When employees and volunteers at the Los Angeles LGBT Center arrived at work Friday, they discovered that one wall of a Center facility at Ed Gould Plaza (near Santa Monica Blvd. and Highland) had been defaced. Between 9 and 10 pm on Thursday night someone had spray painted an outer wall with graffiti: Fuck Trannies...Fuck all y'all.

We had a security officer on duty, but he was patrolling other areas of the building. Fortunately, we have cameras that should have recorded the perpetrators.

--Jackie DeFede, director of facilities

A public information officer at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Station confirmed that a report had been filed late in the day on Friday but no action has yet been taken by police.

It is, according to the Center, the worst case of vandalism targeting its facility in recent history. The graffiti was removed hours after it was found.

A lesbian retired police officer, who requested anonymity, said her impression of the image above is that the person who did it is likely familiar. She pointed to use of ‘yall’ as an indication that the person “has a personal grudge against the Center.”

Such incidents — mild and severe — are spreading.

They’ve been everywhere — in schools, in places of business like Walmart, on the street.

--Richard Cohen, SPLC

The LGBTQ center. Diverse and Resilient, on North Holton Street in Milwaukee, WI was also defaced, with homophobic slurs and graffiti painted on walls and windows.

Given the work that we do and who we are, the people we work with were in some ways prepared for the fact there are people who don't like us. And sometimes they demonstrate that in ways that are hurtful and harmful.

I think things like this just reinforce just how much work we have to do and it reinforces the work we already do. And it's just one more of those things that just keeps us moving.

We will win, we will win. It's just, we are going to have to go through some of these things to get there.

--Gerry Coon, CEO

These spaces are bastions of safety and empowerment for LGBTQ people and are needed now more than ever in our new political climate. This type of violence must not tolerated or normalized in any way, and it's on all of us to address it and stop it from happening.

--Shelby Chestnut, New York City Anti-Vio;ence Project