Outside the Immanuel Congregational Church in Hartford on Sunday, people held a unity event weeks after vandalism to the Pride walkway by Farmington Avenue.
“It has become for us as members of this church more than just a pretty symbol. It has really become our expression of our identity, our values, our passion, our belief that everybody should be welcome,” Rev. Jay Terbush, of Immanuel Congregational Church, said.
That’s part of why church members and others were saddened and upset when it was defaced in September.
Someone reportedly marked it with a slur days before the city’s Pride festival.
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“I was sad because, I thought to myself, it is sad to me that someone would be filled with hatred and write a slogan that was so, so inflammatory and so sad and so, from my perspective, violent about LGBTQ folks,” Terbush said.
The pastor says they were also angry because vandalizing the walkway strikes at what the church stands for: justice, love and inclusion.
The hurtful message was quickly painted over by the original artist, who we talked to at the time.
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“I don’t know why people feel like they can’t accept everyone, and they can’t just be who they are, and let everybody be who they are,” Louisa Barton Duguay said.
The church says they also had a Black Lives Matter banner pulled down and destroyed.
Organizers say peace, love and justice will not take a backseat to hate, violence, intimidation and intolerance.
“So many people from our church have said, we are not going to be intimidated by hatred. We're going to lean into love,” Terbush said.
We reached out to Hartford Police, which had been investigating the vandalism.
At this point we have not received an update on the case.
