Slurs On Main Street: How A Trump-Themed Store Is Roiling Seal Beach

SEAL BEACH, CA — Ava Langdon was walking along Main Street in Seal Beach with her uncle and his girlfriend when they saw a store that appeared to be Trump-themed.

Her uncle and his girlfriend, both Republicans, decided to check it out. Langdon, who says she identifies more with left-wing values, was hesitant to go in at first, she told Patch. But wanting to remain with her family, she decided to follow suit.

That's when she first saw a shirt reading: "Transgender Women Are Just Ret***ed F*gs." Currently, the shirt centers the store's window display facing Main Street, a couple of doors down from Cold Stone Creamery.

"I was honestly extremely shocked at first that someone would put such a hateful thing on a shirt," Langdon told Patch. "It wasn't just offensive, it was pure hate speech."

The shirt was so shocking, Langdon said, that even her uncle and girlfriend left the store appalled. That's when, to their dismay, according to Langdon, a woman came out of the store and started accosting them.

"It honestly made me feel like she was overcompensating by trying to intimidate us because she knew that selling a shirt with that kind of hate speech was wrong," Langdon said. "It was almost like she sensed something bad was going to come from this."

Langdon's experience is one of many incidents and complaints about the store Beachin lodged with community officials and reviewed by Patch. But Frank Ryan, the store's owner, sees things differently.

Ryan, who described Beachin as "anti-left and anti-agenda," said most community members in Seal Beach have been receptive to his storefront. Anyone who has anything bad to say about him is making themselves out to be a victim, Ryan said.

"Hate comes from people not agreeing with the store based on what they see," Ryan told Patch. "They're the ones that want to come at me. We just retaliate back."

Mayberry by the Sea

Seal Beach was once considered California's "Sin City" in its early days due to its lack of police enforcement, its reputation as a drop-off point for rum runners during prohibition and prostitution along Main Street.

Today, it's a quaint family-oriented town located between liberal Long Beach and deep red Huntington Beach. It's a small coastal tourist city with about 26,000 people and a naval base that brings marines and sailors from around the country to town. Dotted with ice cream parlors, salons and coffee houses, Main Street is a hub for stroller brigades and a place where retirees gather to discuss the news of the day.

Despite its quiet energy, the city is divided politically, with neighborhoods such as Surfside and the Navy base voting Republican in the 2024 election, while The Hill, College Park and Leisure World voted blue during last year's election. Old Towne, where Beachin is located, was evenly split.

A New Start

Ryan, Beachin's owner, was running a novelty store in Los Angeles when the pandemic began. He says city officials in Los Angeles tried to press charges against him for failing to follow the city's COVID-19 protocols.

By 2023, he'd closed down his shop and moved to the Seal Beach location, where his store remains today next to a dive bar popular with the military and near an ice cream parlor, a Sweet Jill's bakery and a shell shop.

Back then, his store sold all kinds of items, he said. Though he soon realized that anything politically controversial — mostly anti-left — sold the best. Soon, he began selling only items that were anti-liberal or anti-trans movement, he said.

That's when he started seeing more and more right-wing supporters coming through his shop.

"We all, as a whole, needed a store like this to express our feelings," he said. "Everyone thought we were surrounded by left people. This store gave us a voice, gave local people a voice, actually gave people nationwide a voice."

And business is going well, according to Ryan, who said he is visited by supporters from other states and countries as far as Australia. For every one or two negative comments he receives, Ryan says he gains hundreds more supporters. He's even started social media pages for his business, where he posts encounters with people he clashes with politically or others he claims bash his store due to his ideals.

"Everything we do and post, they started first, but they want to turn into the victim next," Ryan said. "Watch the videos, you'll see they're the ones there calling me a Nazi, fascist and bigot. We're tired of being quiet. We're over it."

But interviews with community members and complaints filed with the city share a different perspective.

One complaint filed in 2024 accuses Ryan of using his storefront to promote "racism, homophobia and transphobia.”

"I find it appalling and reprehensible that this store exists and is being allowed to conduct business, especially with families and tourists visiting the area," the complaint states. "Such actions are deeply troubling and do not reflect the inclusive and welcoming values that our community stands for."

