SoCal’s queer social media exploded into a frenzy when Long Beach Pride took to Facebook and Instagram to announce that the City of Long Beach had taken action to cancel this year’s Pride Festival, hours before Teen Pride, the kick-off event for the weekend, was to begin. Tonya Martin, President “Lez Prez,” called on the mayor and the City to move ahead with the Festival, using the current wave of national anti-LGBTQ sentiment as a reason to stand firm. The community wasn’t buying it and wanted more answers from Long Beach Pride.

In a statement made on social media, Martin shared, “Long Beach Pride is deeply disappointed by the City’s decision to cancel the Long Beach Pride Festival, a long-standing community institution built by volunteers, sustained by love, and rooted in the belief that every person deserves to live openly, safely, and with dignity.”

Martin appealed to queer activism as a reason for keeping the Festival going. “This decision comes at a moment when LGBTQ+ people are facing escalating attacks from the current federal administration and from political forces across the country. At a time when our community is being targeted and made vulnerable, Long Beach should be doing more to protect and uplift us, not taking away one of the most visible and meaningful expressions of inclusion our city has.”

Martin further called on the Mayor and the City to rethink the cancellation, “We call on the City of Long Beach to immediately engage in good faith with Long Beach Pride, community leaders, public safety partners, and elected officials to identify a path forward that preserves the festival and protects the community. We call on our Mayor Rex Richardson and the city council members to make the Pride Festival happen. We ask that our city leaders stand with the community at this critical moment and help ensure that Long Beach remains a beacon of equality, safety, and pride.”

It didn’t take long for the local news to show up.

The City was clearly being called out, the statement inciting the community to rally and demand the Festival take place. This year marks the 43rd Long Beach Pride. The Festival is a 100% volunteer organization, supported by allies, business owners, and the community at large.

Is the City the villain here? The City was quick to make an official statement, and the truth behind the cancellation became clear. “The Long Beach Pride Festival will not be able to take place this year as sufficient information to safely permit the event has not been made available by the event organizers.”

The statement further clarified that the decision was wholly due to the inability of the Festival to comply with City requirements, despite the fact that this event has taken place 42 times prior with the same needs in place.

“Over the past several months, the City of Long Beach’s Special Events team has worked closely with Long Beach Pride, the private organizers of the annual Pride Festival, to support their efforts to safely produce this year’s event, which was scheduled to take place on May 15, 16 and 17. While the City now manages and funds the Long Beach Pride Parade, the Pride Festival remains an independently organized, ticketed event that requires the submission of detailed operational, construction and public safety plans in order to be permitted to ensure safety of the attendees.

Despite continued collaboration and multiple deadline notices, the City did not receive the required documentation needed to complete safety reviews, inspect critical event infrastructure, such as the stage, electrical systems and tent, and emergency exiting plans to ensure compliance with public safety standards. With event programming scheduled to begin today, May 15 at 5 p.m. with Teen Pride and essential information still outstanding, there is no longer sufficient time to safely permit the festival this year.”

The statement also clarified that the Festival was alerted on Thursday that requirements had not been met, and that the City worked tirelessly with the volunteer organization up until the last minute, with the Festival still being unable to get everything in place. The City also made a promise to refund any businesses that had purchased special licenses or Health permits.

So the truth was out. The fact that the Festival intended to vilify the City and use the community’s spirit of activism to force the City’s hand in moving forward with a weekend that could be unsafe to attendees did not go over well. Social media comments on the Festival’s posts want more answers and they want the Festival to hold itself accountable. How has the Festival gone on for more than four decades prior without a cancellation, why this year? What happened? Yes, credit needs to be given for a volunteer organization to be able to produce the Festival year after year, but when an organization is 100% volunteer based, it is hard to hold people accountable.

But there are always at least two sides to a story. Local drag queen Twiggy D. Warhol took to social media to hold the Festival responsible.

An apparent committee member responded, saying all permits were sent:

As all of this just came to light less than 24 hours ago, there will be more facts that will need to be shared from both the City and the Festival.

As much as local media picked up on the cancellation of the Festival, news channels and social media have also been promoting that the Pride Parade, funded and organized by the City of Long Beach, is still going on, along with five City-approved events.

Visit Long Beach posted a fun video, assuring the community that Pride is still going strong, despite the Festival cancellation. The bars will be open, featuring their own Pride programming and no doubt the streets will be flooded with the community proving that nothing can keep us down. ,

As many social media comments stated that Pride as a movement can never be canceled, and no one can ever take our spirit away. Where there is a will, there is a way. No doubt many more facts about the Festival cancellation will come to light. Perhaps this is the hiccup the Festival needs to reorganize and revitalize. And maybe this is the hiccup the Festival needs for the community to see that it needs more support from us to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

See you at the Pride parade!