Lewis County sees wave of LGBTQIA+ spaces vandalized, believed to be hate crimes

LEWIS COUNTY, Wash. — In Lewis County, residents saw a wave of vandalism over the weekend.

Kyle Wheeler, president of the Lewis County Dignity Guild, believes some of the incidents are hate crimes.

“There’s still this undercurrent, this underbelly of people that are still actively working to harm our communities. Particularly the queer community, particularly the trans community,” said Wheeler.

Wheeler said in just one night, four different LGBTQIA+ safe spaces were vandalized in Lewis County. Three in Chehalis, and one business in Morton. Each of the locations was displaying Pride flags at the time, which were damaged in the attacks.

One of the locations was the ‘Chehalis Community Fence’. A rainbow-painted fence that has been in the neighborhood since 2020. Overnight on Saturday, the fence was splattered with black paint. Within minutes, the home connected to it had four rocks thrown through the front windows. The homeowner tells KIRO 7 News, he believes it “was 100% a hate crime.”

Wheeler agrees, saying, “You have to call it for what it really is. And it’s hate.”

He said less than a mile away, the headquarters for the Lewis County Dignity Guild was also vandalized. The organization is a group that works to support minority voices in Lewis County.

“They can break our windows but they can’t break our spirit,” said Wheeler. “These sorts of things tend to galvanize us more and we come back bigger and brighter from it.”

He is organizing an event to repaint the ‘Chehalis Community Fence’ on Friday. He said more than 60 people have already signed up to help.

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