A number of community groups are expressing concern after a hateful poster targeting the LGBTQ2 community was found in downtown Peterborough.
The poster contained slurs connecting the LGBTQ2 community with HIV and drug use — slurs that many experts are calling ignorant, false, and not proven.
The Peterborough AIDS Resource network discovered the poster on Tuesday and officials called it “disappointing” in this day and age.
“At PARN we’re proud to be an evidence-based organization,” said Dylan DeMarsh with the Peterborough AIDS Resource Network.
“We present our community with factual research, contextual research every day. This poster does none of those things.”
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The poster, which was found on a bulletin board, was shared to the Rainbow Service Organizations Facebook Page. The group posted the photo to its social media to encourage people to take them down if they see them.
“I put out a call on Facebook for people to feel free to pull those down, because just like they have the right to put those things up, freedom of speech we have a right to take them down because they were hateful, full of mis-truths and so on,” said Lambert
Just six months ago, Global News Peterborough reported on Andrew Nelson who plastered posters of love and motivation around the city.
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“My posters are all about spreading love and giving hope to people, and these are blatantly causing hate and fear which is the exact opposite of what I wanted to promote with my posters,” said Nelson.
While seeing homophobic material like this is disappointing, Lambert and DeMarsh are inviting people to come to the Peterborough Pride events in September to see what the community is really all about.
“The theme for Peterborough Pride this year is ‘unstoppable’, and that’s really about who we are, and the movement for equal rights and rights to be free to live without hate,” said Lambert.
Global News reached out to Peterborough police for comment but have not received a response.
Lambert, meanwhile, says the hate-filled poster has been brought to the attention of police.
“This is not the norm, and you have to find your tribe of people in Peterborough that will accept and love you and they are out there,” said Nelson.
As far as Nelson is concerned, he hopes to put up some more motivational posters this summer.
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