Spokane LGBTQ+ youth center vandalized third time in under a week

For the fourth time in less than a month and the third time in under a week, a Spokane LGBTQ+ youth center was vandalized – this time painted with slurs and hate speech.

The Odyssey Youth Movement on South Perry Street, meant to be a safe space and a place for outreach services for LGBTQ+ youth, was smeared with gold spray paint Friday night. The books from the community library outside the center, filled with an array of novels, were strewn all over the outside porch. Slurs were painted on the windows, the door and the organization’s sign, but it was cleaned up by the next morning. City Council candidate Paul Dillon’s pride flag was ripped off his porch and thrown on the ground outside the center.

“Dispatch asked how much was the pride flag was worth, and paused and said ‘Nevermind, I know it’s priceless,’ which I appreciated,” Dillon said. “We’ve all tried to create an inclusive environment… It feels like the neighborhood is being targeted.”

The vandalism appears to be part of a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ activity, according to Western States Center extremist expert and program manager Kate Bitz. She said there has been a rise in such hate incidents over the last year.

“What we’re looking at is partially a local example of a national dynamic,” Bitz said. “There’s an anti-democracy political movement that really has been exploiting homophobia and transphobia for political gain.”

On Saturday night, vandals once again tried to deface the Odyssey’s crosswalk – this time they had black paint, but a passerby interrupted them, leaving black paint-covered tire marks all over South Perry Street’s Pride flag crosswalk.

Dillon said his neighbor didn’t put up his pride flag this year. The escalating rhetoric was happening too much.

The first time the crosswalk was vandalized, in late September, people spray-painted graffiti on the crosswalk. On Thursday, the crosswalk was vandalized for the second time.

Vandals spray-painted the center’s logo and poured white and brown paint all over the rainbow crosswalk, which Odyssey’s Executive Director Ian Sullivan said is “not what Spokane represents.” At the same time, the downtown pride flag crosswalk on Spokane Falls Boulevard near Riverfront Park was also covered in white paint – a crime police think could be connected, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said it’s obvious to him at this point: The vandalism is all about demoralizing and targeting those in the queer community. For this instance, the previous target was just a rainbow. Now, it feels like the organization itself is the target, he said.

Odyssey still remains open to those seeking resources, and Sullivan is steadfast they will not be closing their doors out of fear.

“We’re going to be doing a pop-up Pride event on Thursday here and throughout the neighborhood, so it’s a chance for folks to come out in all of their pride gear and with their friends, their family, and really to kind of spin this back to what it should be – which is a story about inclusion and representation. Not vandalism,” he said.

Bitz named the Idaho Legislature’s introduction of multiple anti-trans bills as an example of a real-world consequence, where think tanks mobilize bigotry that reaches certain political leaders who then mischaracterize the lives of LGBTQ+ people. The rhetoric reaches hate groups in localized regions who may try and commit vandalism and intimidation acts on the ground, she said.

Idaho’s Legislature introduced the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in 2020, meant to bar transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction previously issued so litigation over the law could continue, writing that the law likely violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, the theories and rhetoric that could have been behind the bill were bound to reach Washington, Bitz said.

“(Idaho) is the place where bigoted movements have built the most political power. That means when I see leaders or people like the Idaho Freedom Foundation engaging in demagoguery at trans people, I know I’m going to see that six months later here,” Bitz said. “As a consequence, we’ve seen violence. Words matter.”

The Idaho Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, has called transgender or nonbinary terms “radical ideology” on its website. Bitz said those statements concern her.

Some Idaho legislators are influenced by the Idaho Freedom Foundation on whether to support a bill while they are still in committee, said Chuck Winder, president pro-tempore of the Idaho Senate, in a 2022 interview with KTVB, which he called his “greatest disappointment” of that session.

Anti-trans legislation is often an example of building political power off of the exploitation of queer folks, Bitz said.

“I don’t think it’s radical to say people have a right to live their lives … The ideology is louder now.”