Sore Losers Are Defacing Sydney’s Gay Murals
They're not taking the result of the postal survey all that well.
This may come as a bit of a surprise, but the “respectful debate” that we experienced during the equal marriage postal survey has not come to an end following the crushing defeat of the No side, with the latest target being Sydney’s LGBTIQ+ themed murals.
In an act of petty revenge, two artworks in the inner-west have been defaced in a campaign reportedly organised by a Facebook group calling itself Christian Lives Matter.
The group was spurred into motion on Thursday morning, after artist Scott Marsh painted a controversial mural on the side of the Botany View Hotel in the Sydney suburb of Newtown. It depicts former prime minister Tony Abbott with his hands down the trunks of Cardinal George Pell, both of whom are notable opponents of equal marriage rights in Australia.
Taking extreme umbrage to both the content of the mural, and presumably their own humiliating loss in the postal survey and the consequent inexorable march towards equal rights, the group organised both a defacing of the mural, and a coordinated online attack, carried out via 1 star reviews on their Facebook page and enough threatening phone calls that the pub was forced to take their phone off the hook.
After a bucket of white paint was thrown over the artwork, three men arrived and painted over the mural entirely in black, allegedly threatening staff of the pub and onlookers as they did.
But members of the group weren’t content to limit their efforts to just one mural. A subsequent post called on members to attack other “offensive, discriminatory and pornographic murals”, and included the addresses of several works it deemed to be offensive.
Among them was another Marsh piece, an iconic representation of George Michael as a queer saint in Erskineville. Commissioned by musicians Jonny Seymour and Paul Mac in January, the mural has been repeatedly attacked through the survey period. Shortly after the call out, images emerged of someone defacing the mural in broad daylight.
Tfw you see your special space come up in your fbook feed #respectfuldeabate#ssm pic.twitter.com/ZFdlTpZuj0
— stereogamous (@stereogamous) November 17, 2017
The good news is that the individual captured in the photos has reportedly been fired by the company he so brazenly advertised on his hi-vis shirt, with the company also offering to pay for the mural to be repainted.
Meanwhile, members of the queer community held a vigil at the defaced St George mural last night.
Thank you for the support dear people. There’s a pop up vigil with the neighbourhood hanging out in the park giving support. Love does win.
— stereogamous (@stereogamous) November 17, 2017
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Feature image via Genevieve Malloy/ Facebook