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"I think we were targeted because we are an LGBTQ church—with the atmosphere in our country right now, it just makes you feel uncertain."
King of Peace Metropolitan Community Church, an LGBT-friendly congregation in St. Petersburg, FL, had swastikas and "Make America Great Again" drawn on its driveway in chalk Monday morning.
Reverend Candace Shultis, who preaches at the progressive church, says this is the most deliberate and harmful homophobia the community has experienced since the church's inception 40 years ago.
“It’s not the kind of thing I want to have left on the sidewalk," Shultis said, according to NewNowNext. "It’s left our members uneasy and not quite sure what to make of it. I think we were targeted because we are an LGBTQ church—with the atmosphere in our country right now, it just makes you feel uncertain.”
She continued: “It gave me a sense of incredible disappointment and anger. Nobody likes to be targeted by hate, but it also increases my resolve to continue to preach the message of love.”
The St. Petersburg vandalism is only one of a string of hate crimes that have occurred since Trump's election. Others include a gay Latino student in Texas being attacked while wearing heels, slurs and hate speech being scribbled and chanted in schools around the country, an Indiana church being spray painted with the words "Heil Trump" and "Fag Church," and a trans veteran having her car torched by Trump supporters.
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