Lifeguard tower to mark Pride month
Los Angeles County will repaint Hermosa Beach structure in colors of rainbow flag; a similarly painted Long Beach building burned down
A lifeguard tower in Hermosa Beach will get a rainbow paint job — in honor of Pride month.
Hermosa Beach residents will paint the lifeguard tower near the city’s pier in rainbow colors to honor the LGBTQ community, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn announced Friday evening.
Los Angeles County owns that tower and the Board of Supervisors last week OK’d a motion by Hahn, whose 4th District includes Hermosa, to allow the transformation.
June is Pride month.
L.A. County owns about 160 lifeguard towers, from San Pedro to Malibu, and has a long-standing policy against painting or otherwise altering them, though there have been exceptions, according to Hahn’s motion. That includes the Venice Beach Pride lifeguard tower, which was painted in 2017.
The idea to paint the Hermosa Beach tower, Hahn’s office said in a press release, came from a local transgender teenager named Izzy Bacallao after the Long Beach Pride lifeguard tower burned down in March.
“The burning of the Long Beach
Pride Tower was not only devastating to me, being a trans/queer adolescent,” Bacallao said in a written statement, “but it also hurt other queer people and our allies within the South Bay community.”
The LGBTQ community in Long Beach painted one of the 20 city-owned lifeguard towers rainbow colors in June to honor the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march held in New York City on June 28, 1970.
But flames engulfed the tower around midnight one day in late March. The fire destroyed it. Most of the structure was turned to ash. All that remained was the charred metal frame that comprised the legs and base of the tower.
That tower, between 12th and 13th places, had no electricity, gas or power lines, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said at the time. And
while the fire was still under investigation, Garcia said, he was certain of the motives behind it.
“I personally have little doubt this was an act of hate,” Garcia said. “To whoever committed this act: ‘We will rebuild it better and brighter.’ ”
Hahn, whose district also includes Long Beach, joined Bacallao in stressing the importance of painting the Hermosa tower in response to the Long Beach one burning down.
“Izzy and LGBTQ young people need to know that we are not intimidated by hate,” Hahn said in a written statement. “They need to see that we stand by them, that they are loved and accepted, and that they belong right here in our community.”
In 2019, there were 1,195 reported hate crimes committed nationwide based on the victim’s sexual orientation and another 198 because of their gender identity, according to the FBI’s hate crime statistics for that
year, which the Justice Department released in November. That represented a 42% and 262% increase, respectively, since 2017, the Justice Department said.
Last year, meanwhile, 37 transgender and gender-non-conforming people were killed through November, the most on record, according to Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of LGBTQ people.
“I believe there’s value in visual affirmations of support for the LGBQT+ community,” Hahn’s motion said, “such as this planned PRIDE tower.”
There does appear to be one difference between the Hermosa tower and the ones in Long Beach and Venice: The Hermosa one would be temporary, at least according Hahn’s motion, which said the tower would remain painted through the summer.
And it won’t be the only symbol in Hermosa Beach supporting the LGBTQ community, Mayor Justin
Massey said in a written statement.
“The ‘Rainbow Tower’ in Hermosa, the lighting of Hermosa’s Pier Plaza, and the flying of the Pride flag throughout Pride Month in June,” Massey said, “will remind everyone that all are welcome in Hermosa Beach, where the values of equality and diversity run strong.”
While Hermosa residents will paint the tower to resemble the Pride flag, it wasn’t clear who would revert it to its original state — or when. Representatives for Hahn’s office were not available to comment Friday evening.
There is also no date yet on when the tower would be painted. But doing so, Hahn’s press release said, would be a community event.
“We want to share this experience with everyone in the community,” Bacallao said. “The Pride tower should be a reminder to everyone to accept, cherish, and celebrate what makes us all unique and special.”