Vandals attack American Apparel’s ‘Legalize Gay’ display

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The clothing store American Apparel has had its shop in Washington DC vandalised today for displaying ‘Legalize Gay’ t-shirts, and telephoned a follow up threat to another store.

According to the Washington City Paper, the glass windows were smashed at around 5 a.m. at the Silver Spring store, but nothing was stolen.

The ‘Legalize Gay’ t-shirts are a play on Legalize LA, a previous campaign for immigration reform. The latest t-shirts call for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, to be repealed.

Kassandra Powell, the store manager, said that t-shirts were being displayed on the opposite side of the glass.

Later in the morning, at around 10:30am local time, the American Apparel store in Georgetown received a phone call from a man, who spoke in an “enraged” tone and asked whether he had reached the Silver Spring location.

When he was told that he was speaking to a different store, he mentioned the t-shirts with the ‘Legalize Gay’ slogan in the window display, saying that he found them offensive and he threatened that he and his friends would break the window unless the they were removed..

The store at Silver Spring has “temporarily” removed the t-shirts from their display. Powell said: “I took it down because of the threat.”

In a statement following the vandalism, American Apparel has said that the incidents would “only strengthen its marriage equality efforts in DC”.

The company said it will “continue to run Legalize Gay advertisements in papers across DC-Metro area,” adding, “We’ll also send Legalize Gay t-shirts to any group in Washington DC that is fighting for gay rights.”

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