HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — Hermosa Beach will join Venice and Long Beach in celebrating the LGBTQ+ community this summer, with plans to paint a lifeguard tower in rainbow colors for Pride Month in June.
The plan was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at its meeting on Tuesday, with a motion led by Fifth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, who counts the Beach Cities and South Bay among her constituents.
A Venice Beach lifeguard tower was painted in the colors of the Pride rainbow in 2017, and refurbished earlier this year.
The idea came from Hermosa Beach teen Izzy Bacallao, who sought to respond to the burning of Long Beach’s Pride lifeguard tower.
“The burning of the Long Beach Pride Tower was not only devastating to me, being a trans/queer adolescent, but it also hurt other queer people and our allies within the South Bay community,” Bacallao said.
Painting the tower in the rainbow colors of the Pride flag, they said, would act as an expression of solidarity and love. “The Pride tower should be a reminder to everyone to accept, cherish and celebrate what makes us all unique and special.”
The Long Beach Pride tower was burned in late March, in what Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia called an “act of hate.”
“To whoever committed this act, we will rebuild it better and brighter,” Garcia said on Twitter.
To his word, Long Beach plans to replace the destroyed rainbow tower by the end of the May, according to a report from the Long Beach Business Journal.
“I think it is really important that we paint the tower this summer, just months after the Pride tower was burned down in Long Beach,” Hahn said in a statement.
Hahn’s motion instructs LA County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors to work with the City of Hermosa Beach to repaint the tower just north of Hermosa Pier in the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag for June and through summer. A date for the repainting has not yet been set.
“Izzy and LGBTQ young people need to know that we are not intimidated by hate. They need to see that we stand by them, that they are loved and accepted, and that they belong right here in our community,” Hahn said.
Hermosa Beach Mayor Justin Massey thanked Hahn and her fellow supervisors for their vote, and announced that the city will also fly the Pride flag and light the Hermosa Pier for Pride Month, to “remind everyone that all are welcome in Hermosa Beach, where the values of equality and diversity run strong.”