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23 July 2018

Rainbow bench smeared with poo in homophobic vandalism

The bench was painted the rainbow colours ahead of Cornwall Pride in August

By Steve Brown

Poo was smeared on a rainbow bench in an act of homophobic vandalism.

Newquay Town Council granted Pride organisers permission to paint three benches across the town in celebration of Pride and volunteers spent about 26 hours painting the rainbow Pride stripes ahead of the county’s Pride march in August

However, Cornwall Pride organisers were left outraged after vandals smeared what appears to be human faeces on a rainbow bench and wrote ‘fucking queers’ across it.

They wrote on Twitter: “Why LGBTQ+ Pride? Last Night Someone Shit on our unfinished #PrideBench and spelt out “F***ing Queers” in shit.

“P.S Police have CCTV The Killacourt in @newquay #whypride #lovenohate #stongertogether #notinourcommunity”

Organisers of the Pride event also told PinkNews: “After all that hard work it was heart breaking to work through today knowing what had happened.

“This has been condemned by Cornwall Pride organisers, the Newquay community leaders, and the Devon and Cornwall police as an obvious hate crime. It has been given to the police as and they will be investigating as they have CCTV of the area.

“A vile act of an individual or individuals that do not represent the feelings and support Newquay has for the community.

“Please do not allow this to deter that Newquay is incredibly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. Cornwall Pride our supporters and the whole LGBTQ+ in Newquay are in shock but are now standing stronger against the hate, which is why Pride exists.

“Pride is a celebration of diversity but it is also a beacon and a protest against hate and discrimination of the entire LGBTQ+ community.”

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