‘It’s a hate crime’: rainbow-painted Pride crosswalks vandalized in Lundar By: Chris Kitching Posted: 5:47 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 24, 2023

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This article was published 24/07/2023 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Volunteers who painted Pride crosswalks in an Interlake community are disappointed but unbowed after the installations were repeatedly targeted by vandals.

The defacements of two rainbow flag crosswalks in Lundar followed other recent homophobic incidents in Manitoba and a national spike in hate crimes related to sexual orientation.

“I’m very heartbroken. It’s a hate crime,” said a volunteer, who asked not to be named because she feared she would be targeted for commenting. “It feels very personal. We’re all very saddened by it, but we won’t stop trying to support the (LGBTTQ+) community.”

RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine believed at least one file had been opened into the situation.

The first crosswalk on Lundar’s Main Street was targeted twice within a couple days of being painted June 28 during Pride Month.

Local public-health staff partnered with the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network to organize the painting.

A driver left tire marks while doing burnouts in a vehicle, and then someone poured gasoline onto the crossing and set fire to it.

Volunteers painted a new crosswalk on Main Street on Sunday. A small group of people gathered nearby in a show of opposition, the volunteer said.

She said Rural Municipality of Coldwell Reeve Virgil Johnson walked over and spoke to the protesters in a bid to keep things calm.

Johnson declined to comment.

The new crosswalk was vandalized just hours later, when grey paint was dumped on it late Sunday night or early Monday morning, the volunteer said.

Lundar is home to about 500 people, according to the 2021 Census. The community is about 100 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

The RM of Coldwell’s five-member council unanimously approved the initial crosswalk, which was intended to make LGBTTQ+ people feel welcome, said Coun. Grant Sigfusson.

Council passed a motion that stated the RM had “no issue” with the June 28 event, according to minutes from a May 12 meeting.

Sigfusson was disappointed by the acts of vandalism. He said past rainbow crosswalks were not vandalized.

The councillor and volunteer said they were committed to restoring the latest installation.

“It’s not going to stop anything. We’re going to repaint and repaint, and it’s going to show resilience,” said Sigfusson.

“It’s not going to stop anything. We’re going to repaint and repaint, and it’s going to show resilience.”–Grant Sigfusson

He believed a small number of people was responsible for defacing the crossings in late-night hours. He said there is no “us against them” situation in Lundar, and the goal is to bridge any kind of divide.

“We’re trying to work through it in the community,” said Sigfusson, who confirmed the incidents were raised with the RCMP.

Tammy Henwood, president of Stonewall-based Interlake Pride, said the incidents show why there is a need for Pride.

“It’s unfortunate we’re still dealing with these things,” she said. “It sends a message that there’s too much hate still. It makes people feel they don’t belong and they’re not cared for or loved, that there’s nowhere for you that’s safe.

“We shouldn’t be going backward. We shouldn’t have to fight for the right to be who we are.”

Pride Month events have expanded to more communities in rural Manitoba in recent years. Incidents were reported in some communities amid celebrations and commemorations in June.

In Winkler, a homophobic slur was spray-painted on the back of a minivan parked outside a home. In another incident, a Pride flag was ripped off a couple’s front porch.

Pride decorations outside St. Paul’s United Church in Morden were repeatedly torn down.

In May, a Pride flag was pulled down outside Riverbend Community School in Winnipeg. An anonymous “homophobic rant” letter was left behind.

In 2021, police services in Canada reported a record 423 hate crimes related to sexual orientation, Statistics Canada data shows.

The total represented a 64 per cent increase over 2020, when 258 incidents were reported by police, and was well above the previous peak of 265 in 2019.

Statistics Canada’s data includes eight incidents in Manitoba in 2021 and seven in 2020.

Figures for 2022 have not yet been released.

It’s safe to assume the true number of incidents is higher due to underreporting, said history professor Adele Perry, director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Human Rights Research.

“We shouldn’t be going backward. We shouldn’t have to fight for the right to be who we are.”–Tammy Henwood

Henwood believes the political climate in North America — chiefly, the rhetoric of former U.S. president Donald Trump — has emboldened some people or groups to be openly hateful.

“It was allowed to flourish,” she said.

An increase in visibility of or “airspace” given to people who are intolerant can have an impact, said Perry.

“What we’re seeing is these kinds of events and experiences are clearly occurring not just south of the border, but in Canada, as well,” she said.

In June, a report by the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD said escalating extremism against LGBTTQ+ people in the U.S. coincided with a “disturbing” increase in anti-LGBTTQ+ rhetoric and legislation.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching

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Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.