Teens Damage Pride Sidewalk
By Sassafras Lowrey
Pride season is here and it’s a beautiful opportunity to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, our history and our strength. Many communities across the country have painted rainbow sidewalks and crosswalks as a way of honoring the LGBTQ commonly and recognize the community in a public way. Unfortunately, this year in Spokane, Washington one of these murals was destroyed by three young adults who made skid marks with electric scooters damaging the mural.
The attack on the mural was witnessed and Ruslan V. V Turko, a nineteen-year-old and two minors who were not named were arrested on first-degree charges of malicious mischief for their roles in vandalizing the Pride mural. The group of teens were reported to also have been taking videos and saying “F*** you’ F-slur!” and “Go to Hell!” as they left skid marks across the mural. Witnesses were able to identify the teens to the police, and in less than an hour police had found and arrested the teenagers. Shockingly this isn’t the first time the sidewalk has been vandalized this spring. In addition to being damaged with scooter skid marks, the sidewalk was also vandalized with paint.
The Sidewalk Damage
In addition to the skid marks and paint, in May the same rainbow mural was attacked by being set on fire. The Spokane community rallied around the mural and what it represented to the LGBTQ community and a fundraiser was organized which allowed the mural to be fixed and recreated. To add insult to community injury, right before the scooter damage, the city of Spokane had just finished repainting the mural in honor of Pride. The scooters used to damage the mural are e-scooters available for public use/rental from the company Lime. Lime of course was not responsible for the damage condemned the actions of the teens and made clear that Lime stands with the LGBTQ+ community. In addition to protecting the sidewalk from copycat vandalism, Lime has now made it so that the scooters automatically will shut down if anyone attempts to drive them over the Spokane rainbow crosswalk. This will protect the sidewalks from being damaged in the future. Of course, the physical damage done to the sidewalk is the center of this story, but the emotional and community impact is likely to be felt long after the mural has been repainted. Even though the actions of three teenagers obviously doesn’t speak for an entire community it is part of a concerning trend of homophobic/transphobic violence nationally, and more specifically in the Spokane area.
Consequences of Homophobia
Sometimes people will dismiss homophobia/attacks like this as unimportant because actual people were not harmed. While there are absolute differences between people being harmed and attacked, vs property being vandalized that doesn’t mean that these kinds of attacks are victimless. When public symbols of the LGBTQ+ community like flags, or these kinds of murals are damaged, it’s natural for LGBTQ+ people to feel personally impacted and attacked. Earlier this year Washington’s governor amended the state’s hate crimes legislation to include property crime like the vandalism of the pride sidewalk as the kind of attacks that could be considered hate crimes. This could mean that attacks like the skid marks on the sidewalk are a felony offense. People who commit these crimes could face significant fines and up to five years in prison. We must continue to speak out against homophobia/transphobia, and to educate the next generations about the realities of queer lives. It’s also important for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies to come together rand denounce violence like this when it occurs. By standing up against vandalism of queer spaces people make clear that LGBTQ+ people belong in all areas of life and community. Speaking out against this type of vandalism also makes clear that homophobic/transphobic violence isn’t welcome or tolerated in our communities.
About the Author
Sassafras Lowrey’s novels and nonfiction books have been honored by organizations ranging from the American Library Association to the Lambda Literary Foundation and the Dog Writers Association of America. Sassafras’ work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, and numerous other newspapers and magazines. Sassafras has taught queer writing courses and workshops at LitReactor, the NYC Center For Fiction and at colleges, conferences, and LGBTQ youth centers across the country. You can find more of Sassafras’ written works, including an edited collection exploring LGBTQ+ youth homelessness entitled Kicked Out, at www.SassafrasLowrey.com.
