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Losing homophobic losers with spray paint lose in Hyde Park and now the cops are after them

Covering hateful graffiti with pro-Pryde signs

Covering over the hateful graffiti this afternoon.

Somebody with a can of black spray paint tried to scare off the people building and supporting what will be New England's first LGBTQ-friendly senior-citizen apartment complex overnight, by spraying homophobic and threatening messages on signs outside the former Rogers Middle School but all they did was fire those people up who vowed to work even faster to open its doors to its first residents.

At an impromptu vigil called this afternoon, Mayor Wu said the Boston Police civil-rights unit is now on the case and is reviewing surveillance video from the area around the Pryde construction site at Everett Street and Harvard Avenue, across from the BPL branch. An aide to acting Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden told roughly 75 people that the sprayers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

One of the messages sprayed overnight:

Homophobic sign

Some of the people who came out to reject the messages:

Supporting the Pryde
Sign: Everyone belongs in Hyde Park

After brief speeches by elected officials, people then plastered pro-Pryde, pro-LBGTQ and pro-Hyde Park signs over the graffiti.

Gretchen Van Ness, executive director at LGBTQ Senior Housing, which is shepherding the project, said she found out about 8:30 this morning that signs on both the Everett Street and Harvard Avenue sides of the project had been covered with anti-gay messages and threats to burn the place down.

Graffiti threatening to burn the Pryde down

LGBTQ Senior Housing President Aileen Mansour and Van Ness in front of a spelling-challenged sign:

Mansour and Van Ness

Van Ness said she and other LGBTQ Senior Housing officials decided to leave the messages up to show people why a LGBTQ senior apartments are so needed, for people who have been putting up with this sort of thing their entire lives and deserve some peace.

Three elected officials from Hyde Park - City Councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Ruthzee Louijeune and state Rep. Rob Consalvo - said an attack on the Pryde is an attack on all of Hyde Park, which they said has supported the project to turn an abandoned middle school into 74 apartments since it was first proposed some seven years ago.

Arroyo had a simple message for the scrawler or scrawlers: "You failed. We will build this." And he told LGBTQ people in the vigil, "You are loved. You are seen. We are together, we are united in that."

"None of us are free until we all are free," Louijeune said, adding Hyde Park and the entire city will see the project through. She quoted David Ortiz: "This is our f'en city!"

Van Ness and Louijeune:

Van Ness and Louijeune

"When the first people move in, we're going to have people chearing them on," City Councilor Erin Murphy said.

Consalvo said the turnout showed "what's so fantastic about Hyde Park" and that "we will continue to stand with you today, tomorrow and always."

Consalvo, Mejia and Arroyo:

Consalvo, Mejia, Arroyo

Also attending the vigil: City Councilor Kendra Lara, state Reps. Nika Elugardo (Jamaica Plain), Liz Miranda (Roxbury) and Tammy Gouveia (Action).

Design-challenged message before:

Homophobic sign

Design-challenged message as Mayor Wu and Councilors Murphy and Mejia cover it over:

Wu, Murphy and Mejia

Another sign gets covered:

Homophobic sign gets covered
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Comments

But hate graffiti really sucks and must be prosecuted

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Like any art form. Graffiti can suck. It can also be truly astonishingly beautiful. The issue with fascist or homophobic graffiti is the fascism and homophobia not the graffiti

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This is dangerous, shitty, and empowered by hate at a national level. But what great reporting, and what an excellent community response!

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Y’all have no idea how much worse it is outside of our little New England bubble

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And are grateful to live in our little New England bubble, even with stuff like this going on.

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So we could deport these deplorables down to Geebusstan where they belong.

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we should tolerate a little bit of hatred because other places have it worse?

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This type of behavior. You should look at the laws of the fine kingdom the POTUS is about to visit.

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What the fuck does that have to do with hateful graffiti in Boston? What point are you trying to make here?

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...the old "but in Chechnya they throw gay men off BUILDINGS!" line, inevitably expressed by someone whose "support" for LGBTQ people is only offered when there's an opportunity to take a shot at some other group they hate.

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or one of the other parts of the USA passing hateful anti-trans legislation?

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outside our little bubble. It is important that we continue to proved equal opportunity and support to all. Someday it will eventually spread beyond...

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You want us to accept homophobic bigotry because it is worse in other places? All the more reason we should never accept it here. We have a lot of people here who fled those places because of those bigotries we should make sure their safe haven is actually safe.

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Considering that you don't know anything about anyone who might read this, their background, or their past experiences, this is a bold statement. No further comment.

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...you're straight, right? And you think LGBTQ people in New England live in some precious protected "little bubble", that we have no idea how things are outside our "little bubble", and that we don't put up with plenty of shit right here?

(like, I dunno, this fucking vicious death threat shit right here?)

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Wow, imagine having so little worth living for in your life that you'd care about someone's sexual orientation? Must really suck being such an insignificant loser, I hope they find peace in their life.

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"This is our f'en city!"

Pfft.

The "en" part does not match the gerund it was deconstructed from.

Try F-in' or. Effin' you effin' effer!

F'en makes me think of Fentanyl over the fence at Fenway.
Think it is just me? Perhaps so.

Or that phen-phen stuff.

Anyway, the quality of the "sign work" reflects the level of maturity/intelligence of the "loosers" because if you are making these statements to be read, or considered the work of non-buffoons, it is possible to make it neat and legible.

Glad they suck at it. And they are probably hypocrites when it comes to their own sexual practices, including oral and anal sodomy as defined by law. Time to have your mouths washed out with spray paint, fellas!

I'll just rest assured it was applied by fellas. Hanging out with other fellas and getting all worked up by thoughts of non-het physical relations.

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Hanging out with other fellas and getting all worked up by thoughts of non-het physical relations.

I suppose you mean well and you believe it's helpful to insinuate that the people responsible for this graffiti have sexual feelings towards members of the same sex, but it isn't. All it does is reinforce the stigmatized status of LGBTQ people.

(and please don't quote me studies. I've seen them and while they may be factually true, they are also irrelevant. Playing "lookit who's queer!" isn't less harmful if the target happens to actually be queer, ya know?)

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Are wrapped up quick, and then it disappears from the news.
Usually it's on college campuses though.
I'm sure they'll find some video.

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...needed.

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https://www.universalhub.com/2022/curry-college-employee-fired-after-inv...

I could find a bunch more but I have stuff to do.

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...only, this is one example, of a case that first came to public attention in February and was not resolved until four months later.

ETA: you specifically said "9 out of 10 of these cases", which suggests that you have the receipts. That's why I asked.

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“The faggot will burn by fire” and “we will burn this” are specific and actionable threats (and a hate crime). They suggest murderous intent. However I expect the police will treat this as a minor issue and no one will be held accountable for it, just like the police stood by as fascists attacked people in Copley recently and then lied about it.

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gave the same attention to the shootings in HP.

A young girl was shot on Wood Ave last week. Even the story here on Uhub had only 1 reply. I'd say that's a bigger than issue than some idiot with spray paint

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The reason "politicians flock to this" is because it expresses an intention to do violence to members of a group. It is neither random, nor targeted at an individual. This is the kind of threat where all the members of a group are under a significantly greater threat than anyone is from either random or individually targeted violence.

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