White Supremacists Deface Pulse Mural at Orlando LGBTQ+ Center

The central Florida LGBTQ+ center also saw its phone lines cut around the same time.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

May 19 2020 4:46 PM EST

May 31 2023 6:04 PM EST

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A mural honoring the 49 lives lost at the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting -- where Latinx LGBTQ+ people were targeted by a mass shooter -- was defaced last week with a sticker from a white nationalist group.

The sticker was removed Thursday from a wall of The Center, Orlando's LGBTQ+ aid organization; it reportedly covered the center of a mural honoring the Pulse victims and emblazoned with #OrlandoStrong.

The racist group referenced by the sticker is known as Patriot Front, which arose following the violent 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., according to Orlando Weekly. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the Patriot Front a hate group. Patriot Front's mission is remaking America as solely a white Christian heterosexual nation.

The Weekly reports Patriot Front has recently been active in central Florida, distributing racist propaganda in various locales.

Around the same time the sticker was placed on the mural, The Center reported its phone lines had been cut.