attendees bringing floats and water gear to swim, sunbathe, socialize and generally enjoy the radical concept of having a nice afternoon at the beach.
Flores, who also produces the Big Gay Picnic in Bixby Park and has hosted previous Big Gay Flotillas, said he had never seen this level of hostility aimed at the event.
“We’ve never had anything like those comments,” he said of the death threats. “We’ve had random BS comments from trolls and Karens, but never to this level.”
The distinction between “random BS comments” and “please bring a firearm” should probably not need explaining, but here we are.
Because sometimes belonging is the whole point
Flores later told LGBTQ Nation that attendance was lower than last year, which he attributed to the publicity surrounding the threats. Understandably, some people may have looked at the news and thought, Actually, I would prefer my Saturday without a potential homicide subplot. But the people who came still decided to have a good time. And that is perhaps the most satisfying part of this whole story.
The threats were intended to make LGBTQ+ people feel unwelcome in a public space. Instead, the people who showed up turned the day into exactly what it was supposed to be: a gathering of queer people refusing to disappear.
“People were just like, ‘You know what? F**k them. Let’s just belong,’” he said. “The entire point of these events is we need spaces to belong. This is ours. We’re not going to hide.”
That is the Big Gay Flotilla in a nutshell. Not a political rally. Not a culture war. Not some sinister plot involving rainbow beach towels. Just queer people on a beach. Swimming. Laughing. Sunbathing. Floating around. Existing loudly enough to remind everyone that public spaces belong to the public — including the gays.
And if somebody finds that offensive, well, there is always the ocean. It’s enormous.
Source: MetroWeekly