A pride flag, torn from a pole and burned with cigarettes, came as a shock Tuesday to a couple living at a home in London’s Wortley Village.
London police say they’re investigating the incident, which Brad Schweitzer discovered as he left for work that morning.
“I looked out the door, and I saw our flag was down and it was folded on our porch. So I assumed that maybe the wind had caught it,” Schweitzer told AM980.
He lives at the home with his partner, Steve Knott.
“We opened it up and saw that it had cigarette burns on it, and the flag pole had looked like it had been pulled out. So that’s how we knew that something had happened there.”
At first, Schweitzer wasn’t phased by the incident, which happened sometime over Monday night and Tuesday morning. He assumed someone had been messing around, coming home drunk from a bar.
“I wasn’t as concerned as my neighbours around me … but the more they talked about it, the more I thought ‘yeah, it could have been a hate crime.'”
After the incident, Schweitzer said one neighbour began to fly a pride flag of their own, while another brought he and Knott a new flag. The president of Pride London, Andrew Rosser, donated a flag to the couple, too.
“If it was just some kids trying to do something silly or stupid, I don’t think they would have folded it up and put it back on their door step,” Rosser told AM980’s The Craig Needles Show.
“So that seems … very hate motivated.”
“It’s hard, especially with Pride Week upon us, when people are trying to celebrate who they are, to hear about some of these terrible incidents. And that’s just one of many that’s happened over the course of Pride this year,” Rosser continued.
Schweitzer said he and Knott fly a Canadian flag all season, but they switch it to a Pride flag for two weeks. They had no trouble with it last year.
“You just feel a little vandalized, a little violated, you know? Someone coming on your property and damaging it.”
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