The woman who spotted the vandalism of Pride decorations in Palmerston is speaking out against the hate she’s seeing in the community.
Gayle Blackwell says she noticed the vandalism on Tuesday and reported it to the police.
“I generally do a loop through the downtown area to check the decorations…just to make sure,” explained Blackwell. “We’ve had stuff go missing so I do a daily swoop through town. When I drove into the downtown area, I realized that some of our coloured decorations had been vandalized.”
Blackwell says the anti-gay sentiment in Minto and the petition that would ban Pride decorations under the pretext of keeping public spaces “neutral” is sending the wrong message.
“I think [the petition] sends a message that [2SLGBGTQIA+ members] are not accepted in our community,” said Blackwell. “That’s the total opposite of what our community should be sending to our youth and adults also that still haven’t be able to come out and be the individuals they want to be. They should be feeling love and support not hate.”
Blackwell says Pride is about education, and it’s very important to her.
“I’m the mother of a gay son who couldn’t come out in this community 12 years ago,” Blackwell said. “I watched his struggles with being the person he wanted to be and he knew it wouldn’t be accepted in this town. He had to move out of town in order to be who he is. It really breaks my heart to see that this is still going on in this community.”
Blackwell also shared a screenshot of a Facebook post from Jan Johnson Finochio, the Cross Roads Life Church pastor in Harriston, calling for a boycott of all businesses displaying Pride decorations. The post has since been deleted. An email from Crossroads Life Church indicated the church itself did not call for a boycott. The email goes on to say, “As we live in a free society, we allow our employees to express their views as they see fit on their personal social media pages, in their personal time, etc.”
Wellington County OPP are investigating the vandalism incident and say the mischief likely happened between the evening of June 9 and the afternoon of June 10. They are asking any businesses that may have surveillance cameras to check the footage. Anyone with information is asked to call the OPP at 888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS). You can also submit a tip online.
Updated on June 14 at 1:38 p.m. to include comment from Crossroads Life Church.
