Update: Surfside Beach officials disagree with councilman post calling men kissing ‘creepy’

A Myrtle Beach area gay man is calling out a local elected official for digging into his Facebook profile to find a photo of him kissing his husband, sharing it on a thread, and calling it “creepy”.

The Surfside Beach town council member defended himself against allegations of intolerance toward the LGBT community following the social media exchange.

During a back-and-forth in the comment section of a Sun News Facebook post about Target, Surfside Beach City Council Member Michael Drake posted a wedding photo of resident Drew Plank-Nesbitt exchanging a kiss with his husband.

The photo taken and posted by the council member of the men was the 11th profile photo back.

In the since-deleted exchange, Plank-Nesbitt said it was “creepy” that Drake spent time to find that picture and pull it forward.

“Drew Plank-Nesbitt be proud of yourself! Yes it’s a creepy photo I agree with you. But it’s you. Have a nice day!,” Drake wrote.

Drake confirmed the post came from him, but said he was referring to Target’s youth marketing campaign regarding products he found morally questionable.

The Town of Surfside Beach released the following statement on Friday to the media, “It has come to the attention of the Mayor and the members of the Town of Surfside Beach that Councilman Drake recently made comments, from his personal social media page, which members of the community find offensive and/or harassing. As a result, members of the media and the public have asked for a response from the Mayor and the Town Council.

“Though the Mayor and Council are still reviewing the circumstances surrounding the controversy, the comments and actions of Councilmen Drake were made in his personal capacity and do not represent views or policies of the Government of the Town of Surfside Beach.”

The thread was an exchange about Target, which partnered with Apbrallen, a UK-based artist who contributed three designs for the company’s 2023 Pride collection.

“I posted, ‘their true colors come out!! It’s time to let them go broke with all their colors of woke!!,” Drake told The Sun News May 25.

Two outer-space-themed messenger bags and a sweatshirt reading “cure transphobia” were described in a May 22 article first published by TheStreet.

Plank-Nesbitt, for his part, said he shared the post as an advisory.

“I wasn’t trying to cause a huge thing. I just basically was trying to raise awareness that as a public official you can’t just post anything you want,” he said.

Drake did not directly answer to his motivation for taking a Facebook photo from a resident and posting it as part of a discussion.

“People get offended so easy. I don’t know how y’all report on anything nowadays,” Drake said.

The exchange comes a week before Pride Month is set to begin. According to records on Surfside Beach’s website, the town has not issued a proclamation recognizing Pride Month.

Adam Hayes, a volunteer with Grand Strand PRIDE, said he emailed a draft resolution to town leaders for consideration several weeks ago but has not heard back.

This story was originally published May 25, 2023 at 4:14 PM.