Destiny Church paints over Gisborne’s rainbow crossing
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Destiny Church members painted over Gisborne’s rainbow crossing on Monday evening because a drag queen story-time event was being held on Tuesday.
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz condemned their action, said the rainbow crossing would be reinstated, and the event was going ahead.
The group’s actions have been referred to police.
Destiny Church members have painted over Gisborne’s rainbow crossing in the city centre because the mayor refused to put a stop to a planned drag queen event.
The church members applied white paint to the crossing, which has been in place since December, 2021.
The members were angry that drag queens Erika and Coco Flash were holding their ‘drag queen story-time event’ for over-16s at the city’s HB Williams Memorial Library on Tuesday afternoon.
Gisborne’s Destiny Church leader Leighton Packer said “we have blocked all the roads because we are not going to tolerate this anymore”.
“We are calling out the Mayor Rehette Stoltz and every councillor that’s agreed to these people coming here to read to our children,” she said.
Stoltz on Tuesday described the actions of the group as vandalism. She condemned it and said the group was fuelling hatred and division between people.
“We accept that people hold different views however there is no place for hate or bigotry in Tairāwhiti,” she said.
“We will be reinstating the rainbow crossing as quickly as we can,” she said.
“We absolutely object to individuals interfering with our road markings and the safety of people on our roads. We will be working with the police to make those involved accountable and seeking reparations for the cost of the work,” she said.
Stoltz said the event would proceed at 3.30pm as planned. Police would be present and protesters had been warned they are not to prevent anyone entering the library.
“I would like to clarify that the library's programming decisions are made with the intent to provide a wide range of educational and cultural opportunities that reflect the diversity of our community’” Stoltz said.
“The event in question was designed to offer perspectives on gender diversity and inclusion, topics that are increasingly being recognised as important areas of public discourse,” she said.
Hastings event cancelled
Meanwhile, public safety risks have forced the cancellation of a Rainbow storytime event planned for Hastings on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the Hastings District Council said the disinformation being spread about an upcoming library programme had forced them to cancel their children’s storytime event.
The council said the cancellation was due to concerns that young attendees could not be kept safe.
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said she was deeply disappointed to be forced into the position of cancelling the event.
“We had every intention of standing up to this intimidation and going ahead, but unfortunately the potential for there to be possibly aggressive protests outside the library is something we can’t subject our children and the rest of the community to,” Hazlehurst said.
“We have a responsibility to keep people safe at our facilities, and the escalation of hateful and bigoted rhetoric around this event, coupled with the huge costs and the strain on resources to bring in security to ensure people’s safety, means we are in a position this year that we can’t guarantee attendees’, staff and the performers’ safety.
“We look forward to holding this event again in the future.”