Photo by Lorenzo Gomez
Wave Wire Services
BEVERLY HILLS — The organizer of an April 27 march of liberals-turned-conservatives and their allies called a statement from West Hollywood preceding the march “confusing and hypocritical.”
“The crux of their statement seems to be that they stand by people in the LGBT community, and that they’re not going to allow LGBT people to be treated without respect and without dignity,” Brandon Straka, the founder of #WalkAway, told City News Service in an interview following the approximately hourlong rally at Beverly Gardens Park.
“I am a member of this community, and I can tell you, I stood in West Hollywood today and had people screaming in my face,” Straka said. “Had people calling me a racist, a bigot, a Nazi, a horrible person telling me to go to hell, go to prison, go die.
“They don’t care about LGBT people. They care about Democrats, period. And if you’re an LGBT person who’s not a Democrat, they don’t care about your dignity or your respect or your safety, and so I thought it was hypocritical and confusing, but not surprising.”
In response to Straka’s comments, Sheri A. Lunn, West Hollywood’s public information officer, said in an email, “As noted in the statement from the city, ‘The city’s outspoken advocacy and commitment to promoting social justice and equal rights is unwavering and the city does not condone or support actions that seek to harm, divide or undermine our community and its values.”
West Hollywood issued an “official city statement” April 24 headlined “April 27 First Amendment March & West Hollywood’s Core Values and Community Ideals.”
“The city of West Hollywood and its public safety partners at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are aware that there is a planned ‘American Restoration Tour’ march/rally scheduled to take place … April 27 in the city of West Hollywood and in the city of Beverly Hills,” the statement said. “The city of West Hollywood has received calls from residents and businesses with concerns. Community members have expressed alarm that this assembly stands in contradiction to West Hollywood’s core values and community ideals. Additionally, there is concern about the potential for counter-protests in response.
“It is important to note that the march/rally is not a city-permitted event. Rather, the city of West Hollywood respects the Constitution and honors the First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly.
“While the city values the rights of free expression, it also recognizes that language and actions matter,” the statement continued. “The city remains steadfast in uplifting the dignity and rights of our community members and remains vigilant in denouncing words and actions that may seek to devalue, divide or diminish us.”
Straka and some of his followers mocked the statement on social media, characterizing it as an example of why the planned march and rally is necessary.
“Defend LGBTQ+ people … from a gay man telling them they can leave the Democrat Party if they want to,” he noted. “We’re so excited!
“#Walkaway is very diverse on politics, most are those who left the Democrat party,” one supporter posted on X. “Then you have the conservatives, and libertarian. All have a different point of view yet have an open mind to listen to other opinions.”
Straka organized #WalkAway in the 2018 midterm elections, with the stated purpose of encouraging voters to leave the Democratic Party.
“I was a lifelong Democrat, two-time Obama voter,” Straka said. “I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and when Trump got elected in 2016, I broke down. I was crying. I was scared to death. I was freaking out, and I felt that way for about two weeks, calling in sick for work.
“And then I thought to myself, ‘This is gonna be a long and miserable and horrible four years if I don’t find a way to come to terms with what has happened now.’ I never expected to become a Trump supporter. Never expected to be OK with him or his supporters. I just wanted to understand, how did the media that I trusted get it so wrong?
“They guaranteed me she was going to win in a landslide, and why would anyone vote for a man who’s as awful as the media keeps saying Donald Trump is. I went back to all of the key … narratives about Donald Trump.
“What I found time and time again was that the media was completely lying about these instances. They would take a moment, create a sound bite, spin it out of context, put it out there.”
The April 27 march and rally was part of #WalkAway’s “American Restoration Tour.”
Straka said he chose to have a march from West Hollywood to Beverly Hills in part because of the success of a similar event in 2020.
“One of the things we like to do with #WalkAway is try to communicate with minority communities,” Straka said. “We have a lot of people in our movement who are Black and brown, LGBT, religious minorities.
“Obviously, West Hollywood is a very LGBT neighborhood. Our goal and our intention was to walk up and down Santa Monica in West Hollywood and then head over to Beverly Hills. Of course, we’d heard there was a possibility of protesters. We never dreamed it was going to be what it was.”
The march began at about 1:30 p.m. near the corner of Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards in West Hollywood. The marchers were trailed by a larger group of counter protesters as they made their way to Beverly Gardens Park.
Once at the park, many of the counter protesters had fallen away, though a small group remained, while several dozen conservatives waited for a program of speeches.
Following the rally Straka estimated the crowd of his supporters at “several hundred.”
Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was the first speaker, saying, “You are walking away from people who are angry and lonely and violent and in despair, and you are coming to a movement that is patriotic and joyful and successful and here to save this great country.
“They are the movement that allowed this great state to burn. They are the movement that turned what was paradise over to the homeless and the illegal aliens. They can’t fund their state budget in California because they don’t put the citizens of California above the people who came here illegally.
“If you come to our side, we will welcome you with a patriotic embrace. We will give you an opportunity to be prosperous and successful. We want gas and energy to be affordable for people. We want groceries to be affordable. We want a circumstance where every American can thrive, and that ought to bring everybody together.”
Other speakers included Cherie Currie, the lead vocalist for the all-female 1970s rock band The Runaways, who sang her group’s 1976 debut single, “Cherry Bomb” after speaking and Los Angeles County Republican Party Chair Roxanne Hoge.
A man was arrested in the park during the rally, Beverly Hills Police Department Lt. Dale Drummond told City News Service, but did not provide any details.
