One of the anti-LGBT+ stickers plastered on the centre, which has been holding Drag Queen Story Hour events since last June. (ABC11/Screenshot)
An LGBT+ community centre has filed a police report after white supremacists plastered it with anti-LGBT+ stickers, apparently to protest Drag Queen Story Hour events.
One sticker put on the North Carolina centre says that gay people are “one third of child molesters”.
Another says: “LGBT+…so oppressed they enjoy global corporate sponsorship while being celebrated…” and also claiming they “push their agenda on our children”.
Lindsey Lughes, executive director of the LGBT Centre in Raleigh, North Carolina, told local news: “It’s about the message. It’s about the fact that they’re spreading a message of hatred.
“They say really inflammatory, completely inaccurate statistics. A lot of the old tropes that we now know in 2020 are not true but things about LGBTQ folks being more likely to contract HIV or harm children.
“All of that has been wildly, over and over again debunked. They’re spreading inaccurate things. It’s about the fact that this has a real impact on the LGBTQ+ people who see them,” Lughes said.
Police are investigating the incident, and will set up meetings between the police chief and the LGBT+ community.
The stickers plastered on the centre bear the name of the white-supremacist group Hundred Handers.
Hundred Handers are an anonymous group who organise mostly online, recruiting members via QR codes on their stickers, which have been found as far afield as the US, Italy and Spain.
The LGBT Center of Raleigh filed a police report after finding controversial stickers targeting the gay community on their doors.
The Executive Director says whoever posted them is spreading a message of hatred. The story at 5:30p #ABC11 Photo from @LGBTCenterRal pic.twitter.com/6phgbn66Nc— Gloria Rodriguez (@GloriaABC11) March 10, 2020
The LGBT centre said that it was the second time it had been desecrated by vandals since it started to hold Drag Queen Story Hour last June.
The monthly reading programme, in which drag queens read stories to children, sees protestors every month and the situation has worsened since January, with more than two dozen protestors at the last event.
“It’s disappointing to me that these kids can’t just go to a story hour and just enjoy it without having to walk past a bunch of people,” Drag Queen Story Hour organiser Elise Chenoweth said.
Chenoweth added that the centre’s volunteers have to protect children from protestors at Drag Queen Story Hour events.
“We choose not to engage any of the protesters…we just turn our back to them and put positivity on our faces,” Chenoweth said.
“Our hope is always that, of course, it stays to stickers and words,” Lughes added.
“We take safety precautions here at the center, of course, to make sure that we’re prepared if it ever, if anybody ever were to try to escalate any of these things.
“It’s just a reminder of why it’s so important for us to continue to do the work we do to fight the prejudice that LGBTQ people face all the time.”