‘Hateful and ugly’ flyers targeting LGBTQ+ people appear on Kirkland church cars

Hate-filled flyers targeting the LGBTQ+ community were recently stuck to the windshields of parishioners at two local churches.

The flyers were “generally hateful and ugly, a lot of imagery and words, particularly directed at the LGBTQ+ community and most especially against folks who are transgender,” Holy Spirit Lutheran Church Pastor Katy McCallum-Sachse told KIRO 7 TV.

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McCallum-Sachse says they were surprised to see the flyers after Sunday service.

“For us, this feels like a very big, scary, unusual event — and it is — but it’s also a reminder that for other communities, this is something that happens regularly,” McCallum-Sachse said.

The commitment to inclusion at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Kirkland apparently led someone to leave hateful flyers on car windshields in the parking lot after Sunday’s service.

Church members at Edmonds United Methodist Church also got the flyers.

A Jewish Temple on Seattle’s Capitol Hill was also again the target of anti-Semitic graffiti last week. Temple de Hirsch Sinai was hit with multiple hateful images and slogans on the wall in front of the building.

FBI statistics show Washington ranks fifth in hate crimes per capita. He asks anyone who has been targeted with flyers or other types of bullying or intimidation to contact police.

“The Northwest is uniquely vulnerable to hate crimes,” United States Attorney Nick Brown said during a Tuesday interview on KIRO 7. “We’ve seen a rise in antisemitism, we’ve seen a rise in hate attacks against the Asian American community, we’ve seen a rise in all sorts of violence against people of color, marginalized people, LGBT,” Brown said.

Despite the hateful incidents, faith leaders like Pastor McCallum-Sachse are determined to keep spreading love.

“We’re just going to keep doing what we do, and we hope that over time, that changes enough hearts that there never need to be incidents like this,” McCallum-Sachse said.

KIRO 7 News contributed to this report