Last week, more than 400 transgender flags were illegally removed from a Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial on Boston Common, across from the state house. The Queer Neighborhood Council, which arranged the flags to commemorate Transgender Awareness Week, and other LGBTQ+ advocates are calling for the police to investigate the vandalism as a hate crime.

Reports Boston.com:

The Queer Neighborhood Council, a nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ advocacy, issued a statement in an Instagram post Thursday. The group condemned the “hateful act of vandalism” against the Trans Flag Memorial, which was installed legally with a permit from the city. 

“This act is not simple vandalism; it is a hate crime that directly echoes the very violence and prejudice that TDOR was established to condemn,” the group said in its statement. “The removal of this public, permitted memorial is a brutal reminder that the hate which spurs anti-trans violence is alive and active in our City and our communities.”

The miniature flags were planted on Boston Common, directly across from the State House, last Sunday to honor “every known trans and gender-expansive person lost to fatal violence since 2020.” This is the first time such a memorial has been organized, according to Jack Imbergamo, executive director of the Queer Neighborhood Council. All told, volunteers placed 425 flags. 

On Monday night, Imbergamo said he received an email from someone who described seeing multiple people taking down the flags and throwing them away. By Tuesday morning, they were all gone. Since then, there have been no traces of the flags, and Imbergamo has no idea what happened to them.  

“It was like they were never there,” he said. 

While organizing the memorial, Imbergamo knew that there was a chance that something like this could happen. The fact that it did, he said, reinforces the power of the initial idea and the memorial’s ability to bring awareness to the dangers facing trans people. 

Thursday marks the culmination of Transgender Awareness Week, during which advocacy groups have been working to increase understanding about trans people and highlight the threats they face.

“It’s discouraging that we can’t celebrate our dead, and especially this week,” Imbergamo said. “It’s heartbreaking to see that here.” 

Read the complete Boston.com story here.

Visit the Queer Neighborhood Council here: tqnc.org

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