Early this September, a rainbow crosswalk was installed in a crossing in Port Colborne in Ontario, Canada. Motorists and pedestrians were excited to cross through the vibrant colors of the crosswalk installed with the City of Port Colborne and the Downtown Business Improvement Area. Other local businesses were also eager to help with the installation, with a local credit union giving $1,000 in a donation.

Members of the Niagara Regional Gay Men’s Group believe that the crosswalk is an important part of the city’s history. “This crosswalk shows that it doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, or a purple teapot; it doesn’t matter, no one in this community gets left behind,” said Scott Sauder, one of the members of the group.

However, less than a month after the rainbow crosswalk’s installation, the right-wing fundamentalist Christians were quick to spawn their unfounded hate for the LGBTQ+ community. A verse from one of the old testament books in the bible was vandalized into the crosswalk. The verse Genesis 9:13 reads, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” This verse refers to the rainbow that the Christian god summoned after Noah and his sons came out of the ark after the flood.

The verse is famous to anti-LGBTQ Christians who claim that their god has the “original” ownership of the rainbow, crying foul over the LGBTQ community’s use of it.

One of the members of Niagara’s queer community, Austin Gooder, says that the vandalism is “really dismissive of the queer community that has worked hard toward its own liberation and is still working hard to this day.”