Self proclaimed ‘Media Mogul’ David Flash owes the LGBTQ community an apology. As far as this reporter can tell, David Flash is using the Big Bend Region as a hunting ground for one of his SEO clickbait websites, bigbendtimes.com. Not to be confused with Big Bend Times Dot Org, the newest media outlet in the tri-county area dedicated to refuting David Flash. We understand that people may feel that it’s best to simply ignore trouble makers like Flash, but this journalist has seen what can happen when someone is allowed to continuously trash our community without any pushback.
David Flash appears to be creating controversy where ever he can, and then ‘reporting’ on the trouble that he created. He often writes about himself in the third person, perhaps to hide the fact that he is writing about himself, or quoting himself. David will quote constitutional scholars in his writing, but he never names the source or explains why he isn’t naming them. Perhaps Flash considers himself a constitutional scholar and is once again quoting himself? Flash claims to be a journalist, but only has a background in marketing. The quality of his reporting reflects these facts.
Officials in Jeff Davis County have been subjected to his ‘reporting’ for some time. David has posted over 100 stories related to his alleged harassment of county officials and law enforcement officers. After refusing to properly address a traffic violation, a warrant was automatically issued, and then David got pulled over and went to jail. As all of this was transpiring, something strange happened.
David Flash had allegedly been planning a pride parade in Fort Davis. Nothing had been heard about this for some time when David announced on the internet that the pride parade was schedule for “June 2025.” This initial annoucement of what looks like a hoax pride event had some inconsistencies. There are 4 sponsors of the event listed: 2 of David’s own websites, along with Hotel Saint George and The High Frontier. This was posted to his websites March 7th. This reporter has heard second hand that management at The High Frontier had agreed to let David host his event at The High Frontier, but that they were not sponsoring the event. David followed up his announcement by requesting info from county officials. It seems to this reporter that county officials likely immediately recognized that David’s event announcement is a hoax. Around the same time, Flash had created a GoFundMe supposedly to fight corruption in Jeff Davis County. This reporter believes Flash announced the hoax pride event so he could claim discrimination by officials in our community when they rightly ignored him.
On March 23rd, a little over two weeks later, David Flash made another posting about the ‘event’ claiming “Organizers of Pride Fort Davis 2025 say they have repeatedly been denied basic information by Jeff Davis County officials regarding public event space and Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) grant applications, despite making four separate requests over the past three weeks.” One might think there are multiple organizers of the events by reading that. This reporter can identify only David Flash as an organizer, and is left wondering if Flash was ever really planning this event, or if he posted about it simply to anger two groups of people. First, the conservative Christian community in Jeff Davis County. Second, the LGBTQ community at large. Everyone knows by this point how digital marketers live on division and angst. They will do anything to drive more traffic to their websites and social media how ever they can. This reporter believes that David Flash made up the pride event to create controversy, which he then uses to drive traffic to his sites and GoFundMe.
A search for “Big Bend Times Pride Event” on google shows a video posted to facebook:
The video linked above has been removed or access restricted. Did David get a bunch of bad feedback on this video and feel the need to remove it? Obviously there is nothing wrong with a straight person planning a pride event, but it would be good to know why there seem to be no gay people involved with the first Pride Event in Fort Davis. At least as far as this reporter can find. It’s certainly possible this reporter simply hasn’t heard from anyone yet. If any gay people are involved and want to let us know, please contact our editorial team and we will update this story.
On April 25th, David again posted about the hoax pride event. He no longer mentions any sponsors, but he does say “Despite strong support for the event from Fort Davis’ newest and largest hotel property, as well as other local businesses…” and as previously mentioned, that hotel property, The High Frontier, likely does support hosting an event at their business, but they likely aren’t sponsoring it as David previously claimed. This seems even more likely now that Flash is no longer announcing any sponsors. If anyone knows of any other local businesses that are supporting David’s hoax event, please let us know so we can update this article. No one has been able to identify any so far. Also in this post, David claims to have a list of things that will be part of the event:
- Live music performances by LGBTQ+ artists
- Drag shows and comedy acts
- Vendor markets and community resource booths
- Workshops on LGBTQ+ issues and history
- Youth activities, a pet parade, and a family-friendly Kids’ Zone
- Art exhibits, film screenings, and literary readings
It’s strange that there are no specifics on any of these items. Have any music acts been lined up yet? Who is putting on the drag show and what comedy acts have been booked?
And even now at the end of April, David is still not publishing a date, simply saying it’s planned for June. If he still doesn’t have a date, doesn’t have any actual plans lined up, and claims to have local support where none can be confirmed, why would county officials take him seriously? If one looks closely at the articles posted on his sites, a pattern emerges. David has been complaining to Jeff Davis County officials about all kinds of things and constantly sending them requests for information and then complaining about not getting an immediate response. It’s not that there is a problem with Jeff Davis County, it is simply that there is a problem with David Flash.
If the voters In Jeff Davis County were given a choice they would certainly not vote to host a pride event, although there would be many votes in favor. If requested through proper channels, county commissioners would likely not vote to use HOT funds for a pride event. The demographics here don’t favor a pride parade, and this reporter thinks that’s okay. Different communities can have different values in America and it doesn’t have to create division if we don’t allow people like David Flash to create it. LGBTQ people live in Fort Davis and more continue to move here because it’s a wonderful place to live. Discrimination is not common here. There is a general tone of respect for people not matter what they are like. Perhaps excluding David Flash.
This reporter hopes that anyone who has donated to Flash’s GoFundMe will consider requesting a refund. It doesn’t seem like David is really trying to fight corruption but that he is manufacturing controversy to drive traffic to his clickbait websites.
