Social Media Challenges Propel Pride Flag Thefts, Arson

Social media challenges, including one called "Capture the Flag," are helping push up incidents of arson, property theft, and vandalism targeting Pride flags at businesses and private residences, USA Today reported.

"In the past week alone, Pride flags have been stolen, slashed or burned in at least five states, including California, Utah, Arizona, Nebraska and Pennsylvania," the newspaper detailed.

"That's on top of similar incidents in California and New York in May, including a man that defecated on a pride flag in Manhattan."

Add Nebraska to the slate of states where hateful acts of property destruction have been perpetrated. USA Today said police there were investigating the burning of a Pride flag.

Online hate speech and incitements to lawless behavior are at least partially to blame, the report said, with the rash of crimes increasing "as online extremists have been spreading a new hashtag in recent weeks that encourages followers to damage, destroy or steal Pride flags wherever they see them," USA Today went on to add.

Analyst Sarah Moore, who focuses on extremism targeting the LGBTQ+ community in her work for the Anti-Defamation League, as well as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, told USA Today that extremists posting a fringe platforms like Telegram, as well as more mainstream platforms like Twitter, "are advocating for a destroy-the-Pride-flag challenge, or they call them capture-the-flag challenges, where they advocate for their followers to go out in really creative ways and capture and deface or set fire to Pride flags from private residences and businesses across the country."

USA Today cited a number of criminal actions in which Pride flags were destroyed or stolen, among them an incident in "the Los Angeles suburb of Huntington Beach," where, "on June 3, police arrested a teenage boy on suspicion of ripping a Pride flag while pulling it down from a home and using derogatory language."

In the course of their response, the "officers found a group of nearby teens who had two other Pride flags with them."

An arson attack destroyed a Pride flag displayed at a private residence in Omaha, the account detailed, and another saw a flag taken down from outside the city hall in Tempe, Arizona, and incinerated.

"In Pennsylvania, one candy shop has had its Pride flag stolen repeatedly in recent days, and there's been a spate of Pride flag thefts throughout the Salt Lake City area," the account detailed. "More than 75 have been stolen in San Jose, California."

The campaign targeting Pride flags has spread beyond the United States, with instances of arson, theft, and vandalism taking place in Canada. CTV reported that Halifax resident and former leader of Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project Susanne Litke was awakened in the middle of the night ny someone knocking at her door to find her Pride flag ripped to shreds. Four suspects seen fleeing the scene are thought to belong to a gang of boys as young as 10.

Speaking about the vandalism that destroyed her property, Litke linked such criminal behavior – much of it thought to be perpetrated by young people – to rising anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and a blizzard of homophobic legislation.

"Hatred has been expressed towards the LGBTQ community for a long time, but ... it hasn't been expressed in this outward kind of way until permission was given for such talk and actions," Litke told CTV.

"We're seeing this happening across the U.S. with all kinds of laws being passed to quiet down discussions" around LGBTQ+ people and the issues affecting them.

Indeed, the political climate has become to hostile to LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. that the Human Rights Campaign has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a "state of emergency" with regard to LGBTQ+ rights and equality. The organization has prepared a guide, which can be downloaded, that "includes a summary of state laws, "know your rights" information and other resources," USA Today noted.

"The multiplying threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived – they are real, tangible and dangerous," USA Today quoted HRC President Kelley Robinson stating.

"In many cases they are resulting in violence against LGBTQ+ people, forcing families to uproot their lives and flee their homes in search of safer states, and triggering a tidal wave of increased homophobia and transphobia that puts the safety of each and every one of us at risk."