GOP lawmaker is outraged at small town’s mural for hidden”demonic” messages

New Hampshire state Sen. Carrie Gendreau (R), who is also a former town board member in Littleton, claims that recently painted murals of plants funded by an LGBTQ+ organization hold “demonic hidden messages.”

The murals, installed by the nonprofit North Country Pride, are intended to help beautify a neighborhood that faces underdevelopment in comparison to the rest of the town. They include depictions of a dandelion rising out of a book, a birch forest at night, and a rainbow flower rising out of the ground.

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There is no evidence that these art pieces represent demons. One neighbor who can see them from her window called them “beautiful art.”

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“I would encourage anyone to research what that really means. I don’t want that to be in our town,” said Gendreau of the murals at a town meeting. “What went up was not good.”

She said that the murals have “demonic symbolism” and that she is “very concerned about what is basically creeping into our community.”

The community in Littleton has been divided on the actions and rhetoric of Gendreau. The town has a history of political division, with votes in the last presidential election evenly split between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

“I was friends with Carrie,” said Kerri Harrington, a leader of North Country Pride. “I knew our politics were different, I knew she was religious, but there are a lot of religious people here. This was the first time I realized she had that agenda.”

Gendreau is an evangelical Christian, often inserting it into matters relating to the town that would otherwise be completely secular. She has promoted the book The Return of the Gods by Jonathan Cahn, a doomsday evangelist who argues that gay rights signify a moral decay in America. Gendreau believes that homosexuality is an “abomination” and compared transgender people to “a grown man attending kindergarten because he identifies as a 6-year-old.”

The town manager, Jim Gleason, has a late gay son and quit his role after the comments made by Gendreau. She had tried to oppose a play that featured a gay couple, calling him “weak” after Gleason refused to change the play to appease her views. She then insulted his son, saying “I hope you’re happy he’s in hell.”

“My son is not an abomination,” Gleason told the select board.

Some residents of Gendreau’s district, however, support her views.

“Sen. Gendreau speaks for those stakeholders who are afraid to speak out, to stop this ‘liberal-progressive-socialist-communist-bully-ism,’” said Nick DeMayo, chairman of the Northern Grafton County Republican Committee.
Other residents said they opposed the backlash she’s received, instead calling for civil debate about her views.

“It used to be, when someone said something you didn’t like, you would sit down and talk about it,” Roger Emerson, chair of the Littleton select board, “not run to the newspapers and social media.”

“I would encourage anyone to research what that really means. I don’t want that to be in our town,” said Gendreau of the murals.

Gendreau is no longer on the town select board, saying that God wanted her to leave her position. Harrington was elected in her place, with one of her first actions being the abolition of mandated prayer at the start of each meeting.

A transgender bar owner, Jordan Applewhite, said of the incidents with Gendreau, “What was at stake was who we are as a town. It was like an existential crisis.”

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