A rainbow walk was vandalised with homophobic ‘Jesus loves you’ graffiti
Adelaide’s rainbow walk was defaced with ‘Jesus loves you’ graffiti. (7News)
A man was confronted by onlookers as he spray painted “Jesus loves you” over a rainbow walk in Light Square, in Adelaide, Australia.
The 28-year-old was stopped by a witness named only as Tom as he vandalised the walkway.
“My boyfriend and I saw as we drove past,” Tom told Australia’s ABC News.
“We pulled around and I got out, snatched his spray can and bag of several more, took some photos of him — he calmly let me and then walked off — and I threw it in our car.”
Tom said that the vandal was painting over dates on the walk which mark key milestones in the fight for LGBT+ equality.
He added that the man “didn’t say a single thing” throughout the confrontation.
Adelaide council condemn ‘homophobia’.
Seconds after he had taken the man’s spray paint, Tom flagged down a police car and directed them towards the walk.
South Adelaide police confirmed to ABC that a 28-year-old man had been reported for graffiti.
Adelaide councillor Robert Simms, who helped establish the rainbow walk, called the vandalism “a sad reminder that despite all we’ve achieved on the road to equality, there is still work to be done to keep fighting homophobia in our city”.
There is still work to be done to keep fighting homophobia in our city.
“The Pride Walk is about promoting inclusion and celebrating the achievements of the LGBTI community in SA,” he added.
The city council said that it was “disappointed to see that someone has written across the Rainbow Walk, which was installed in 2016 to celebrate our city’s diversity”, and that it would remove the graffiti immediately.
Rainbow crossings defaced around the world.
Rainbow walks and crossings are becoming popular ways for cities to demonstrate their commitment to LGBT+ rights, however many have been defaced by anti-LGBT+ bigots.
In Calgary, Canada, one crossing was graffitied with the message “shoot a f*****”. The slur was misspelled.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Trump-supporting biker was arrested after he and a group performed burnouts in what was labelled a “personal attack on [the LGBT+] community”.
