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A rainbow crossing on a street celebrating a city’s LGBTQIA+ community has been painted in protest after a church pastor’s ultimatum to cancel the local library’s drag story hour was ignored.
Members of the evangelical Destiny church used white paint to erase the rainbow motif on the main Gladstone Road in the New Zealand city of Gisborne, on the northeast coast of the North Island, on Monday night.
Destiny Church pastor Brian Tamaki demanded Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz cancel Tuesday’s ‘Rainbow Storytime’, in which drag queens read books to an over-16 audience at 5pm, but this It didn’t happen.
Members of Destiny Evangelical Church paint an LGBTQIA+ crossing in the New Zealand city of Gisborne in protest against a local library hosting a drag storytelling event for teens.
In response, church members blocked the section of road that crosses the rainbow by lining it with protest signs, while others posted a video of themselves using paint rollers to obscure the motif, which had been in place since late 2021.
“We are fed up with the sexualization of our children,” church member Leighton Packer told the camera as the intersection was being painted.
‘We will not tolerate this. Tomorrow these sex workers, adult entertainers, will arrive.
‘We’re going to be outside the library. We will make a great song and a great noise.”
A man applying the paint said the church’s demands had fallen on deaf ears.
“We’ve had enough,” he said.
The Gisborne crossing had been in operation since late 2021 and the city’s mayor promised to quickly redo it.
Church members block the crossing section by standing on the other side of the street holding signs.
‘Our mayor doesn’t listen, our councilors don’t listen.
‘Enough is enough.’
Clr Stoltz on Tuesday accused church members of committing vandalism and said he would refer them to the police.
“We accept that people have different views, but there is no place for hate or intolerance in Tairāwhiti,” he said.
“We will re-establish the rainbow crossing as soon as possible.”
‘We are absolutely opposed to people interfering with our road markings and the safety of people on our roads.
“We will work with police to hold those involved accountable and demand reparations for the cost of the work.”
Drag performers Sunita Torrance (Erika Flash) and Daniel Lockett (Coco Flash) went ahead with their performance at Gisborne’s HB Williams Memorial Central Library despite strong protests outside the church.
Destiny members dueled with counterprotesters to shout and sing over each other Tuesday afternoon.
Destiny Church Pastor Brian Tamaki Claims Library Drag Story Event Was a Failure
Posting on X, Tamaki stated that the story’s telling was a failure.
“Gizzy Rainbow fans preferred to stay outside the library, listening to my team, instead of coming in to listen to Erika and Coco Flash’s nonsense,” he wrote.
‘I do not blame them. The Gizzy Rainbow Storytime event was a flop! In reality, only the adults who worked in the library were present, and that was the aim of keeping them away from the younger ones.’
A library in the town of Hastings, a three-hour drive south of Gisborne, canceled a children’s story-telling session led by Erika and CoCo Flash on Wednesday, citing safety concerns.
A spokesperson for Hastings District Council said the spread of misinformation had forced the cancellation.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said she was deeply disappointed to be forced to cancel the event.
“We had every intention of standing up to this intimidation and moving forward,” Cr Hazlehurst said.
“But unfortunately, the possibility of aggressive protests outside the library is something we cannot subject our children or the rest of the community to.”