The Hyde Park neighborhood got here collectively Sunday afternoon to bodily cowl hate with love — placing sentiments of LGBTQ help over graphically violent loss of life threats and slurs left on a neighborhood undertaking the evening earlier than.
The vandalism focused the Pryde constructing building, which would be the first constructing to supply inexpensive housing particularly reserved for LGBTQ seniors within the New England space. Community leaders final month broke floor on the brand new constructing, set to incorporate 74 rental models, and the constructing is scheduled to open round fall 2023.
Just a pair weeks into building, vandals had been already out spray portray messages on the fencing across the web site, threatening to burn the undertaking down and kill members of the neighborhood.
But it solely took organizers a few hours to rally greater than 100 folks, together with metropolis and state representatives, to face collectively in defiance of the threats.
“Although there are some who, under cover of darkness, seem to feel a need to spew hatred and try to intimidate or slow down the forces of representation, of love, of community, we have seen where this community stands already,” mentioned Mayor Michelle Wu, as full-throated neighborhood help practically drowned her out.
Wu emphasised that the Boston Police Civil Rights Unit is actively investigating the incident and reviewing digicam footage from the realm.
“This is the second straight weekend of Boston being marred by hatred and intolerance,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden mentioned in an announcement, referencing a white supremacist march via downtown Boston the week earlier than. “This cannot stand. My office will prosecute threats to the LGBTQ+ community wherever and whenever they occur.”
This kind of assault, audio system mentioned, makes the necessity for initiatives just like the Pryde constructing extra obvious than ever.
Speakers, together with metropolis councilors and state representatives of Hyde Park and lots of neighboring communities, spoke repeatedly of the necessity for unity and lively help. Also, a number of famous wryly, the vandals had “picked the wrong old ladies to mess with.”
The “wrong old ladies” on the coronary heart of the undertaking referenced Gretchen Van Ness and Aileen Montour of LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., the group behind the Pryde constructing.
Van Ness and Montour made the calculated selection to go away the specific and graphic graffiti up via Sunday to shock skeptics into higher understanding the necessity for continued LGBTQ advocacy and protections.
The Pryde constructing is a part of the answer to this kind of hate, audio system mentioned — a spot “for people who lived through periods in which every major religion condemned them, who were told by the American Psychological Association their queerness was a disease, who survived the AIDS crisis,” Van Ness mentioned, “to live safely and with dignity.”
By the tip of the rally, organizers invited attendees to start to cowl the messages with their indicators of affection and help.
Far from intimidating the neighborhood away from the undertaking, state Rep. Nika Elugardo addressed LGBTQ elders within the crowd: “This hate is triggering a movement, a coalition that’s so much bigger than what you had 50 years ago, so much bigger than 10 years ago. We’re going to grow this coalition together. We’re standing with you.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”