Sydney’s LGBTQ+ community shrine to late pop legend George Michael has reportedly been trashed in a gross vandalism attack.
The street mural dubbed ‘Saint George’ — which was painted by ‘Kissing Kanye’ artist Scott Marsh earlier this year in tribute to the gay icon’s incredible cultural legacy — depicts Michael as a religious saint, complete with a rainbow halo and robes… and holding a lit joint and a bottle of amyl nitrate.
Behold its glory:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQZM1_sgHeZ/
But, as SBS reports, the artwork has this week been vandalised with a variety of homophobic slurs and pelted with eggs in a hateful attack.
Jonny Seymour — one half of the DJ duo Stereogamous and one of people responsible for commissioning the mural — has taken to Twitter to report the incident, but has refused to post images of the damage done because he reckons the vandals should “not [get] any mileage from this”.
Dear Saint George had a visit from the vandalising NO hopers. A dozen eggs plus graffiti. Feel sorry for the eggs. Washing their sins away
— stereogamous (@stereogamous) October 10, 2017
No photos as they’re not getting any mileage from this. Their attempts to destroy our sacred places shows their fear. We’ve got this
— stereogamous (@stereogamous) October 10, 2017
To honour his wishes, we’ve refrained from posting the images as well.
Seymour has blamed the graffiti on marriage equality ‘No’ voters, telling SBS that while whole the postal survey process and the (totally predictable) hateful incidents like this that have been triggered by it have been “exhausting” to deal with, but they’ve also yielded some heartening experiences as well.
“The defining moment was [attending the site of the mural] to find people scrubbing the wall clean,” he says, clarifying that the people were total strangers to him. “[It was] really beautiful to find lovely heterosexuals that I haven’t met erasing hatefulness.
“Now they are our friends. Yep, I’m crying (happy tears).”
#LoveWins
