‘Gay families burn in hell, TRUMP 2016’ Hate incidents surge in wake of election
A string of hate incidents have been reported across the US in the wake of this week’s Presidential election.
In scenes reminiscent of the surge in hate crimes in the UK after the EU referendum, ethnic minorities and LGBT people have been targeted in a string of incidents across the US.
Already this week, arsonists targeted two houses flying Pride flags in Rochester, New York, nearly causing a deadly blaze, while a gay man in Santa Monica, California also claims he was set upon by Trump supporters.
New York Daily News journalist Shaun King has been cataloguing incidents in the wake of the election.
In one incident in North Carolina, one family had an anti-gay note placed on their car windscreen.
It reads: “Can’t wait until your ‘marriage’ is overturned by a real president. Gay families = burn in hell. Trump 2016”.
In other shocking incidents, a school in Minnesota was defaced with graffiti reading “F**k n****rs #whitesonly #whiteamerica Trump train”.
In Indiana, a racist incident was reported after Trump supporters yelled “F**k you n****r bitch. Trump is going to deport you back to Africa” at an African-American woman.
Since the election, King has reported more than 50 instances in which women had their hijabs forcibly removed, and dozens of instances of sexual assaults in schools where “young girls had their vaginas grabbed yesterday in the name of Trump”.
Meanwhile, LGBT activists have sounded the alarm about a number of anti-LGBT activists reported to be handed key roles on Trump’s transition team.
Ken Blackwell of the Family Research Council is reported to be his head of domestic policy. The Family Research Council was designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center after its head compared gay equality to the Holocaust.
