At 1:15 am on Thursday, May 16, a group of vandals dumped multiple buckets of flammable liquid onto the rainbow 2SLGBTQIA+ Pride flag crosswalk painted on a downtown intersection near Riverfront Park, Spokane city officials said. As one member of the group stood back to record on their phone, the others set the mural on fire.
Just over two weeks ago, the same mural had been repainted in an effort to repair previous vandalism and regular wear and tear that had accumulated in the last few months. Though the Spokane Fire Department quickly put out the flames this week, the flag was once again significantly damaged — the once-vibrant paint now marked with splashes of a black, tar-like substance.
The burning of the downtown Pride crosswalk is only the most recent in a string of anti-queer vandalism since the murals were installed in 2023. Symbols of 2SLGBTQIA+ Pride across the city have been frequent targets for vandals. A wave of homophobic destruction last summer spurred local legislators to advocate at the state level for Senate Bill 5917, which expanded the current definition of a hate crime to include bias-motivated vandalism against public and private property. The region, too, has seen an uptick of hate incidents, including the vandalism at Veradale United Church of Christ, where suspects allegedly used a flammable liquid to burn a reference to a passage in the Bible frequently used to justify the killing of gay people. Those suspects were charged with hate crimes.
Local electeds and community members gathered today — ironically, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia — to address Thursday night’s incident, which is currently being investigated as arson. Though Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5917 on March 13, it does not go into effect until June 6.
Though it cannot be investigated as a hate crime under current state laws, Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson wanted to make her stance clear: “I know it was called vandalism, but it was hate.”
“First, it was just spray painting. Now it’s flammable,” Wilkerson said. “So the violence is escalating. And that’s what we’re concerned about.”
Other council members shared similar sentiments, as they stood with representatives from community organizations including Spokane Pride, Spectrum Center Spokane, Spokane Community Against Racism (SCAR), Downtown Spokane Partnership, Expo 74 project members and Spokane Arts, which repairs the mural each time it is defaced. Those repairs cost between $5,000and $14,000 a pop.
“This is an important moment for us to show that the community supports creating a space in Spokane where everyone feels like they belong here,” said Council Member Zack Zappone, who is openly queer. “We have seen across the country an uptick of hate here locally and across the country — particularly [against] the LGBTQ+ community — and we want to say as a community here in Spokane that that has no place here.”
Council Member Paul Dillon quoted the iconic queer rights activist Harvey Milk: “Hope will never be silent.”
“And while I’m here as a Spokane City Council member and the chair of our Public Safety and Community Health Committee, I’m also here as a father, a neighbor who’s seen the pain of these hateful acts,” Dillon said. “This is another real time reminder of the rise we are seeing in hate crimes, particularly in Eastern Washington and our region.”
Council Members Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle, who represent District 1 where the vandalism occurred, were not at the press conference. Cathcart said the pair weren’t invited, which Council Communications Director Lisa Gardner called an “oversight,” but Cathcart provided a written statement denouncing the vandalism: “Destruction of public property is never okay, should never be tolerated and needs to be aggressively prosecuted.” Bingle did not respond to a request for comment before the time of publication.
Before the press conference, Zappone told RANGE that the vandalism seemed like a clear escalation of what he described as a pattern of target behavior by a small group of individuals that is “intended to cause fear.”
He said existing as a queer person in Spokane requires “some cognitive dissonance” between wrestling with the fear of targeted hate and needing to live his life. A couple years ago, Zappone and his partner were walking together on High Drive when someone threw a rock at them, leaving them to wonder if they were being targeted or if it was just “punks that were throwing it at all people.”
“Other times downtown, we’ve definitely heard slurs thrown at us with a group of friends,” Zappone said. “But I think that’s what Pride is about, right? There’s a recognition that there’s still groups that don’t want us to be around or existing or public. And it’s about saying, ‘No, this is about love, being present and public and living our lives and accepting others and letting everyone love who they love.’ And so I think that’s important as we’re heading into Pride again.”
Wilkerson said the city was asking Spokane Police to do more frequent monitoring at the crosswalk, to try to prevent more vandalism. She said they were also looking into putting more cameras in the area.