A visitor from Minnesota complained last year that the Beachin was displaying "extremely divisive and vulgar" merchandise.

"If someone was not a regular to Seal Beach, they might come away with the impression that racism and misogyny are alive, well and celebrated by businesses in your highly visible downtown corridor," the complaint reads.

Another complaint accused the city of being complacent after a Beachin social media post appears to call out a local business owner for kicking out a family from a restaurant for wearing a Trump hat.

"Attacking a local mainstay in Seal Beach. When will this insanity end? When will the city grow a spine and do something?" the complaint reads.

The T-Shirt

The T-shirt reading "Transgender Women Are Just Ret***ed F**s" is his best-selling item of all time, Ryan said.

Although some people complain about him and his products, Ryan maintains that he's simply exercising his freedom of speech. He also doesn't see the complaints against him as a problem.

"I think they're more entertainment," Ryan said. "I think it's real childish on their part. As mature right-wing people, we think it's funny because it proves how unhinged and dumb they are."

"This is our freedom of speech. This is our way of protesting without vandalizing and burning shit down," Ryan said. "If you're that offended by a t-shirt, you have problems. You need to talk to a doctor."

But what Ryan calls "just a funny t-shirt" is indicative of a larger issue in the United States affecting transgender people, according to Seal Beach resident Stephanie Wade.

"I find it extremely offensive," Wade, a transwoman, said. "I think it gives the whole city a black eye."

The Trump administration's anti-trans crusade is, simply put, erasure, Wade said. And Ryan's merchandise serves as a way to perpetrate that anti-trans violence and ignorance onto community members, Wade added.

She said all this is happening so that it's "open season on (trans people), so we can be harassed, beaten."

Wade said she's experienced some of those issues firsthand.

"Seal Beach has metastasized, like Huntington Beach, into a xenophobic, overtly Christian, antagonistic to anything that's not heteronormative and white, city," Wade told Patch.

Wade said she ran for a city council seat in 2022 and was widely supported by many community members. However, her opponent, she said, ran a largely homophobic and transphobic campaign against her.

Wade ended up losing in the special election, but she, along with other community members, was determined to create a sense of belonging in Seal Beach.

In 2023, she started a nonprofit with a few other community members to put on a family-friendly pride event. They raised thousands of dollars, booked six queer acts and tried to put on a festival at Eisenhower Park near Main Street.

That's when, Wade said, Ryan made it his "personal campaign" to stop the event — organizing a counter protest.

"They wanted to have a drag show at the public park, and 90% of the community didn't want the drag show," Ryan said. "(The) majority of the community doesn't agree with men in costume using women's facilities, and that's what they wanted to do with their drag show at the kids' park."

Wade said she filed a police report against Ryan after he made a video where he doxxed her and made threats towards her, despite never actually having met in person.

Reports of cyberstalking, Wade said, have gone largely unanswered, with police telling her the issue has become too politicized. Multiple people said they reported "doxxing" or harassment linked to the store to police and business leaders in the city.

“We take all reports of criminal activity seriously, regardless of the alleged victim or suspect, and investigate each allegation to the fullest extent. Cases with possible filing charges are then forwarded to the District Attorney for consideration," a Seal Beach Police Department Lt. Julia Clasb told Patch. "Protecting our residents’ safety and privacy is a top priority. Anyone with additional information or who believes they have been targeted is encouraged to contact our Investigations Unit via the Seal Beach PD non‑emergency dispatch line at (562) 594‑7232.”

"This guy’s the worst of it, and the police have chosen to do nothing," Wade said. "I do not feel that I've been fairly supported or that the community has been fairly supported by the Seal Beach Police Department."

Accounts of sidewalk altercations outside the store abound on social media.

A reddit page calling out the store staff and patrons for altercations with passersby quickly garnered more than 100 comments or stories of harassment.

"This store is a danger to the community," one person posted. "I don’t care particularly about their political beliefs, it is what it is, but it seems to me that they hang out around the store trying to get a rise out of people so they can harass them. Some of the stuff the store sells is pretty explicit and obviously hateful, and the people who loiter around it clearly are the same. Be careful."

Another commenter wondered if Main Street was no longer a safe place for families to visit.

"These shops make it feel that way on purpose," another replied. "They don't represent everyone who lives in the city."