Huntington Beach police investigating Pride flag graffiti at Central Library

Huntington Beach police are investigating graffiti that was left at the Huntington Beach Central Library over the weekend.

Some community members have been reading restricted children’s books outside of the library each Sunday afternoon for the last four weeks, in protest of the conservative City Council majority’s direction to restrict those books and create a parent/guardian advisory board.

Wendy Rincon was arriving for what has been dubbed the Banned Books Story Hour on Sunday shortly after 12:30 p.m. As she and her husband drove up, they noticed a large LGTBQ+ Pride rainbow flag sprayed in the intersection, with the words “We Belong” written in red underneath it.

Closer to the library’s entrance, another Pride flag was tagged on a building post.

A Pride flag was found spray-painted on a post at the Huntington Beach Central Library on Sunday.

(Courtesy of Wendy Rincon )

“I didn’t appreciate that,” said Rincon, who calls herself an LGBTQ+ ally. “We were there helping and trying to support our librarians, and that just goes against what we’re trying to do as a community by supporting our library. Our library is under attack, our librarians are stressed out. The last thing that anyone needs is tagging on our library.”

Huntington Beach Police Department spokesperson Jessica Cuchilla confirmed the vandalism incident was reported Sunday afternoon and that detectives were investigating.

Measure B passed in Huntington Beach last week, amending the city charter to limit flags flown on city property to government and military flags, plus the POW/MIA flag and sometimes the Olympic flag. Adding more flags to the list, including the Pride flag, would require unanimous City Council approval.

The flag issue has been discussed heavily for more than a year, as the council majority approved a similar ordinance in February 2023.

Rincon said she understood the anger behind the vandalism, if not the action. She questioned whether the tagging was the work of an LGBTQ+ ally. On the other side of the political spectrum, she said some conservatives have accused allies of “planting” the vandalism so that they could clean it up quickly and be seen in a favorable light.

“It gives everyone on both sides a chance to point fingers at one another, which just continues to inflame the divisiveness of Huntington,” she said. “It serves no purpose for the greater good. It’s not going to help me understand their side any more than it would help them understand our side. It might have made the person and people who did it feel good in the moment, but ultimately it’s not going to solve the underlying policy issues that are happening in this city.”

A group of community members works at trying to clean graffiti from the Huntington Beach Central Library on Sunday.

(Courtesy of Wendy Rincon)

Pride at the Pier founder and executive director Kane Durham describes his group as a queer political advocacy nonprofit. When he heard of the vandalism at the library, he sent a call out via the Pride at the Pier Instagram page for help.

“We spent like $200 to get cleaning supplies and spent several hours scrubbing with eco-friendly chemicals, to scrub all the paint off,” said Durham, a transgender male. “I’m glad that we did. We are not here for rhetoric that claims that queer folks are the bad guys in this community.”

About 15 to 20 people spent hours Sunday trying to scrub the paint off, Durham said.

Workers from the city Public Works Department went out Monday morning to paint over the vandalism, Cuchilla said.

Durham said vandalism on the library was not supported — “the library is not our enemy” — and that his organization is using civic engagement to relay its message.

“The actions of the council majority have suggested an intent to keep queer people from being visible in Huntington Beach, and that is never going to happen,” Durham said.