Boston’s first LGBTQ+ friendly senior housing project was vandalized with hate speech
By Alisha Ebrahimji, Benjamin Schiller and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN
New England’s first LGBTQ+ friendly housing development for seniors in Boston was vandalized with hate speech over the weekend, according to a Facebook post by the nonprofit LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc.
Signs posted on the chain-link fence surrounding the development were vandalized with messages overnight Saturday reading “die soon” and “we will burn this,” among other comments, photos show.
“This is the second straight weekend of Boston being marred by hatred and intolerance,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement Sunday. “My office will prosecute threats to the LGBTQ+ community wherever and whenever they occur.” Over the Fourth of July weekend, a large group of people bearing White nationalist flags marched along Boston’s Freedom Trail on the Fourth of July weekend.
Boston Police told CNN they are still investigating.
Boston residents rallied outside of the development, dubbed “The Pryde,” late Sunday and covered the vandalized banners with posters with messages of love and inclusion.
“Hate speech and intimidation towards our LGBTQ+ community must not and will not be tolerated in Boston or anywhere,” Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said on Twitter Sunday. “Let our words of alliance and solidarity and love always be louder than those of hate and division.”
Following the vandalism, the project has received tremendous support from across the country and state, Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of the LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., told CNN Wednesday.
“Far from scaring us off, the cowards who threatened us have shown how necessary LGBTQ-welcoming senior housing is and how strong our community is,” she said. “We’ve received a wave of new inquiries from older adults wishing to apply for housing at The Pryde when it opens next year.”
48% of LGBT older adults have faced rental housing discrimination
More than 39 million people in the US are 65 or older and 2.4 million of them identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to the American Psychological Association. As that generation ages, the APA predicts the older adult population will increase from 12.8% to an estimated 19% in 2030.
A 2013 investigation by the Equal Rights Center found that 48% of LGBT older adults have faced at least one form of rental housing discrimination ranging from higher rent prices to fewer available housing options.
A few affordable, LGBT-inclusive senior housing projects have already been developed in cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago, but The Pryde will be a first for the Boston area.
The Pryde development is being built on the site of the former Hyde Park High School building, which was originally built in 1902, according to the developer’s website. The new construction is slated to have 74 units available for a range of incomes serving the LGBTQ senior population of the Boston area.
“At every stage of this project’s development, from the first conversations seven years ago, through the many public meetings and approvals, the community in this neighborhood and across the city have expressed powerful and united support,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement.
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