Zappone added that in the long term, the city is lobbying the Attorney General’s office to be the first site to receive a hate crimes hotline, which could be implemented as early as next year.
Accountability and community support
When news broke about the vandalism online, social media comments on Mayor Lisa Brown’s statement denouncing the vandalism were overwhelmingly negative. Those remarks downplayed the significance of the incident and mocked Brown and city officials for taking the crime seriously. They also included comments from Lesley Haskell, who is married to Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell, whose office will soon decide whether to bring hate crime charges against future perpetrators.
Members of the queer community and representatives of local organizations pointed to both the most recent vandalism and prominent regional queerphobic and racist occurrences as they asked for more community support.
“I stand before you, asking the great citizens of Spokane to defend queer people, defend People of Color who are queer, because at the intersections of race and gender and sexuality is the place where we are attacked at every level,” said Roo Ramos, executive director of Spectrum Center Spokane. “I’m asking from our community that you stand in love and compassion for those who live differently, who look differently, who exist differently, because the truth is, that’s what makes the world great.”
Justice Forral, representing SCAR, asked for greater accountability at all levels.
“What restorative justice practices are we actually trying in this community? How are we preparing this community and how are we coming together?” they asked. “We have people who are trying to be divisive and trying to separate us. What are we doing to improve our community and make sure we stand together, united against this hate?”
Skyler Oberst — the executive director of Spokane Arts, which helped create the mural through its Asphalt Arts program — said one of the best things the organization does is tell stories, and pointed to Expo 74 as an example of welcoming that the community should strive for.
“Fifty years ago, we welcomed everyone in the world to come to our town, regardless of what they believed, what pew they sat in, their political affiliations and who they loved,” Oberst said. “That’s our story, and my question to everybody today is, is this a part of that story? Is this who we are?”
Tearing up as he spoke, Matt Santangelo, project manager for the city’s celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Expo 74, apologized for the vandalism on behalf of Expo and the Spokane community.
“We need to take action. It’s not enough just to show up in arms or side by side with the people who are experiencing these hate crimes. It’s our responsibility to do something about it,” he said. “Let’s do better. We can be better. We can be an example. And frankly, we need to be.”
What can you do?
With increased calls for community support, you may be wondering what you can do. First, the vandalism is being investigated as arson. SPD has some video footage of the incident, but they are still looking for potential witnesses to the crime or anyone with information relating to the crime to call 911 to report it.
Oberst also asked the community to consider donating to Spokane Arts to help offset the costs of the repairs. Though Spokane Arts fronts the bill, they invoice the city for the costs, which comes out of a pool of money collected from redlight traffic cameras. Oberst, acknowledging the city’s budget crisis, said donating directly to Spokane Arts will “alleviate the invoicing that will have to happen because of this.”
All donations to Spokane Arts for mural repair will be matched by the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, said Bishop Gretchen Rehberg.
“As a follower of Jesus Christ, I know that love always triumphs over hate, but hate will always try. I also know that the church has, in the past, been a contributor to the discrimination against our LGBTQ siblings and others, and so let me apologize for anything the church has ever done that might contribute to the hate we are currently seeing,” Rehberg said, before committing the church to matching all donations to the repainting effort.
Ramos implored Spokane to show up in support of the upcoming Spokane Pride event. “I’m asking for the love to really come from our community and celebrate us this Pride.” For those wanting to go a step further, Spokane Pride is still looking for volunteers. It posted on social media that volunteers could sign up here.
For youth in the community, Odyssey Youth Movement is holding drop-in hours today from 3 to 8 pm for folks aged 13 to 18 in need of support.
There may also be upcoming volunteer opportunities to clean and repaint the mural.
“We’re gonna keep repainting because if we stop, it feels like we are acquiescing to [vandals] and we are afraid,” Wilkerson said. “Well, I just have to look back to the civil rights movement. If we stopped showing up, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Editor’s Note: Erin Sellers was formerly employed by Spectrum Center and reported to Ramos.
An earlier version of this story said the hate crime law would go into effect June 4, according to Sen. Andy Billig. It actually goes into effect June 6.
