Birmingham LGBT Centre has been attacked with homophobic abuse, the third time it has been subjected to criminal damage in recent years.
Last week staff arrived at the centre to find the words “dirty bastards” scratched on to the front door. The message cannot be removed unless the door is replaced. Staff have covered it with a rainbow flag until that happens.
The centre urged anyone with information to contact the police. It said: “This is not what we want our service users to see when they come to the centre. It’s the third time we have been vandalised.”
The centre has had its windows smashed on two previous occasions, when it was the only building in the area targeted.
Lawrence Barton, the director of Birmingham Pride and the Nightingale club in the gay district, said there had been a spate of homophobic abuse in the district in recent years.
“We’ve had people driving through the area and behaving in a homophobic way, people have had urine thrown at them, abuse shouted at them through car doors, and some quite terrible physical attacks. So people have been left feeling vulnerable and exposed,” he said. “But action has been taken.”
He said the latest attack on the LGBT centre was “neither shocking or surprising”. “That’s the point,” he said. “You think: OK, here we go again. What is going to be next?”
The damage to the LGBT centre comes weeks after West Midlands police announced they had set up a “Rainbow Street Watch” for the city’s gay village, the first scheme of its kind in the country.
They are recruiting volunteers to patrol the area in response to community feedback suggesting there was increasing concern about hate crime and personal safety in the district.
Barton said the street watch and an increase police presence in the area was welcomed. He said: “We’ll know when we live in a progressive society when we don’t need these things.”
