Two weeks into Pride Month, this year’s observances have felt particularly tense, as celebrations take place amid reports of anti-LGBTQ+ vandalism and threats of violence across the U.S.
Since the beginning of the month, anti-LGBTQ+ threats and vandalism have been reported in at least 10 states, according to reports in local news outlets. This includes bomb threats made in at least three states and more than a dozen separate reports of vandalized Pride flags or banners since June 1, 2024.
On June 8, the Seward Community Library & Museum in Seward, Alaska received a bomb threat over the phone in retaliation for a drag story hour event planned for that day, according to Alaska Public Media. The following Sunday, more emailed bomb threats were reported in Austin, Texas, where the threat forced the Brewtorium Brewery to cancel a drag brunch and Pride market, and in Newton, Massachusetts, where the New Art Center’s drag story hour event was also targeted but not canceled. The latter was the first bomb threat in the arts center’s 47-year history, executive director Emily O’Neil told WBTS-CD.
“We had a really short time frame to figure it out, from the time we got the threat to the time that people were supposed to be in the building celebrating pride,” O’Neil said. “My staff members and [drag queen] Missy Steak, who was here to perform, all felt that putting ourselves forward and having this event and saying no to hatred was the right thing to do.”
The past two weeks have also seen a rash of vandalism in several states, frequently targeting Pride flags and rainbow banners — including, creepily, the theft of my own mother’s flag from outside her house in western New York. (Hi, Mom! Sorry about that!). In Hawai‘i, one or more unidentified vandals have twice torn down a rainbow flag flying at the Maui County administrative building, leaving it lying on the ground. Other publicly flown flags were reportedly torn down in Boise, Idaho, where more than 20 flags were targeted, continuing a disappointing annual trend in the city.
On Chicago’s South Side, the Beverly Unitarian Church was vandalized last weekend when Pride flags and other decorations were gathered into a pile and burned in front of the building; flags were also found burned outside the Stonewall National Monument in New York City and further north on 22nd Street, city council member Erik Bottcher confirmed on Friday. In another incident in Missoula, Montana on June 9, a local business’s surveillance camera caught footage of a group of people tearing up Pride flags, stuffing the shreds into their pants, and urinating on them. Other instances of theft and petty vandalism were also reported in New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Four separate incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ vandalism took place in the past two weeks within Washington State alone. In the early morning on June 1, rainbow banners hung by the city of Poulsbo were slashed with a sharp object, but were repaired later that day by an anonymous resident who said he planned to volunteer at the city’s Pride events, according to the Kitsap Sun. The following week, in Spokane, three teenagers were arrested for vandalizing a rainbow crosswalk with rented Lime scooters; days later, the same painted intersection was vandalized again, this time with paint. (The mural had been recently repaired after it was lit on fire in May.) In Burien, south of Seattle, a person was seen tearing down Pride decor from the town square last weekend. This past week, several more incidents were reported on South Whidbey Island, targeting a local high school, church, and visitors’ center.
None of these incidents are unique in themselves, of course, as anti-LGBTQ+ threats and vandalism occur regularly outside of Pride Month. But this year’s hostility does feel more pointed than in years past, especially as some government officials have applied pressure of their own, attempting to make Pride events (and their participation in them) less visible. On that front, however, this year’s attacks may have the opposite of their intended effect. In McMinnville, Tennessee, after her office’s Pride flag was torn from its pole this month, local attorney Amanda Gentry told WKRN she planned to place 100 more rainbow flags on the lawn outside, and encouraged other residents to leave more.
“If anybody wants to put a Pride flag on the lawn at 206 N. Chancery Street, feel free to do that to show your support,” Gentry exhorted, adding, “Let’s put more flags in that yard than one person can take with one hand or cut.”
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