March 20, 2017 By Christian Murray
A homophobic slur that was scrawled in blue ink was discovered on the wall of the building that houses two Astoria legislators this morning.
The graffiti, which read ‘Obama f..t,” was found in two places on the 31-19 Newtown Avenue building, which is where State Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas have their district offices.
The office building next door to the two state legislators, which includes the district office of Councilman Costa Constantinides, was vandalized with a similar hateful message last week. Constantinides reported the incident to police at the time.
The three lawmakers have been outspoken critics of the Trump administration, particularly on matters pertaining to immigration and human rights. They held a diversity rally in Astoria around the time of Trump’s inauguration.
“It is shameful that someone is trying to divide our diverse neighborhood through hostility and bigotry,” Gianaris said, referring to the perpetrator of the homophobic graffiti. “We can assure our community that these hateful actions will not silence our opposition towards policies we consider un-American, and we will continue to fight for those who need our help no matter the cost.”
Meanwhile, Simotas referred to the graffiti as “cowardly” and said that she was confident that the 114 Precinct would catch those responsible.
Council Member Costa Constantinides added that he and his colleagues will continue to fight against bigotry.
Featured Events
7 Comments
If this had been the N word or some slur/symbol against a religion/gender you all would of been in an uproar! Hate is wrong no matter who is being targeted. Shouldn’t there be surveillance video? BTW, The word hayai means “fast” in Japanese.
Clearly some people – particularly kids – spray paint a lot of graffiti that could be construed as racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic, etc. Some of us have even done it in our misguided youth and are probably not proud of it. (I grew up in the 70s and 80s, it was common.) Not everything should be relegated to a major issue, especially when it comes to graffiti. We’re live in a country that is probably the freest in the world when it comes to speech — love it or hate it, folks. It’s people’s actions that we should be concerned about. Honestly, in a case like this, paint over it and move on.
Nice job by Astoria post to delete this comment!! judge for yourself if it is inappropriate – “how many examples do you need where these turn out to be hoaxes? Even if it wasn’t -using the actions of a sick person to paint political opponents with a broad brush does a disservice to political discourse and exemplifies the narrow hatred that Gianaris claims to be opposed to”.
How many examples do you need where they proven to be hoaxes? Even if it wasn’t- using the actions of a sick person to paint your political opponents with a broad brush is a disservice to political discourse and exemplifies the very narrow minded hatred that Gianaris claims to be opposed to.
Excellent post Harry!
they will probably blame this on TRUMP – because all of the queens counsel people hate him
Ok, well this person/people are uneducated and do not know the meanings of those words.. Learn to read n write, aaaaannnnd then scribble