A rainbow crosswalk in Port Colborne, Canada was defaced with a Bible verse and is being repainted to repair the damage. The crosswalk was damaged just days after being installed.
The unknown zealot left Genesis 9:13, a verse commonly used to claim the LGBTQ community stole the rainbow from God. Christian activists have launched a campaign to “reclaim” the rainbow.
Related: John Lewis’s motorcade stops at rainbow crosswalks to honor his support for LGBTQ people
“I have set my rainbow in the clouds,” the verse reads, “and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.”
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Local resident Austin Gooder pointed out the ridiculous motivation behind the minor crime.
“If the rainbow is a Godly sign,” he told local news, “then the people who will vandalize a rainbow crosswalk are vandalizing a sign of God. Sounds like a logical contradiction to me.”
Numerous North American cities have permanent rainbow crosswalks.
West Hollywood got its own in 2012 (even though they were originally only meant for Pride month), Vancouver installed them in 2013, Toronto got theirs in 2014 for World Pride, San Francisco and Toronto got their permanent rainbow crosswalks the same year, Seattle got 11 in its Capitol Hill neighborhood in 2015, Philadelphia installed its own in 2015 as well and Ottawa and Long Beach installed theirs in 2016.
Atlanta, Florida, New Jersey, and Phoenix have all installed permanent rainbow crosswalks recently as well.
While the walkways are a bright and inexpensive way to show support for local LGBTQ people, they’re also ripe targets for vandals seeking to upset queer communities. Rainbow crosswalks have been spat on and vandalized with swastikas and “Christian” graffiti.
Earlier this summer, a Trump-loving vandal did over $16,000 in damage to a Florida city’s new rainbow crosswalk.
In May, students at Royal Bay Secondary School in Colwood, British Columbia found that hateful words like “faggot” and “fuck gays” had been graffitied on their rainbow flag crosswalk, as well as drawings of genitalia and other words.
