The Big Gay Flotilla, a gay informal annual meet-up slated for last Saturday in Long Beach, California, went on as planned, despite a deluge of death threats and homophobic online attacks, according to organizer Sal Flores.
One man who posted a death threat was arrested days before the event and remains in custody, Long Beach Police said.
Related
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
“There were people from all kinds of different places in Southern California,” Flores said of the beach takeover on Saturday in an affluent section of Long Beach. “There was this particular guy that came from Laguna, and they’re like, ‘I saw the news, and I had to come and support it. It’s just the right thing to do.’”
“But overall, people were just having fun,” Flores told LGBTQ Nation. “People were just like, ‘You know what? F**k them. Let’s just belong.”
A week before the Big Gay Flotilla was set to launch, a post about the meetup on a local events site was swamped with hateful replies and death threats.
“Immma pull up with ste[e]l and projectiles that fly is great speeds towards people with a 357. That can take a head clean off,” read one. Another urged people to “Blow datt ho up.”
“Bomb the area plz,” urged a third.
Several posters equated being gay with pedophilia and said that LGBTQ+ people shouldn’t be seen by children at a public beach, Q Voice News reported.
The event post and hateful comments were taken down soon after — Long Beach Police deemed at least one comment a criminal threat.
Last Thursday, they arrested Richard Alexis Castillo, 26, and booked him on criminal threat charges. He’s being held on $50,000 bail and remains in custody.
“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.”
Police didn’t release details about which comment Castillo allegedly made on the event’s Instagram post.
“Police will do what the police need to do, and they were great,” said Flotilla organizer Flores. “You know, the FBI called me, which is very interesting, because people were doing bomb threats. So then people reported terrorism.”
Turnout at the event was down a little from last year, Flores shared.
“We had less attendance than the previous one. I would say probably altogether it was about 200 people throughout the day. The last one before that probably was about 300 plus,” he said.
“Maybe people were scared,” he added.
But the promoter remains undaunted and encouraged by the community’s reaction in the aftermath of the post.
“People from the community, they were like, ‘What do you need? Hey, what can we do?’ So it was very emotional, and at the end of the day was very inspiring to see so many people reach out. Several people were like, ‘If you cancel, we’re still going to show up.’”
“That was the fire of like, ‘Okay, let’s f**king do this. The entire point of these events is we need spaces to belong. This is ours. We’re not going to hide,” he said.
Flores’ next meetup, the Big Gay Picnic, is scheduled for Saturday at the Bluff in Long Beach, overlooking the Pacific.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.