DENVER — The owners of a new LGBTQ+ salon believe their business was vandalized by members of their own community.
Above Ground opened its second location on Colfax Avenue near the state capitol last week. On opening day, owners found their pride flag vandalized with messages they say were anti-trans.
Above Ground considers themselves a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, and even offers free gender-affirming haircuts for youth in the community. Last week, they said, their safe space was violated.
"I’m no stranger to being discriminated against, but it being my own business it definitely hit a little bit harder," Ross Johnson said.
Johnson runs the Above Ground salon on Colfax and is a business partner with Ashe Bowen, who runs the location in LoDo.
"I’ve just always had this mentality that if you’re in our community you’re part of our community, and I have nothing but love to give," Bowen said. "It felt like it was targeted at us from our own community, which was even more stressful."
Bowen and Johnson said the trans colors of the business's pride flag were scribbled out, and the message written on it suggested trans people are child molesters.
"It said specifically like gay pride is OK but leave the trans out of it," Johnson said. "It just kind of sucks that that’s where they take out their anger is people in their community. It’s shocking to me."
The Center on Colfax said anti-trans hate within the queer community is not new, but is disheartening.
"This is a dynamic I've heard of in the community. I do think it's a small group, but I'm always very upset when I hear people talk about members of our community that way," CEO Rex Fuller said. "When we are attacking one another within our community, that’s almost causing more pain than attacks from the outside, and I feel it's really important for us to emphasize that as a community we are together."
Fuller said the center does not tolerate that kind of hate. They have anti-discrimination policies in place to make sure all feel welcome.
"There are individuals who feel that essentially what was once the gay and lesbian movement, that the focus on gender identity somehow detracts or takes away from the gay rights, gay liberation movement," Sable Schultz, the center's director of transgender services, said. "It perplexes me because I feel like a lot of it is so intertwined. Some of our earliest leaders also were gender diverse. They were also trans."
Johnson and Bowen are not going to let the graffiti deter them. They quickly cleaned up the mess and replaced the flag. They hope more people have conversations about supporting all within the LGBTQ+ community.
"Love always trumps hate, so we're always going to be stronger than this," Johnson said. "They can write all over our windows as much as they want, but it's not going to stop us from being ourselves."
Above Ground said they are taking extra steps to try and prevent this from happening again.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: LGBTQ+ Stories