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Day After Win Against Bigotry, KY Activist’s Car Vandalized With Swastika At LGBT-Rights Dinner

LGBT activists and their allies came to the ACLU KY/Fairness Campaign dinner in Louisville, Kentucky, ready to celebrate Governor Steve Beshear’s veto of a House Bill 279, which would’ve allowed individuals to ignore states law that ran counter to their religious beliefs.

But what happened afterward left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth

When Fairness Campaign director Chris Hartman left the Muhammed Ali Center at about 11:30pm, he found that his car had been attacked by vandals. The auto had been sideswiped, with the side mirror broken and dents and scratches along the exterior.

Vehicle Damage 3.23.2013 Hate Crime 1 The trolls also made sure no one thought it was an accident: Scrawled on Hartman’s Fairness Campaign bumper sticker was a swastika (above), and a sticker of President Obama’s face had horns and fangs on it. (“Fuck you” was written on another Obama sticker.)

The timing of the incident—right as supporters of the “religious freedom” bill are strategizing to overrule Beshear’s veto—is a little suspicious. But Louisville police discovered the side mirror of the car that struck Hartman’s not far from the scene of the crime.

They’re investigating the incident as a hate crime but it’s not clear if the vandals knew the car belonged to Hartman—one of the state’s preeminent LGBT activists—or just noticed the stickers.

Last April, the Fairness Campaign joined in a protest against a rally by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) in Frankfort. And in January, two members of the NSM were arrested for murdering a man, dismembering his body, and then tossing the remains in a landfill.

Photos: Chris Hartman

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