The Hamilton Fringe Festival is looking for the vandals responsible for defacing promotional posters for plays with LGBTQ and feminist themes.
Posters for “Coal From Hades” and “S.C.U.M. a manifesto” were covered with Bible verses condemning homosexuality and female independence.
Claire Calnan, Executive Director at Hamilton Festival Theatre Company, said she initially thought it was an isolated incident but reports continued to come in about stickers popping up on posters throughout the downtown core.
Hamilton Fringe made a plea for help to identify the vandals on Twitter tweeting, “This is getting RIDICULOUS. Pls help us find who is DEFACING Fringe artist property w/ homophobic bible verses!”
Festival organizers decided to create their own stickers to put over top of the verses and reached out to local printing company Copydog who offered to print them for free.
Organizers say they have been contacted by a Hamilton resident who has offered to pay for up to three Fringe companies to reprint their posters.
“This is a festival that celebrates voices from all walks and it’s been great to see the community get behind that,” said Calnan.
Hamilton city councillor Matthew Green posted a video to Twitter Sunday denouncing the defacement, and expressing support for the artists.
“If you don’t like it, don’t go. It’s that simple. If you’re out there propagating hate or intolerance towards anybody in a discriminatory way you need to stop, you need to find Jesus ’cause that’s not the God that I know,” said Green. “You need to get back in church.”
Statement denouncing the defacement of LGBTQ2S posters for @HamOntFringe performances #DontBeAByStander pic.twitter.com/OZYP6dE9YF
— Matthew Green (@MGreenWard3) July 23, 2017
Calnan says she reported the incidents to Hamilton police on Friday.
