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Offices Of Equality Florida, New Jersey LGBT Center, Vandalized

The incidents are just the latest in a string of attacks on LGBT centers nationwide.

The offices of Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s leading LGBT advocacy organization, were vandalized this weekend.

On Saturday, two unidentified assailants smashed the glass door of the group’s offices in Asbury Park. Executive director Christian Fuscarino was in his office at the time, and though he did not hear the attack, is hoping security footage will provide clues to the attackers’ identities.

Asbury Park has long been a vacation destination for the LGBT community—councilwoman Amy Quinn said the attack ”does not represent the town as a whole and strengthens our resolve to stand with our gay, lesbian, bi, and trans brothers and sister.”

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker condemned the act, and other recent attacks on minorities, stating, “We must stand united with love against the ‎shadow of hate that has been cast over our great nation‎.”

The incident is just the latest in a string of attacks on LGBT groups since last fall, when centers in Las Vegas and at the University of Tennessee were vandalized, and Topeka’s Equality House was riddled with bullets.

In December, an office serving queer Southeast Asian youth in Providence, Rhode Island, was broken into and a noose was hung from the rafters. Earlier this year, the windows of the LGBT Center of Central Pennsylvania in Harrisburg were smashed.

Just last Thursday, a brick was thrown through a window at Equality Florida’s offices in Orlando.

“We see this national climate where minority businesses and worship centers are getting bomb threats and being vandalized,” Director Michael Farmer told the Orlando Sentinel. “I hate to think that this is a piece of that but it’s obvious someone selected our office and did this.”

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