Robert Gamer: Author & Activist

As I was walking across the rainbow crosswalk on Page Street in Danvers, near where I live and raised my children, I had to stop cold. Taken aback by the unusual number of scuff marks, I wondered whether they were simply due to road wear and tear or, instead, to deliberate desecration. Since I didn’t see similar tire marks along the rest of Page Street, did I have grounds to suspect the worst?

When it comes to desecration of LGBTQ+ symbols, persecution is nothing new these days. Twenty-six states, primarily Republican-led, have passed laws banning or severely restricting gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Iowa recently became the first state to remove “gender identity” as a protected class under its civil rights laws. Numerous states have introduced or passed so-called “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bills, which ban teachers from discussing LGBTQ topics in K-6 classrooms—and, in some cases, K-12—such as Georgia’s Senate Bill 1 and the Riley Gaines Act. Under the Trump administration, executive orders mandated that federal IDs reflect “sex at conception,” blocked gender changes on passports, and banned transgender people from military service.

Congress has yet to pass the Equality Act, which was reintroduced in April 2025. Since 2022, more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures, with close to half becoming law. This wave of legislation has affected health care, education, civil rights, and gender recognition nationwide.

Danvers does not exist in a bubble. It is not immune from anti-LGBTQ+ incidents. In November 2021, homophobic graffiti was discovered in a bathroom at Holten-Richmond Middle School. The following month, similar graffiti appeared on a softball field on Pickering Street. In February 2022, more homophobic graffiti was found in a girls’ bathroom at the middle school. Then there was the hockey team scandal. In 2019 and 2020, serious allegations emerged about the Danvers High School varsity hockey team, where hazing rituals included homophobic taunts and group texts charged with bigotry. A 2022 investigation by then-Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey found a “toxic team culture.” The point is, the leaf doesn’t fall far from the tree. How much of this anti-LGBTQ+ hatred was learned at home?

Returning to the rainbow crosswalk, if the scuff marks are due to simple wear and tear, why has no attempt been made—at least to my knowledge—to clean them? If, on the other hand, they are the result of desecration, Danvers has something to worry about when it comes to projecting an image of safety and acceptance for all law-abiding residents.