The community is spreading love after signs at an LGBTQ-friendly Boston housing project for seniors were vandalized with violent and threatening hate messages.
People stood together in solidarity Sunday night after developers said "virtually every sign" for the Pryde, which broke ground less than a month ago, was covered in spray-paint. The building project will turn an old middle school in Hyde Park into 74 mixed-income senior housing units. It is not expected to be open until late 2023.
In a Facebook post by LGBTQ Senior Housing with a disclaimer for hate speech, photos show the graffiti messaging in which the vandals said they would burn the housing development and threatened the lives of LGBTQ people.
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"We will not let bullies and cowards stop our work to create safe and welcome affordable housing for our LGBTQ elders," the developers wrote on Facebook. "We will not let hate go unchallenged in Hyde Park."
LGBTQ Senior Housing held an event at the site Sunday afternoon "to denounce hate and reaffirm the promise of a welcoming, inclusive and diverse Hyde Park." New messages of love and positivity were taped over the vandalism after supporters rallied against hate.
“It’s heartbreaking. I live in Hyde park. I moved here because when I worked here before the community was so strong and so it’s really heartbreaking," one resident said.
“It’s heartbreaking but we know it’s not the community," another neighbor said. "We outnumbered this coward today 150 to one, so we know this community is here, will fight for the people who live here and will fight for an inclusive, loving and welcoming Hyde Park.”
Boston police confirmed that their Civil Rights Unit is investigating the incident, which was reported about 11:42 a.m. Boston police were on scene Monday morning.
"To see cowards come out under the dark of night and try to intimidate or put their hate on this larger community, it doesn't represent what we've seen throughout this multiyear process, and we are just going to move even faster to get this done," Mayor Michelle Wu said at the event Sunday.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said Sunday that all threats to the LGBTQ+ community will be prosecuted.
"It breaks my heart to see these ugly threats targeting a project — and a community — of such importance to our city," Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. "This is the second straight weekend of Boston being marred by hatred and intolerance. This cannot stand. My office will prosecute threats to the LGBTQ+ community wherever and whenever they occur."
Last weekend, about 100 people apparently associated with the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched in Boston.
The Pryde development received $3.8 million in funding from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development and $4 million from the Boston Mayor's Office of Housing. Eight of the units will be designated for unhoused families or individuals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
