Residents who have attended City events such as runs, walks and Long Beach Pride may have heard a catchy tune being shouted from the crowd: “We’re here, we’re queer; We’re Long Beach Cheer!”
Long Beach Cheer is one of the city’s newest teams and can regularly be found shouting cheers of encouragement to residents helping their community. They have brought color-coordinated cheers and stunts to marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, Fourth Fridays and animal adoption events throughout the city.
The club was founded by two cheer enthusiasts, Kita Staubitz and Andre Mueller, who moved to Long Beach as adults and immediately felt at home in the city. Staubitz wanted to support her community in a way that allowed her to express her creativity, and Mueller, who came across adult cheer while still living in Germany, was the first member to eagerly join.
“If you do cheer in middle school, elementary school, high school, college and all that, when you’re an adult, you kind of don’t have an outlet to express yourself the way cheerleading allows,” Staubitz said. “So these adult nonprofit teams are really great for being able to do something that you really love, doing it with other people that feel the same as you and also helping in your community. So it’s kind of just a win-win all around.”
Staubitz found a like-minded community while living in San Francisco, and spent years with the city’s team cheering on various organizations and joining in adult cheer competitions. Once she moved to Long Beach in 2020, she wanted to continue her tradition of cheering for her community, but couldn’t find the opportunity in Long Beach.
Los Angeles has their own team, but Staubitz wanted to spread joy in her own backyard rather than venture across the 710 freeway.
“The goal is to help and support the community in Long Beach and give back to everyone from LGBTQ to the homeless to children’s hospitals, we want to focus on the whole community,” Staubitz said.
Long Beach Cheer has worked with The Little Lion Foundation at adoption events, cheered on runners at the Long Beach Marathon and helped raise money for suicide prevention at the Catalina Pride parade. The club has also hosted several “old school girl scout” bake sales, featuring homemade cookies and pies from Staubitz’s small business Kita’s Kitchen.
While their regular events are very much rooted in community, Long Beach Cheer has plans to travel to Guadalajara, Mexico for the 11th annual Gay Games next November. The 2023 Gay Games will take place in two countries: Mexico and China. The adult cheer competitions will take place in Guadalajara.
The Gay Games are a multi-sport competition that includes over 90 countries and is organized by but not limited to the LGBTQ community. The first games took place in 1982 in San Francisco from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5 and included 1,350 participants from 12 countries who competed in 17 sports.
“Finding people has been the biggest challenge, finding people who know what we are and want to work with us. The more people we get the more we’ll be able to do.”
Kita Staubitz, founder of Long Beach Cheer
During a time when queer Americans were fighting to create a space for themselves in sports and pop culture, the U.S. Olympics Committee attempted to file a lawsuit barring the event from using the “Olympic” moniker in its name. The lawsuit only garnered more support for the event, which has grown more popular each year since.
Staubitz and Mueller met at the 2010 Gay Games which were held in Germany.
“Cheer isn’t very big in Germany and I was one of the people who didn’t have any skills,” Mueller said. “It’s really for everyone. It’s for ages between 18 and 99 and that’s what makes it so diverse and interesting.”
Staubitz and Mueller started recruiting members in March, the first a mutual friend from San Francisco cheer, and the other two from Cal State Long Beach’s cheer team. Another member of Long Beach cheer, Bridgit, designed the vintage-inspired outfits herself.
The team can be seen at events donning their aqua green and bright yellow pleated skirts, high necklines and long sleeve spandex.
“Finding people has been the biggest challenge, finding people who know what we are and want to work with us,” Staubitz said. “The more people we get the more we’ll be able to do.”
The team sits at six total members at the moment, and they are always hosting tryouts for people interested in joining. Anyone willing to come to a Monday night practice should contact @longbeachcheer on Instagram. Participants will be taught a handful of cheers, choreography and simple stunts if there are enough people.
The only requirements to join Long Beach Cheer are to be a Long Beach resident over the age of 18 years and “A want to help your community [and] willingness to learn,” Staubitz said. “We are an LGBTQ team, you have to at least be an ally.”
